Bright and early tomorrow morning (August 15th) we shall, rather sadly, take our leave of Fiji. We wish that we had more time to spend here as we have barely scratched the surface of this friendly nation of many, varied islands. However, the distant approach of cyclone season (starting in November) is relentless and if we wish to see anything of Vanuatu and New Caledonia on our way, we need to continue westwards towards Australia.

My good intentions to catch-up with detailed blog entries and photographs from earlier in our stay in Fiji have been stymied so another update will have to suffice for now. I cannot blame this delay on time spent on Randall’s dental work, which was the reason that we returned to Suva. This progressed incredibly quickly and competently with it taking less than 90 minutes from the moment we walked into the Stewart Street Dental Practice, until departing with a well-fitting new crown.

The dentist, Dr Singh, was charming and highly instructive, providing a master-class on how to: prepare the remaining piece of tooth; use the x-ray to check that the root was healthy; make a 3-D digital scan of where the crown would go; adjust the computer-generated crown to be sufficiently strong and to fit appropriately between the other teeth; automatically mill the crown on a machine not much larger than a bread-bin (as we watched); and to fit and glue the crown in place. All this was done with his work projected on a TV screen so that I could watch (Randall had a rather obstructed view) and with this former university teacher explaining every step of the procedure. We had been able to get an appointment at 9 am on the morning after we arrived in Suva and the whole thing cost F$1,075 (about US$530) which is amazing. You will hear no complaints from us and only recommendations for this particular dentist, who decided to buy his own crown-milling equipment rather than wait five weeks after making a mold to receive crowns milled in China.

Instead, my excuses for inattention to the blog range from severe fatigue resulting from a nasty lingering cold to spending a lovely time playing music and socializing with Vandy and Eric from SV Scoots, and with Maria and Bavo on SV Devocean (who kindly prolonged their stay in Suva for a day on hearing that we were returning), Lynette and John on SV White Hawk, and Judy and Steve on SV Code Blue (still waiting to get their autopilot fixed or replaced). Needless to say, it has been difficult to say good-bye to these fellow cruisers, especially Vandy and Eric who have become such close friends and who are not (currently) planning to follow us very far westward. During our second stay in Suva, their engine part finally arrived and they were able to install it successfully. This has finally freed them to leave Suva after more than a month here, despite having a damaged generator that will require special attention until they return to New Zealand in October.

Amazingly, even though Rob and Barb on SV Zoonie (still enjoying the Lau Group of Islands) had also suffered from colds, it looks as though Randall may have avoided it. There are many people with coughs and sneezes in Suva so it will be wonderful if he really stays free of the virus and so far, so good. I did not aid my recovery by snorkeling at the Bay of Islands in Vanua Balavu before we left (in my defense, I only snorkeled there once whereas Randall went twice), so the congestion seems to have lodged rather more stubbornly in my sinuses. Oh well...I do not always make the most sensible decisions when snorkeling and birding options are concerned.

And that leads to my last excuse for inattention to the blog, I have spent much of my precious online-time examining the identification of reef-fish in an effort to make my survey data for REEF.ORG (eight surveys in Fiji) as accurate as possible. I still have not finished submitting my first survey online (it should be a quicker process after the first time) but I feel pretty confident about the accuracy of what I am submitting. The perfectionist researcher in me rears her head...

Having cleared out with Immigration and Customs today, our plan is to leave Suva at first light tomorrow (about 6 am) and spend almost a week sailing mostly (we hope) downwind to Luganville on the island of Espiritu Santo in the northern half of Vanuatu. Luganville has plenty of World War II relics and history (one Randall’s uncles was a signalman there) and there should be some good snorkeling too. After a week there, we will island-hop (mostly day-sails) into the prevailing wind down to Port Vila (the capital) then to Tanna where we hope to take a tour up to the lip of a rumbling, fairly active volcano. We will then leave from Tanna for New Caledonia. These are our current plans, at least, but as we know, weather conditions and the very active volcano that we will pass-by on the Vanuatu Island of Ambae, could change those plans. Such are the vagaries of cruising.