Port Denarau

After the Lau Group, Port Denarau came as a shock.  There were docks full of Mega Yachts, a plaza, a fountain and shops overflowing with tourists.  We tied up to the dock and went to the marina office, it was a relief to get off the boat and into air conditioning after 3 days cooped up on the boat.  I took advantage of the internet to send emails to grandparents and friends, then explored the plaza area.  

There was a central area with benches and a fountain, on one side there were shops, surfing boutiques, jewelry shops and grocery stores.  On the other side there was a whole array of restaurants, food stalls and cafes. I wandered around and bought myself a smoothie from an ice cream shop next to the fountain.  

We got our laundry done and cleaned the boat until it shined, I walked up and down the docks and explored the marina.  We got little cards from the office that acted as keys, we would swipe them in front of a metal triangle that was outside the gate, bathrooms and marina services.

A Picnic

A few days after meeting the village people we were pretty good friends with them.  We invited them onto our boat for a short sail to a beach everyone called the Sand Spit because a long spit of sand wound out from the beach at low tide.  In the morning at 9:00 we picked up our hostess sand a couple of her friends.  There was Mere our hostess, her uncle, his daughter her niece, Meres husband Jone, and two girls who were just friends.  

We reached the Sand Spit and everyone suited up in their swim suits for a fun day at the beach!  I rigged the sailing dinghy and took Cleo and Archie to the beach, everyone else followed, swimming paddling or sailing to shore.  Some of the village people set up a shelter of saplings and palm fronds using nothing but machetes.  We split into groups, the little kids preferring to stay by the beach and play in the shallows while my dad and two village men took Cleo and Jasper spearfishing and two more village people went to catch coconut crabs for lunch.  I went with David, Sam, Archie and a village boy called Tua to catch some fish in the small salt water pools on the other side of the island.  We didn’t catch anything with our rods but Tua succeeded in catching five small fish with nothing but a rock.

We went back to the Sand Spit empty-handed but we’d had fun, Tua had taught us how to use the pieces of coral littered on the beach to catch small fish to use as live bait, but we still caught nothing.  When we returned to the beach I was hot and bothered from the mosquitos and sun on the beach, I caught a ride with one of the boys in the kayaks and went back to our boat for a cool off and spent half an hour by myself just chilling. I went back when I saw everybody gathering in the shelter for lunch.  I got to the beach just in time to get some lunch.  Everybody had participated in making the meal, the two people who had gone crabbing had brought back two huge coconut crabs the size of my head.  The spearfishing group had speared 5 fish which had been roasted over the fire until they were nice and crispy.

The food was awesome and after we were done we set up a soccer field and played a game of soccer.  My team won and and it was really fun playing in the sand.  We swam back to the boat and I took a shower while we sailed back to the village anchorage.

Nandi

The town of Nandi is about a 30 minute bus ride from the marina.  My mom, Cleo and I got up and dressed early to catch it.  We were the first ones on the bus so we watched as all the local people who lived outside the town get on.  

The bus stop in town was huge with tons of buses in it, around the border there were stalls selling all kind of Indian treats. We walked through the town and came upon a store called Lani’s, we stopped to take a picture and the owners invited us in.  We told them that my moms name was also Lani and they invited us to sit down and have Kava with them. We made friends with them and they showed us around town to all the shops we needed to visit.  After going to the Supermarket, they let us drop off our bags in their shop so we wouldn’t have to lug them all around while we went to our other stops.  

We checked out all the little dollar stores for things to use for our Halloween costumes. It was soon to be Diwali so all the stores sold fireworks and sparklers and little Hindu statues.  We bought some face paint and Henna paint to do doodles on our skin and Cleo bought some silver nail polish for her Artemis costume.

For our last stop we went to the Fresh vegetable market. It was huge, there were rows and rows of all different kinds of vegetables and fruits and Kava. A whole half of the market place was devoted to selling Kava, the root that was ground and watered down to make a drink that didn’t taste very good, at least not to me. We spent an hour browsing the different vegetable stalls, we each got a chicken curry roti for lunch and an apple.  After we were done with the market we went back to Lani’s to collect our bags and thank the nice owners.  We caught a taxi and drove out of town, along the road out there were lots of stores and restaurants, we stopped in an alcohol store to get beer and a butchery to get bacon.  

We were on our way back when my mom saw an Italian deli, she got really excited and insisted we stop there.  Inside the shop smelled like milk and pasta, the owner was glad to have customers and warmed up to us when we told him we were from Rome and spoke a bit of Italian.  He let us taste the meats and cheeses he was selling and chattered away in Italian while we picked out cheeses, meats and pastas to buy.  It had been so long since we’d had any good Italian food that we ended up spending a lot, but was worth it.

