day 127: NZ Warship
Robin here: I have been bequeathed the iPad because I was inches from keeling over but so much has happened today I simply can’t bail on the blog and sleep because surely lots will happen tomorrow and if I keep going on like this unwritten events will pile up and up and up! I landed this morning in Nadi at 545 am and caught a local bus that dropped me off at Malcolm Janet and Hazels resort. Very good vibes there I was welcomed with drums and “Bulas” and got to meet Hazel and see M+J for the first time since their wedding!! In the midst of all that time a whole person has joined us on this planet and wow is she sweet, we really hit it off when I was the source of the chickpeas on our drive to Suva. We wandered a while in town until the Bluebird crew were finished with customs runarounds, happened upon a great outdoor market with real tasty meat skewers and bao buns and samosas. Then spent a time in the Royal Suva Yacht Club watching some NZ navy peeps drink and dropped off my bags on the boat which was highlighted by Hazel being far more impressed by the dinghy than with bluebird. Don’t recall much of dinner at that point the lack of sleep jet lag etc closed in ok that’s it from me gnightttt
Miriam: We have emerged victorious from the purgatory of Fiji quarantine! Pardon our silence, yesterday was the sort of limbo that could not be blogged. We hustled so heroically to get to Suva in time for Megan’s flight and then customs threw a spanner in the works such that yesterday and today were an exercise in patience and surrender of the sort that only bureaucracy can inspire.
We arrived in Suva at noon on the 17th, motoring for hours as the wind had completely died, noticing exactly how hot and sticky it is without wind and how incredibly still the ocean becomes in it’s absence. A faint rainbow accompanied us, shifting and persisting for an hour at least against a cumulonimbus fluff pile of cloud which was altogether quite curious in the sunny skies. Another curiosity were the porpoises (or some sort of large dolphin) who were floating solitary and motionless at the surface, diving down as we grew near. Viti Levu grew larger on the horizon and as we neared it began to feel a little daunting. A high rise ominous and dark, a whole entire city filled with people and cars and all sorts of overwhelming things, and so many shipwrecks! Huge rusting hulks listing on their side, rusted out remnants barely surfacing…we began to feel nervous. Then came the rafted together decrepit old ships, still afloat with such grim apocalyptic Waterworld vibes, a floating city of decay which seems to be inhabited somewhat. We anchored in the midst of it, acclimated to the industrial hum and bright lights of the massive wharf and the sour scent of petrochemical tinged air, and settled into limbo. Which I will leave to Megan to tell.
But now we’re free! Highlights include welcoming Robin to the crew, a fantastic fancy dinner with Malcom and Janet and Hazel, the cutest Crum I’ve ever met, a lovely wander home getting disoriented in the city and settling our stomachs from the inevitable overeating of the buffet, and witnessing the NZ Navy get completely blotto and wild on the dance floor. Some provisioning and errands come next and then the Fiji wanders will begin…
Jamie here: goodbyeeee Megan you are a wonderful human being it’s been so great living with you even within 40ft of each other the entire time. So good to finally go out for dinner last night. I love a buffet and this did not disappoint. Roast meat, octopus coconut soup, fried chicken! Imagine that, all you can eat chicken and chips. We have updated our fishing lure stocks thanks to Tom so I think our fishing luck will take a drastic turn for the better now! Just so everyone in nz knows where your tax moneys going, the nz navy arrived and turns out they’re mostly young adults who drink bourbon and coke at pubs and dance horrifically to bad music. Todays word of the day comes from Megan herself. WOD: subdue. Subdue - to calm or pacify Used in a senny: waiting in line at subway for a while. So I ask the sandwich maker, “excuse me, when is my subdue”?
Naomi here, We are almost checked in to Fiji now after 3 days? Of waiting on customs and backsing and forthsing, finally when we thought we had checked in we still had to go visit the customs office on a Sunday afternoon, they were all locked up of course and didn’t hear us knocking, so we went back to the yacht club to call them, then back to the customs office again, where they told us to also come back again the next day to pay them :) But we did most of it, I still have to visit some of them today to pay them, most importantly we got Megan all checked into the country so that she can then check out today on her flight home! Another goodbye another great crew who will be sorely missed, perhaps we will call robin Megan to ease the grief and pretend she’s still here….. Now to do laundry which we are inordinately excited about,and possibly have, freshwater showers?? And go get some fresh fruit n veg !!
Bula, Megan here. Megan still here. I am glad we did not blog yesterday, as I likely would have tainted the blog with the immense frustration that had subsumed a triumphant arrival in Suva. We had done our part, we had gotten here. And early too! With a final anchor time of 12:10pm, Miriam won our touchdown bet. Our spirits were high, even as we wove through shipwrecks and past dolphins that very much appeared dead until they slipped silently beneath the waves. Even as the water turned dark and murky. I don’t know if we should have known better on a Saturday, and I am trying not to taint here, but in brief: no one came. Not the health authority, not customs, not bio security. And instead of spending my last night cavorting about Fiji with my dear crew mates, I spent my tenuous second to last night eating a crepe in bed while crying and changing my flights.
But today went better. The health authority came, customs came, bio security came. I have officially arrived in the country so I may officially leave the country. I got to meet Robin, Malcolm, Janet, and Hazel. I watched the New Zealand navy twerk at the yacht club. And we all finally, successfully went out to dinner. It didn’t feel that weird walking on solid ground and that was a disappointment, but otherwise we had a very fine day indeed.
And now it really is my last night. Tomorrow morning I catch an early bus to Nadi, and without any other unforeseen spanners, I’ll be home tomorrow night - having a scalding shower and eating chocolate in my big, motionless bed. It’s sort of unbelievable. When I was about to leave on this trip, I told people that it would change my life, that I’d come back a totally new woman. I was kidding, mostly. But I was also hiding hope in a joke.
I think this trip has changed me. I got to challenge myself, I got to face fears. I lost sleep, I lost privacy. I was uncomfortable, I was vulnerable. I got really dirty. This isn’t my way of saying I actually had a terrible time. These things, which I have worked so hard to avoid, felt so good. There were also many things that were just plain ole good, simple good: spending 8 weeks adventuring with my friends, old and new; getting to know every hour of the day; seeing the ocean above and below, meeting its minute and its giant; rejoicing in every meal, even all the cabbage (do I like cooked cabbage now? Stay tuned for “does this still taste good when I’m not at sea?”); on and on. I hope I can bring a little of this magic back with me. Thank you Naomi, thank you Tom and Sheila, thank you Jennie and Bob, thank you Jamie and Miriam and Ellen and Qwalen, thank you to my team at work who let me come! Ni sa moce, mauruuru, pō mārie, good night! Megan out.