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Published: April 4th 2010
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After completing my 'round the world' trip in 10 months, I spent a few months back at home resting my travel weary bones. I satisfied my family and friends craving and also got plenty of fun summer activities under my belt. Sadly, I discovered my cat Timmy became a bit moodier and less loving towards me, but what can you expect when I abandoned him for so long? I felt spoiled staying at my mom's newly finished house with cupboards full of food and comfortable big beds to sleep in. By the time my plane departed back to Australia, I was antsy to be traveling again. I spent the next 7 months on the west coast of Australia living in my campervan and working at a winery where I made amazingly good money ($18 per hour!!!) In mid January my sister Shannon finally came traveling with me. I picked her up in Adelaide and we continued onto Melbourne in my van where we picked my mom up as well! It was great traveling with my mom and sister packed into my little red van, even though sometimes we each had our own 'right' way of doing things. Two weeks later, we
dropped mom off in Brisbane and picked up Shannon's friend Petra. Then two weeks after that we all flew out: Petra back to the US and Shannon and I to Fiji! We stayed with my aunt Kathi and uncle Jeff onboard their sailboat Bold Spirit anchored off the little island of Malololeilei. It was a holiday from our holiday!!
Every morning we'd laze around the boat reading then either kayak, snorkel, walk around the island, swim, or continue reading...all depending how we felt. Everything was pretty low key except for our first and last day. I was awoken in the dark that first morning by someone shouting 'Ahoy, Ahoy' and flashing lights outside the boat. Since we were anchored off shore, I determined in my sleepy state that it was either a rookie pirate trying to lure us out of the boat before they raped and pillaged OR fisherman trying to sell their early morning catch. I lay frozed in my bed in terror until the unidentified shouting man got fed up with our lack of response and motored away only to begin his shouting tactics at another boat nearby. Only when he motored back and yelled at us
by name 'Ahoy Bold Spirit' did Captain Jeff spring out of bed onto deck. It turns out the rookie pirate/fisherman was really someone from the marina trying to warn us about a possible tsunami predicted to hit at 10am. That gave us four hours to act. Captain Jeff whipped the sleepy crew into shape and shortly after we were motoring around the shallow reefs out to deep water. Shannon and I then spent the next three hours flat on the deck as Bold Spirit rythmically bobbed up and down, up and down in the open sea. Fortunately for everyone, we kept our breakfast where it belonged. Once the threat had passed, we motored back to the island not really knowing what to expect. Thankfully, nothing so much as a slightly bigger wave hit the islands. We celebrated by cracking open some of Jeff's home brewed beer and cooking up a feast on the Island Bar's open air barbeque.
The following days fell into the pattern of lazy mornings of coffee, breakfast and reading while Jeff checked the weater forecast. Mid day we'd muster our energy for some type of activity: kayaking, snorkeling, island exploring and then end the day
with a delicious dinner by Chef Kathi either on the boat or at the Island Bar's bbq followed by card games or a movie aboard. We'd spice up the routine by kayaking around the island, towing the body board behind the dingy, hiking to the top of the neighboring island, lounging poolside at one of the many resorts and occasionally eating out! One day we manged to get an early start by leaving the boat at 10am to snorkel near the outer reef. Shannon and I pedal kayaked while Jeff and Kathi led the way in the dingy. After inspecting our snorkel site through perfectly calm, crystal clear water we donned our snorkel gear and jumped in. In less than one minute, all four of us were standing back in the dingy. By the time I had rolled out of the kayak and cleared the water from my mask, I was the last one to see the shark. Just beyond the edge of the reef, a four foot reef shark was slowly swimming by to inspect the four odd creatures in the water. My immediate reaction was to swim towards the group. I intercepted Kathi who was swimming back to
the dingy. While she was climbing back in, I stayed in the water and kept my eyes on the shark as it slowly swam away. Not until it did a U-turn and started swimming directly toward me, did I jetison into the dingy, beating Kathi to safetly. A few seconds later Shannon was in the boat as well while Jeff stood guard in the water with his 5 inch dive knife. Us girls stood and watched while Jeff pivoted and turned in the water with his knife at the ready. In no less that ten seconds he was also struggling into the dingy, first almost stabbing Kathi with the knife then nearly deflating the only thing between us and the shark. Seeing as one minute of snorkeling was just not enough, we motored to a different section of reef only to find the shark had followed us. Eventually we shook him and enjoyed the underwater spectical of fish and coral. We had planned to try snorkeling the sharky reef on our last day, but the weather had other ideas.
Jeff had been tracking a possible cyclone for a week and not until our last day did it change from becoming a possibly to a reality. Since Shannon and I were scheduled to fly from our little island to the mainland the next morning, we didn't want to risk the strong winds possibly cancelling our flight and therefore missing the connecting flight to Sydney and onward to Bangkok. So we played it safe and motored to the mainland where Bold Spirit parked in a cyclone safe marina. The next morning we made it safely to Sydney despite the dark rain clouds, but we were sad to leave behind the beautiful Fiji islands and the wonderful company of our aunt and uncle. But it sure was nice to briefly live their cruising lifestyle....and what a life it is!
I've posted some more pics here:
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Aunt Kathy and Uncle Joe
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"Mussel" beach and "sand dollar" haven
Hey, Anna and Shannon!! It's great to hear from you both, and that you are enjoying your adventures in the South Pacific. We can't wait to hear about Southeast Asia!! We send greetings from the North Pacific - we're sitting in a cabin on the beach just below Cape Flattery on the Makah Indian Reservation. We just got here yesterday and will be spending a week working our way back across the top of the peninsula and end up at Deception Pass on Whidbey. It's Spring Break! Yesterday we stopped at a beautiful tidepool beach called SaltCreek near Port Angeles and Lake Crescent, on our way here. Great tide pools and miles of mussels forming sheets over the rocks. We found some great sea urchin shells, and also watched an otter eating a flounder! Then, last night, we walked nearly a mile down the beautiful beach where we are staying called Hobuck Beach. There were hundreds of large sand dollars in pristine shape on this sandy beach - I couldn't resist and brought about 15 back to the cabin. I'm going to have to choose.... Joe and I are a bit surprised to have internet access here on the NW tip of the continental US - we're watching rain storms, clouds and sunshine blow in and out and it feels like we are hundreds of miles from civilization. Today we're going to do a hike at Cape Flattery, and tomorrow we'll drive down to Lake Ozette and hike out to Cape Alava (about 6 miles round trip). We'll be stopping at Sol Duc Hot Springs the next night and doing a hike out of there the following day. All is well here as you can see - we're into Spring now (although there was a spring snow storm that blew through the peninsula the day before we got here with 93 mph winds near Cape Flattery - glad we missed that!) The days are getting longer and the nights shorter, and my garden is blooming and looking great! Spring is definitely my favorite time of year. Kevin and Sean are well and would want me to say hello. Sean is pondering returning to school - he was accepted to 2 master's programs - one at Tulane and one at Johns Hopkins and is trying to decide what to do. Kevin is back working at Wild Ginger, and getting lots of hours and making more money than before so he is happy about that. He is playing with 2 bands now, Del Simpl Wait and another group that doesn't have a name yet. Uncle Joe says hello - he is sitting here reading his book - we watched the end of the Final Four 1st set - Butler and Duke will be playing the final game on Monday. Go Butler! So take care, girls, and enjoy your trip! Be safe! We send lots of love - Aunt Kathy (the other one) and Uncle Joe