Finally done with our shopping we headed back to the marina.

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.

Weaving

At 9:00 one morning we made muffins and went into shore for a weaving class.  We picked up a few people on the way in and we were a full boat when we got there.  The family had caught a fish that morning and they served it grilled for lunch.  For dessert everyone on the boats contributed, there were lots of different kinds of brownies, cherry coconut muffins, blueberry muffins, chocolate coconut cookies and hot chocolate.  After the kids had lunch we sat on the sand playing games and talking, mostly games that did not involve running around because I had a hurt foot and couldn’t run.

Soon the adults were done and the local family gathered us on the beach and started weaving.  One Sister cut palm fronds a certain length and skinned the ends, one sister showed us how to start by weaving the outside rim of the hat, and a third sister showed us how to weave the top and hardest  part of the hat.  I did all right with the rim but I had to hand it over to the woman to finish when I got to the top part, I watched her and when I understood I grabbed up another one and did it myself.  After I had made two hats I wandered around the beach an saw the mother of the family teaching a group of cruisers how to make little things like stars and cubes and plates and bags.  I sat in then taught my sisters and mom. 

After the class was done we drove home laden with christmas ornaments, hats , plates and bags all made from palm fronds.

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.

Boring Boring

From Riatea  we moved to Bora Bora and took up a mooring there.  We got in in the afternoon so it wasn’t long before we went over to Caminante for game night.  The Moana Roa boys came over to play also and when the game was done we went crazy over the little dolls and play cars like little kids.  Too soon it was time to go and we went home where we watched How The Grinch Stole Christmas, for some reason.  The next day Moana Roa left and I was without kids my own age, and just because, we all got sick and it started raining (and it didn’t stop after 3 days).  There was nothing to do, no internet to get in touch with the real world and no friends to play with.  I got an infection in my foot from stubbing my foot on a piece of coral and we all had a cold.  Boats started leaving the anchorage and I couldn’t blame them, it truly was Boring in Boring Boring.

Most of the time I laid in bed and listened to music until I was sick of all my songs.  We all took Vitamin C’s until we were running out and we just laid around unless we got internet, which was not very often.  Once we went to this bar with a pool when it stopped raining for a little bit but the pool was freezing and I spent the rest of the time running back and forth trying to get warm and waiting for my mom to come and get us.  But once she got there it started raining and we were stuck there for at least another half an hour.  Ugh!

Luckily tomorrow we’re leaving! We are getting out of here!  We are leaving Boring Boring and never coming back! Hopefully!

Hike

We're back at the dock in Riatea and having just as much fun as before, everyday as part od school we have a physics lesson with Caminante dad and learn formula's and do experiments for 2 hours.  We always try to do our school as quickly as possible so we can get off the boat and go to town for ice-cream and ripsticking.  Yesterday after school we got on hiking clothes and grabbed bottles of water and sharpies (for drawing tattoos when we got bored), we walked along the street 'til we found the path up the mountain.  As we walked we talked and joked around with the boys off Moana Roa playing Truth or Dare, our new obsession, and drawing weird pictures and words on our arms, we walked real slow so we were soon way behind but we were having fun so we didn't care.

At the top we joked about throwing rocks down and hitting people (we didn't do it of course), and they told us about a time when they had caught a chicken on a hike, carried it all the way home and kept it in a chicken pen. There was a rooster on the mountain and I laughed as they asked their mom, "If we catch it can we keep it?"


We walked home and took showers before heading over to the boys boat for a movie night, we had fun and stayed up late into the night.

Huahine

Huahine is a just a morning sail from Raitea so we got in right after lunch. As soon as the anchor was down I was off the boat and in the water.  We played in the grass for a while then jumped on the paddle board for a “paddle” around, (like I could paddle 7 kids on a sinking board with one paddle).  The parents came in small groups and we divided into teams for volleyball, my team won 2 games and the other team won 1.  

It grew late and we lit a bonfire to toast marshmallows on sticks and ate brownies for desert, we told ghost stories by the fire and played tag games until late into the night when the stars and moon were out.

We did the same  thing for 3 days with small differences, like going surfing in the morning some days, and wake boarding some days.  I fell in love with surfing and got better and better at volleyball every day, I played and joked around with the boys off Moana Roa all day and had so much fun.  This morning my dad and Cleo and I jumped in the dinghy with the paddle board and kayak and headed off to the surfing spot we go to every morning before school, I caught a few waves but mostly either fell off my board or joked around with Bo off Moana Roa. 

