It’s officially cyclone season, and with it has come the daily cloudiness and rain. There’s not much to be done about it, and the rain isn’t very heavy or long-lasting, so everyone just goes about their business, regardless.

We head to town pretty much daily. It’s a two minute dinghy ride from our little island in the bay. We tie up at the Copra Shed.

Grabbing some cash. Tip: when the ATM asks you if you would like the bank to charge you in Fijian Dollars or convert it to US Dollars, always stick with the local currency. In this ATM’s case, the loss in the currency conversion would amount to a 7.6% fee. As for what bank to use as a traveler, I don’t think anyone would argue that Schwab is the best. All ATM fees are refunded, there are no conversion fees, and the foreign currency conversions are done at that day’s actual market rates. We switched to Schwab a couple of years ago when the bank we’d been using decided they weren’t going to refund ATM fees from foreign countries any longer, and we are very happy with them.

Bread is made fresh all day long. Walk in, tell them what kind we want and if we want it sliced or not, grab a spicy chicken pie, a couple of cupcakes, and we’re good to go. By the second morning after we buy the bread it will already have mold growing on it, so we go right back to the bakery and do it again.

Fiji Gold.

Grab some random groceries.

Swing through the market for fruits and veggies. In the restaurants they seem hesitant to actually give me the spicy curries with these peppers but with enough prodding they’ll do it. Instead of taking ten minutes to eat my plate of curry, it takes me thirty to eat the spicy version.

Ali is in boat prep mode. We’re headed back to the States to see family, and she does not leave until the boat has been gone through with a fine-toothed comb. Anything not used this year gets donated (four garbage bags full) and just about everything that is staying gets tossed into a vacuum sealed bag to try and keep mold from finding its way in.

Good thing we don’t have a third child.

The trampolines are eight years old and lines are starting to snap. We’ve ordered new ones. Should be a nice upgrade for us next season. These nets are not comfortable at all, and I really don’t want to walk up there one day at sea and have the whole thing tear open underneath me.

Going out for a dive. I wanted to dive, and I also wanted to give the bottom of the boat a good wipe down before we leave. There is no barnacle growth, but a layer of slime is covering the boat quickly. It wipes right off, fortunately.

Church.

Every time I turn around I find Lowe doing something funny. He likes to “leap” off of ledges and fall down.

Found a few Crown of Thorn Starfish but they don’t seem to be overwhelming the reef around here just yet.

We spent a few days taking freedive lessons with Liquidstate Freediving. Lately the kids and I have been freediving to around sixty or seventy feet comfortably, but I knew there were aspects that we could improve on, as well as safety aspects that we weren’t really taking into consideration. We learned a lot about breathing, and good form, and spent time learning how to identify a problem with a diver and how to help. Good lessons for all of us. It was fun to do different dives down the line. Using some things I learned I’ve now got a breath hold of three minutes and can swim the length of a football field underwater. Our depth dives were limited by the AIDA regulations, but I was doing 23 meters without even beginning to feel the need for breath, and the kids were doing 10-15 meters as if they were diving to the bottom of a kiddie pool. We also just had a good time with a couple of cool instructors. I got my AIDA Level II certification and will likely do the Level III when I next have a chance. The kids can’t actually get any official certifications until they are 16, by which point they’ll probably zip right up to Level X, or whatever it goes up to. I once again find myself really proud of the two of them. Their abilities underwater are truly amazing.