Bula, Bula! It is Monday morning in Fiji, Sunday night in the USA. We have bid farewell last night to Brian, our friend from Denver that was here for 10 days. The weather wasn’t quite as cooperative as we would have liked however, we did manage to get about 45 miles up the Yasawa Islands while he was here and made our way back down and around to the mainland. Lot’s of fun and sun, laughing and sunsets. Brian will be writing a blog so you can read his viewpoint about life aboard Shellette.

We are now preparing for a visit from our friends from New Zealand, Trish and Michael! They arrive the end of this week and will stay with us for 7 days. The adventures continue. Life is Good………

Well…Kyle and Jenn wrote their blog about their time with us in Fiji…..enjoy!
Mike’s friend Brian has arrived this morning from Denver so we are off to do some island hopping….as usual we will be out of touch for about a week…..Life is Good……….

It’s difficult to narrow down the best of the best from all of our amazing experiences but here we go. This is our highlight reel.

Mr. Mike: It was crazy to see how well Mike was known at all the islands we went to. A lot of the Fijians would call him Mr. Mike, one thought he might be a movie star. By the end of our trip Mike loved to tell us he was just going to be the chief in one of the villages by the time we came back next year. We kinda believed him though see how they loved him there.

Fiji Time: We learned right away how our vacation was going to go when our cab driver John explained to us Fiji Time. We were anxious to get to the marina and meet Mike and Marnie but he was just kinda poking along, getting passed by other cars and he let us know he that he was in no rush, no worries, we were on Fiji time now so we just sat back and relax and got there when we got there. After that I don’t think we really looked at a clock the rest of the trip. It was nice just eating when you’re hungry and going to sleep when you’re tired.

holding hands with Kuki (pronounced cookie): Since Jenn and I were a little freaked about scuba diving so soon with very little instruction Kuki felt it necessary to hold our hands the entire dive. Jenn kinda liked it but I tried to let go at a few points but Kuki must have had a little crush on me and wouldn’t let me let go. I got used to his big ol’ soft hands so it was ok.

lomi lomis: The massages in Fiji were so cheap yet so weird. They mostly just smeared Pure Fijian Coconut Oil on you with a little rubbing. Don’t get me wrong, it was great but not a massage you’d be used to in the US. The best part was opening your eyes through the face whole and seeing there nasty toes. They only had about 3 toenails out of 10 so you just closed your eyes and tried to focus on the massage. Also, Jenn was in the next room that was only blocked off by a small wall. The ladies kept coughing and grunting weird and once me and Jenn got done we both asked each other at the same time if we thought they were talking in code. We decided they were.

kava: The kava ceremony is a traditional welcoming ceremony for new people that come to Fiji. The kava looks like heroin and they put it in a muslin bag and dunk it like tea to make this dirty looking water. It’s a hallucinogen that numbs your tongue right after you drink it. If you drink enough of it it will really mess you up but we only had two bowls so we were fine. What messed us up with the 2 bottles of wine with dinner!

didn’t catch any fish: The only thing we didn’t get to check off our list was that we didn’t catch a single fish the entire trip. Every time we set sail again for a different island Marnie assured us that they had caught fish on the way to where we were going. By the end of the trip I was pretty convinced they don’t actually have fish in Fiji and they just fly it in from Australia. I do have to say though, that all the other unexpected stuff we did that we didn’t even know we would do more than made up for the lack of fish we didn’t catch.

manta rays: One of the resorts we anchored next to was called Manta Ray resort and it really lived up to it’s name. We took the dingy over to this channel were the manta rays swim back out into the ocean to feed. Me and Jenn jumped in the water and were right on top of 2 rays. They have a 15 foot wingspan so as soon as Jenn saw them she started screaming in her snorkel. She calmed down and got to enjoy them.

