From The Fringes Of Paradise

September 2, 2022 By Andrea Downey-Lauenburg

I mostly slept during the day, having the nightwatch as usual. I’m up now, sitting in the sun with my first coffee.

It’s 3am on our boat and 3pm local (Fiji) time. The boats schedule is ruled by the UTC timezone while sun and moon and weather is 12 hours ahead. Not important for others, but essential to us.

We expect a little rain in the next hour, so the electric soft roof is ready to be closed. I’m not used to this kind of luxury on a sailing boat, but I admit it’s nice to have. For the moment however, I’m still enjoying the warm Fiji sun. 26 Celsius is enough to stay topless, although the wind carries a little chill, so I change seat to avoid the shadow from the hard top. The seagulls and a few dolphins are quite noisy. They are for a while now, I was told.

Cheyenne and Ken are expected back from their latest diving trip from Nanuku in about an hour. I’m yawning. What a life! The world is going up in smoke, destroyed by mankind, and we’re watching the unfolding catastrophy from the fringes of paradise.

Can I have more coffee, please?