September 1st<\/p>\n
We are still in Suvarov. It has continued to be a very fun
\nplace with shared dinners on the beach just about every night. A
\ncouple of days ago Jim from “Special Blend” left and we all
\nthought that would be the end of our big fish dinners. A few
\nhours after he left however, another boat, “Southern Cross”,
\npulled in and before long everyone in the anchorage had heard
\nthat they had caught a 120 pound marlin. The boat belongs to
\nCedric, a New Zealander with 2 little girls named Hannah and
\nPage. Cedric has 3 friends on board with him who are all avid
\nfishermen. They had caught the fish the day before arriving in
\nSuvarov and after catching the monster and pulling him up to the
\nrail, one of them realized that the hook had fallen out and
\ninstead of letting the fish get away the guy tackled the fish
\nand wrestled him to the deck of the boat. He (the guy, not the
\nfish) had a nice big wound on his leg as a result. They kept as
\nmuch of the fish as they could in their fridge, but
\nunfortunately had to toss a great deal into the ocean as they
\nhad no room to store it. In any event they brought enough fish
\nto the barbeque that night to feed the entire group of sailers –
\nwhich must have been at least 30 people.<\/p>\n
John, the caretaker of the island, is very nice to the sailers
\nhere and always arranges small expeditions to the tiny islands
\nthat are part of this atoll. Yesterday a bunch of us went with
\nhim in our dinghies out to a small island on the other side of
\nthe pass into the lagoon. It is a bird sanctuary and there were
\nthousands of birds of all different kinds. Many of them were
\nnesting and we saw lots of eggs and lots of tiny baby birds as
\nwell as the adults. The appearance of humans on the island
\nthrows them all into an uproar which was quite a sight to
\nbehold. We all tried to be very careful about not disturbing
\ntheir natural habitat, but just the sight of us got them all up
\ninto the air crying out and swooping over us. On the way back
\nMark and I thought we would try some fishing again, and before
\nlong Mark had caught a very large grouper. It was very exciting
\nto catch him and we brought him back to shore to clean. You are
\nnot allowed to clean fish from your boat here as the fish
\nentrails attract sharks and none of us want them around the
\nboats. If you bring your fish to shore John and his sons will
\nhelp you clean the fish and then they toss the remains into
\nwater at the far side of the island. John’s 11 year old son
\nJeremiah helped us gut and fillet our fish. Just when we
\nfinished up with our fish his dad and mom returned from their
\nown little fishing expedition. They had 5 or 6 fish with them,
\nincluding one very large grouper, and announced that they would
\nbe served that evening at the beach barbecue. That night on
\nthe beach there was another musical festival as well as the
\npotluck dinner. Singers, guitarists, drummers, and the harpist
\nall performed. Our friend Alexa sang some beautiful songs that
\nher husband Peter had written and she also sang an amazing
\nyodeling song – not silly or loud – but a very sweet, plaintif
\ntype of song – really beautiful.<\/p>\n
We had planned to get ready to leave here by tomorrow, but the
\nweather report for the next few days forecasts very light winds,
\nso we are going to hang around here a few days longer. We
\ndecided to join another small expedition of dinghies today going
\nto another area within the lagoon with good snorkeling. It was
\nnice – lots of parrot fish and beautiful coral. Some of the
\ngroup took a walk along the fringing reef between two islands –
\nyou can only do the walk when it is low tide. It seemed too far
\nand too hot so Mark and I returned to the boat. Almost landed
\nanother grouper, but not quite.
\nL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
September 1st We are still in Suvarov. It has continued to be a very fun place with shared dinners on the beach just about every night. A couple of days ago Jim from “Special Blend” left and we all thought that would be the end of our big fish dinners. A few hours after he … <\/p>\n