10,000: Learned the coolest dice game besides craps. If you haven’t played it you definitely need to check it out. It’s called 10,000.

mike’s butt: This has to be the funniest incident of the entire trip. Jenn and I went ashore with Mike to lay by the pool and have a few beers while Mike went to get his lomi lomi. Mike was finished so we were leaving to go back to the Shellette. Jenn and I got in the dingy while Mike was pushing us out into a little deeper water. He trip to jump in over the side but didn’t make it so he jumped a little harder. Since he was so lubed up from the massage he managed to slide half way in but his shorts didn’t make it with him. His white ass was flashing everyone on shore but especially the Fijian guy in his fishing boat right beside us. The guy was just laughing and pointing at Mike’s butt as Mike wiggled himself into the dingy and pulled up his shorts. Mike was finally all the way in and clothed so he gunned the dingy back to the Shellette.

lobster dinner: This was by far the best meal of the entire trip. Mike and Marnie shared a plate and Jenn and I shared a plate. Each plate had 4 spiny lobsters, shrimp, mussels, calamari, fish filets, and an assortment of salads to accompany it. The meal also came with two bottles of champagne which we made sure to finish! There really isn’t much else to say, it was an amazing dinner and you just had to be there to understand.

sulus: To really get into the Fijian spirit all 4 of us wore sulus to the BBQ the last night. Sulus are basically skirts for those who were wondering.

chicken: To let everyone know how much fun we had and how exhausted Jenn was at the end of the trip. She literally only spoke one word the entire flight home. That little gem came when I woke her up to eat dinner and I asked her what kind of sandwich it was we were eating. “Chicken”

It’s hard to thank Mike and Marnie enough for sharing their lifestyle and letting us join them on their adventure. Thank You!!

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!

We are back on the mainland after sailing the islands for the last 3 weeks. We set sail again today, headed for the northern island of Fiji, Vanua Levu.

The last few weeks have been filled with more fun and adventure. We met up with friends from Australia, Terry and Christine on s/v Sedna. We first met them when our boats were tied together going through the Panama Canal last year. We sailed together for almost a week this time. We spent a few days at an uninhabited island, Navadra. This was a beautiful island that has nothing but cliffs, seashells and wild goats. Other friends of ours told us about this island as they found it a few weeks ago and actually killed a wild goat, caught a shark and had a big feast. We were invited to the party but as adventurous as we may be, no thanks on the wild goat meat!

We moved onto some other islands and the four of us made SevuSevu together at Nalauwaki Village. This is the customary presentation of the Kava Root to the village chief in order to ask permission to anchor and fish in their waters as well as being allowed on the island. We were granted permission to use the island as well as being given permission for “us women” to use the river to do the laundry. As I’ve mentioned, they are way behind the times in many ways. We’ve made many friends in the village now and Mike even found his own local fishing guide, Tom. Tom likes the ‘big boat’ so here showed Mike where to catch the fish, as long as we let him on the boat to show us where to go.

We were invited to a big party on Waya Island where the resort there had the most famous Fijian band playing. We were told that this band was the equivalent to Lady Ga Ga in the U.S. Mike’s reaction was, “who is Lady Ga Ga?” When I translated that to mean Bruce Springsteen, he understood. The entire village was also invited to this party and we had soooo much fun. That night, after much wine had been consumed, Mike invited half the village and half the resort to our boat the next day for a July 4th celebration…..what a wake up call that was the next day. We managed to tone things down and luckily most folks were as hungover the next day as we were so the July 4th party was a simple BBQ for 5! One local villager, Joe came and he played the guitar and sang for us…fabulous.

The next day or so we were off to discover Mantaray Channel where you can snorkel with the rays at certain times of the year. We are lucky that time is now. We also bought some lobsters from the locals. 4 lobsters for $30FJD, that is only $15 USD!!! Yummy, we will be going back there for sure!

They say it is a small world but get this…..we met up with some friends, Amy and Scott who are at a resort in Fiji on their honeymoon. That is a small world! Unfortunately, our visit was cut a little short due to a storm that rolled in that night and we had to take shelter in a nearby bay. The season in Fiji now is Winter. The days are hot but the nights are actually quite cool. The Fijians think it is cold…..they would never last a winter in the U.S. That is it for now. Stay tuned for tales from our next visitors, Jenn and Kyle who arrive Friday and will meet us in Venua Levu. Life is Good……..

