Laying the mooring...

 We decided to lay a mooring for Prrr in the estuary/lagoon bordering the farmland ,  in order to spend weekends and as much other times as possible, closer to the farm.   Permission was obtained from FIMSA, the maritime organisation.
 It was a straight forward application and procedure and we had no problems obtaining the permission to lay a mooring in Fijian waters.

 It was Bobby's job to get the 1.5 ton block onto the truck, onto the tug that was going to lay the mooring!

 As always, Subsurface came through for us.


The scale gave the final evidence that the boat will go nowhere!

 Bobby lowering the mooring block at the marina.

 Charles, our always happy friend from Dive Centre , Suva , has been a  H U G E  help in making this all happen.

Lowering the block for the tug to lift.

...and then we were on our way to the beautiful Dreketi estuary, home of Naciriyawa and soon a mooring place for our yacht as well.

Claude checked the spot months before and although it is not a perfect spot, due to the strong tidal current, we could not go closer to land as it is too shallow.

Whether it is a yacht or a tugboat, I was soo happy to be on the water once again.

 Claude and I tying the surface buoys to demarcate the position of our mooring.

..hoisting it again....

the final drop......

I anticipated a huge splash..or something....but the mooring just slid slowly under the water....

The water was clear and the mooring was visible at 6 meters.

 The diver doing a final check.....

 All good!

and after all the planning it has all happened and soon this will be our view - hopefully for as often as possible

a big VINAKA (thank you)  to Bobby and Tony from SUBSURFACE FIJI and
                                                Charles and his team  from DIVE CENTRE
for making this all happen for us.

Chickens and a duck!

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Excitement at work today.  It is that time of the year for many people - school fees, clothes , etc and a friend needed some money.  Claude helped out by buying his chicks and a duckling.

Claude's namesake, little Claude, was highly intrigued and we could not get him away from the chicks.

 The first water and food for the chicks in their new house.

Claude built the chick coop.  It is a fibreglass frame and he lined it with hardware mesh.  Quite snazzy!

The chicks will still live at work until they are bigger and then we can move them to their new home - Naciriyawa farm.

View from the hill

Naciriyawa Farm in the foreground.

The work goes on...

It is an ongoing job to clear the land.  Claude is still busy laying the water pipes and Bose and Samesa

clears the areas where the tractor can't or should not go!

This is what it looks like once the bush has been cleared.

I will one day make a post just about our tractor mishaps!  Because the land is so overgrown, it is not possible to see all the holes and sitting on a tractor, clearing bush can become a dangerous hobby!

Claude busy doing bushwalking and checking out the terrain on foot before he ventures there with the tractor.

 Thinking ..:" my job to clear this tomorrow"?....

Scamp, our Fijian dog went for a walkabout.  She must have followed the car and got lost.  She was gone for 5 days when she miraculously appeared at the marina where we stay, which is about 3 kilometres away!

The dogs have adopted to their new home and seem to be loving it here.  Scamp has now stayed put and have not wandered off again.

One of the shady , overgrown areas on the farm.

Most of the weekends we end our hard work with a lovely picnic  and swim.