I’m having so much fun I want to stray here forever but unfortunately we have to leave for internet and connection to the real world outside of my paradise.

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.

Lil' Savages

From Tahiti we moved to Moorea the distant mountain blocking the sunset from Papeete harbor.  It was only a day sail and we got in in time to have drinks on shore and play around with friends while watching half-naked polynesian fire throwers.  Apparently this was the evening celebration of the puddle-jumpers regata, wich had taken place that day.  We ran around played with glowing party toys late into the and discovered an olympic type event tomorrow in wich anyone over 12 could participate in teams, paddling conoes, husking coconuts, running with weights and a game of tug-o-war.  Eagerly Cassedy, Travis, Beau and I, the only kids over 12, signed up, naming our team the Lil' Savages.  Although the four of us were the only kids old enough to actually compete in the games, there were many other kids in the harbor so we had plenty of cheerleaders and supporters.

The next day at a little before 10:00, we all drove over to the hotel that was hosting the games, my team mates were there and we drew markings on our faces like savages, now we looked the part.  We waited for our time and gathered fans and sponsors (virtual sponsors of course), all the other teams were adults around our parents age so we were by far the youngest people out there, so naturally we gained a lot of support.

At last it was time for us to get into our outrigger and prepare for the race, obviously the leader of the celebration sympathized with us because he gave us a little bit of a headstart so we could afford to lose a little bit of time when we started, but it turned out we didn't need it we won easily and smoothly, with out crashing flipping or cheating, encouraged we cheered and clapped along with our gigantic crowd of fans.

We didn't race again for a little while but we watched our dads get there butts kicked when they raced against a couple of other adult teams, we booed along with the crowd as they came in third, disqualified from the next conoe races, we teased them about losing badly to a bunch of teenagers then rushed to pick the best canoe with the best drivers, last time winners.  This time we didn't get a headstart because we had obviously proven ourselves last race.

We won and won, but in the last and final race, the one determining the winners, we got second place and not first.  It was still a very good score, but we were all disappointed just a little, but not too much!

Tahiti

The sail from Rangiroa to Tahiti was a day and 2 nights, for the first night and half of the next day, we went as fast as we could so we could get there with out spending another night out at sea, but when it became apparent that we weren't going to make we slowed down.  As soon as we slowed down it was much more comfortable, and we stopped rocking so much.

It was early morning when we motored through the pass and even from far away I could tell that there were a lot boats in this anchorage, maybe even more than Cartegena.

As soon as we anchored we all packed up to get off the boat and onto land, we walked up to the marina office and dropped off my dad and Jade to wait for it to open and then continued up the road to the grocery store.  We hadn't been food shopping for so long and we were almost out of food, so we had to buy a lot.  I got a cart and tried to push it but the back wheels moved also so it went sideways when it was pointing straight ahead, Cleo and my mom thought this was so funny and laughed their heads off when I tried to get through the doors to the store.

We shopped and shopped and shopped and shopped, and when my dad came back with not only Jade but also Remi and her parents, we did more shopping all together.  It was really fun, running around the store playing hide and seek and spying on the parents, and when we got hungry we went and got lunch at the cafe and ordered paninis a foot long!  Soon we got tired and the parents finished shopping so we went home, but it had been really fun.

Range-A-Roa

From Tahanea we moved onto Fakarava, but we were only able to stay one night.  As soon as we anchored we got the weather report and it was bad, the wind was going to turn around, coming from the north-west instead of the east, right where we want to go!  We decide we need to leave so that we can get to Range-a-roa before our friends arrive, but we are leaving just before Remis birthday so it's a bittersweet goodbye.

We make the 2 day passage to Range-a-roa into 11/2 days and get in late in the morning.  We go snorkeling before exploring the town and we see lots of fish but its too deep for us to see much coral.  The town is split into 2 parts, one on each side of the pass, on our side we find 2 good grocery stores and 3 restaurants, one with fast internet.

 The internet cafe

Dolphins jump in the pass

The day after we arrived we focused a lot on school because we had been missing lots.  in the afternoon we spent time at the internet cafe, but we got held up by the rain and we were late getting back home.  All in all i'm liking Range-a-roa.

Sleepover

The night before my uncle David and his girlfriend left my mom and dad planned a dinner out at a restaurant for a good bye dinner.  Before we left I went over to Remi De to have drinks and stuff like that while we waited for Cleo an Remi to get back from the beach so we could go out.  But when it was time to go we didn't want to leave!

