Author: Hannah
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Lakeba
We left the Bay of Islands in Vanua Balavu last Wednesday, together with SV Pangea, heading towards Fulaga in the Southern Lau group. We hoped to arrive the following day in Fulaga, but the wind was too strong (20+ knots) and from the wrong direction (on the nose) so we decided to stop in Lakeba.…
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Coconut hunting
The same day as we provisioned, we went to a beach in the afternoon to go coconut hunting. Taylor has some special tools for opening coconuts, and she taught us how to do it.
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Provisioning (ie. grocery shopping) in Vanua Balavu
On Monday morning, I went to pick up Taylor at 6:00 am in our dinghy. Then we pulled up the anchor and had coffee while motoring about an hour to get to the village of Daliconi. The video is us going through the Bay of Islands. After we anchored near the village, Riki took Taylor…
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God is good
On Wednesday before we left Savusavu we were walking home from Anjana’s house, when we stopped to get ice cream. Her brother Devan insisted on buying the kids ice cream cones. Luz dropped the ice cream off her cone almost immediately, and she started to cry. Tomu just handed her his cone, without saying anything.…
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First few weeks in Fiji
Fiji is a special place for Riki and I — we met in Savusavu in July 2012. We also cruised in Fiji for 10 months on Riki’s old boat, SV Guava Jelly, in 2014-2015 when Tomu was a baby. It feels like a treat to come back to Fiji. The people are so kind here.…
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Opua, NZ to Savusavu, Fiji
It took us exactly 6 days to sail to North Minerva Reef. The first few days were pretty mellow as far as waves and wind — I was even playing Doppelkopf (a German card game) with the kids down below. I used half a patch of Scopolamine for sea-sickness, and I gave the kids each…
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and we are off! (with a lot of help from our friends)
We checked out of New Zealand customs at 3 pm today, and untied the dock lines with our friends there to wish us well at 5 pm. Some boats honked their horns as we left and others yelled out “goodbye, we love you, safe passage!” Also our friend Andrew came and cleaned our dinghy for…
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HBD Luz!
Luz celebrated her 6th birthday with a pool party in Whangarei, a visit to her fellow bunny spirit Taylor Lowe’s art opening, and a sleepover at Hilton & Melva’s house in Ratty’s Landing. She made her own cupcakes & cream cheese frosting.
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The hard parts
I was talking to my sister Libby two or three months ago, and she said that it was hard because it looked like we are always on vacation and it’s always sunny in all our photos, and meanwhile it is rainy and cold in the PNW. I told her, you know boat life isn’t all…
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More visitors!
Near the end of March, Auntie Phoebe, Uncle Dave, and my cousin Katy came to visit us as part of their trip around New Zealand. They stayed on board with us for 5 nights. It was their first time on a sailboat, and I thought — how brave of them! They were so easy to…
sv evi 