Fiji Part II - Fiji Time

Thursday, April 28, 2011. Sand Spit, 5 miles off of Royal Davui Island

I counted aloud as I took broad strides, pacing off the distance from the water's edge on the windward side of the sand spit to our picnic tent. I got to Five.  Five firm footprints stamped distinctly into the into the semi-damp sand. Kim heard me counting and gave me a quizzical look "what are you doing, baby?". 

I replied with calming authority - "It feels like the spit is getting smaller, but I can't tell exactly. I think the tide is coming up and now we can keep an eye on the 5 footprints to see how much time we have before the water gets to the tent. The boat is supposed to pick us up in 45 minutes - so this way we can keep an eye on things. I'd say the third footprint is a good warning mark that we'll need to do something". 

"Something like what?". 

"I have a plan. Don't worry" - I lied.

She took the last sip of wine from her glass and looked at me with a dreamy-eyed sense of awe. "He is the smartest man I have ever met. He knows all these things about nature and tides and stars and things and he will always keep me safe". She frolicked back to the other side of the spit and started looking for shells or something.

I was trying to be calm in front her - but the fact is that the tide was definitely coming up and this tiny spec of exposed sand in the middle of the vast South Pacific was much smaller than when we arrived. The spit had shrunk from about 250 feet long to about 150 feet long - but the width was still about the same. Probably 30 feet. That's why Kim hadn't noticed - because the ends were creeping in on us - but the distance across the middle was staying the same. If the water were to rise beyond my fifth footprint it was going to go all the way across. For about half of the day our sand spit is a romantic and isolated picnic destination - and for the other half of the day it serves another purpose - acting as the ocean floor.

I tried to distract myself - but my attention kept being drawn back to the first footprint. Still dry.Good thing. Just 44 minutes more and we are out of here. Those guys better not be on Fiji Time today. I confirmed the pickup time with them twice when they dropped us off. They assured me they would be back on time. Watch, footprint, horizon, sky... Sky? I don't know - maybe I'd see some answers up there. Or maybe I just didn't want Kim to see me staring at the second hand of my watch and I was trying to act like I was just casually looking around. Footprint, Watch, horizon (still no  boat coming), sky.

I decided I'd take a little walk around the perimeter. Look for shells. Distract myself. Even though the width of the spit was remaining constant - I could feel the water pushing itself upward like it was trying to swell around the edges. There weren't any waves rolling up onto our "shoreline" - just poorly formed splashes here and there. The splashes stopped for a moment and it was quiet and calm. I could see a surge forming and I spun around to look at the footsteps just in time to see them disappear under a surge of rising water. All five of them. All at once. Right up to the bottom of our picnic tent. Right past number 3 and on to 4 and 5.

CRAP! F**K!

43 minutes until the boat gets here. They had better not be on Fiji Time today.

The water receded - but the footprints were gurgling with water. I walked over and glared down into them. And tried to figure out my next move... 238,000 miles above us, the moon was exerting gravitational forces that were pulling all of the water in the Pacific ocean in our direction. And Luna does not operate on Fiji Time.

And I thought about the baby shark we saw when snorkelling the day before and wondered where its parents were.

April 24-27, 2011. Royal Davui Island

The most striking thing about Fiji is how warm and sincere the people are. They melt you with their charm and it was common for wait staff or taxi drivers to completely forget about their job and engage with wonderment in a conversation about where we are from. I've been in Mexico and Jamaica and cruise ships where the staff are "fake nice" and this was very different.

They have a habit of being late. They laugh it off and say things like "you are on Fiji Time now!"

We showed up for the 2:30 guided snorkel tour and the guide showed up at 3:10. "Fiji Time!".

The island we stayed on accommodated 15 couples at a time. It is a very private and very secluded island. We had a pop culture moment when we went to happy hour the first evening and Kim spotted an actress from Grey's Anatomy. They struck up a friendship during the week and she was really nice and nobody knew who she was (and we didn't let on). I don't want to put her name on the blog because then it will show up on a Google search and I don't want her to think Kim betrayed her or will be telling any secrets. She was obviously there to let her hair down in private. She plays Lexi if you watch the show.

