27 April 2011, Bounty Island (Sharon)
So it is about time the 'silent' member of the crew finally blogs - after 9 days, 7 of those being the toughest I have had (36 hours of child birth had an end - 7 days of constant sea sickness which felt like it really would never end), I am finally feeling back to normal and trying to catchup on all the times I have let the Red team down over the past week. When we joined Adam and Leonie and the boys for this adventure, Adam told me the first 24 hours or so would be 'awful' but I thought, hey- what's 24 hours, I can do that! I did not realise that after 2 days and Adam saying, it will be over after 3 days, that soon he would stop saying when it would stop and the day before arriving in Lautoka, I started to finally feel like normal. So you ask me about sea sickness pills? Well 3 variations later and wearing of seabands for days, I decided that maybe just maybe my body was saying that the rolling and motion of the boat just really wasn't what my body thought was normal. I have to say though, that I have been mightily impressed with Adam and Leonie and their boys on their boat/home. They have a place/system/process/way for everything - there is order and even through tiredness, they keep everyone going and it's always fun for the kids. For Jon who through that first 7 days, had to look after both Kent and Nathan (and their sickness), as well as mine, doing Black team duties, covering my Red team duties and doing shifts through the night - I only have admiration for my husband, even through his tiredness. Thanks must go to the others for looking after me - handing food out the door (which I rarely ate), and allowing me to sleep wherever I could to ease the sea sickness! Looking back now, it was amazing to be on the water with the swells/waves/conditions, see Adam catch a 15kg fish and the excitement we all had as the boys hauled it into the boat.
Yesterday and today. We woke in Lautoka and Adam started the long process of checking us in. The rest of us were waiting on the boat for this process to end with boys just itching to get onto land to run around. We pulled out every game to keep them from jumping overboard to swim to shore! Once customs was cleared, we all went to shore at Lautoka. We had our first 'Fijian' meal which wasn't as exotic as it sounds. Our taxi driver took us to a takeaway shop (which we figured must have been owned by a relative of his) and the kids ate fish and chips and the adults ate other variations of takeaways! It was nice for me to just 'eat' as this was my first meal since leaving AK. We then all split up to shop. The local market for the Davies crew with Leonie and Pieter - a true Fijian experience- with the purchase of waka (kava) through to other necessities. Adam ventured to find a replacement pot after the loss of Leonie's beloved large pan- but to no avail.
After filling the taxi boot full of 'stuff'we went back to Elena and motored to Denerau. My first attempt at a cooked meal for everyone as we motored was licked up by every member onboard. At arrival at Denerau marina we all set to work cleaning everything up from the past week on board - both from the boat to the 8 loads of washing later and clean up of everything inside. We all rolled into a hot bed late, all exhausted but so looking forward to 6+ hours in a row of sleep - esp for Adam - yeah right - the man who has learned to function without sleep.
Today we headed to the island of Navini to catch up with some friends of Adam and Leonies on holiday - Connor, Rixt, Sean and Eric. After a sushi lunch on board (which secretly is so easy, but apparently impressed everyone - thanks to the ripe avocados from our home Merani St which finally decided to ripen - we headed to the island which as Leonie suggested looked like the one from the 'Bounty' ad on TV -picture perfect. We stayed with them for the afternoon at their private beachside bure on their corner of this island. Not only did Mees find 3 hermit crabs for fishing, we went swimming and generally lazed around with good company. Upon return to Elena we moved around the back of the island and settled into dinner and getting kids to bed. We sat down for our evening cup of tea and watching the lightning show the sky was giving us, we noted that this was the first night since we left Auckland that we were sitting down relaxing after dinner.
I am so pleased to be here (now - as I don't think I could honestly say it during the passage), loving the islands, the heat, the swimming, the company, and the opportunity to be on board Elena.
Till another day in paradise, oh wait, that will be tomorrow!
