Should be in Suva Harbor tomorrow

We are just 50nm south of Kandavu Island which is just south of the entrance to Savu (pronounced Saboo) Harbor on Fiji. Our ETA is around 4pm local time, we hope, so we can get in with daylight. It sure has been hard to try and plan an ETA when you go only as fast as the wind will let you and at that you can go 6kts max. Today has been a great sailing day. We turned off the engine this morning at daylight and have been ripping along with nice seas and partly cloudy skies and it actually got hot and humid. It is cooling off now that the sun is going down though.

We have about 110nm total to go and we are ready to be there and anchored. We have to check in to the country which is always a bit of a hassle. We will call in on the VHF radio outside the harbor and ask permission to come in. Then they will send a launch out with guys from 5 different agencies (Agriculture, Medical, Customs, Immigration and I am not sure who else but 5 total) to our boat. We can't get off the boat nor any one come to our boat before we check in. It also costs $130fiji for the launch, which they make you pay for. If you check in at the port of Lautoka on the other side of the island you only have to pay the Medical fee which is small (around $20). The Fijian dollar is about 1.6 to 1 US$.

It is just getting dark which is when we get the best radio propagation to send and receive email via the SSB radio. Otherwise the atmospheric conditions cause a bunch of static and it takes longer or is impossible. We also have to turn off our refrigerator since it causes radio interference and slows or prevents the radio signals. Life on a boat.

We are ready to be anchored so we can clean up, and have a nice quiet day and night on a non-moving boat. I hear there may be a little noise and commotion from the town and passing ships but that will be A-OK. We have been catching up on our reading though. I just read two books about the Pacific Islands - "The Happy Isles of Oceania" by Paul Theroux, the noted travel writer, which was actually kind of depressing. He made it sound like most of the islands were full of totally nasty people. We'll see if he was right about Fiji, but I don't think so. We also both read "Getting Stoned with Savages" by J. Maarten Troost who also wrote "Sex Lives of Cannibals". He is very funny and writes about his wife's and his life in Kiribati, Vanuatu and Fiji. Vanuatu and Fiji were both very cannabalistic until recent times which many of the early missionaries learned the hard way. I don't think they still do it, but there have been stories about Vanuatu....

Fiji is still under the "leadership" of a military guy, Commander B (long name), who took over by coup in December this last year. He is an outcast with the other countries out here but he says he is doing it for the good of the country and Fijians. It is not supposed to affect tourists or travelers here at all but tourism is way down which should mean some bargains for us. We'll keep you loyal readers posted.

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