Sunday - Desert Island Day

Last night the wind blew 20 Knots from the southeast as we sat at anchor off Namara Island. We are in fairly shallow water here (18ft) with only 50 feet of chain out, trying to avoid wrapping around the bommies nearby. As the wind came whistling over the low hills of the island and Ladybug pirouetted around her anchor, the chain began to growl over the rocks and we had to abandon our v-berth bed for the salon settees. We managed to sleep soundly despite the scraping and moaning.

We awoke to a leaden sky and the wind continued wailing. Hot porridge and a nice chat with our friend Rich on s/v Legacy on the single sideband started the day right. However, I started feeling restless by mid-morning despite my best attempt at sudoku and a novel. So we rowed ashore armed with machete, matches, foil-wrapped yams, a couple of coconuts and a coconut grater.

I forgot to mention that yesterday there was a foul smell was emanating from the veggie larder and I had drowned a couple of yams which had little bugs crawling on them. BUT, the smell was worse this morning and we discovered the real culprit - a broken egg. Parts of it were stuck to the box, so that's when we had the briliant idea of a fire on the beach - to get rid of the smelly cardboard box.

Anyway, back on the beach, we gathered some old coconut husks, bamboo sticks and palm fronds and Chris worked very hard to get the fire going. Later, he placed the yams and half a coconut to roast on the hot embers while I sat on a tree trunk grating the rest of the coconuts. It felt like we were truly on a desert island. Ladybug has been the only boat here for the last two days and we had the beach all to ourselves. While the yams were still cooking, we beachcombed for shells and chomped on chunks of hot smoky coconut meat. It tasted absolutely delicious! We thought of our friends on Rabi Island who had given them to us six weeks ago.

Back on the boat, we decided to swim and snorkel to get rid  of the smoke smell clinging to our bodies and clothing. Despite the chilly wind, Chris jumped in wearing only his undies. I put on my shorty wetsuit; after all it is barely above 70 degrees Fahrenheit!
The visibility was pretty good even in the choppy conditions and there were lots of little fish and bright corals. I stayed in a little longer and saw a small white tip shark, inevitable really, as I am afraid of them!!

For supper, Chris squeezed the grated coconut wrapped in a thin napkin to make "lolo", thick coconut cream, which we later used as a dip for the yam and, for Chris, chunky tuna. Dessert was a tropical fruit plate of banana, papaya and pineapple drizzled with lolo and sprinkled with shredded coconut. We felt Fijian but real Fijians would have picked the coconuts, grown the yams and caught the fish!

These blue green chromis fish are always delightful to watch - popping out of the coral like flower petals opening

Not sure if this is some type of trumpet fish