Log Date: June 10, 2006

Location: Snakes- Suva Harbor, Fiji

Well we've had our first "island" experience.  Wednesday evening we decided to go to the yacht club for dinner.  I hop in the dingy and fire up the engine.  Laura yells for me to get out of the dingy right away.  All I can think of is there is something wrong with the engine that I can't see.  I jump out but of course I had untied the dingy.  It started drifting off and Laura tells me not to let it go.  By now I'm very confused.  So she calmly or as calmly as one can when they are afraid of snakes says, there is a snake in the dingy.  I still can't see it and am looking for something big.  It was a small sea snake about 20 inches long and about as big around as my pinky finger.  It was crawling along the top of one of the pontoons.  I slinked back down and gently shooed it away with a towel.  Sort of unnerving… Everyone we chatted with in the bar of course says they are harmless even though they are deadly poisonous.   Supposedly, they can't open their mouths wide enough to bite.  Lots of laughs and we begin to forget about it.

Friday afternoon, Laura is working on a small sewing project in the cockpit and yells again get out here quick.  Damn thing was back again and headed right for the dingy.  I started to move the dingy away and it still kept coming for it.  I let the dinghy move back on top of it and the snake disappeared underneath.  It emerged in front of the dingy and kept swimming on.  So what is up with this!  Laura's theory is that, like bees, it is attracted to the dinghy's light blue transom.  I have 2 theories, 1) it likes the striped lines that hold down the dingy chaps and the striped line that makes up the bridle.  My other theory is that we just happen to be on the route home and the poor thing wants to rest.

It's been overcast since we got here but hot.  We visited the big city of Suva on Thursday and will be heading to the veggie and craft markets again on Saturday.  Next week we'll get our cruising permit and figure out where to go next within Fiji.

Enjoying Life Onboard.

Susan and Laura

SV Mystic Traveler