But that's not what this blog is about - I got off track. One of the featured activities is called the Sand Spit picnic. The Sand Spit is way out in the Pacific Ocean completely in the middle of nowhere. Nothing but Sand and sea shells surrounded by ocean with just enough room to walk around a little bit. They take one couple at a time out by power boat and drop you off with an umbrella, a cooler, and a red water proof bag with an emergency satellite phone and instructions on how to use it in case of emergency.

Almost every couple signs up for it and they can only do two per day - so we got our assigned date/time as soon as we arrived. As the week went on - it became customary for the couple who went to the sand spit that day to make mention of it at happy hour. It seemed like each time - the story ended with "... and we used the satellite phone to call them to get us early". Too hot. Too Windy. Had to take a dump. Whatever. 

I thought to myself - we are going on Thursday - and I am NOT breaking the seal on the emergency phone. This is a grand adventure and we are going to stay the full allotted time! Rain or shine!

The girl scheduling us told us that because of the tides - we needed to go at 4:30 and she apologised that it would be too late for lunch and asked what we wanted to pack in our cooler (they call them Esky's - I assume short for Eskimo). We said "just give us a bottle of wine and some cheese". Then I thought to myself "...4:30?? That's odd. It gets dark at 6:00... what if it gets dark and they can't find the little spec of sand in the middle of nowhere and then the tide comes up and then the sharks come.... (we had been snorkelling with a baby shark already so we knew they were around). Then I got distracted and forgot about it.

The day before our outing - the chief captain of the marine crew urgently came and found us by the pool. "Miss Kim-bu-lee? You goin' a Sand Speet amorrow? You can no go at 4:30!" (as if it was our decision in the first place). It get dark and tide come up and we not can find you! (sorry I can't type Fijian - I can only do cockney and bee dibity).

He kind of looked up at the sun and sniffed the air and said "10:00 will be best time for tides". I was a little shaken that they seemed to be making this up as we went along. I don't know that much about island life and I saw the flaw in the original 4:30 plan... why did it get as far as it did? Then I got distracted and forgot about it.

April 28, 2011. Royal Davui Island

The next morning greeted us with weather that was a bit dodgy.  Rain and wind and a bit cool. But as breakfast went on I could sense it was getting better - so I was pretty confident we would still make it out to the sand spit.

Kim had won a drinking contest or something with Lexi the night before and she was off getting her free 30 minute massage after breakfast while I was getting my 30 minutes of internet time in with my iPad outside of the library. Kim mandated a firm limit of 30 minutes and then I had to unplug.

Chief Captain came and found me squinting at my iPad and interrupted me and said a bunch of stuff that I couldn't understand at all. I assumed he was asking me if I was still interested in going to the sand spit in an hour - and I said "looks like it's clearing up- so we probably will." He looked confused and I said "when Kim get's back we'll decide" and he left. Looking a little confused.

His interruption cost me valuable internet time and now there wasn't going to be enough time to do all of the things I wanted to. I decided I had just enough time to check the Royals score (lost), see if I had any new comments on the blog (I didn't), and check the Drudge headline (boring). What I should have done instead, I now know, is to google the precise arrival time of the next "high tide" in that part of the south Pacific. But we'll get to that.

Kim returned. We decided the trip was 'on'. Also decided that it wasn't important for us to be on time at the marine office because we kept getting places early and waiting around for Fiji Time.

Then we learned that Fiji time only works for Fijians. We got to the marine office exactly 1 minute late and passed two grinning marine crew members skipping by like Matt and Barb Huffman leaving work on a Thursday afternoon for a 3-day weekend. They had fishing poles and a look of pure joy.

Chief Captain saw us coming up the stairs and realised that we were, in fact, going to do the picnic. I guess that as soon as the clock struck 10:00 they had assumed we were a 'no' and that meant fishin' time for the two guys who were supposed to take us out to the spit. Capitan yelled something at them and they froze. Their fishing plans just got ruined.

The sea was rough and the boat was not that big - so I assumed we would get wet. I really wanted to take my iPhone to get pictures and a video but I didn't want to risk getting it wet. Kim told me that they had plastic tampon disposal bags in the bathroom. It was a perfect fit - so I wrapped my iPhone inside one and smuggled it onto the trip.

{To Be Continued...}

 Here is a picture from the sand spit taken with my smuggled iPhone: