Junior Crew Member Turns Three

Hard to believe but our junior crew member turned three in December while we were in Tuvalu.  A few changes since this post ...

Benjamin gets his own lego character from Johnathan's collection.

Birthday breakfast.  Real juice (saved for the occasion) and waffles

Victoria building the pirate ship, as requested by Benjamin, for his cake.

I think this one was popular.

Happy Birthday Benjamin

Tuvalu in Pictures

We spent a few weeks in Funafuti, Tuvalu exploring, visiting and waiting for a good window to continue on north.  Liz wrote a bunch of blog posts starting here and below are some photos:

Ashore at Funafuti after church.  Fluenta is the background

Before church

The view from church

Victoria showing the kids how to crochet

off to find find diesel.

I was not looking forward to hauling all the jerry cans back to the dingy so was pretty happy when these guys offered to drive us.

Rain squall !

Johnathan playing rugby with the local boys.  The tarmac in the background is the active runway.

Our track on SAS Planet as we headed to a more isolated part of the atoll.

Oops.  The black line is our track while the green is the intended route.  We found a shallow spot that did not show in the imagery.

Out for a swim.

Coral

And more maintenance.  The wind indicator was sticking so I took it down and took it apart to clean out some corrosion. Worthwhile as discovered problems with our anchor light in the process.

Hot.

But not too hot to make doughnuts.

Squalls

and more squalls

Time to start preparing for Christmas

and fresh green food !!!  At the Taiwanese garden.

Hanging out with the American Baptist missionary family.

Johnathan demonstrating advanced spinnaker pole swinging for the visiting kids.

Johnathan demonstrating advanced spinnaker pole swinging

Christmas tree, Funafuti style.

The site of the "Trade Show"

Charlie the pastor comes out to say goodbye.

There are a large number of Chinese fishing ships at Funafuti.

Savusavu to Tuvalu Photos - Fish and Squalls.

We left Savusavu and headed north towards Funafuti, Tuvalu.  Liz wrote about our passage starting here and, at long last, here are some pictures

One of our bigger fish - a sailfish.  We just finished, several months later, all the meat.

Sailfish

Mahi Mahi - but it got away ...

This big barracuda didn't get away but we sent him back due to concerns over ciguater

Lots to watch - a pod of False Killer Whales

and the ferry that we kept passing as we both were on the rhumb line between Savusavu and Taveuni.

Crafts continuing in the light air.

light winds

"Moce" Taveuni.

Hello squalls.

"Dramatic" squalls (by Victoria)

And finally Victoria guides us into Funafuti.

Savusavu Photos - Repairs, Provisioning and Checking Out

November 2016 seems like a long time ago a I type this this in January 2017 but we finally have a bit of reliable if expensive internet to post photos.

After our nice visit in Taveuni with my parents it was time to pop back to Savusavu for repairs, provisioning and checking out of Fiji.   While most cruising boats were making the usual migration to New Zealand for cyclone season we were heading north towards the Marshall Islands instead.

Oh the glamour of cruising.   Doing the annual overhaul of our Groco head (toilet)

New bearings at last for the wind generator.

 

Ironically, while provisioning at the market Liz and Victoria met this nice lady from Tuvalu who took good care of us.

We were in Savusavu for the anniversary of the indentured servant Indians arrival in Fiji.  This float represents the first ship to bring them.

Siterie, one of the many nice staff at Copra Shed Marina.  It is kind of fun to return to places where you are remembered and well looked after

Customs actually walks with you down to the boat to ensure you actually leave.  Here the nice Customs lady takes our picture before we head off.