Although we ended up being at the dock for 2.5 weeks we are still enjoying Fiji. Currently Shellette is surrounded and dwarfed by several Mega Yachts….wait til you see the pics. As we waited for some boat parts we met up with some boat friends from Brazil and made new friends from France, Australia, Canada, New Zealand…to name a few.

We entertained a boat full of guests on Father’s Day with an American BBQ complete with BBQ Chicken, baked beans, potato salad, coleslaw. We were the only Americans in attendance, but all enjoyed the feast. We also rented a car for a few days with Silvio and Lillian from Brazil. One day we went into the back country…. All four wheel drive roads…ouch! We saw the beautiful mountains and small villages sprinkled among the landscape. These villages are all self sustaining with their own farms etc…. They even still farm their land with oxen and a plow. I will download pics asap.

The second day we travelled by bumpy road to Suva, the capital of Fiji. The roads here are very windy and not well maintained. Mike and Silvio took turns driving as it was a 3.5 hour drive one way. While Mike was at the wheel we were pulled over two times in 10 minutes. Once for speeding and once for wrongful overtaking (passing). No tickets were issued and we were on our way. I found out the next day that the police here expect you to pay them about $20 for being pulled over and it is customary to pay this in return for not getting a ticket….oh well, lesson learned. A day later we found out our local friend, Dierdra (Marina employee) was so worried about us because she hadn’t seen us for two days and nights. She knew we were headed to the back country to take our own tour and was worried our shrunken heads were on a stick in a village somewhere….as Cannibalism was once very big here! Yuck! Good to know we are watched after. Speaking of shrunken heads….I decided to get my hair braided by the local ladies, complete with beads….you know, like Bo Derek in the movie “Ten”. Well I look bald and Mike laughs that my head is so small. Apparently you have to BE Bo Derek and a “10” or BE 10 yrs old to pull this look off. (Do not attempt this at home)

We finally set sail again and are making our way around as we discover new islands and new people. Hopefully I will not scare the villagers with my new hairdo…. We will meet up with some friends of ours from Aspen next week that will be here for their Honeymoon. What a small world!! That is it for now. Look for new pics in the next day or so…..Life is Good…

Mike and I returned to Port to take Amie and family to the airport last week. We remain here as we are waiting for parts…a popular past time for boaters….
We are getting lots of work done on the boat and making new friends along the way. We expect to leave in the next few days to discover more islands….we will keep you posted as much as technology will allow in the islands…Life is Good…

Hello again! We apologize for the lack of updates on our blog however, many of the 330 islands of Fiji are quite remote and do not offer internet or phone service.
We have been enjoying Mike’s daughter, Amie, and her husband, Greg, and two children, Mason and Siena, on board with us for the last four weeks. We have sailed around the main island in Fiji, Viti Levu and also parts of the Mamanuca and Yasawa Islands. We are now making our way back Viti Levu so Amie, Greg and kids can get back to the airport.
We have experienced so much in a few weeks here. The people of Fiji are so very friendly, that it is hard to believe. Fiji is an extremely poor country and we have found that many people work for $2 an hour and work 15 hour days. Many Fijians work away from their family and villages for weeks at a time.
On the most islands here you will find several villages. As yachters, you are required to ask permission from the village chief to anchor in a bay where the village is. It is customary to offer Kava ( a root that they make tea with-also an hallucinogenic if you drink enough of it) to the chief for the priviledge of anchoring or fishing etc near their land. In return, they will offer you to make Sevu Sevu with them. An introduction ceremony of making the Kava tea and drinking it with them. This entails sitting on the ground in a circle around the large Kava bowl. Lot’s of clapping and Fijian speaking going on. Then they dip a bowl in and pass around to each person to drink. It looks like muddy water and doesn’t taste much different. If you just drink a bowl full you may notice it makes your mouth numb.
We’ve only been to one Sevu Sevu so far and it was at a resort so we are anxious to get to more villages. The village on Waya Island we did get permission to go to was friendly and we were able to buy some wonderful handmade crafts from them. They allowed us into the Kindergarten where the children sang for us and showed us their newly learned English skills! When entering a village you must have shoulders and knees covered. Even the men wear a sulu (long skirt). It is disrepectful not to adhere to this custom.
While on Waya Island, Greg, Amie and I took a little class from one of the locals on basket weaving where you make baskets from palm. Very interesting…..not easy to learn in an hour, but fun. Lot’s of swimming, snorkeling and diving too. Tonight we will again join in the weekly pig roast and traditional village dancing…yummy! That is it for now. I will let Amie and Greg blog more about their experiences to you.….Life is Good….

