Bora Bora to Fiji

How to put words to the last 40 days…When an unexpected second invitation to return to the Noonsun crew, I jumped at the chance. After getting COVID which barred me from traveling to Greenland for work and also kept me in a hotel for 13 days in July, returning to the South Pacific would be a welcome change of scene. 

I made the long trip back to the boat to Bora Bora by way of Tahiti, where I had flown home from a month earlier. We had a few wonderful days of wing foiling while my missing bags made the trip after me and then we set sail for Maupiha’a. Having left the crew after two weeks in French Polynesia, I had forgotten the challenges of passage making. To be sure, I had it easy compared to the rest of the adults. They had their kids on board, and the boat is theirs. If something breaks, I generally won’t be responsible for it. 

On the first pacific crossing we had 4 adults. This time we were down to 3 adults and a junior member of the team, 13 year old Lucy who stepped up to fill some of the gaps.  It was just one overnight passage but it reminded us what was in store. 

 I completely lost track of days, it just seemed like an eternity.  We had wind speeds up to almost 40 knots at times and for the first many days had an average of maybe 25 knots with 12 foot seas. Noonsun took it very well but it still needed more caution than our days in the eastern pacific. We were all very happy when at last we made it to our half way point and hinge started to abate a bit. We made it to Fiji, very happily and looked forward to some island exploration. 

Unfortunately, the winds were not in our favor for the first handful of days so we were stuck in our check in location which was too social, too urban, which didn’t have good swimming or water sports and felt a little stuffy for us all. 

Eventually we moved out of town where the highlight was a rope swing for the kids and a pass with big swell rolling in that Ted and I took our wing foiling equipment to. (Wing foiling + waves = tons of fun!)

From there we got a few-day weather window to the island of Fulaga. Fulaga is paradise!  The wing foiling was unreal, the little islands were unreal and the people were so nice!  As one of the outer villages, before we could go anywhere we first had to present a gift to the Chief of the tribe. They accepted our traditional gift of kava route, from which they make some sort of slightly-narcotic drink, and promptly took us in. We were then given a host family which hosted us for dinner and a post-church lunch.  We later had them out to Noonsun for a pizza dinner and the crew made many donations to our host family to disperse amongst the community.  I traded a pair of sunglasses for a necklace with our host Mika.  His wife Marta spent a few days hunting octopus to feed us for lunch. It was delicious!  I think I ate more octopus as the whole crew combined!

After many days of wing foiling, snorkeling and beach exploring, we headed north as I was to fly out soon. However upon arrival at the drop off location, I didn’t want to leave!  I had changeable airline tickets so after a few hours of deliberating and standing on top of the cockpit to get cell phone reception I was able to add another week onto my time with them!

From there we headed north to Vanua Baluva area , where we had to present another chief with some kava route, played a fun round of soccer with a ton of kids and did some more “winging.”  After a few days we continued around to the north to get to the Bay of Islands, another George us spot with incredible island formations. 

Throughout the trip, we had such fun speed chess, winging, and all other kinds of shenanigans!  Speed chess became an almost nightly routine enjoyed (and sometimes hated!) by nearly all the crew.  We played 6-minute games. Each player has 3 minutes to make all their moves. If you lose on time, you lose, no matter how close you were to getting check-mate. 

The people of Fiji have been remarkable. So many friendly hellos, they are genuinely happy and so welcoming it was incredible. Many of the small outer villages have no real internet and pay for things with mostly bartering. They grow most of what they eat besides flour and sugar. Coconuts are used in so many ways, and other tropical fruit abounds. It is a very different way of life and made us all reflect on our normal worlds. 

I said goodbye to the crew this morning and sadly am now on my may home, in three weeks or so, I’ll be departing for Antarctica – what a change of scenery that will be!  I am grateful to Ted and Amie for asking me back and had such a fun time exploring this part of the world with them and their wonderful kids. 

Though I will delay miss the Noonsun crew, I am very excited to return to McMurdo Station after a decade away. I’ll be back to my old solar job with buddy Nick. It’ll be interesting to see how things have changed and I’m excited to be flying in helicopters, keeping the science camp running in green energy and seeing some friends I haven’t seen in a decade!  

All the best to you all and thanks for reading!