Life is a Beach....!

Good morning! And Happy Valentine's day! We are sitting out on the afterdeck enjoying the breeze. There was a great start to yesterday's beach day but wind and rain started in the afternoon so we headed back to the ship. We have been on the edges of a cyclone that is travelling around Fiji and hit Samoa hard.  The plan was to have a lunchtime BBQ which we did then have a traditional island pig and chicken roast as well. We ended up eating aboard ship due to the heavy rain and strong winds.  This weather is keeping us from being crispy fried Canadians but we are still getting a lot of heat when the sun comes out at different intervals.

After dinner we had some local Islanders come aboard to showcase traditional song and dances with passengers joining in. I would have loved to do some dancing but my groin pull injury from our time at Chuuk was acting up...Naomi says what a convenient excuse that is.

Now here are some more pictures taken over the last few days. This first one shows the sea water pool on the aft deck. They do fill it when ship is at anchor but wave action can make being in it very interesting.

The next few pictures show the various islands that we either stop at or pass by as we journey through the Mamanucas.

All those white lines at sea level in these pictures are all beautiful sandy white beaches just waiting for someone to visit and go snorkeling or swimming from.....again Life is a Beach!

Look at the nice big grey colored fish waiting to greet us as we are about to enter the  tender that is taking us to hang on the beach.  The beach was fantastic and we had no encounters with these sharks...they were harmless ones but put on a great show when the crew feed them food scraps (all organic food so nothing harmful to our oceans).

Nice fishies!!! Again another reminder that they are never too far away!! So, Bob's new note to self: I better eat that pork sandwich BEFORE I get in the water and not while in the water!

Now for some pics that showcase Bob and Naomi's new beach bodies! All our activities are resulting in lean, mean  bodies.  However, for some reason our photo guy managed to exclude our heads on this shoot! Needless to say we got someone else for the job.

Now moving on to pics of the next WSB (white sandy beach) taken yesterday Feb 13 where we see Naomi doing her thing in the sun. Also included a pic of crew members Felipe, Sefo and Sei preparing the food for cooking in the fire pit.  The staff aboard our boat, The Fiji Princess, have been amazing and greet all passengers by name.

Once we had finished our dinner onboard, the Islanders who boarded the vessel started their show. They first began with giving all of us Leis to wear and then sang and danced for our enjoyment.  Naomi's leis was all real flowers...all strung together by the locals and they were so fragrant.  A wonderful touch.

Now I will attempt to download a short video segment of some native dancing.

I am not sure if the video download was successful or not as I can not get it to play on the blog site so sorry if it does not play.

Moving on there is now a severe weather warning for the entire area. Cyclone
Gita is gaining strength and winds forecast to be 100+ km with high seas expected as well. So the next 24 hrs could be exciting.

Previously we have had problems downloading pics from Naomi's phone but I think we are good to go. This first pic shows us in sarongs as we visit one of the island villages. Etiquette means no bare shoulders, exposed knees or head coverings. Good thing it was cloudy or else I would have had a problem with the intense heat.

Well we are going to end this blog but first will give an update on Norma.  She is now in a care facility for the physio treatment that is available to her there.  We do not have all the details as what we know is from Carter contacting Debbie and Quentin.  The challenges of technology is hard to understand because some are getting e-mails and texts while some are not.

See you on our next update.