I'm a diver

If you had told me a year or so ago that I'd voluntarily be signing up for a PADI Open Water Dive Course I would never have believed you. I was a fan of the seas surface & not of the deep depths of the big blue. Slowly my confidence has grown & I want to be able to play with the fish for longer than I can hold my breath. The challenge for 2008 was to face my fears & learn to dive. I signed up with a few conditions:
1.one to one tuition
2.patient instructor
3.to complete the course at my own pace. I knew if I was rushed or pushed to finish the course in a few days I'd panic & pack it in.

Albert, the Fijian had the unfortunate job of being my chosen instructor & he was fantastic. He got me through the fears & tears, removing my mask underwater is still not my favourite skill but I can do it – victory! We shared smiles when skills went well, & celebrated with ice creams after each completed chapter.

First few dives during the course were pretty boring. Dead coral & not too much to look at but I have the distinct feeling Albert was ensuring I didn't become distracted & concentrated on the job at hand, especially after I became less than impressed with the remora fish trying to stick itself to me whilst I was trying to complete a set of skills!

I passed the tests & returned to Barraveigh where my very cute boyfriend had blown up balloons, plastered them with messages as well as buying me two dives. We headed out the next morning with Bill & Linda from s/v Creola. I had a bit of a panic on the first dive but with Bobby on one arm & the dive master on the other I managed to descend & became a lot happier once I could see the coral we were heading for. Bobby knew how nervous I was & held onto my hand the entire dive. We swam around the pinnacle of coral slowly getting deeper. There were hundreds of fish of all sizes, tiny clown fish no bigger than your little finger nail, poisonous lion fish & stone fish, & beautiful soft corals. The second dive was better. I was off & away on my own, no holding hands & even spotted 5 or 6 white tipped reef sharks (they don't panic me any more after sharing many snorkelling spots in the South Pacific with them).

We celebrated my first dives back on board the dive boat with cold beers & then on board Creola with champagne, where we also toasted my Nan's 92nd birthday. Nan, I know you will love the fact that I completed my first dives on your birthday.

I couldn't have had a more amazing time & everyone made the day feel very special. I know I have a long way to go before feeling totally comfortable down there, but with more experience I'm sure it will happen. There is going to be so much to see in the next few months & many WW2 wrecks that I pleased I've done it.

To you Bobby, a huge thank you. You held my hand, literally, as I overcame my fears.

To cook or not to cook!!

Food is important in any society or walk of life. As cruisers at sea its doubly important. I'm not even talking about the energy & nutritional value, although yes Mum I know to keep an eye on my vitamin c intake to stop scurvy ; ) A bad day at sea & faced with another 20 days of the same before you see land can lead to a poor mental state! A favourite dinner, treat or the smell of banana cake can bring a smile to your face.

Just over a year ago I got onto this boat thinking “I can cook, being in charge of the meals shouldn't be a problem”...how little did I know! I've had to evolve from the “land girl” who could pick up any ingredient she wanted from a variety of supermarkets & corner shops, 24 hours 7 days a week, & eat at any restaurant or take away when ever she felt like it. I thought I could cook but this is a whole new level.

I've slowly developed into the “boat girl”. Learnt how to survive with no freezer, no Sainsburys nor Tescos, and instead - a market brimming with vegetables that I've never seen in my life before! Last year I felt the pressure. This year the shock & stress of preparing & cooking meals non stop, plus learning the basics of how to make staple foods such as bread (enjoy the huge selection on the shelves next time you are in the shop & will someone please eat some slices of toasted Vogel's bread with butter & marmalade for me! Wow my mouth is watering!) has given way to an inquisitiveness to learn from the other yachties & locals. Linda (s/v Creola) trades recipes with the locals & watches them prepare these strange island veggies! Her cook book is brimming with exotic recipes. I'm slowly getting there. Less stressed but still learning the basics!

I've finally mastered bread. After a number of bad attempts last year. Think back to the scene in “About a Boy” where he kills the duck with his Mum's home-made bread – yep my loafs were equally bad. There was certainly nothing light & fluffy about them! I haven''t quite made it to fantastic loafs of bread but my foaccia bread was out of this world (Bobby's words). Then again we could just be deprived of good bread! ; )

My pizzas started off as square stodgy pizza but have evolved to amazing thin crust pizzas thanks to Chris & Erin (s/v Barefeet). I can safely say that no pizza, other than Pizza Express tastes as good. & no I'm not buying the bases from the supermarket I'm making it all myself, impressive I know!

