Andre's book!

Our good friend Andre that we met under very unusual circumstances in Mexico a few years ago has just had a book published.  His views are very direct, always entertaining and contain layers of meaning. 

You can find it online or through Amazon.com and it's called "Oceanborne Madness??? A self-alleged Aliens views about Humanity"

The weak in spirit need not apply!

Splash!

Toketie afloat once more!  The crew are very happy!!

Toketie painted!

Most of the hardware has been bolted back on....still lots to hook up and stow....very pleased with the new paint job!

Toketie's decks being painted

...masking the new paint before applying the anti skid....

Back in the marina!

Well, I have moved out of Abdul's house....I'm sure the cockroaches(those that survived) will appreciate having the place to themselves!  I am still not on board Toketie at night as I have sanded the floors and am varnishing them, between putting the portholes and deck hardware back on.  Our friends Russ and Sue on Antipodean are off travelling for a week and I am boat sitting for them while they are away. 

Deck painting finished!

Big day yesterday!  Rolled on the anti slip....today they pulled the tape off.  I sanded the floor inside all day!  Only eight days till the admiral arrives....have to get this old bucket shipshape!!
Pictures to follow......on a side note, one Fijian, a security guard at the marina, is renting a few doors down from me.....he invited me over for kava but I have not been able to make it yet!

Moce! Moce!

pronounced 'mote'...it means goodnight or goodbye in Fijian....here are the boys heading home after a long day making Toketie look pretty again!

Mohammed!

I was sitting on the picnic table outside the marina café this morning, hiding from the sun, and watching the activity on Toketie across the way.  Mohammed, Abdul's brother, and currently my neighbour, also a taxi driver, was sitting beside me.  Naturally the conversation turned to religion and after agreeing that most religions were basically the same in terms of having one God, Mohammed said God makes one path and man makes many!  By this he meant the distinctions between Moslem and Christian or any other variation on the theme.  So I asked him if he had been on the Hajj ( or حج‎ in Arabic) which is the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is currently the largest annual pilgrimage in the world, and is the fifth pillar of Islam, a religious duty that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so. The Hajj is a demonstration of the solidarity of the Muslim people, and their submission to God (Allah in the Arabic language).  The Hajj is associated with the life of Islamic prophet Muhammad from the 7th century, but the ritual of pilgrimage to Mecca is considered by Muslims to stretch back thousands of years to the time of Ibrahim (Abraham).  Well Mohammed had not as he could not afford it but he did have in-laws who have been several times.  Abraham sounded familiar from a previous incarnation of mine and I wondered how it was that people could stray so far from their roots.  But Mohammed had a fare to attend to and I wandered back to watch them spray several coats of paint on Toketie's decks, marvelling at what an interesting life it is at times!

Hindu Temple

...the community seems to include Hindus as well as Muslims...though I have yet to meet one of them.  Their Temple sits along the road to Abdul's house and I did see someone sweeping the dooway this morning.....the stupa in the background has a painting of Hanuman, the monkey king on it......if I recall my E religion classes.....

Sugarcane train!

If I'm still around when they start cutting the cane and hauling it to the mill in Lautoka, I will get a shot of the cars loaded with stalks of sugarcane.  This is the work crew heading back to town!

Abdul's house

....mentioned to Abdul in passing today that I had a couple of cockroaches scurrying around last night....without missing a heartbeat, he said "well, keel them".....and I responded "I did"!!

Sugarcane train track!

....miles from nowhere....

8:08 Special

So I rode the train into work today!  No seriously!  You might well wonder how that is possible. 

Running parallel to the road to Abdul's house is a small gauge railway track.  It is used by the miniature locomotives that haul the miniature flatbed cars loaded with sugarcane stalks to the mill in Lautoka.  Probably close to par with tourism on the west side of Viti Levu, the sugar refinery is often a bane to cruisers who anchor in front of it to check into Fiji.  The fine black soot from the chimney makes for very messy decks.  

But this morning as I stumbled bleary eyed and coffee less out the front door of Abdul's house at 8:05, running behind my usual scheduled 7AM departure, I found what looked like a caboose with open benches on both sides and the engineer controlling it by a large lever in the center, working its way slowly down the track.  Eyeing an opportunity too good to be missed and thinking how much sooner I could get that long black coffee to go, I waved and gave them the Bula Bula greeting common in Fiji.  I was soon aboard and clickety clacking my way down the track with only one stop and a quick reverse of the engines….to pick up some coconuts that had fallen by the wayside!  These four friendly fellows were a maintenance crew and were examining the track in readiness for the sugar cane harvest that would start later this month and run through to September.  Jumping off at the marina entrance with a friendly wave, I scored my coffee and made my way around to find the crew getting set up for another day on Toketie's decks.  The day went well, lots of sanding and filling and I slipped away in the afternoon for a dip in the pool at the resort, having to buy a cold Fiji Bitter to justify my transgression.

