Balloons!

Balloons are a very big hit with the local kids. They tie a piece of coconut twine to them and then run after them in the breeze. What fun to watch.

Yesterday the ladies of the village opened their "market" at 10am for the Admiral's perusal, an hour we had agreed on the day before. The "market" is 6 ladies under a tree, each with a 6' X 8' piece of cloth upon which they lay their wares. Much of it comes from the large market in Lautoka, but some of the items are local craft. The Admiral was careful to select something from each. After the market we met the Mayor, and when I asked him why we had not been directed to him to do sevusevu, he said we should have been, but that it was not our fault, it was his problem to solve. Sounds like tribal discipline is going to hell.

It was quite windy in Sawa-i-lau; it lies on the north edge of Viti Levu and when the wind shifts to the Northeast it gets quite brisk. We are now about 8 miles south and the wind is about 10 knots less than it was in Sawa-i-lau. Getting here is more challenging, navigationally, than we have experienced most other places. The local charts are "off" by about 0.2 miles, and navigational aids like bouys are rare; there are however, lots of submerged reefs. The Admiral spent about an hour carefully laying out our course for the day, a total of about 14 waypoints for a route of 10 miles. Once underway we both watch closely for the telltale turquoise water that tells you there is a reef. This is not something you would want to do when the sun is not high, and never at night.