Position 17°46’391S 177°11’118E
At anchor Musket Cove, Mololo Lailai Island, Fiji, South Pacific Ocean.
Hi dear friends, thank you for following my journey. Here is this week’s update.
I am sorry to report; the same situation as last week regarding Radio contact via H.F. SSB so you will receive this update a little late.
Life Onboard:
Well, it has been a week of party, party here at Musket Cove. Although I have been a relatively good boy and not partying every night. The beginning of the week started with a pirate race where most yachts decorated the yacht up with flags while the crews dressed up in pirate attire.
Another evening there was a prince and princess time, strange how there were almost 50 men dressed up as princess and only 5 girls dressed as prince’s?
There are BBQ’s most nights ashore, the island bar provides plates, cutlery etc (and clears away), all you have to do is brink your own food, cook it, eat it, and drink a little. The BBQ’s are right near the bar and beach so you can just picture how tranquil a setting this makes
One of the topics of conversation I am sad to say was how badly the England rugby team is performing, or not as the case may be. I expected us to play under par compared to the last world cup, however they have had four years to prepare.
To party or not to party!
As usual I don’t want you to get the wrong idea about sailing; it is not all part, party. I have also been spending four to five hours a day working on either the website or my book. For the website, I have been adding photographs from my year cruising around the Caribbean, although it has been some nine moths since I left the Caribbean I just have not had the time before hand. To be honest I did not want to spend my time in port working on the computer unless I was stuck somewhere for longer than anticipated, becalmed somewhere, or bad weather.
More so this week as I now enter the return part of my voyages, i.e. over half way around the world I sit here, poised, pondering what to enter on the current page I was working on (within my book), I started reflecting on the past few years of my voyage, I also found myself reflecting on my life to date, being ones birthday you tend to do this (laugh). I entered;
The ancient Greeks had a way of looking back at ones time spent here on earth; not interested on how many possessions one had, they had one simple question; did they have passion? Although I cannot say that about myself, the more time I spend out here upon life’s Oceans the more I look back on life in the 925 (nine to five – working week) existence. Realising we are all too easily distracted from our main purpose of being here; that is to experience life.
We can easily be sucked into a lifestyle, a pattern, which, if we are not careful, twenty years have passed away before you realise it!, by then you get draw into something else, before much longer we are in our twilight years. Even with all the bad in the world, there is good to be found everywhere, you just have to turn off the radio/TV, explore the real world with ones eyes open, it’s there to be seen. When I finish this final stage of my voyage I may well have to return to the 925 environment, although I will be financially worse off than when I started, I cannot quantify how much my life has been enriched by my experiences and the people I have met while sailing upon life’s Ocean. I wrote;
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“Financially I am the poor, but wealth can be measured in many ways.
I am free to sail upon life’s Ocean, to thousands of ports, in hundreds of countries. Should I awake and feel like moving on, I can do so.
To be so lucky, to have met the most amazing people, experience their culture, honoured, even for a short while to be part of their lives. I can say;
I am the wealthiest person in our world!”
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Okay, enough reflecting, overall it made for a great week here in Musket Cove, although the time has come to move on. I will wait until Tomorrow (Monday) so to arrive in Lautoka during the working week; I do not like paying for Customs and Immigration overtime!
The Boat:
No problems other than the ongoing self-steering routing block mounting and reefing stop, these I will fix in New Zealand for I do not want to disturb them if they are still working within reason. I have noticed a potential problem on the mainsheet traveller, to be more precise the traveller block to which the mainsheet connects too. After seven years it has started to bight into the traveller’s aft side, which causes it to stick a little. I will pack this out with stainless steel washers later.
The Pacific is not the place to strip equipment down unless you have too. Parts are so difficult to get here; either that or the cost make is not a viable option.
Fair winds, calm seas.David.