A Pirate on board!
14 November 2008 | South Pacific
Nic
Well we have a new crew member on board - well actually that's not strictly true, we have just renamed an existing crew! Yesterday afternoon when going up on deck to start my watch, Mr A had a tooth in his hand a great big gap in the top row of his teeth! That's right Gapy as he's now known managed to loose one of his teeth on some chewing gum! Perhaps I was a tad unsympathetic but my first thought was that I hoped he had not got any blood on the deck when it fell out, but a quick look around and my mind was put at ease. Gapies Gap is very visible every time he smiles (which is quite a lot) and the sight brings much mirth to the rest of the crew! Don't worry Lisa it has given him a sort of rugged pirate charm! Well what about the sailing? We are still trucking along nicely, managed 150 miles yesterday and so far today we are on course for about the same. In about 6 hours we enter the "Nanuku Passage" a 15 mile wide passage of water that weaves its way through the many reefs and hazards around Fiji with strong currents adding to the fun. Fiji is actually an archipelago of over 300 islands, from coral atolls to large volcanic islands and navigation has to pretty spot on not to hit any of the buggers! In days gone by the reefs and atolls around the entrance to the passage claimed many a vessel, but the advent of GPS should mean we don't join the list!!! Once in the passage we have about 170 miles left to navigate through to the destination at Suva, near the southern tip of Fiji. We managed to just avoid all the rain last night, we could see it on the horizon but each band went either just behind or just in front of us. Neil has devised a cunning plan (in fact so cunning he should get a degree from the university of cunning) to excuse his dismal performance at fishing - he ties his lures on with a "Wally" knot, so at the end of the day when he reels in, the lure has gone and he has his excuse for not catching any fish! C'mon Neil tie them on properly so we can have some Tuna tonight!