Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
you all za time. Zey are so sharp; it iss no wonder za government was thrown over!” I
smiled at his English; it was a damn sight better than my German!
“How are the women around here?” asked Gavin, drawing fiercely on his smoke to disguise
his smile. “There are a couple of very nice ones over there.” He waved his coffee cup in the
direction of a table of women.
“Ja, zey is crew for some bick boat,” said Uwe uncertainly.
“You vant a girlfriend, Gavin? I vill look for you,” said Gerda, taking him under her wing.
“We find you a nice Cherman girl!”
Preferably not a chain smoker, I thought to myself.
“So vere iss Penny?” Uwe wanted to know.
“Oh they carried on south to New Zealand. Passing ships in the night, you know,” I
shrugged. I missed her a lot and the less said about my loss the better.
There was a little general store next to the clubhouse, and I made my way around to it and
bought a few fresh provisions. I was relieved to see that they took U.S. Dollars. When in
Tonga, we had had to exchange our U.S. dollars for Tongan dollars before we could buy
anything. We sat in the sun and had a very pleasant few hours relaxing and talking to fel-
low sailors. There was a bubbly atmosphere. Everyone was so nice, what a pleasure to be
involved with them.
Later that evening we rowed back to the club for a meal and a beer and were shocked when
met at the entrance by a steward who told us with disdain to remove our caps, “Please gen-
tlemen, this is the Royal Fiji Yacht Club after all!” I was still very embarrassed by my re-
cent experience of removing the dreadful hairpiece that I had on, and the thirty or so scars
from the stitches were still painfully obvious; it was a continual source of embarrassment. I
tried to make light of it but did not enjoy my evening at all. I needed to come to terms with
my “new look” somehow and the sooner the better.
We did have a nice, hot meal that was served to the sailors in the close and very noisy din-
ing hall.
“More like a soup kitchen,” I said under my breath. I was still smarting from the cap incid-
ent.
“You will find from here on down to Australia that all the pubs you visit all require that
you remove your hat,” Gavin informed me, doing the weasel face. He had, after all, been
on this cruise run two years before and was familiar with the drill.
