Fiji Bound. Chef. Adventurer. Sailor?

A bit of back story is in order before we get into this tale. For years family and friends have said over and over, “you should write a book.” Well a book is a huge thing to tackle, so to break it up and “build a book” I decided to start this page. My profession has led me into situations and allowed me to have experiences most workers would never encounter. The other massive influence for this blog of musings and tales, came from landing a chef job on a sailing yacht traveling to remote and interesting, far-off locations. Personally, I adore adventure, change and challenge and can say it’s safe to say accepting a position on a catamaran, sailing the Pacific, is about as far as one could go the adventure curve! I figured I would have plenty of time to write, much to write about and could jot down my new recipes developed as we sail to new ports. Sadly my computer became corroded on the very first trip with owners and their guests. Thankfully I had plenty of time to take copious notes and photos!  Please note, my stories about my time on-board will be written in real time despite having happened around a year ago.

And now onto the stories!

LAX to FIJI
My preparations are done and I’m off to LAX.  I’m very excited about my new position joining SV Discovery at the start of the 4th year, as chef.  Ownership of SV Discovery is structured similarly to a timeshare, with the caveat that all member owners be extreme kiteboarders. She is a 17 meter catamaran, that’s been sailing around the globe in search of the most extreme, rarely seen or visited islands and atolls of our planet’s oceans, while chasing the trade winds.

Touchdown Nadi, Fiji!  The International Date Line is located just west of the island, Viti Levu. I arrive in the dark, just before day break.  Which means I was one of the first people, animals, etc., to see the first light of day, the actual dawn of a new day.  Something I had never experienced.
It was about a half hour drive with Tom, the Skipper of SV Discovery, Cabrinha by the way is kite sailmaker and sponsor of our expedition, the Cabrinha Quest.  I’m the newest crew member, Captain Tom and first mate, Emma, are a couple.  So cute!  More on them later, they have such a good love story.  We will be moving the yacht, other wise known as “crossing,” from Vuda to Kosrae, in the Federated States of Micronesia.  In case you were wondering how to pronounce Fijian words, they make the sound of an “n” before consonants so Nadi is Nandi and Vuda is Vunda.
After a very delayed and long flight, and immediately upon arrival at the boat, I jumped right into preparations.  I had acted as the Sherpa for boat parts from the States, Tom is like a kid at Christmas with all the goods I unpack. We are busy bees, scrubbing, organizing, repairing, provisioning and getting to know one another for the first 3 days.

Our cast of characters are: Tom, Emma and Wayne. At first I was thrown off by Tom, a total cutie, I was told he is from France, but when he spoke a Kiwi accented English popped out of his mouth. Turns out he spent a bit of time in Oz and his father is English. He’s been a sailor all his life, small boats, big boats, racing boats and everything in between. He and Emma meet a year or so ago, in their home town somewhere in the south of France. Even though they lived in the same town all their lives it wasn’t until they were adults that they bumped into each other. Once they began dating, Emma was invited along to serve as 1st mate, so she left her career in international marketing and promotions to join the Quest with her love. She is knowledgable, likes to teach and I hear will be making crepes during the crossing.  Pass the Nutella please!  Wayne, who hails from Australia rounds out the crew and is working for room and board, even though he is a member, so of course he gets all of the worst and most tedious jobs. His career is being an ultra athlete and marathon runner so he is following the plant based diet to improve his performance. As a chef I would like to toss him to the fish. Such a hassle on a 10-16 day crossing to have one person not going with the program and needing special attention. I figure if he gets hungry enough he will eat animal protein. I have been instructed not to cater to him. Thank you Tom! Tomorrow night is short ribs so I hope he enjoys mashed potatoes.

Our days will start very early and will end almost immediately after dinner about the same time the sun goes down. No late nights for this gal. Tomorrow we head out on our 1700 nautical mile, 12+/- day crossing to Kosrae, Micronesia, we will lose sight of land around 6 pm.  Here is a shot of the crew with Sam the taxi driver, he was my personal shopper, schlepper, tour guide and driver as well as an all around cool guy.

WordPress December 7th, 2015