SV Mandolyn

Twenty years ago Sarah and I sailed from Fiji to New Zealand aboard the hundred foot tall ship Alvei. We knew nothing about sailing and nothing about this passage. By the time we got to New Zealand I felt like Ferdinand Magellan. Shortly after arriving we described our accomplishment to some other sailors on the docks. “You took 21 days!?”, they exclaimed in disbelief. Aye matey! We beamed like old sea dogs. Is that… pretty fast? It turns out 21…

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“Bula!” On a dirt road in the Fijian countryside, we all freeze. Where’d that come from? A bula must not go unacknowledged. There… waaaay over there, across a field, is a construction worker with his arm raised in greeting. “Bula!”, we shout back with a wave. Fijians are the most salutationary people that we have encountered. We’ve received a bula out of dense jungle with no identifiable source to be seen. And a wild cheering bula from an entire busload…

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