Seaspray Day Sailing Adventure
Trip Start
Jan 22, 2006
1
51
156
Trip End
Aug 16, 2006
Bounty Island,
Fiji
Sunday, March 12, 2006
Two daring mid water changes of boat later, saw us safely deposited aboard our ship for the day "Seaspray". This was a sail boat, but the sails must have been for show only, as the motor was used for the whole journey! We were greeted by the captain with a loud "BULA" (hello) and handed a glass of champagne. My eyes widened slightly when I saw just how much alcohol they had on ice for the small group of us, this was the sort of sailing life that I could put up with. Throughout the whole day, before our glasses were empty, the crew were coming around to top us up.
On the way to our first island stop, we got chatting to a nice couple from Brisbane called Lisa and Steve. They'd done quite a bit of travelling previously, including a long trip to America the year before, similar to the one that we did.
01) The Seaspray boat
They were due to take an internal flight to New Orleans 48 hours before Hurricaine Katrina struck, but fortunately their flight was diverted elsewhere.Seaspray stopped off the coast of Yanuya Island, so we boarded a smaller boat and headed ashore. As we did, flying fish jumped right past the boat, but I think sadly they were too quick for me to capture on video. Once ashore we walked around a Fijian village, that was pretty deserted really because it was a Sunday and everybody seemed to be in church, we could hear their singing all over the island. The places that the people lived in were very basic really, little more than corrugated iron shacks. It was a bit like getting a glimpse of life from an earlier age, but this was their lives in the year 2006.
When we got back onboard the main boat, there was a huge and delicious BBQ'd lunch waiting for us (and of course some more alcohol). So we ate until our stomachs bulged and drank probably more than was sensible when we were about to go snorkeling.
We were dropped off at the island of Modriki, which was where the majority of the Tom Hank's film "Castaway" was shot. The sea was so still and clear that you could easily see all the coral underneath us and there were plenty of cheeky of fish ready to swim right up to your mask. I must admit that although I can swim, I don't really enjoy being out of my depth for long periods of time, so I didn't stray a long way out. Also when snorkeling, I get really conscious of the sound of my own breathing, so I don't find it particularly relaxing.
02) My sort of sailing
Later on somebody said they had spotted Reef sharks a bit further out (apparently harmless), so I was even more tense after that.As the water and island were so beautiful, Lynne and I both got a bit distracted and as a result our reapplying sun cream regime wasn't as regular as it should have been. By the time we got back to Seaspray, we had both realised that we had got sunburnt, I was only done rare, but Lynne was certainly in steak terms well done. However this was to be what occupied our time later, as at that precise moment there was another Kava ceremony and this time we all had to sample the delightful brew. The crewman asked whether I wanted "high tide" or "low tide", not really understanding the question I asked for high tide, which meant that I got a half a coconut shell filled to the brim with Kava. It's a difficult taste to describe, but I can say for the record that it definitely tastes more than a little bit like liquidised wood.
We were dropped back to shore by Seaspray, then finally returned to Bounty Island. The heat of the sun doesn't really disappear when it gets later here and all we both wanted to do was get the hell out of it. Back in the air conditioned hut, we were able to see exactly how red we looked. The cold shower was a blessed relief not an ordeal, although Lynne had a brief panic when the water stopped completely for five minutes just after she'd put shampoo in her hair.
The island was much quieter tonight because the University of Fiji students had all left. Also it was Sunday, which is a day of rest for the staff (well compared to the rest of the week anyway), so there was no karaoke tonight but they did sing a few hymns to us and the farewell song again.
