After leaving Vuda Marina, where we spent cyclone season, we motored across the big bay, over to Port Denarau Marina. We had a list of things that we wanted to upgrade on Tanga and Marshall Sails at Port Denarau was the place to do this. We had them sew our sun protecting strip back on our Jib sail. The sun strip had been barely hanging on and parts of it had been flapping in the wind for over a year, so it was time to get that fixed. We also had them replace the entire leech end on the mainsail. Now, our sails are good to go for, hopefully, several more years.

New customized cockpit cushions were made and more importantly, attention was given to our bimini. We knew the windows on the bimini needed replaced because they were foggy and scratched up, but we didn't realize just how bad they were until the new windows were installed. Wow...what a difference!! We can see crystal clear out of the front and side of the bimini now! Then, we had snap down black sun screens made to go over all the windows on the bimini, giving us more shade in the cockpit area. The very last item that was installed is what we call our "black cape". It’s a black sun screen that attaches to the back of the bimini and extends out over the rest of the cockpit, giving us even more shade and more enjoyment in our outside living space. It took about 2 weeks for all the work to be completed and by that time, we were done with living on the dock, living on land and more than ready to be on the water again.

Promptly the next morning, after our morning coffee, we started the motor and threw the dock lines. We had a nice motor (since there was no wind) over to our usual home at Musket Cove. We haven't seen our home base in over 4 months, so it was great to pull up to a mooring ball, hop in the dink and go ashore to see our local friends (bartenders Josie, Va and a few others) at the Island Bar. We have been here at Musket Cove for about a week now, doing what we usually do: snorkel, swim, go out to the surf break, and now have added the occasional afternoon Farkle and Boche Ball Tournament to the mix. We will be here for another week and then head back to Port Denarau to pick up my brother and sister-in-law. They are coming out to Fiji for a week adventure aboard Tanga!

The other day, when we were anchored at Namotu Island for the day, we had an amazing dolphin experience. Now, we have had dolphins play along at Tanga's bow when we are sailing and we have seen dolphins from the dinghy, at a distance, but this entounter was a first for us. We were on our way back to Tanga, riding along in the dinghy, when a group of dolphins swam right up to us and played at the bow of the dinghy! They stayed with us for about a minute before swimming away. Truely a great experience for us!