It’s unbelievable how fast a month will go by especially when we’re not busy living in reality. (But then again I guess with kids along, there is no such thing as not busy.) We feel so blessed being able to be here and for such a great length of time, even if it feels like we just arrived a few days ago.

Greg and I have had a fondness for Fiji since we first came here during a week of our honeymoon. Not only did we fall in love with the tropical weather and warm ocean — I mean who wouldn’t want to dive in 82˚ water? — but also the wonderful people here. Fijians are super friendly. (I actually wrote a couple of blogs that mention Fiji and Fijians on my blog too… www.thistle-glow.com.) We haven’t been diving all over the world but so far Fiji is our favorite place to dive as the underwater world is vibrantly colorful and full of life. On this trip, we saw the usual eels, the occasional shark, a couple of turtles — I love seeing turtles underwater, one we saw I like to call Hurtle Turtle because of how fast he swam by; the other, well steady won the race right? — tons of fish and a couple of octopi. One octopus we took lots of pictures of as it was crawling across the coral and  changing colors, we’ll share on Reality Interrupted’s gallery.

I won’t bore you with details of our routine play days spending time in pools or playing on the beach. I’ll just share the highlights.

Day 2. We spent some time waiting in the taxi for Marnie while Mason learned to appreciate air conditioning as he was sweating his little hiney off. “God please let the wind come.” After shopping in the grocery store (if you could call it that) we went to the local “farmer’s market”. They had a very large area with families selling their goods. We only made it through half of the area and bought lots of fresh veggies and fruits. We took a break to cool off with a piece of fresh watermelon from one of the vendors then headed back to the boat.

Day 4. Ready head out. That is until Marnie decides to crash onto the dock, splitting open her head and falling into the “icky” water — as Siena called it. After Marnie got her stitches, we left the marina for Musket Cove. I didn’t realize Musket Cove translated into Malololailai island which is where Greg and I spent a week of our honeymoon. We are now lifetime members of Musket Cove for the whopping price of $5 Fijian — which roughly translates to $2.50 U.S.

Day 11. Depart NananuIa to head across Bligh water for leg three of trip to Savusavu. We were one hour in when Siena pukes. Not too much later Greg and Mason both puke same time, one bucket (it was a Kodak moment, if only the camera were close by). Then a cable snaps on the sail so we make a U-turn, head back to where we spent the previous couple of nights.

Day 17. Set off for Yasawa group. Almost made it to Waya Island when we happen to be on top of reef only 12 ft below boat. Oops! Computer GPS and charts say we should be in 100 ft. of water. Uncharted around us so we turned around and went around island the other way; end up yards from point where we turned around 2 hours earlier. We went into bay and anchor — beautiful clear water; can see bottom 30 ft below.

Day 18. Go ashore at Octopus Resort to take hike into village over the mountain, across to the other side of the island. Tour the poor village with ramshackle homes with thatch roofs and outdoor over wood-fire “kitchens”. The kindergarten students sang their English rhymes for us and played with Mason and Siena. The women set up goods they made for us to buy which probably sold for a days wage if they worked in the resort for the measly $3-4/hour.

Day 25. Awesome morning dive at Wilkes Passage where we watched the octopus crawl and change colors. Even master diver Mike who speeds through dives if there’s nothing much to see was impressed with this dive site.

All in all it was an amazing month. And although we want to go home for things like our own bed; we also don’t want to leave tomorrow. But alas, goodbye Reality Interrupted aka Shellette, here we go back to reality.

Sorry for the lapse in communication. We are safe in Fiji but very remote and no access to phones or emails. We will be updating the website when we get better access around June 7th. Life is Good…..