Monday 4 October 2010

Picton Castle at sea; Monday 4 October 2010 בס"ד

Saturday morning began with an 0615 wakeup and making breakfast with Sophie. I did the 0730 skiff run on my own, leaving at 0720 and therefore arriving on time, which was appreciated by those ashore. Came back to the ship, ate breakfast, and caught the 0800 skiff ashore. Liam, Dapper, and I went walking around town, grabbed coffee, and ended up doing some last minute shopping for a few hours, and I finally found a bookstore with books, and I picked up a few. I also bought a small clock to hang in my bunk, a yellow t-shirt and a Fiji rugby hat, and an external hard drive so that I can back up all of my photos, videos, logs, etc. After we were done, we wanted to go to a rooftop bar at this one hotel in town, but upon arriving we found the doors open but the bar closed. So, we sat down and made plans and shot the shit for about half an hour or more before people came and actually opened up the bar. We decided to have one big beer, which ended up being two, and eventually after a while we realized we'd been drinking quite a bit. Georgie and Logan arrived at some point during this after having seen “Vampires Suck” at the cinema, which they said sucked. They joined us, and then we went to the grocery store to pick up some stuff and ended up going to see Dabangg again, which is even better after having many beers. After Dabangg, we all ended up going to a house that a few other crewmembers had rented and partied there for Bronwen's birthday. Pizza, beer, and I passed out on the couch.

I had been pretty mosquito-bite free for the whole stay in Fiji, but that night on the couch I slept shirtless and pretty much the entire left side of my body was a big bite when I woke up. I caught a cab with others back to the yacht club ready to get aboard and get underway. When we got there, however, we learned we'd be at anchor another day and so I had the day off again. Dave, Dapper, and me went with Georgie, Ali, Vicky, and Alex to get coffee in town, and then we split up with plans for a 1600 rendezvous at the rooftop bar. We took a cab to the house and rescued Davey, who was still passed out and locked inside of the rented house (he had known we'd be another day). Together, the four of us took the cab to Colo-i-suva park, where we paid the entrance fee of like $5 and walked down into the park to the lower waterfalls. At the pool at the base there was an awesome rope swing set up from a huge tree, and we had a few goes swinging off and doing tricks. Then, while drying off, a group of about two dozen local guys came down and started going crazy on the rope swing, and one of them even climbed up to the top of the tree and jumped in (I'd guess 50+ft at least). We hung out with them for a while, then headed up to check out the upper waterfalls. I ended up passing out on a picnic table for an hour, increasing my mosquito-bite count. We walked back to the access road, and hitched a ride with a pickup truck to the park entrance, passing some of our fellow crew on the way. Just down the road from the park entrance is a hotel/resort looking place called Raintree, and they had a big sign that said PIZZA SUNDAY ALL DAY, so of course we made our way right for that. Donald, Lauren, Adrienne, and Paulina were there already, and after ordering our pizza, we played a game or two of billiards. Enjoyed the pizza, then took a cab back to the rooftop bar hotel place at about 1630. When we got there, the door was padlocked this time, and the girls were not in sight. So we headed back into the city, and we passed two guys sitting down who told us they had seen the girls walk by not long before. So we tried being detectives hot on the trail, and I thought they'd probably go to the nearby internet cafe, but I was wrong. Anyway, used the internet for a few minutes to send Georgie a Facebook message telling her where we were, with hopes she'd see it sometime soon, and then went to a park. Passed out on a bench for a while, then went back to the internet to check. She had gotten the message, and said they were at the Holiday Inn bar for a bit and then having dinner at Maya Dhaba. We passed Maya Dhaba and saw them there, and told them we'd just go to the Holiday Inn bar. We went, and saw another huge crowd of Aussies watching what I think was the Super Bowl of Australian Rules Rugby, since my friends told me that wasn't exactly like standard rugby. We watched some, then it was getting late so we left to walk back to the yacht club. On the way, we were all hungry and realized we only had about $5 each, so we headed to the McDonalds for cheap food. While walking there, a group of four prostitutes desperately pleaded with us to render their services (not only are we touristy looking and therefore wealthy, but we're also four handsome guys, so I don't blame them). Stopped at McDonalds, which was exactly like any other McDonalds, then went back to the yacht club and caught the 2300 skiff in.

Woke up, loosed sails, did domestics, stowed the ship for sea, and waited to clear out. We learned that [person] was no longer part of our crew and had been expelled from the ship for inappropriate/illegal behavior ashore, of which people had vague details. Once cleared out, pumped on the windlass to weigh anchor, and we were underway. It was after 1600, so I was stood down shortly thereafter. Organized all my crap and stowed my bunk, now bed. Time for some serious sea-hab. Happy Birthday Karla!