Fiji, Returning home and Australian Bureauocracy

Well we hit Fiji at Savu Savu and spent a delightful week on a mooring at the Copra Shed Marina before heading off to Namena Island and the Marine Park. Our first sighting of live Coral Trout since leaving Australia. Even Cocos Islands seemed devoid of these tasty fish.

From Namena we travelled south along the east coast of Fiji for a mammoth 22 hour motor in absolutely flat conditions to Suva. It was a new moon and we did not sight one lighthouse or beacon forcing us to navigate by radar till sunrise to miss the reefs. Most of the coast is well charted but several islands are reported to lie up to 1nm to the ESE. Tricky stuff in the black of night with reef passages of only 500m in some instances. We have made it back into the Eastern Hemisphere and the water is COLD. We are at the edge of the tropics in a southern winter and 26 deg C water is practically freezing for us. Suva was wonderful in that we could get some fuel and butane gas as well as restock with fresh food. We are doing it tough for beer, wine and coffee as these items are quite expensive. Coffee for example is up to $100 Fiji dollars for a kilo. This is about $65 aussie sheckles. Suva and the Royal Suva Yacht Club have not changed much in the 30 odd years since I last visited doing deliveries except for the amount of wrecks and garbage floating around. It used to be a great spot and one in which I have many good memories. Times change.

From Suva we sailed around the south coast to Robinson Crusoe Island and had a lovely few days. We even joined the local yacht club for $1.00. Onto Port Denarau where a new credit card awaited after it had been scammed once again and a new hub to replace the damaged hub in Suwarrow Island. The cat saga of emails and cash started once again so we sailed to Musket Cove for a few days and back to Port Denarau for another round of emails and frustration. Finally bolted and sailed to Mana Island and enjoyed the hospitality of the backpacker establishments before heading to Lautoka for food, grime, soot and civilisation. Honestly if you need to go to Lautoka think twice. Friendly people as everywhere in Fiji but it is a crappy place to exist in. We only stayed a night and bolted the next day for Navadra island at 12 knots in a freshening SE trade wind.

We have now gotten used to having only 100L of water in the tank and everyone is careful on use and we make water every 1.5 days. If we fill the tank anymore it leaks and we will have to remove it in Brisbane and reweld it. Actually we will have a mini-refit in Brisbane with sails needing repairs, woodwork to be replaced. Water tanks repaired, engine saildrive gaskets replaced and several smaller items completed. The plan is to hire a car, kidnap the million dollar cat in Sydney, drive back to Brisbane, then if all goes well is to sail to Sydney for New Years Eve on the water and then back up the coast to Queensland and possibly work. Yuk.....

The ongoimg saga of getting our little "Hidgeous Ole Pollywobble" of a cat into Australia continues unabated. We have finally received an Import Permit for the furball and an Excemption Certificate as he is an odd case being a sea cat. This has not been an easy route for us and many sleepless nights have resulted. We now have to organise the Fijian authorities and pay for his "armed" escort to the airport. I think the Australians are trying to discourage this pet import process as it is enourmously expensive and frustrating. But then again it is Australia and we must get used to being told what to do, how to do it and when to do it once again. TIZER even has a booked flight to Sydney and has a booking (paid) at the Quarantine Station in Sydney. I think we should just have disguised him as a refugee and he would have been given a free mobile, clothes and $50 credit to call home.

We are currently sitting in a stunning anchorage at Navarda Island. It is blowing 30 knots and we have slipped back 40m on out anchor but the wind is now abating so no worries. It is uninhabited, beautiful and nice reefs to explore with crays and shells. Heaven after dealing with the Australian Government. A small cruise liner joined us in the anchorage this morning but left not long after as a person on board became seriously ill. They came over and asked if we could help. Perhaps they thought it was the LeSeuer family still aboard? In 3 weeks we will be back in Port Denarau and saying goodbye to TIZER the HoP, clearing customs and immigration, attempting to get our $1500 bond back and setting sail for Brisbane. It is a trip of only 1450nm and will not take too long so we expect arrival end of first week of October at Rivergate Marina and a lovely introduction to Australia which for some inexplicable reason does not seem like home to me anymore. In reality I suppose that it never has so it is now time to plan the next adventure or a sustained life ashore. In any case we need to get Keely to a school for a few weeks as she really needs some and we all need a few hours rest. Gill is looking forward to flying overseas to Wisconsin to spend Christmas with all his friends in the Garner family from the catamaran "ONEWORLD". This will be his first big solo adventure.

Tomorrow the wind should ease and it will be back chasing goats on the beach, beach combing, shelling, swimming and Gill and I will try out the guns for a few more crayfish for the BBQ.

Be good.