Gecko!

these little fellows love the paper lanterns.....they attract lots of bugs....

Ode to Cat Stevens!

.....or ongoing adventures in Abdul's house

 

If the reference is too obscure, look it up!  No, I have not converted to Islam….yet!  But if these peaceful people are any indication, I can understand why someone might consider it!  Being more of a Hindu, however, in spirit at least, I am finally feeling part of the community.  This morning started at 7, long after the roosters had announced it, and after my daily ritual ablutions, I locked the door and started the trek down the road from Abdul's house.  In no time, a car pulled over and picked me up.  Turned out to be Fayez, Abdul's son.  Abdul 2's son that is, the one who is away in New Zealand at the moment.  Very friendly young man who only drove taxi on the weekends.  Today he was on his way into Nadi to his job selling cars at the dealership.  The Abdul family are definitely movers if not shakers!

A long day at the marina with many ups and downs, not only on the ladder.  The welding job on the bowsprit had been going sideways yesterday so a call to the boss had him show up this morning to see how things were progressing.  A few steps backwards, removing some of the work, and forward again to what we hope is a proper solution.  Interlude on Camdeboo with a screwdriver to check their anodes….seems we will be going ahead with some refitting there as well.

And the Toketie decks were buzzing with bodies but not much seemed to be changing!  Turns out they have been waiting two days for a couple of bags of silica sand to complete the sandblasting (all those spots I found that they overlooked the first round).  A phone call to the boss again, who is in Suva for the week, but still accessible and not satisfied with that, I made my way up to their workshop and found the foreman who was filling in.  More phone calls and the missing sand is on a truck and presto the truck goes whizzing by!  So we hitched up the compressor, grabbed the spare gas can and back to Toketie, waiting patiently in the sweltering humidity of an overcast sky, threatening rain any moment.  But the gods were kind and they blasted away while the welder welded away and they all had to work till dark to get the primer on the sandblasted parts.  So lots got done, we dodged the rain bullet again and all I had to do was make my way back to Abdul's house! 

Recalling how pleasant a walk I described only days ago, I set out again!  The security guard said a bus was due about now but having learnt what 'about now' means in Fiji, I did not wait for it.  Half way down the road, with the bugs chasing me and the darkness all around, a car came up and pulled over….this time it was Ali, Abdul's nephew.  Another very pleasant young man and also in the taxi driving business…but apparently for someone renting Abdul's house, all local taxi rides are gratis!  He pulled over near his house to talk to his friend along the road, a burst of East Indian dialect and the only phrase I caught was 'Temple of Gold'….movie night for the guys….a Bollywood special!

Back in my bungalow, the clink of ice cubes and it's a hot shower and Bounty Rum night before diving into 'Lord Jim' that I traded a spy novel for in the general store.

paradise beckons....

....just beyond the fence!

Abdul's house

For those of you who have been following our blog faithfully these past few years, I apologize for boring you lately with the details of our refit(s)!  I know a couple of you might be interested in the details but the rest of you armchair travellers undoubtedly have been holding your peace and wondering when I would get on with the adventure!  So if you haven't completely given up on me and are still reading this….I will attempt to share a moment or two of cruising life between the cruises.

I have been back in Fiji for 5 weeks now and totally focused on getting Toketie back into sailing trim.  But I realized today on the short walk back to the house I've rented from Abdul the taxi driver, that the refit is just the background to being here.  I won't attempt to describe living on board in the yard.  For those of you who have done it, you will understand, for those of you who have never lived on a boat in a yard…well, I don't think you could imagine what it is like.  You board on a ladder, you can't use the head (that's the bathroom for you landlubbers), you can only run water to brush your teeth if you place a hose and bucket below to catch the water, then of course you have to empty the bucket! 

And it is hot!  Where Toketie sits she very rarely gets much breeze, if there is any in this marina.  A small fan moves air around inside but it is stifling all day and about 2AM it begins to cool off and fresh air falls down through the hatches and I put down my book and breathe it in with relief, hoping at last I might be able to get some sleep.

