Happy 2k11!!!!

Me and Edward, a super tall Brit

No caption necessary, i think.

Me and Jim, my second-favorite gay guy (after Nathan, of course!)

Happy Christmas!

I spent X-mas 2K10 aboard my Fijian House Boat, Reef Endeavor. It was fun! We had Christmas carols and Secret Santa (I got a spa kit from Ala the current Seinika Spa rep on the ship), and a Christmas play, and a delicious Christmas dinner which was like the Thanksgiving dinner I didn’t have, so that was good. (It started with a Zucchini and Blue Vein soup (soooo good!) and finished with turkey, pumpkin and cranberry sauce!). I also traded dive masters: Dan for Tue and Sepa. The cruise we just started has 95 passengers aboard, and  over 75% of them are Indian Fijian, meaning they don’t even know how to swim. Which is why we had to perform a rescue mission yesterday:

A Drowning! Well, a near drowning anyways,  but is there a difference? We were coming back from a lovely dive at the Waya Sewa Pinnacle (Tue, a cert, an intro and me), when we come upon the scene: two Japanese snorkelers struggling to stay afloat, while Fijians throw things that float in their direction. We have to move slowly, because we are crossing a very shallow sandspit, and we try to figure out what is going on. We see Sepa in the water, helping a male snorkeler to get to a point where he can stand; we see some of the boys helping the woman to stay afloat and get her into the boat. I just in to help Sepa, who is by himself but he seems to have it under control. I jump in one boat, and tell the boat captain to take me to the other, where the woman has been pulled aboard. As soon as I jump aboard, I tell the captain to head slowly toward the ship. Then I check out the scene: The woman is laying on the deck of the boat, and she’s been put on oxygen,  and I talk to the passengers aboard. The intro turns out to be a nurse and the cert is a dive master: the perfect team to have in these circumstances. We arrive at the ship with the other boat not far behind (they’ve meanwhile picked up the man and Sepa). We get victims aboard Reef Endeavor and they them in the recovery position breathing oxygen and wrap them in rescue blankets. We call the helicopter to pick them up and take them to the hospital, in case they have water in their lungs. The man is vomiting blood. The woman is vomiting water. I feel like vomiting. But no, I keep cool in a crisis and help to control the situation which has now been somewhat taken over by Florian. It went on from there, a lot of waiting for the helicopter, and then getting them up and away. It turns out they’re both alright and are now in the hospital in Lautoka, but it was certainly a change from the daily routine! 

You would think that the Japanese, coming from an island country, would be better swimmers, but no.

In other news:

This is the Captain’s last cruise before he has his time off, so we’ve been hanging out. I’ll miss that guy.

In the meantime, Dan and I have a bet going that I can’t lose 5kg in a month. I’m not quite sure how we’re going to measure that, since we don’t have a scale, but I’m going to attempt it anyhow, so I’ll have to give up my new favorite hobby, Coconut husking!

Coconut Husking (A guide)

Step one: Make sure your coconut is a good one! Shake the coconut. It should be heavy but you should not be able to hear the juice sloshing around inside.

Step two: Find a machete and make ninja-type moves.

Step three: Use the machete to chop off the butt end of the coconut, being careful not to pierce the inner fruit, assuming you want to drink the juice.

Step four: open a small section of the fruit so you can get to the juice.

Step five: Drink the juice. The proper way to drink it involves spilling half of it on your shirt. I have perfected this method.

Step six: once the juice is drank, chop the coconut in half, lengthwise.

Step seven: scrape out the meat with a spoon or piece of the coconut shell.

Step eight: eat the meat! enjoy!!!

Wananavu = Wonderful

And everything is! I'm back on Reef Endeavor, my cruise ship, and I'm happy! More on that in a bit.

The weather cleared up and we were able to attend our staff christmas party last week, and it was a lot of fun. We started out with a show in the workshop, where each Site had to come up with a performance of sorts. Seeing as I was at Amunuca for the week, me and the A-team showed off our sexiness to a standing ovation!!!

