Just nipping to the shops...

This may be the last update with photos for a couple of weeks as, if all goes to plan, we'll be back in the remote island of Fulaga in a couple of days. There's no internet or mobile phone signal there but we'll still be able to send and receive emails via the satellite phone so will update the blog with stories.

Our evening in the village of Waibulu was entertaining with plenty of kava consumed and lots of laughter.

Colin looks delighted to receive a bilo of kava from John Valentine in the Chief's house; the Chief is on the right. John's great (x3) grandfather was a Scottish sandalwood trader who married the then Chief's daughter and then went on to marry several other Fijian girls!

Graham, in his best bula shirt and sulu, pounding the yagona roots to make kava.

Tom has a go. You thought Graham's shirt was loud!

We made it safely back to the boats after all that excitement.

The forecast looks ok to sail the 155nm to Fulaga tomorrow, though it looks as though we'll get a low pressure trough crossing us as we arrive so we are expecting some rain and squalls en route. We therefore decided to nip across to the shops this morning for some last-minute supplies and this involved a 2 hour sail each way with a very wet dinghy ride across from the anchorage in Matei to the shore. On the way across there was a big crash from the stern cabin followed by a rather nice smell; a cool box containing a few bottles of beer had catapulted across the floor when we rolled over a big wave with some casualties as a result. What a waste!