Thursday was more of the same – errands and maintenance. Anouk is in the process of cooking up supplies of soup and casseroles for preparation-free meals during the passage (it’s hard to cook pounding through waves with the boat heeled over on a 45 degree angle). Rod originally had plans to go to MacDonald’s (yes – there’s a couple here in Suva) and purchase 30 or so cheeseburgers, freeze them, and microwave them one at a time for his meals en route to New Zealand. This plan apparently went out the window when Mike and I announced we were going along on the passage as well – apparently the proposed menu was immediately upgraded, even though we assured Rod we were not opposed to thawed Quarter Pounders with Cheese.

I was in charge of laundry for the day. Our combo washer/dryer on Raven is a terrific asset – usually we do a load of wash every day or two and then hang it out to dry with clothespins along the lifelines of the boat. Clothing hung out dries quickly in the tropic breezes and smells fresh and clean. The dryer takes a long time, uses lots of power requiring the generator, and produces lots of wrinkles. However Suva is in the rain belt so washing and drying four loads of laundry yesterday was an all-day project and took quite a lot of attention to grey skies and intermittent showers. The last load was rescued just before the evening downpour, so was finished off either in the dryer or hung out in the Raven saloon draped over assorted chairs, doors, and skylihghts as we went out the hatch for the evening’s entertainment.

We had purchased tickets to a modern dance/performing arts production at the Civic Center, put on by the University of the South Pacific. We made plans for a nice dinner out at Ashiyana’s (Indian food – again! Suva is a great place to satisfy any cravings for Indian cuisine), followed by the performance. Unfortunately as we dressed our best for the occasion, the skies opened up and it absolutely poured buckets. We donned our ponchos and rain slickers, took off our shoes, hiked up our skirts, hoisted the golf umbrella, and ran down the pontoon dock to the yacht club and then to the street to hail a taxi. Anouk was wearing a beautiful full-length red skirt made in Sri Lanka, which was not colorfast. When she wrung it out, it oozed red dye! At least we were at the docks…I can’t quite visualize us traveling by dinghy through the monsoon in our party clothes if we had been anchored out in the harbor.

Fortunately for us we did snag a taxi – a few passed us by apparently in dread of having dripping passengers in their vehicles. The rest of the evening passed smoothly – by the time we left the restaurant to walk to the nearby Civic Center, the rain had stopped. We stayed dry, or at least damp-dry, and enjoyed the performance which was a modernized interpretation of Fijian legend and very well done, with good music and excellent choreography. Anouk videotaped the entire show and bought a CD of the music. The troupe will be going on tour in New Zealand in a couple of weeks. The small audience was highly enthusiastic and we suspect contained a lot of relatives of the performers.

We made it back to Raven, still dry, and turned in to bed. Shortly thereafter it absolutely poured again, but we were snug and dry and figured it would give Raven a good freshwater bath, rinsing off any lingering dried salt from our travels.