 Because it was late and we were tired, Remi invited us to a sleepover on her boat. We were soooo excited!  We danced on the bow and trampoline til we were so tired we practically fell over!  We watched a movie and then talked until we fell asleep in the middle of our sentences.  The bed was really comfortable and we slept deeply until the light through the  window lightened our sleep and I rolled off the bed and started talking.  Remi and Cleo thought that this was the funniest thing they had ever seen and couldn't stop laughing at me even when I woke up and wondered why they thought I was so hilarious.  

We had lots of fun and it as a shame when we had to leave, but we worked it out so that we came back for school to spend even more time on Remi De.

Sleepover

The night before my uncle David and his girlfriend left my mom and dad planned a dinner out at a restaurant for a good bye dinner.  Before we left I went over to Remi De to have drinks and stuff like that while we waited for Cleo an Remi to get back from the beach so we could go out.  But when it was time to go we didn't want to leave!

 Because it was late and we were tired, Remi invited us to a sleepover on her boat. We were soooo excited!  We danced on the bow and trampoline til we were so tired we practically fell over!  We watched a movie and then talked until we fell asleep in the middle of our sentences.  The bed was really comfortable and we slept deeply until the light through the  window lightened our sleep and I rolled off the bed and started talking.  Remi and Cleo thought that this was the funniest thing they had ever seen and couldn't stop laughing at me even when I woke up and wondered why they thought I was so hilarious.  

We had lots of fun and it as a shame when we had to leave, but we worked it out so that we came back for school to spend even more time on Remi De.  bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbed 

Fatu Hiva

After 3 weeks at sea any island would've looked magnificen to us but Fatu Hiva was especially gorgeous.  We've been to the low lying San Blas islands with their palm trees and pearl white sands, the Galapagos, a volcanic wonderland, even Bonaire a desert island, but we've never been to the French Polynesian islands.  Lush hills rose steeply on all sides of the bay full of clear deep blue water, valleys full of waving ferns and gurgling mountain streams met us on our hikes.

We spent days taking hikes, swimming and playing with friends, in addition to Remi De; Moana Roa, Camanante and Field Trip soon arrived and we became fast friends with a new boat named Voahangy, already friends with Remi De.  

We spent a day tubing and playing in the water by a small bay with a beach of water-rounded stones Remi De discovered.  On the beach there is a small creek of ice cold fresh water that trickles through the stone to the sea, we propped a dead palm branch up to catch the water and make a spout for it. Soon we had a tap to wash our hands and clean shells we found, we also used coconut shells as cups and filled them at the tap then dumped them over ourselves for showers.  

We tried building shelters out of palm  fronds but that didn't work out so we played house on a large flat rock that we found, we wove palm fronds into beds for ourselves and delt out jobs around the "household" for everyone, for example, Cleo smashed and cut cocnuts for meals, Jade cleaned up after the ladies of the house [who were Remi from Remi De and Anne from Voahangy], Cara from Moana Roa was the bodygaurd and I tended the fire and collected the water for meals and showers.  We ate ceviche and crackers on the smooth stones for lunch and had coconut for dessert, I ate so much cocnut it's gonna last me a life time.

We tubed all the way back from the small bay and took a few turns around in it before getting dropped off so we could get ready for the welcoming feast we were all attending that night.  I showered and dressed then got in the dinghy with everybody else, we're now sailing with my uncle who joined us in the Galapagos.  At land we all gathered in a warehouse where the locals had set up a gigantic feast for us.  On the table were all different kinds of delicacies ranging from chicken and rice to pickled bananas.  As we ate musicians filed in and started playing a kind of loud musiisic in the native language.   After a while dancers came in and lined up, one woman announced them and they began dancing they did a lot of difficult looking moves, then the woman came up again and explained what the moves meant.  We stayed there late into the night, watching the performances and plaing tag when we got bored,finally we dragged ourselves away to head back home but we all agreed it was really fun.

The New Normal

In the town of Santa Marta we have developed a new normal.  Every morning We have breakfast (Desayuno in spanish) and do school.  We can decide what and where we do school and it only lasts till  noon.  after school we play with the other kids on the dock, mainly Darien from Byamee and Ronia from Priscalina.  With Darien we do all kinds of things, from ripsticking in the park to make overs at her boat, but with Ronia we can't do much since she's only 7 months old.

In the evening we go into town and positively gorge ourselves on the crazy good street food they have available.  Then we wander around until we're too tired to walk another step, then we head for home.  It's a crazy schedule, but one that works for the whole family and is easy to complete.