Safely Anchored in Suva Harbor

We made it in yesterday after 10 days from NZ. The passage was a mixed bag with the requisite terror, calm, boredom, and excitement. There are several other boats here in the anchorage right off the Royal Suva Yacht Club where we went to last night for beer and wine with Steve on Oz. He gave us a ride in on his dink so we would not have to put ours down. To check in we had six officials from various agencies come on board. I still am not sure who they all were and some I think just came out for the ride as they did not give us any paperwork to do nor asked any questions. All were friendly and after signing and filling out numerous forms we were given four month visas, a health clearance (Question: did you have unusual numbers of rats or mice die on the passage on your ship? yes/no. Question: did any crew or passengers die on the passage? yes/no), etc).

It is hot and muggy here but no rain. Getting in the channel was a bit unnerving as you could not see the markers until seemingly close to the exposed reef on both sides of the channel. We were told by numerous guidebooks and local knowledge not to trust the electronic charts we have so we trusted the GPS waypoint we were given and it turns out the waypoint was way off and the charts were spot on. Go figure. I am sure this will not be the case out in the outlying islands and reefs. The electronic charts seem to be really accurate any where big ships go but not necessarily where the little boats like ours are the only ones.

Today we will go in to town and pay the medical/health fee as they would not let us pay it on the boat despite taking money from Steve on Oz for exactly the same thing on our boat in front of me. Go figure again. That's OK though as we will want to do some exploring of town in any case. The fee is only $33FJ and the launch fee to ferry the officials out was $106 and not $130 as we were told. We also have to go to get an official Cruising Permit for Fiji to hang around the islands, and we have to check in and out with Customs any time we come in and out of major ports like Lautoka, Savusavu or Nandi.

We are excited to be here. The people seem very friendly and will "bula" you to death (hello) we are told. That's OK after NZ and Tonga where they ignore you. Suva seems to be a real metropolis with several highrise buildings and a major shipyard. We have some groceries to get, laundry done and odds and ends. First I have to go on deck and get the dinghy off the bow where we stow it for passages, get the outboard off and on the dink, along with gas tanks, etc. When we got to shore yesterday I felt like the land was floating under my feet after the long passage. It will take a few hours today to get my "land" legs back.

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