Hebe n' Fiji

Hebe
Mon 16 Jun 2014 21:39
16th June 2014

17:46:22S
177:22:93E

Arrived in Fiji on Friday 13th June. Alice having achieved her first ocean passage…hooray. Night watches with H Boss she loved it and was into all the nautical terms by the end - splicing the mainbrace etc.

On arrival we had to await Customs Immigration, and quarantine…not to mention Environmental ….these all came in the form of various shapes and sizes of Fijians beginning with Mr Quarentine whom Harry had to collect in the dinghy. He was full of smiles and happily sprayed our boat for Dengue and chicken liken.

Much our amusement he suggested Dinghy Boy went to collect the rest of them ……Harry dutifully beetled off and we watched as he assisted Mrs Environment onto the dinghy who was the size of a battleship along with Mr Customs and Mr immigration all in hob nail boots.

image/jpg



The offload onto the boat was hysterical as Mr Immigration was sitting firmly on the painter and Harry and the dinghy just drifted past the boat no one making any effort to hang on. He made another sweep past and I managed to grab the handle as the heavy dinghy squidged into the stern. Then the offload; we held our breath as Mrs Environment wobbled precariously.

Andrew had to sign his name 26 times on as many forms (No kidding-Ed)
A number of them needed photocopying in order to have octuplet copies…..Imo was frantic photographing and PDF ing as they waited…

Mrs Environment couldn't really move so asked random questions about where we bought our tins….the list began with Gibraltar, Panama etc, she developed a glazed expression and wrote Tonga on the form.

Eventually they had to leave and asked Dinghy Boy to ferry all of them ashore, the dinghy very nearly sank.

Poor Harry will never live it down, we have all promised not to mention it again LOL

image/jpg



STOP PRESS…..News from the Front. Imo's sister Georgie has flown safely out of Afghanistan after a 9 month stint. Phew now we can all eat chocolate on board without feeling guilty …(Imo gave it up until she was safely home!)
We will start eating chocolate when she's back on UK soil….hurry up Georgie !

To celebrate our arrival in Fiji and say farewell to Adam and Alice, Harry arranged a Kava party on Hebe. He spent some time in the galley sweating over his concoction which looked like this …………

image/jpg



………..and tasted like THIS

image/jpg



Custom dictates that you take a swig when someone claps….well that was only going to be Harry who downed 3 glasses as the rest of us struggled, Imo and I literally retching….Alice managed hers (clearly the Irish-Ed)

We couldn't wait to wash away the taste with a stiff gin. Harry was clearly relaxed afterwards and reportedly had wonderful dreams. Still not convinced. Evidently the tribesmen drink as much was 16 cups a session…..aaaaggggghhhhh !!


Janie Lax
S/Y HEBE
hebe {CHANGE TO AT} mailasail {DOT} com
+44 (0) 447702490543