Cleared out

We’re officially no longer in Fiji. Except right now, we’re not sailing. So where are we? Well, it probably wouldn’t be wise to say.

What I can say is that anticipating a scrum at the customs office we left Saweni Bay before 7am and on just our head sail moved the short distance to the anchorage by the wharf at Lautoka. We immediately went ashore and plonked ourselves down, first in line, at the customs office.

We soon had our immigration form to fill in and as others began to fill the room behind us we were processed by the head of customs. In Fiji, the customs form filling is computerised. What this means is that the customs officer sits there and asks you all the questions on the form which he then types in. I’m not sure if this is the best use of his time but that’s the way it works.

At the end of an hour we were done. We waded out through the throng of cruisers now crammed into the office all waiting to clear out. We were glad we arrived early as well as processing Lissa onto the boat when she arrived.

So by about 9am we were off sailing. Our desired holding location for the Sunday weather window was just under 30nm to the SSW of Lautoka. The winds were blowing from the SSE which meant we had a bit of work to do to get there. We had to tack a few times down the west coast and once outside the main reef we were faced with oncoming 3 meter swells, all directly upwind. Helen was quite keen to wait a night before proceeding. Usually I concede to Helen’s needs of this sort but this time I blew all my credits (past and perhaps for my eternal future) by pushing the case for pressing on. It was rough. To make it while it was light we motor sailed allowing us to make a decent clip at 30 degrees apparent to the wind. With the effects of the swell and current we were still tacking through 100 degrees each time. We squeezed our way along the outside of the reef in a narrow band between the reef and further out where the seas got quite rough.

We made it to our destination by about 5:30pm. Helen got the dinner going (double sized so we have portions for our trip) while Lissa and I washed down the cockpit area from all the salt that had accumulated from the day’s spray. Peter from Nymph popped by (he’s the manager from Norsand boat yard in NZ where we’ll be hauling). It was good to chat and I was able to make some advanced arrangements for our haul out. Nice bit of luck. He’s in the same boat as us, so to speak, with respect to clearing versus leaving.

After dinner we went ashore, gave a gift of cava and enjoyed the company there.

Today we have our final boat prep to do. Yesterday was a good shake down and we discovered a few things that need sorting out. Once this is done we can relax the day away and enjoy our final evening here.