Tribewanted: Vorovoro

Hi guys

Sorry I’ve been so quiet the last few weeks. I had a major setback a couple of weeks ago, which looking back is pretty funny, but then was a major issue that had me in a sulky mood! I was coming back from Vorovoro in my little punt at sunset, a trip I usually really look forward to since I can surf the waves home and get there in a third of the time, and disaster struck! About 500m off Vorovoro, I hit something soft, maybe a big fish or a shark, I’m not sure, but in a split second my engine kicked, jumped up tearing the fiberglass where it was clamped on, and plunged 50m to the sea bed! Now I know why Fijians always bolt on their engines onto their boats! It was so sudden; I was left holding the fuel line and feeling I should be doing something but not knowing what. I was drifting in the deep Vorovoro passage out towards open sea, so I tied as many ropes as I could find to my anchor and put it down. A little later the anchor grabbed the sea floor which was lucky as the sea is very deep around there! Then I used my mobile to call for help and luckily it had just enough charge for me to get a help call out before it died. Jone and Jim came to my rescue and saved the day, except that as I was disembarking from the boat on Vorovoro, a little wave tapped the boat just as I was retrieving my flip-flops from the bottom of the boat and spilled me into the sea. Jim tried not to laugh but my pride suffered terribly that day!

Anyhow, I’m over it now! Chuck is back in business! I’m a little humbler, a lot poorer, but essentially the same. I hired a scuba diver the next day to look for the engine, but he said visibility was very poor that deep and he had no wetsuit and so got extremely cold. I guess I’ll just have to accept defeat on this round.