Big winds were predicted for the night from the north west which meant we would not be very protected where we were. Alia Vita departed along with the rest of the boats around us, for the southern part of the island. There was a Dutch boat with an eccentric on board called Huberto. He told Rowan that he only likes women of colour, he has had a Malaysian, Tongan and now a Fijian wife! He lives on the boat, just moving around the Lau islands. He says in all the years he has been here he has never seen more than six boat in this anchorage, overnight there were 9. He departed first light which slightly unnerved everyone as he is such a salty sea dog, if he thinks it is time to move, it was most probably for a good reason! However we decided to go back where we originally anchored before we got spooked by how shallow it was. Tucked up that end would give us protection from the north. There were three other Catamarans there, we had no option but to go in front of them to shallower waters. It took a few attempts with a Cat called Water Dogs kindly moving over slightly for us.
That rather exhausted us, Rowan had an important call at 8:30pm, so we didn’t get up to too much. The boat behind us Liberty’s, we had met in the Tuamotus, they are the impressive Swedish circus acrobat family. Anna came over first, and we had a long chat, she said she was escaping cooking! They have returned to Sweden so the kids can go to school, they just come to the boat or holidays, which is impressive. Her hubby came over later for a cup of tea as he wanted to pick Rowan’s brain about boat insurance. Suddenly some boats are not being covered for NZ or something like that. Very interesting listening to their life history. They trained to be acrobats with the Cirque De Soleil, which sounded incredibly tough, then spent many years doing the entertainment on Cruise Liners, all food and accommodation included so any money they earned they invested in property back in Sweden, until they had over 70 apartments! They have obviously done very well out of property. They now do various contract performances, mainly corporate functions. What a life with 3 young kids.
The Water Dogs crew invited us to a fire and drinks on the beach, they are from Newfoundland, Canada, they were both surgeons who decided to get out of the rat race and have been sailing with their kids for over 10 years. Really lovely people with 3 teenagers, the eldest son particularly engaging, he had made a beautiful fire place and chopped down loads of wood for us. The other family were Germans who have lived in Singapore for many years and where the kids were born and brought up. Us Africans were amused at the name of their daughter – Nyala, it is a beautiful buck (deer) that they saw in South Africa when she was conceived. The other daughter was called Hero, i managed to blurt out straight away that it was a hell of a name to live up to! Didn’t wait to hear the conception story of that child!
It was nearly, if not full moon, and a beautiful clear night, a very happy evening with loads of kids screaming around catching crabs and having stick fights. We felt very much the oldies and odd ones out with no kids! We had kayaked over so we did not have to drag JeldiJeldi up the beach. It was very pleasant having a moonlit paddle back to the boat, just in time for Rowan to make his call.
Gathering on the beach
Just us 4 catamarans left in the anchorage
The full moon just before sunset
Swapping stories around the fire, Nyala far left
Kids catching crabs in the dark
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