for cruisers couldn’t begin, and it also slowed us down on the surfing and kiting front. Who would have thought the healing of a broken rib takes about 3 months? Consequently, our penchant for exercise has been somewhat curtailed. However, we have had a lot of fun enjoying the company of friends. Of the 143 days we have been in Fiji we have spent one week back in Australia (more on that later) and 18 days without guests on board……. So let’s see, that adds up to 115 days of visitors………. and we have loved that! Of course all our guests are special, but three groups of friends are extra-special because we go way WAY back, as in 32 years back!! Yikes, that’s more than half my life ago! First up we had an old Uni friend of mine, Brigid, come and visit with her hubby Brandon and their 3 kids. Then we had Mike, who was best man at our wedding, followed by Adele and Duncan – Adele and I used to waitress together in Cape Town 30 years ago! Brandon, Mike and Duncan are all keen surfers, so having the opportunity to surf at either Cloudbreak, Restaurants, Namotu Left, Wilkes or Swimming Pools was a ‘dream come true’ for each of them. Brigid and Adele live in NZ, so we did see them over summer when we were down there, but sharing our home and spending time together here on Kiapa was a treat.
As was the case last year, we have teamed up with the Lions Club (Papakura branch in Auckland) to distribute reading glasses to Fijians who either do not have access to them, or cannot afford them. Overall I think we have held about 7 ‘clinics’ so far, distributing, I’m guessing, over 700+ pairs.
The joy and appreciation of some of these gentle folk is enough to break your heart. One elderly lady needed a +4, and she confided in me afterwards that she had not been able to see clearly enough to read for over 2 years! Can you imagine?? Other news? A major (and somewhat heart-breaking for me) decision that we made earlier this year was to sell our home in City Beach. After renting it out for the last 3 years some quite significant renovations were necessary – an expense we felt we could ill-afford. It sold at auction at the end of May. We flew back for a madly busy 5 days in June, and managed to give away probably close to 80% of our ‘stuff’ to Good Sammies and the like. Thanks to our dear friends who are kindly storing a box or 3 for us. So we are now really, truly “of no fixed abode”. If truth be known this makes me a tad anxious, but then I reflect on where I am and what I am doing………… Moving on to a more light-hearted topic……. Last week was Fiji’s premier sailing regatta, the Musket Cove Regatta. This equates to 5 days of fun in the sun, and while the 2 sailing races are the main focus (I think??), other shenanigans include a Pirates’ Day, Coconut Olympics (which Lionel and I volunteered to organise this year), a hairy chest competition, a quiz night (we were useless!!), a golf competition, some hobie cat racing, and a Shipwreck Party. While we registered for the regatta, we at first thought we wouldn’t participate in the 2 races, rather just enjoy all the fun events. The reason being the surrounding reefs are treacherous, and last year Lionel saw one catamaran T-bone another boat right in front of Kiapa, so he was understandably concerned there may be other skippers with a similar careless attitude out there this year. But once we saw the list of boats entered and also the weather forecast, we decided to have a go (luckily one could enter up until the night before the race). And what an exciting race it was. The course was around Malolo Island, which is quite mountainous, so of course this has an interesting influence on the winds.
We purposely started last over the start line in a light southerly of ~ 8 knots, which died right off in the lee of the island - at one stage Kiapa was going backwards, I kid you not! We then had about 10 k of northerly for half an hour, and then as soon as we rounded the eastern tip of the island we were back in the SE trades of ~ 20k. A small, very fast cat (which is not a cruiser’s home) was first across the line. Kiapa had a very good race with another cat – Kiapa’s ability to point really well into the wind combined with Lionel’s upwind tacking tactics ensured we snuck ahead in the last mile, so crossing the line in 2nd place. Thanks must go to friends Kerry and Craig, who were our knowledgeable and skilled crew. I’ll let the photos on our get jealous blog do the talking re all the other fun and games which all up made for a fabulously successful Regatta.
Our plans from here? We hope to cruise up to some of the Yasawa Islands over the next few weeks, and then from mid-Nov we’ll begin to study the weather (even more closely than we already do) for passage making to NZ. We are planning to head back to NZ via Minerva Reef, but more about that later…….
While I have included a few photos here, you may like to look at our blog if you are interested in some more (photos). See www.getjealous.com/kiapa