Dock Market

Ah yes, the "dock party". A favorite amongst cruisers and yachties of all sorts. Last night we had a dock party between Slow Dance and Noble House to celebrate Slow Dance's impending departure from Port Denarau, complete with a full scale BBQ with contributions from both yacht's chefs, coolers filled with drinks, a jam session (in which we girls rocked it), and good fun in general.

What was not fun, however, was getting up after four hours of sleep to go provision with Victoria at the downtown Nadi market in the hot hot heat. Don't get me wrong - I love going to the market - just not under those circumstances.

We arrived at the market around 8:00AM and walked through the kava section first. It was filled with men who stared, smiled, or said "Bula! You want to buy kava?" We did want to buy kava but were saving that for last, as we had a ton of produce to buy.

The downtown market is huge, covering a space well over the size of a football field. Vendors sell all sorts of produce, ranging from breadfruit to coconuts to eggplant to pineapples. We bought 20 eggplant for 4 dollars (Fijian) and a huge chunk of pineapple on a stick for $1. Delicious.

After buying over 50 lbs of produce, we went back to the kava section of the market. It is not that we are kava heads or anything - in fact I have yet to try kava - but the fact is that we are traveling to the Lau group, and when you stay in an anchorage where there is a village, it is custom to present a bundle of kava to the chief. So we decided to stalk up on kava as well as Fijian tobacco. There's no way to make friends like by giving away mild narcotics.

After our trip to the market Victoria and I stopped by the awesome Italian market that is on the way to Port Denarau. Blink and you could miss it, but this place sells delicious foods that you cannot find anywhere else for thousands of miles. French champagnes, Italian cheeses, antipastos... so good! And whenever we go in there the women who work there always give us a sample of cheese and a taste of champagne - even though it was 10:00AM and I was hung over.

By the time we got back to the boat I was hot, exhausted, dehydrated, and hungry. After unloading all the food I took a few minute break before Sean came in: "Corie, today you are going to help BJ." Shit. BJ has been sanding blisters out of the gelcoat for a solid week now, covering himself and the entire boat in white (and probably very toxic) dust. Today it was my job to (first clean up the BBQ from last night) and then tape up all the teak so that when the painters come they won't get paint all over the boat. Keep in mind that it was the plan all week to leave tomorrow. You generally don't prepare to head out to sea by painting the gelcoat.

As I was getting started on my first job Rob came up to me and said, "Surf's up. We're going out to Tavarua at 5." Shit. There was no way I would finish my job before 5, but I thought if I worked really hard and got as much done as possible then I could sneak away... albeit unlikely.

The opportunity to go surf is a great work incentive for me, and I worked hard all day in the blazing sun. Unfortunately at 5 there was still a ton of work to do and the wind had picked up, so nobody ended up going. So close yet so far. But I promise you someday I will surf Tavarua or Namotu or thereabouts. And I will take pictures of Cloudbreak and post them.

Until then, its back to work. Tonight I am taking it easy because we will all be back at it early in the morning (doesn't mean anybody else is). Hopefully we will get everything done so we can leave the next day!