Twice in these past 5 weeks, I have had to book into the First Landing Resort next door.  It is not outrageously expensive.  In fact, they have a reduced rate for cruisers from the marina next door.  While we painted the bilges, I spent three nights in a bure, that's what the Fijians call a cabin, to avoid inhaling the toxic epoxy fumes.  I enjoyed the luxury of my own hot showers, my own head, and even the odd dip in the swimming pool!  And a week or so later, while sandblasting the topsides, I booked in again and this time they gave me a beachfront with a big soaker tub….I was in heaven!  But like all good things, that came to an end and once more I turned the six volt fan to face me and read my book while dripping sweat onto a towel on board.  I know, it sounds gross….you should try it sometime!

But tonight, after the workers left for the day, I had a bite in the yacht club bar and a couple of cold Fiji Bitters then decided to see how far a walk it was to Abdul's house down the road.  The sun was setting to my left and after ten minutes the hardtop road turned to potholed gravel but the birds were holding forth in great chorus, the smell of the grasses from the fields, the miniature locomotive that hauls the sugarcane stalks to the mill going by and people in their yards doing what people do at the end of the day when the heat of the sun relaxes enough to allow you out to water the garden or burn the rubble.  Several dog packs gave warning but kept their distance as I walked by.

Abdul's house is in a small Muslim village about 25 minutes walk from the marina.  I have taken Abdul's house for an indefinite time, as the work on Toketie's topsides involves sealing all the hatches, removing the portholes, more sanding, and eventually spray painting the decks and cabin top!  Impossible to live on board with that going on so in the interests of economy, I have taken Abdul's house.  Abdul is a fixture at Vuda Point Marina.  He is the source of all things and always there to help anyone find anything they need.  He and his brother, Abdul 2, live about two miles down the road from the marina.  The reason, I discovered, that they are both named Abdul is because their second names, which are really their given names, are difficult to pronounce, so for the 'yachties' convenience, they refer to themselves as Abdul 1 and Abdul 2!  They own the last three houses on the road past the marina.  Actually the road ends just before their houses and the bus makes its turnaround there.  It is a three bedroom bungalow with big fridge and two burner propane stove, living room, some furniture, a fan, lots of windows looking out into the hills, hot water from a solar tank and lots of peace and quiet…which is maybe why I'm writing this.  I surprised a gecko today, one of those little lizards that are everywhere, in the kitchen area.  But they are friendly creatures and have probably seen more of life than mankind.  They also eat insects so we welcome them.

In the five weeks, I have seen friends come and go, mostly go, from the marina.  This is not a place anyone chooses to stay.  It is a place one stays only to get work done or the 'waiting for a part to arrive' syndrome is in play.  No, life is much better out in Musket Cove or any of the hundreds of small islands that make up Fiji.  Barry and Ann on Cat's Paw IV arrived a week ago and are having some rigging replaced that failed on their passage up from New Zealand.  Looked like they got it today so I'll probably be waving farewell to them tomorrow!  John and Linda on Madhatter left a few days ago with three of their children and two partners to cruise the islands for a few weeks.  Then there are the 'characters' you find in every out of the way place!  There is Bob, who is resurrecting an original John Hannah Tahiti Ketch that was going to be burned.  He has it afloat and filled with Fijians.  His plan is to fix it up and charter it.  I hope he makes it!  And Steve just arrived from Samoa where he rode down Main Street taking out telephone poles in Tulak during the tsunami last year.  He has been sailing since the early 70s and is finishing the repairs here.  And the retired criminal lawyer from Hawaii who sits at the bar reading a novel while the beer flows.  And the list goes on….have to be careful or I could end up as one of these colourful characters!

I count down the days till my first mate joins me!  Hopefully I will have most of the dirty work done and we can put things back together and figure out where to go from here.  Our dear friends, Derek and Anthea, on Sukanuk left New Zealand for Australia a few weeks ago but sailed into the teeth of a very deep low and were hove to and blown North and East so ended up in New Caledonia!  Reports are they are enjoying it and with luck we may catch up to them there or in Australia by Oct/Nov when the cyclone season starts again.

So life goes on and I must remind myself that it is not the destination, but the journey that counts….just as well because the destination is a little fuzzy right now!

 

From the Toketie crew 'down under' the equator!

the painted bilge

a shot of the bilge after painting.....major improvement!

progress on refit

Its been a really good week for Toketie.  Deck and cabintop have been sandblasted on all the rusty spots and the topcoat is being peeled away like a layer of onion!  We have a long way to go but so far the weather has been cooperative.

under the big tent!

circus circus brings you death defying acrobatics on the high trapeze.....and sandblasting!  Toketie is cocooned and the dust is flying....."out out danged rust"......