Dave and crew have left North Minerva and are a day into their 360 mile sail to Levuka, and should be at Levuka on May 25th (although I'm picking they will be here even earlier as while at 5.30 last night they only had 10knots SW, here we have 25 knots and its predicted to stay a stiff breeze until Friday :-))

While they harness the breeze and digest their last crayfish I have made it to Levuka after exploring a wet (but warm) Suva and Suva Museum.

Its wonderful to be back in Levuka again. Everyone says Bula! to you as they go past and I have already seen familiar faces from our stay in Levuka and Makogai last year - including the senior Fisheries officer who taught us all about clams and turtles.

Marilyn and John (and their very vocal parrot "Bula") have made me so at home here at the Levuka Homestay (where I am their only guest -
thanks to travel warnings our governments are putting out). I will be able to see Dave sail in from the balcony. Everyone seems to know that he is coming in - and we even had a false alarm this morning. I had to explain to the lovely Fijian
man that Riada II was still a couple of days away :-)

We went to the Ovalau Club last night for the very official meeting of
the Tuesday Club - no agenda, no minutes, no speeches, just a few
yarns over a beer or two, and then we all went off to the Whales Tale Restaurant
for dinner (where "drinking, eating gambling and carousing" are all
encouraged). The expat's tales were wonderful - one lady had lived her earlier life in PNG and if you didn't have any idea about the frontier town it is now, let alone 30 years ago, you would have thought she was lying, while the 33year old man from Quebec who is writing his book about early retirement had some interesting perspectives on life. The only thing we didn't discuss was politics!

I wish you could be here - the sun is shining today and the rain has
evaporated (but there's still the stiff wind) and the local village seem to be having a drumming competition - it really feels like I am in the islands today.

I'm off to discover a little more of Levuka - to find the oldest
school in Fiji, the oldest Police station and the site where Fiji was
"ceded" to Queen Victoria.

Lots and lots of love,
Carolyn xx