Josh Gallivan

Alot has happened since the last time I wrote you all. I got to Fiji on April 12, and since then its been a crazy unexpected random chain of events, and its all been so awesome. We never made it to the Lau group like I had originally said, in fact Im not even on the same boat that I was on when I first came to Fiji. Everything happened so fast. In the matter of a week or so our boat broke down, the engine ceased, our head sail ripped, 2 of our three water tanks were not working, solar panels were not in order, we didn’t have enough anchor chain or for that matter a working anchor, and rice and noodles and beans were getting very old and with no refrigerator. Also, a 38 foot boat is pretty small when you have 4 people living on it. So none of those things were a bid deal and Elaine Eskil and I were ready to tough it out, until we met two South African brothers in a bar who needed a deckhand, a stuartess, and a first mate aboard their bosses 92 foot steel cutter catch. It didnt take long for us to make our decision and two days later we had moved off of “VAL”, (no hard feelings Nick) and moved on board “Slow Dance”, an absolute beautiful charter boat based out of Los Angeles (www.sailslowdance.com), with three fridges two freezers, two water makers, sea kayak, fishing gear, two Dingy’s, (our primary Dingy is 70 HP and we have a smaller Dingy as well) I have a flat screen TV in my cabin with bathroom, shower, granite counter tops, no big deal. My title on board is fishing technician/deckhand, Elaine from Ireland is the stuartess, Eskil from Sweden is the first mate, BJ from South Africa is the first engineer, Sean from South Africa is the Captain, Victoria From LA is the chef, and Ron from LA is the owner. Its a beautiful boat and we are having the time of our lives now. We are required 4 hours of work a day in exchange for food(amazing food) and beer and the chance to see some of the most amazing places on earth. On our free time we swim, snorkel, fly fish, climb mountains, fly fish, explore, and fish. We have seen countless islands now and have met amazing people, villagers, and people who come up to the boat when we are anchored and welcome us to their island and socialize and trade stories and all the while having a great time. When sailing we are always trolling and have caught Tuna, Wahoo, Mahi Mahi, and I always jig for grouper when we have finally anchored. With fridges and freezers on board we eat fresh fish whenever we want, eggs and dorado you know? So we will continue to fish and sail and enjoy until I fly home June 21 to fish every single day and get payed for it. By the way next week we start shooting a Bollywood movie on board, they have hired Slow Dance for a two month movie shoot of a Bollywood remake of a movie called Open Water 2 3D, Bollywood’s first 3D movie. Then the boat will continue on to Vanuatu, Salomon Islands, Philippines, and on to Thailand. I have been offered a position on board when guide season is over to sail the boat around the Philippines and on to Thailand so we will see what happens. Anyways hope you all are doing well, cant wait to see you all again. Cheers.