I've just made my own Rosa Harissa (a Tunisian chilli paste). I chopped & de seeded so many tiny chillis that my hands burnt for days afterwards. A rookie error, next time I'll be donning disposable gloves! The paste gives couscous & spag bol a spicy kick plus makes a fab dip when mixed with yoghurt. Which leads me onto my next development, yoghurt! Last year I was making Easiyo yoghurt. A powder that you mix with cold water, put in a large thermos flask. After 8 hours you have yoghurt, amazing! Running low on the magic powder so learning from my fellow cruisers to make yoghurt using powdered milk & 2 spoons of yoghurt. What I've learnt so far......do not mix yoghurt with the hot powdered milk mix as it curdles – yummy not! Also learnt it doesn't work with the local yoghurt, maybe there isn't enough cultures in it. Oh & don't use powdered milk that has been open for years as that also won't work. Just made some Easiyo to see if a little of that & powdered milk will work. Given the choice I'd rather have the huge super-market brimming with produce just down the road but it's not & I'm learning that this is kinda fun.

I'm getting organised. Presently I have a fridge full of bread & pizza dough ready to be used when required. Plus some ginger cookie dough ready to be rolled into cookies next time the oven is on. There are jars of Rosa Harissa ready to be added to sauces or made into a dip when my next batch of yoghurt turns out good (think we maybe waiting a while for that one!), a tub of aubergine appetiser awaits our sundowners. I'm growing basil from seed for pesto although with only four leaves at present it will be some time before I have enough.

Yes I know I appear to have turned into a house wife & it goes against everything I have been brought up to do (Dad you'll be pleased to know I'm still unblocking sinks & coming up with ideas for practical things around the boat). Its the one downside of living this fun lifestyle on the seas you end up succumbing to the galley. I'm unwilling to give up the little luxuries to live on rice & fish alone so I've got to adapt & learn how to create things from scratch. I know how good a feast of pineapple upside down cake is at midnight on a night watch, how we look forward to the evening meal when we know we're eating pizza & how we equally share a box of Smarties that I've found at the back of the fridge. Little treats are important in life however small they may be.
Enjoy your treats & the convenience of your supermarkets! Me jealous? Well ok maybe a little bit! As for me I'm off back to Barraveigh to unpack 5 trolleys of food from the supermarket which include 24 tins of tomatoes & 25 boxes of UHT milk!

Are you enjoying this website? Want to read even more? Want to read the captains perspective on events? Check out Bobby's website www.barraveigh.com (or click on the link, right side of my website).
It is finally up to date with news letters from the beginning of his trip & will continue to be updated with future articles.

Happy reading

Today is 1st May 2008

It was the date we expected to leave Fiji for Vanuatu. Something I'm learning after a year on board Barraveigh is that the boat never wants to leave port after a few months rest & creates extra issues which put us behind time. Personally I can't really blame her! Its nice here in Fiji, why head out into the big blue where there is no such thing as a perfect passage!

We had good intentions to spend March & April working hard, then reward ourselves with play time out at the islands that tease us from the marina bar with their white sand glistening in the sun. We got side tracked & our departure from Fiji has been delayed a few weeks.
A health scare for Bobby resulted in a trip to Suva's (the capital) private hospital to have a mole removed. Three doctors said it was skin cancer but thankfully the biopsy is clear. It has been an emotional & scary three weeks. We have had our wake up call, lotion is smothered on our skin as soon as we awake & we have been doing our best to stay out the sun during the hottest part of the day – pretty hard to achieve living on a boat!

Whilst awaiting medical results, Bobby discovered problems with the engine. For those of you up on your boats continue reading for everyone else you can skip to the next paragraph ; ) Water was leaking from the water lock section of the exhaust. It is situated under our bed so as well as leaking water into the boat it would also leak exhaust fumes. Mending it is not so easy when you can't get the part anywhere in Fiji so a big thanks to a fellow cruiser who brought it over from Australia with her. Then Bobby noticed a weak spot in the shaft hose. The to do list was doubling by the hour. I considered banning him from checking anything else! A week or so weighing up the pros & cons of having the boat hauled out of the water to replace the hose finally gave way to attempting it in the water. A stressful day but it was a success. We will be forever grateful to Alan (s/v Kiwi Dream) who kitted up into his dive gear & jumped into the marinas dirty water to assist pulling the shaft out & plugging the hole to stop water flowing into the boat. There are very few people who would dare put even a big toe into the water as it is so dirty, (where do you think the contents of everyone's toilets go?) so he is a hero. As you are well aware by now fixing one problem leads to more problems. The shaft hose was fixed but the engine was now out of alignment. “Just realign it” I hear you say. Three days later, & a replaced engine mount (a bolt refused to move resulting in replacing the entire mount) & a day spent trying to find a 24mm spanner to do the job, we were finally back to the original “to do list”.

I have begun provisioning but it won't be anywhere near as full on as last year in Panama. The food in Fiji is pretty expensive in comparism & no where near as extensive. I just need to ensure we have the necessities to keep us going (yellow American mustard for Bobby & Pringle's for me!). Will stock up on those large & heavy items that are hard to transfer from shop to boat when you are at anchor & relying on a dingy that leaks water. Wet toilet rolls & wet cereal are no good to anyone!