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| If you're a boat, it doesn't get any worse than this.....cyclone pit at Vuda |
Greetings, L'ORIENTALs. We know we have been delinquent in posting. We received a dressing down from readers the world over including Ana from Albania who writes "capo ndodh me ju djema", which translates to "what's up with you guys ?" for the rest of the world. Point taken.
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| A sad moment- like leaving our baby at the town dump |
After placing L'ORIENT in a cyclone pit (quite literally a slit-trench in the ground supported by disused car and truck tires), we hurriedly got ready to leave for the US. Living on a boat in the tropics, you only can have what you absolutely need. A constant problem we face is that we don't have winter clothes on the boat.......they'd take up too much space and quickly turn into a moldy mess. So the next best thing is to layer inappropriate clothes in a Madonna-esque way to fight the cold until we can get to Target.
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| The view off the bow isn't bad - the view from the stern proves we aren't the only fools |
We flew to the US and enjoyed a wonderful Christmas with Betty and Herb in Naples. Fun was had by all. My brother and sister plus their spouses, Ryan and Emily joined us there as well making it a fun family reunion. And wedding bells are in the air; my nephew is taking the plunge next Summer so the seeds of another family gathering have been planted.
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Happy times with our octogenarians
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Mom planning her next hostile takeover- BP will never know what hit them
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| Herb and Kirstin at the Naples Botanical Garden - a bit different than Oshkosh in December |
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| Some highlights of Revs Institute in Naples |
Being suckers for all things automotive (perhaps because we haven't owned a car in 10 years), we found an amazing car museum as well. Fun to walk among so many things we can't afford and are afraid to touch. But it was mostly turkey and football distracted us from watching the Fiji weather app and the cyclonic storms buzzing around our boat's locale.
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| Some fun at the local fish house |
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| Ryan is never far from sports and a couch |
We then visited Princess Emily in her new Jacksonville apartment and we toured her new place of work, EverBank Stadium, home of the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars.
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| Emily at work! Her office is actually in the stadium |
As Emily is now an NFL big-shot and gets scads of merch and fringe benefits (including 4 season tickets) we were excited about potentially seeing an NFL playoff game with the Jags as the home team. After all, they were 8-3 and battling for the AFC's number one seed. A late season swoon put the sword to that idea, but our tour of the grounds and Jacksonville was fun.
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| We had full access to this stadium (which would have been full had the team won the last game) |
We then flew to Omro, Wisconsin. That's right, and we did it in January.
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| Remember this when sweating in Fiji |
Kirstin spent lots of quality time helping Herb with vacation planning and other odds and ends indoors (it fell to as low as -15 degrees outside, so walks and outdoor activities were out). We were able to hit most of Herb's restaurant haunts in nearby Oshkosh so that was a bonus as well.
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| Post Happy Hour Shenanigans |
Kirstin caught up with friends she hasn't seen in awhile too.
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| These are some cold looking ladies |
Returning to our boat was a big relief. Never before had our list of "to-dos" been so long. The trans was leaking, our bow thruster was broken, sails were ripped, rigging broken, the hull was chipped........I could go on, but we were facing kilo-dollars of expense and about 30 days of work to put things right.
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| Our work site......scenic views but not pictured is the 95 degree temp |
Although we carried about half of our needed parts in our luggage, the shipping expense of the other half amounted to over $800.
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| How do you get a sail through a narrow doorway ? Push. |
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| The projects begin to overlap and get co-mingled |
We are doing some projects we have meant to for awhile. We have never actually successfully used our SSB radio. We know it works because while we can hear people halfway around the world, you can't use it to talk to someone 200 meters away. To me this is less useful than a sextant.
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| Technology from last century- replaced by Starlink and Iridium Go |
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| A bit of wiring to be done |
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| We removed miles of wire from the boat- hope everything still works |
And the worst part.........it's the Summer cyclone season here in Fiji. Meaning it rains pretty much half the day with occasional scary winds and lightning. And working inside the boat means temperatures over 100 degrees.
So, each day we walk about 1/2 mile through the mud in the steamy morning mist and begin work. Work ends at 4:00 PM and we go to our restaurant........there's only one, so we've literally eaten there 22 times in a row (and counting). Fortunately the menu is huge and quite delicious. We know 6 or 7 of the wait staff by name......like a South Pacific "Cheers".
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| Where everybody knows our name (Tomasi and Tina in Fijian) |
The saving grace of all this is that we rented one of six air conditioned bungalows on the grounds. Well worth it. Sleeping on the boat during this work without AC would have been fatal.
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| Just after our afternoon shower (2 inches per hour) |
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| We've tipped generously in Fiji so we get little surprises like this ! |
As our long-time readers know, we do almost all the work ourselves but in these adverse conditions and facing a few problems we weren't good at (like painting fiberglass with gelcoat), we did engage the help of a few Fijian tradesmen.......and have been quite pleased.
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"Pex" working on our glassed over back fender- a masterpiece
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| Goodbye ugly front door - check out our stern! |
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| Prop Service in 90% humidity - note the innovative hat/headband combo. |
When we started this crazy live aboard lifestyle in 2011 we had a wifi booster antennae that allowed us to grab wifi from shore. That meant we were constantly on the lookout for wifi accounts that were not password protected (which still happened back then) or we would hustle back from a restaurant with the wifi code and use it for the rest of our stay in the bay (another relic of a past, more innocent time). We have an Iridium Go satellite system on the boat, but technology for a sailor on the high seas has not changed much in the 13 years we have done this. Enter Elon Musk. When we arrived in Fiji from French Polynesia we noticed that every boat coming from Australia and New Zealand had this cute little rectangular antennae. We were like cavemen discovering fire.
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| Preparing to install Starlink - I feel like a gorilla with a cellphone |
Starlink essentially allows you to have an internet connection wherever you are in the world - including the middle of the South Pacific far from shore. Is it wise to be streaming Netflix while on passage? Who cares! You can do it now. In all seriousness, we have enjoyed our time off the grid at islands with no internet or cellular service and only limited email via Iridium Go. That said we have people we need to stay in touch with an cyclones we need to monitor thoroughly. Easy to install, easy to use - we are converts.
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| The finished product.........we're so high tech now |
As I write this, L'ORIENT has triumphantly returned to the water and is resting comfortably in a slip. We have more to fix and fine tune, but it's just great to be floating in sea-water vs. mud. Enjoy our pictures.
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| View from our table at the marina restaurant - the sunset never gets old, even if the work does |
