Category Archives: Food

What we are eating and where we mention food.

Visit to Bounty Island, Fiji

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Eric and Christi took a taxi over to the hotel where we were meeting Christi’s dad, John. The hotel is at the other end of Denaru, so we got to see more of the island. From what we understand, part of Denaru is natural island, part of it is reclaimed swampland, and part of it is man made land from the swamp dredging. There are several gated communities filled with fancy custom homes on finger cays that all have private docks in their back yard. The taxi driver said the homes range from $750,000 to $3 million Fijian dollars. There is a golf course and a large number of exclusive resorts.

Much to our surprise, when we pulled up at the hotel, John was waiting for us out front. He had made great time getting through customs and baggage.

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Suva Check-In and Tim-Tam Restock

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This morning the air raid siren briefly went off at 0800. It goes off at regular intervals, almost on the hour, so it probably is a bell of some sort. The officials were to Kosmos at 0900. The customs boat pulled up and five Fijians boarded Kosmos, each with a battery of questions and forms to fill out. The whole process took an hour and the officials were very nice.

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Once they left, we moved from the quarantine area to the anchorage in front of the yacht club and got Kosmos situated. 23 hours after arriving in port, we were ready to go to land. We ran a variety of errands checking in with the yacht club, going to an office to obtain duty free fuel request forms, to another office to request a cruising permit, bank, produce market, grocery store, etc. Our errands took us all over downtown, so we saw a lot and got a good feel for the city. Continue reading →

Exploring Point Maurell and Banana Frenzy

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Over the last few days we have made banana-papaya-yogurt smoothies and banana-peanut butter smoothies for breakfast with the early ripening bananas. Today all the bananas are finally fully ripe and it is time for the banana fest to begin. Christi and Adrienne made banana-pineapple pancakes for breakfast. They baked a batch of papaya-banana-pineapple muffins and a large pan of banana chocolate chip cookie bars.

Unfortunately, it is yet another day of gray skies, cool temperatures and strong winds. The only days we have had good weather were the day we arrived and the three days Christi was in SCUBA class. While we have been eager to visit the anchorages around the Vava’u island group, we haven’t wanted to leave the highly protected mooring in Neiafu harbor to go to a more exposed anchorage. We were told Point Maurell was one of the most protected anchorages and that we wouldn’t be blown around there, so we took a break from cooking and moved to Point Maurell for a change of scenery. Point Maurell is near Neiafu harbor, so it was a short ride and we didn’t get blown too badly in the 25 knot winds. Here are the views from the front and back of Kosmos. Don’t ask why Adrienne was hanging out in the dingy. Continue reading →

A Real Tongan Feast

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Yesterday, continued After showers and a short nap, we were off again for a Tongan feast. This time we booked a reputable feast through a booking agent and we were hoping this one was better than the last one at Alofi’s. We were told that feast quality varies from location to location as families put on these feasts. The one we went to is put in every Saturday night and we were told it was good. It was still raining, cold and gloomy.

We needed to stop at the ATM for cash before getting in the taxi to Ano Bay. In the few minutes that it took to go to the ATM, we were soaked all the way through. In the cab, we asked if the feast was indoors. The driver told us no. This was looking like it could be a wet night. Continue reading →

Tonga Chores, Visitors and Jinxes

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Eric spent the entire day yesterday doing boat chores. He changed the pre-filter on the water maker and cleaned the sea strainer, and changed the generator impellor. He also did some good stuff like secure the toaster oven and dish drainer so they don’t go flying when we get hit by a side wave, re-running wires so we could move some of the computer gear to better locations, general reorganizing, and cleaning.

Yesterday was the last day of SCUBA class for Christi. She took her final exam and did three dives in other parts of the harbor. The other dive sites had more life than the site on Tuesday, but were still mostly dead. There were lots more of both starfish and a couple of sea anenomoies. Christi passed the class with flying colors. After three days of being in the sun with her mask on, she has stylish mask tan lines. Continue reading →