Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.

“Wait, home already?”, you ask. First let me apologize for not having done an update in the last few days but I am indeed already home safe and sound. Events unfortunately did not continue as planned and as my last blog noted they would.  

I’ll go back to our “sail away” from Fiji’s “Garden Island” of Taveuni. The first couple of sail aways on the Wind Spirit were unfortunately washed out by rain so we really enjoyed the one we got to experience leaving Taveuni. It was late, well 10:00 pm-ish, so there weren’t that many of us on the upper deck but most of the senior officers were there to celebrate and there was lots of anticipation as the Vangelis music was played as the sails were unfurled. They are beautiful to see, and even more majestic when lit at night. One of my most pleasant memories of my time on Wind Spirit. After enjoying the sails, night air and a bit of star gazing we headed for our stateroom, as 10:30 was well past our normal bedtime. 

The next morning we were really looking forward to a planned snorkelling outing on Fiji’s second largest island of Vanua Levu. Our last snorkelling trip on Tonga was cancelled when we weren’t allow to stop at Tonga due to concern by officials about COVID-19. I was up and out of my stateroom early, with my snorkel gear in tow, to be told by someone in the hallway that I didn’t need to take it along to breakfast since we hadn’t moved during the night. Turns out 30 minutes after our magnificent sail away and after I’d fallen asleep the night before, the engines packed it in and we had been only under sail power all night. We were only slightly deeper in the channel where we had moored while visiting Taveuni..

There are three engines on board. One is used for powering the operations of the ship such as lights and all electicity, kitchen appliances, air conditioning, etc. One other engine had been giving them trouble earlier in the day, and they had tried to reset it to get it working, but then it and the third engine quit working after it was fired up on our departure. The sails kept us from floating up on to the reef in the night, but there wasn’t enough wind to make any real progress, and so after some work on the engines, the ship was limped back in to safe moorage while work continued on the engines.   

The engines were serviced just 4 months ago and so they flew in an engineer from the company that did the service. He missed one of his connections and so was delayed in getting to the ship. Rumours about the remainder of the cruise started to circulate and people were getting really upset about the lack of movement and information. Fortunately, the Captain called a meeting of all passengers and he described the situation, and the possible resolutions. The meeting was a tad testy, and an incredibly interesting study in human nature. Some took the news with a grain of salt, and some were furious. Wind Star has a lot of very loyal customers and many of them spoke up in support of decisions taken by the Captain and the company. There was a long Q&A, during which many topics were covered including someone worried about the supply of wine on board.

Assuming the mechanic arrived soon, Plan A was for us to limp in to the main shipping terminal at Suva on the main island of Viti Levu. It would take us at least 24 hours to get there and they’d then have to transport us from the terminal at Suva to the international airport at Badi on the other side of the island to get our flights. Likely a 3 hour bus trip. Plan B was to tender us to Taveuni and then ferry us to the big island where the international airport is located. 

Either way, it was announced we’d be missing 2 ports of call and 3 excursions in Fiji, one of the main reasons we chose this itinerary and ship in the first place. So needless to say, we were disappointed especially with the stop on Tonga having been cancelled as well. We will be compensated for half the cost of this cruise (they’ve offered us a credit on a future cruise but we’re pressing for a cash credit) but doesn’t account for the disappointment. 

But c’est la vie. Life goes on and first world problems, right? 

Well it turned out that we were on to plan C. We were told Wednesday evening at the second meeting that we would be tendered to Taveuni, and flown in small groups by small chartered plane to Nadi, Fiji. We were in the first group flown out on Thursday morning. So after saying some goodbyes Wednesday evening at dinner we quickly packed for an early morning departure. That started a very long trek home. 

Thursday morning we passed by our cabin crew, dining room servers and finally the Officers (including the Captain) standing on the gangway to say goodbye. We were tendered to the pier on Taveuni and then on to a minibus to travel about 20 minutes to the teeniest airport I’ve ever seen in a community called Matei. There were three offices in the small building: one a canteen and souvenir shop, one the office for the inter-island flights, and one for the charter company Wind Star was using to get us over to Nadi. One person did all the check in, issuing of tickets, weighing and moving of luggage, ticket taking, etc. She also weighed each of the passengers! Of course we all held our carry on luggage as we were weighed and blamed the weight on the gold bricks in our bag rather than the excellent food on the ship. 

