One of my favorite sea shanties is “Leave her, Johnny”. It’s about
a crew member leaving their boat after a voyage. No matter how difficult
the voyage, it’s always a mixed feeling to leave a ship and the
remaining crew behind. We sang shanties the night before Ben departed,
with Ben and Pete on dueling ukuleles. With three tall ship sailors, two
newbies and the help of our friend Jih-Wei’s transcriptions and chord
progressions, plus a few beers, we had a loud and spirited shanty
singalong in the cockpit, ending with “Leave her, Johnny”.

The next night, after dinner, we gathered outside of the marina
restaurant to serenade Ben with “the Goodbye Song”, a ribald tradition
of the Gray’s Harbor tall ship sailors. After the song, he caught a cab
to the airport and his flight back home.

Alex and Ted left the next night, with the same ritual. Friend of the
boat Roberta Bienvenu arrived in Nandi marina between boats and stayed
aboard for a few days to liven things up with her energy and Cajun sense
of humor. Pete left on 9/12, and since we were low on crewmembers to
serenade him, I asked some friends in the restaurant to help. Turns out
they were dining with a former Lady Washington crewmember (Christian)
who jumped at the chance to join in “the Goodbye Song”.

I hung out on Rover and with cruising friends old and new for another
week and a half in Fiji. When you’re cruising, you meet lots of other
cruisers along the way. There are plenty of goodbyes, and then your
friends show up further along the path. I reunited with friends I’d met
in the Marquesses, Societies, Cooks and Tonga here in Fiji. I made new
friends headed for New Zealand, Vanuatu and Australia and if I get to
those places, I’m pretty sure I’ll cross paths with cruisers I’ve met
before.

One of my new friends, David on Sassoon, had managed a sugar factory in
Australia. He leveraged his experience to get a tour of the factory in
Lautoka. Sugar cane was an essential crop in Fiji from colonial days and
parts of the factory go back to the early 1900s. Many South Asians came
to Fiji from India on contracts to work in the cane fields, so sugarcane
drove the demographic makeup of the country. Most of the factory was
(re)built in the 60s by an Australian firm, then sold(?) to the Fiji
government, which still runs it. It was a tour of mid-century processes,
still running. The cane comes in, the sugar is extracted using multiple
steps, and the waste cane is burned to make steam used in the process
and also to make electricity used in the plant. Water is also brought
into the plant and exits to a wastewater treatment plant. The tour was
very thorough, the workers were very friendly, with greetings of “Bula!”
all the time. We got to see all the “safe” areas of the plant, but no
pictures were allowed.

My other activity after the previous crew departed was throroughly
cleaning the boat in preparation for Linda and Mark and Kim’s arrival.
All the woodwork below was cleaned and oiled, boat laundry was done and
the topsides were washed.

Linda and Mark and Kim arrived yesterday (9/22) morning. There was a
SNAFU with the Fiji Immigration paperwork (my fault), and Mark was not
allowed to board the plane until he bought (and showed the officials) a
ticket for a flight out of the country. Things should go more smoothly
for the next crew arrivals in a couple of weeks, now that I know the
paperwork requirements.

It was great to see Linda again. The last time I saw her (except
FaceTime) was waving from shore in San Diego on 4/1.

Yesterdays agenda included naps for the new arrivals, a walk around the
marina and a wonderful dinner at the marina restaurant. Today we did
some shopping and provisioning in Lautoka. Tomorrow is open, but may
include sightseeing in Nadi. We’re hoping to depart for the Mamanuca and
Yasawa islands on Monday.

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