Fulaga

In Fiji there’s a group of islands called the Lau Group, a two day sail away from the main island.  We have been spending time there anchored next to an island called Fulaga, there are a few villages on Fulaga each with about 50 people living in them.  The first time we visited one of the villages we met the chief of the village who welcomed us formally to his village and we had a little ceremony where my dad drunk a rootlike vegetable called kava.  The village men mixed the root with water in a special ceremonial bowl and ground it up until it looked like dirty gray water, to me it tastes like liquified dirt but everyone else seems to thinks its like alcohol, only people 18 or older can drink it and you can supposedly get drunk if you drink too much of it.

We were introduced to our host family, they would answer any questions we asked and show us around the village until we left for a different anchorage.  Our hostess was a young woman named Mere (pronounced Mary) and she was really nice, She showed us her home and the school where she worked as a kindergarten teacher, she fed us lunch, a really good meal of potato curry, noodle soup, coconut fish patties and boiled yams.

We didn’t sleep with Mere, she was more of a guide then a hostess but we spent all afternoon there and met almost everyone in the village.

Tongan Feast

After we moved from the town harbor we pulled into another quieter anchorage by a small restaurant.  I cooked and did school most of the day while my sisters played with the Elena boys on the beach, in the evening we made a a reservation at the Tongan restaurant for dinner. It was only us and Elena at the little place and it was neat and the floor was sand.  We had a fun time chasing each other around in the long grass with the dogs, By the time the food was ready we were all tired out and really hungry.  

We all sat at small polished wood tables with low wood benches and the food was placed on the center table.  We had a cool seafood chowder for appetizer and it was really good, there were all kinds of shrimps and clams and fish in the soup and we all went back for seconds.  Next we had we had a kind of mash, it was made out of the root-like Taro vegetables that grew almost wild in the area and tasted kind of like potato.  We also had a salad, a ceviche made from the local fish and chicken stuffed with local greens and spices.  We drank pineapple and coconut juice and had fresh fruit salad for desert.  

It was delicious and we had a really great time.  

Jades Birthday

We were in a small remote anchorage with a short beach and a path through the forest and we decided to celebrate Jades birthday.  We set up relay races and games such as capture the flag and tug-o-war.  In the morning, before the party my moon and I mixed up chocolate cupcake batter and set them to bake.  Unfortunately It was supposed to be cake batter and it overflowed the muffin tins and stuck to the bottom when we tried to get it out.  After that disaster we were really careful when we made just basic white cupcakes with chocolate chips in cupcake papers.  

The disaster cupcakes were a double batch so we were left with an enormous amount of crumbled chocolate cake that we had no idea how to use.  As we fixed the problem and set up the party my mom ran into Moana Roa mom who told her that we could easily use our mess-up to make a perfect chocolate trifle.  We had never heard of trifle so she explained that it was made by layering chocolate cake then custard then canned fruit, more cake and custard and topped off with whipped cream.  Saving this idea for later, we went about setting things up for the party.  

Despite the cupcake failure the party went very well, with everyone, even the parents, participating in the games.  When we got tired of running around we ate the second batch of cupcakes which had turned out surprisingly well, and rested until capture the flag.  

The best part of the party was the game of capture the flag that we had with the dads.  All the kids and all the dads participated and we had such even teams that the game went on for hours with each team getting close to the others flag but then getting chased of.  Eventually, after almost 3 hours of playing my team won in a desperate rush for their flag, involving me, my dad, some invisible players and a mad rush from another. teammate.  

The best part of the party was the game of capture the flag that we had with the dads.  All the kids and all the dads participated and we had such even teams that the game went on for hours with each team getting close to the others flag but then getting chased of.  Eventually, after almost 3 hours of playing my team won in a desperate rush for their flag, involving me, my dad, some invisible players and a mad rush from another. teammate.  

The best part of the party was the game of capture the flag that we had with the dads.  All the kids and all the dads participated and we had such even teams that the game went on for hours with each team getting close to the others flag but then getting chased of.  Eventually, after almost 3 hours of playing my team won in a desperate rush for their flag, involving me, my dad, some invisible players and a mad rush from another. teammate.

Vava'u

Vava'u 

After an 8 day sail we were glad to sight land, we pulled in and tied up to the jetty.  I started with all the school that I had to make up after 8 days of being “seasick” while my mom went shopping and exploring wifi options and my dad got us checked into Tonga.  

