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American Spirit II - Day 153; Trip to Vaka'ietu, Pig Roast & High Pressure Cold Front; Saturday, June 7, 2014



Up at 8:27 AM. Much later than most days. Coffee first thing before breakfast, which came at 9:15 AM. Scrambled eggs, spiced up of course; chilled fruit cocktail and bread with butter, jelly and peanut butter. During breakfast a local school band must have been practicing because their music drifted across the anchorage. Sounded very good. With a lot of drums.



Today is the ninth day of my taking Doxycyline for my right calf infection. Though the wound is still oozing, its only a little now. So instead of a bandage I'm using a very large and adhesive type of band aid. I'm concerned enough that its still oozing after 9 days that I think I'll see a doctor Monday and see if lancing it might be in order to finish off the drainage.



At 11:10 AM Joel went ashore and purchased the Mooring's Anchorage Chart, showing all of the anchorages in the Vava'u Group of islands. Once back on the boat we departed at 11:30 AM en route to Vaka'ietu island, about 2 hours away and the location of a reef called 'Coral Gardens.' We arrived at the island and anchored at 1:30 PM. There were a number of rally boats already there: Ghost, Nexus, Avocet, Civetta II, Alpheratz, Hebe, Saphir and Starblazer. Tim from Ghost motored over in his dingy and invited us to a pig roast starting at 5:00 PM. The cost was 40 Tongan dollars (about $20.00 US), and the cost was to go for the funding of a local school on the island. A small school that would house 20 children.



Once anchored Joel and I dingied over to the end of the island where we beached the dingy. Joel then snorkeled over the reef to the side away from the anchorage. It was important to do this at high tide as getting across the reef at anything but high tide was risky. I had to wait ashore as my leg wasn't ready for the water yet. Joel returned 45 minutes later, and we made our way back to the boat by 2:45 PM. I took a nap from 3:05 PM to 4:30 PM. At 4:50 PM we departed for the beach and the pig roast. Each boat was to bring one food item, so we brought a freeze dried Sweet and Sour Pork; cocktail mix; and our own plates, bowls and silver ware.



It was fascinating to watch 2 young boys, about 9 or 10, 'prepare' a pig for roasting. And this was not the pig for our roast but apparently for one that was going to occur some other day. At any rate, they threw the pig into the fire, rolled it around, then pulled it our and using their hands scraped the burnt hairs off of the pig. They did this a few times, then dunked it in the ocean and continued the cleaning process there.



The pig we were eating for dinner was being roasted literally on a stick between two forked tree branches; and was being turned by 'grand pa.' A short while later the wife of our host, David, started carving the pig for dinner. Before that David asked that someone in our group say a prayer before the meal. I was selected to do so, and fortunately I had an app on my phone for just such an occasion (A Catholic Prayers App). Go figure. The meal was quite satisfying. During dinner John and Joyce from Starblazer gave the 8 or 10 children in attendance each a balloon and one of those party devices you blow into which expands and makes noise when you do so; and someone else gave the children each a chemical night stick, which they threw into the air for hours. Even when we were back on the boat later we could see those green night sticks being thrown high up into the air. After dinner David and his children sang native songs for us, and then some of the crew grabbed their guitar and sang songs.



Joel and I headed back to the boat at 8:15 PM, where we had a glass of wine and listened to the Beatles in the cockpit. It was very windy out and the boat was swinging a fair amount as the clouds overhead rushed by. With half a moon out the islands surrounding half of the anchorage were quite visible. Joel called it quits at 10:00 PM; and I followed at 10:40 PM. I set my alarm clock (I Phone) for 6:00 AM as I was going to try to go back to the town we'd left today to go to St. Joseph's Cathedral for the 10:00 AM Sunday church service.



329 Days until home.



Brian Fox


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