Then we all traveled to Ice Bar for some dancing, where the boys all ended up watching Rugby on the big screen and there was all sorts of drama. I won't bore you with details. Then Mike, Jerry and I ended up heading back to the marina at 3 in the morning and camped out in the boat. Okay, i know it's fiji but let me tell you, at 4 in the morning, in an aluminium boat, with no blanket, it gets pretty freakin' cold! Mike and I snuggled for warmth, but to no avail. We nearly died of frostbite. We woke up in the morning and found Dean sleeping in the boat next to us, which I thought was hilarious. I guess you had to be there.

Anyway, here's the cast of characters:

Me and Dominique

Me and Dan

Maddy, Dean and Me

 

Me and Mike

Things are wonderful. I am Happy. Come visit. Stat.

Happy Christmas!

Well! This morning my alarm went off at 6am signaling that it was time for me to wake up for a fun-filled morning of fishing! I considered going back to sleep and skipping out but I dragged myself from bed and down to the dive shop. And boy am I glad I did! The morning was flat calm and within twenty minutes of dropping our lines we felt a tug on the line!! “What was it?” you may be asking yourself. It was a Sailfish! A huge one! Jumping out of the water! Wriggling for its freedom! But it managed to slip away.

A half hour later there was another pull on the line. This time it was a Dogtail Tuna. A beautiful specimen, if I do say so myself. About two feet long, really heavy! We  reeled him in and tucked him away for safe keeping, just in time to see another tug! A Giant Trevally! Pulled that guy in too. What a day!

Then, just as we were about to pack it in and call it a day, one of the lines starts spinning out of control: we’ve caught yet another! And this time we think it’s something big… I look out into the ocean and I see another fish jumping out of the water. “MARLIN!!” I shout in my excitement! After a 20 minute fight we haul him into the boat, fighting and flailing and whipping his giant sword of a snout around wildly! Another sailfish, is what it was! 7 or 8 feet long! Absolutely beautiful.

A wonderful, wild morning is what it was, and we got to shore just in time, as the rain starting pouring down only moments later. This rain is a sad signal because it means we will not be heading back to Denarau this afternoon for the Christmas party. Sigh.  But I’m hopeful. Maybe it will clear up in the next few hours and we’ll be able to set sail. Doubtful, but maybe. We’ll see….

Happy Chanukkah!

 

So I pretty much love Amunuca. I’m not sure why so many people are against it. It’s great. The people are nice, the food is decent, and get this, there’s a waterslide! It’s been slow but sales have been alright and I’m diving every day. I like the team of divers  that I have here and I have a really plush hotel room to stay in.

On Saturday evening me and the crew are heading back to Denarau in Silvertip, one of our boats (we have three) for a holiday party at the office. Every site is supposed to be putting together some sort of number to present to everyone else. So me and my team are making homemade coconut bras and dancing to I’m Too Sexy, by Right Said Fred. So good! 

I’m teaching an Advanced Adventurer course to this couple. The guy is the French version of Brain Sherwell, which makes me happy, but I cant stop staring at him and I think I’m starting to creep him out a little.

That’s about it for now. More updates soon…

Siga na Liga!

The last few days I’ve spent on the lovely Manta Ray Island in the Yasawas. I’m covering a shift for Mike, a South African guy with a great body and a weird accent. It’s been relatively slow on the island but tomorrow I’m starting an advanced adventurer course and I’ve been doing intro dives every morning. But mostly I’ve just been reading a book and hanging out with my Fijian dive team. Oh and bathing in the rinse bin...

On Wednesday night we went into the village of Soso for an evening of Cava drinking. I ended up going into someone’s house to sleep for a bit while my crew drank until 230 in the morning. (They started at 5:30pm, I can‘t go for that long!) Then we cruised under the stars back to Manta Ray which is awesome because you can see about 1,274,839,274,913,284,719 stars at night! Pretty cool. Also cool because that means there were no clouds! Hooray!

Patrick, one of the dive guys taught me how to make a bird out of a palm frond, but without his guidance I’m pretty much a hopeless case. Good thing the next few days will be full of diving and not bird making. I should stick to my day job.

I am supposed to leave Manta Ray on Sunday head to Amanuca. I’ve heard mixed reviews about the place so I’m not exactly what you would call excited. But I’m sure it will be fine! We’ll see!!!