Bula! (Hello) We are back at port and civilization again. Jenn and Kyle spent 9 days with us from Denver. We had a blast! The weather was perfect and the winds and seas cooperated so we were able to take them to all the islands we wanted them to see and experience. They both even went scuba diving for the first time! They were able to snorkel with the Manta Rays and drank Kava with the local villagers on Waya Island. We ate lobster and enjoyed a traditional pig roast while they were here.

They came to know our lifestyle on the boat so well that Jenn and Kyle are quite keen on making fun of some of our boater ways now. Take the process of anchoring for one. Anchoring is a very important process because if you don’t do it properly, the boat will float away…duh. (We’ve since installed a larger anchor since that incident in Tonga). Usually, Mike is at the helm and I am at the front of the boat with the anchor controls. We never realized how funny our boating lingo could be until Jenn pointed it out. “I’m just letting her bite honey…..Let me tug on her….Is she tight yet?”, all of course referring to the anchor and chain. I guess I can see the funny in that! Then there is the radio protocols. “Port control, port control, this is sailing vessel Shellette…Roger that…copy that, stand by, over and out”….after hearing her mother’s boat lingo and our anchoring process Jenn stated “Who are you people and what have you done with the parents?”

We really had some great laughs about it. In fact, some of our boat friends said they were in stitches one night listening to Jenn and Kyle talk about the anchoring process and they too never thought about how funny it was, until now! Well, I will leave the rest of the fun details of their trip to Jenn and Kyle…as they promised to write a blog soon.

Fiji has been quite the social scene for us as we have been able to catch up with the many friends we have met along the way of our journey. We even met up with our friends Rose and Roger from New Zealand and they stayed aboard with us a few nights. Fun!

Mike and I are working on the boat and fixing the many little things that never worked right to begin with that just add up.

We are heading out to more islands in the next day or so, so we will be out of email range again. We will return within a few weeks though to pick up another friend from Denver towards the end of August.

Vinaka (Thanks) for tuning in…..Life is Good!