The Fijian odyssey went along its path of jubilation and comradeship, as Silver Fern’s crew headed towards the glorious shores of Somosomo bay on Naviti Island. The tides seemed to be in our favour as we sent the Chief of our little floating village, Skipper Iain and his trusty translator, Lord of the Rings stalwart, Stuart onwards, into the great unknown, to make contact with the biggest village, ‘Gununu’s’ Chief. As we awaited their return with bated breath, the crew decided to prepare their gifts for the village. Our valiant explorers returned soon enough with news of friendly locals bearing abundant coconuts and papayas. The village Chief had also been gracious enough to send his own boat to pick up and drop the crew. I stayed onboard to look out for marooned Somalian pirates, as the rest loaded up to descend onto the local villagers with gifts of love and affection.

As our expedition team ventured into the village, they were welcomed with open arms. Some kissed the ground, having finally arrived onto terra firma after a long time. As the coconuts were passed around as a welcome drink, the school children put up a dance show just in honour of the Silver Fern crew! Too cute! Iain was humbled when he was informed that the adjacent village had been started by a Scottish gentleman, who had fallen in love with a Fijian woman many a years ago. Now that’s a love story I’d love to read about some day. Gary tried to make night time spearfishing plans with the local experts, but finally decided to catch up with some sleep in the end.

The crew came back to the boat with a few new friends they’d made over the day. I had the pleasure of showing the village’s finest, Bill, Sarah and young toddler, Matai (Bill’s son) around the yacht. It is always a pleasure to show Silver Fern to someone for the first time. My pleasure was probably quadrupled on this occasion, since these three lovely souls from the village had never been on a sailing yacht before. We communicated through broken-english, hand-gestures and toothy-smiles as I tried to explain the basic concepts on sailing and my instances of getting stuck in bilges to them. The toddler seemed quite entranced by the wooden steps in the interior of the boat and my ability to move either eyebrow independent of the other. I doubt the little fella would remember me the following week, but maybe, his subconscious will attract him to a life at sea. The future is bright and alive and I’d have influenced in a tiny way.

As we bid farewell to our new friends from Gnunu village, the crew decided to swim and paddleboard in our dreamy little bay. The lack of wind, which seemed like a gift for the paddleboard-artists in our presence, would soon turn on us, as the night cast its dark shadow over proceedings. The heat up caught to some in the galley, as accusations of slothfulness and lolly-gagging were thrown around. The Skipper stepped in to cool proceedings. Dessert, though sweet and simple, was soon forgotten, as Jo became violently sick. Skipper and I deduced, that her sickness might have originated from something that she’d eaten during her fiesta at the resort the other day. This was evident since no one else onboard was displaying her symptoms. We always maintain excellent standards of hygiene onboard!

At around 1am, I did feel myself slowly inching away from humanity, when Jo hurled into the chunder bucket and I patted her back with a remorseful ‘there, there’, whilst quietly munching on some dark almond chocolate. Furthermore, the less than one knot, gust of wind speed did nothing to alleviate Jo’s woes. Iain and I took turns in looking after her through the night, mostly to make sure that she didn’t dehydrate herself in the Fijian tropical weather. 

The early hours of the day brought more drama with it as an expertly executed anchor lift was ruined by yours truly, as I slipped on a slippery slope on the bow and slashed the little toe on my left leg. Despite leaving a trail of blood behind me, I didn’t really feel as much pain, as my ego did! Sadly, I realised that, I now couldn’t enter the ocean without risking an infection. Not being able to swim whilst sailing around Fiji is the equivalent of ancient Mongol-horde-Genghis-Khan-level torture tactics. However, I felt a change of fortunes in the air, as our next stop would be Nalova Bay, off Nacula Island. This was the location where the 1980’s cult classic, ‘The Blue Lagoon’ was shot. Inspired by Brooke Shields, Allison announced herself to Silver Fern, by revealing her undertaker origins (she worked as a nurse in a Cremation Home). Fortunately, her past skills with the recently deceased helped patch up my little toe injury. Betadine sure has come a long way, since its humble origins as a wound scalding solution in the early 90’s. 

A visit to the nearby beach was enough to refresh the crew physically and from within. Stuart, Sue and Gary cooked up a storm of Quinoa salad, meatballs and fresh Crayfish! Gary cemented himself in Silver Fern lore by not only having caught the crayfish, but having cooked it as well. A unique honour reserved for a few.

- Arjun Thimmaya, Chief Mate, Silver Fern