Not surprisingly, I guess, the pilot and copilot were wearing masks and we were asked to also wear them while on the plane. Thank goodness it was only an hour long flight and the small 16 seater plane flew low over the islands so the views were great along the way. We arrived into the very small domestic terminal of the Nadi Airport and once again piled on to a bus to be transported to the Sofitel Fiji Resort and Spa in Nadi. Wind Star put us up for the night and we were given a credit on our ship board account to cover our meals. 

The Sofitel was a beautiful property and so it was a lovely place to spend almost two days. We arrived at noon, and so spent the afternoon at the large meandering pool, reading, doing cross words, chatting with the other passengers and walking on the beach. We had to check out of our room the next day at noon, but the hotel allowed us to use all the facilities, and to shower in the spa before leaving at 7 pm to head to the airport. 

We began our long trek home at 10 pm Friday, our time in Fiji, on a flight from Nadi, Fiji to Los Angeles. It was a good flight and we arrived into Los Angeles, went through all the hoops of customs and immigration, changing terminals, going through security, etc.  The departure of our flight to Toronto from Los Angeles was unfortunately delayed somewhat which put pressure on our already tight connection to the last flight from Toronto to Ottawa. 

With the other problems with this trip, it was somewhat fitting that it should end the way it did.  Once landed in Toronto, after pushing our way to the front of the plane and running through the corridors of Pearson, Air Canada had an agent greet us once were were out of the secure area to give us the tickets for a flight the next morning and our booking at an overnight hotel because they didn’t think we could make the final flight to Ottawa. But we asked if we could continue on to try and get on the flight. She sounded doubtful but said, “go for it”. 

We continued running full tilt through Pearson International Airport’s long hallways, through customs (where the new Nexus terminals took several attempts to read our Nexus cards and passports), through security (where they had trouble with the x-ray machine), up the elevator, to our gate to catch our Ottawa flight. We got there with only seconds to spare and where an Air Canada agent was not happy to have to change our tickets back to the late flight. While he did that I discovered I had left my phone, passport and Nexus card in the bin at security. Just as I was about to turn to run back to security, the most wonderful security guy arrived with the stuff for me after running it all to the gate for me. The kindness of a stranger when I needed it most. We made the flight, and got home at 2:30 am after being on the road for 30+ hours. 

It was not the anticipated end to our cruise, nor the best case scenario, but given the circumstances Wind Star did the best that they could do to keep us happy. They made timely decisions to make sure we were able to get our flights home and keep us as comfortable as possible in the meantime. Given the truncated cruise, we were especially glad we’d spent the extra time on Moorea before the beginning of the cruise so that at least we got to see lots of French Polynesia (Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora). And despite the issues, I really did enjoy the cruise. Being on a small ship had so many advantages over the larger ones I’ve been on. There were only 125 passengers (full is 148) and the 99 crew on Wind Spirit were amazing. Within a day or two, the servers knew my name and knew my preference for breakfast drink was tea, etc. Wind Star has an open bridge policy, so we were able to visit the bridge except when the ship was coming into or leaving port or a meeting was going on. The Officers, including the Captain, were very readily available for questions. The excursions were expensive but represented the ports really well and sticking with those organized by the company was safe and meant they were going to wait for us if they were late. On board activities were limited given the smallness of the ship, but I was never bored and didn’t miss the big shows that the larger ships present. I always found a nice place to spend my time on deck, either in the sun or in the shade of the boom. They had daily yoga and pilates classes, a lounge duo that were terrific, and almost daily  talks with a speaker familiar with the islands we were visiting.  There was a scavenger hunt that went for 8 days and we did some of the challenges which were fun. It was great to unpack once and move from port to port instead of the usual land tours we take that require us to live from our suitcases and move pretty much daily.

So, yes, I’d do a small ship voyage again. And I might try and stop in Fiji again on a stop over on a trip to New Zealand or Australia down the road to see some of what we missed on this trip. 

As always, thanks for coming along on the journey with me. I do have an exciting trip planned for the fall, but for now I’ll leave you guessing about that. (A hint is that the countries start with G and A).