Musket Cove

I thought I'd posted at least 1 more letter but it's not showing.

I've been in Musket Cove on Malololeilei island the past few days. It's pretty deluxe. It's a fancy resort, but we stay for $10 a day, moored in the harbor. $5 gets you a yacht club membership, and you can use the pool, and all the equipment, which includes free windsurfers, but there hasn't been any wind the last couple days.

There is great snorkling around here, and nice beaches if you're into that sort of thing.
I made a spear from a stick and tried my hand at spearfishing, to no luck yet. I think I might buy some elastic rope and fashion a spear gun. I dove deep (about 20 feet) to get a cowry and see if I could.

I've mastered climbing coconut trees and opening coconuts with a machete. The german girl Alan picked up as crew calls me a monkey. The Spaniards we met, Pablo & Miguel & Paola, who's a real beauty, and a Canadian girl, call me a real adventurer. They want to do my survival tour when I get it going. I think they think I'm a real life beach comber. I'm starting to look the part, with a shaggy hairdo, about a weeks worth of beard, a red face and tan, and various battle scars. The one think I'm missing is a flat belly, having eaten remarkably well all the while.

I've been fetching & opening coconuts for resort guests and taking people to the nice corals for diving and identifying fish. I should probably get paid, or at least be allowed to play on the staff volleyball team, which thoroughly trounced the yachties and resort guests in a tournament yesterday.

There are hobie cat races today, but I spent all morning scrubbing the hull of the boat with a brush and my snorkle. My knuckles are bloody from the barnacles. I also managed to bung up my elbow, and I've been limping with a gash in my right foot from treading on corals I think. I want to rent a windsurfer, but there's been no wind.

We (the german girl, Sabine, and me) were eaten alive in the village we found on Malolo island across the channel when we went exploring. Not by the villagers; by mosquitos. But there's practically none at the resort. They must spray. She's teaching me to play guitar. I'm working on "One" by U2. She wants me to teach her the riff from "Smells like teen spirit." That should take 2 seconds, though she doesn't understand power chords, having learned the propper way to play already.

We should leave for Lautoka to pick up the (hopefully repaired) starter motor and a new autopilot tomorrow. And then check out and leave maybe Friday or Saturday. I'm not getting my hopes up. Alan likes it here and is in no rush, and I suspect the autopilot may not work still.