After we were all settled we moved from the customs dock into the mooring field and grabbed a bouy.  We tried to finish school as quickly as possible, eager to be off the boat.  After lunch we were free to go and the Moana Roa kids came to pick us up to go into town.  We walked down the main street (also on of the only streets) and came across an Ice Cream parlor so I treated everybody to ice cream.  We walked back to the dock cafe and sat and talked until dinner time, we ate pizza with Moana Roa for dinner then played around by the dock for a while.

When we got tired and bored we loaded ourselves into the dinghy and went back to the boat to watch movies.

Mualpihaa (Mal-pee-ha)

After Boring-Boring aka Bora-Bora, we sailed past the rough waters of Malpeete (Mal-pee-tee) and into the lagoon of Malpihaa.  It’s super calm and deserted except for one family who came here against all odds and are living peacefully by themselves.  We joined up with Remi De, who we hadn’t seen in a while and welcomed Elena, Breeze, and Field Trip when they came in. We had a fire on the beach again which we had been missing, and toasted sausages and marshmallows on the open flames.

We were excited to be back together with our friends that we had sleepovers almost every night and were so tired at the end of the week that I got sick.  Luckily it only last one day and I was better when I woke up the next day. 

Elena dad used to be a professional sailor so he gave us sailing lessons everyday on our little optis. every night we had fun on the beach and we all brought food so it was kind of like a potluck.  we stayed on the beach by the fire late into the night and fell right asleep when we got back to the boat.

Raitea

After Moorea we moved onto Raitea so we could do repairs, like getting new batteries, fixing the computer, sewing the stackpack.  Most of the time we were tied up to the town docks and we spent our days skateboarding, ripsticking, and getting ice cream, we made trailers to horor movies for fun and every night was a party.  We had a great time playing with all of our friends who were with us at the docks too, Moana Roa, Remi De, Elena, Moxie.



One day we decided to hike up to the top of the hill shadowing the harbor, at least a 5 mile hike.  We went with the Elena boys and had fun making bows and arrows out of bendy sticks and getting chased by a very protective mama cow.  We told stories about other hikes we'd been on and finally got to the top, we spent some time on the top of the hill, eating bananas and looking at the wonderful view from the mountain.  You could see everything, we saw the docks where our boats were, we saw the parking lot with all the food trucks, we saw the town square and the ice cream shop.



When we got back down our feet were sore and our knees aching from climbing that hill, but we got showered and dressed for dinner out that night, we walked along the pier, looking for anything that struck our fancy but we didn't find very much, finally we went back to the first food truck we had seen and all had steak frite for dinner.

Bagels

Today we're making bagels, first time, from scratch.  It sounds hard, and it is, but I think it's worth it.

Like any bread type recipe, it starts the same, one big bowl, yeast mixture, let it sit.

 I followed instructions, adding flour and sugar and salt until I had a nice and sticky dough.

I let it rise in a greased and covered bowl for a while until it had nearly doubled in size.  Turning it onto a floured surface I kneaded it until it turned smooth and elastic.

I then seperated the dough into small pieces, kneaded them and punched holes in them then let them rise on a greased oven sheet.

When they were round and fluffy I dropped them into boiling water for 1 minute each side until they were bloated and greasy.  I then placed them back onto the greased sheet.

When all of them had been boiled I baked them on high heat until they began to brown.  We arranged them on a platter and had them for lunch, hot with butter.

A Farm Day

We're leaving soon for the islands in French Polynesia, The Marcecies.  Before we leave though we need to stock up on fresh fruits and vegetables because we ran out of them coming from Panama to here in the Galapagos.  We do this every we time we leave for a passage, but this one is going to be at least three weeks long so we need to get a lot.  The store in the town is unreliable because it only gets small shipments every few days, so we are going to go up to the farms that supply the store with most things.

At first we did not have high hopes because the first farm was a run-down dump and did not have very good produce, but the second one was really good and we got everything we needed.  We drove into the drive way, scattering a bunch of ducklings who were feeding on a watermelon rind, and sat on the bench to wait for the owner.  The owner was a tanned man with a machete and knife case attached to an old leather belt and... He only spoke Spanish.   When we asked for bananas he took a long branch, looked for a while then poked just the right spot so that the clump of bananas slowly lowered itself down and he took his machete and chopped the whole bunch off and the tree sprang right back up!

When we got back we were excitingly telling everybody who didnt come (including my sisters and dad), how amazing it was.  We gotten everything we wanted and more, overflowing all of our bags in the process, watched him chop it all off the plants when we asked, and paid forty dollars, a very cheap price.