We were up early and heading into Suva town for final provisioning and check-out. It was a calm, windless day and the water was smooth as a mirror as we tied up the dinghy at the quiet dock. The fresh market was just waking up, though it was after 0800. We found everything we needed, fresh pineapples and melon, carrots, cabbage, tomatoes, then headed to the bakery for bread. They have a wholemeal (mutli-grain) bread topped with whole oats at the M-H bakery that we really like and bought three loaves. The search for a couple more boxes of UHT milk was fruitless in two separate stores...all sold out again...but the third store was the charm.

We hate leaving a country with any extra currency if we can avoid it. We carefully figured the cost for a taxi back to the yacht club plus yacht club fees and took out what we needed from the ATM. Last stop in town was the Customs office. The Customs office, tucked away, unsigned and up a narrow flight of stairs in the back of the commercial port, had several officials milling around, but not one was a Customs official and not one had any idea how to check us out. They were, however, very courteous, offered us chairs and did call the Customs official and let her know we were waiting. Ten minutes...they thought. An hour later, while we were chatting with another Kiwi cruiser who was also waiting, she arrived and began the paperwork. The office contained mounds and mounds of paper, stacked from floor to ceiling, inside bookcases and on shelves. She added another 10 sheets of paperwork in the name of Nine of Cups, stamped our passports and pronounced us legally "out of Fiji".

Back to the yacht club, we paid our fees, filled up our water jugs, loaded the dinghy and headed back to Cups. David hauled up the dinghy engine and stowed it, while Marcie stowed freshies and new provisions. We hauled the dinghy and scrubbed its bottom, lashed it aboard and prepared to leave. And then it happened...

By now it was mid-afternoon, and over a last cup of tea/coffee, we looked at each other and said "We're exhausted. Do we really have to leave today?" It was the lethargy bug that we've been suffering from and it must have bitten us again while we were getting ready to leave. How inconvenient! How rude! We came up with a few lame excuses...It had begun to rain. There was no wind. The tide was against us. These had never stopped us before, but were sufficient enough today to delay our departure...just one more day.