Unloading the pallets at the boatyard in Port Denarau.

Back in late February, we shipped 4 pallets to Fiji - specifically, 1 crate loaded with boxes of stuff, 1 pallet with the new generator, a 2nd pallet of more boxes of stuff, and one large tube. The container with our pallets arrived in Fiji on Saturday, 28 March, and then went directly into Fiji Time. It was unloaded in Suva, where it underwent a bio-security inspection, then eventually trucked to our side of the island, to Lautoka. We knew with the Easter holiday 4-day weekend coming up not to expect too much. So we waited. And waited. A few days after the long weekend John was finally getting a bit antsy, and running out of projects to do on the boat. The pallets had been in country going on 12 days. After not hearing much from the shipping company - he took matters into his own hands - as John often does.

Since we had a rental car, he drove the 45 minutes up to Lautoka to see what was happening, taking our friend, Josiah, with him. Josiah is a local Fijian who pilots many of the larger motor yachts here in Denarau, one of which is right across the dock from Orcinius. So we have become good friends over this past year and he was a huge help in getting our pallet delivery in motion. After 2 days back and forth to Lautoka, John and Josiah were finally able to make their way through the pile of red tape, hire a truck with it's own crane to load/unload the 4 pallets, and round up 2 custom's officials to make the trip down to Port Denarau where they would open and inspect the shipment. They had a mini caravan with John and the 2 customs officers in the rental car, and Josiah and the truck carrying the pallets following en trail. After arriving at the Port Denarau marina, the boatyard found a spot for us to set our pallets for a few weeks while we gradually install new equipment and make room for all the stuff contained within.

The customs officers were very easy to work with. They waited around for close to 45 minutes while the pallets were offloaded and set in place. They did one spot inspection on one of the larger boxes - the contents of which all matched John's inventory - and all was good. Wow - it couldn't have been any easier. They didn't charge us duty on anything. And now the real work begins!

While John and Josiah were goofing off in Lautoka, myself, Malo, and Moses (another good friend of ours who also works on the big motor yachts at Denarau), we worked on taking apart and cleaning up all the part and pieces of all the wenches. It was a 2 day greasy grimy job. But it hadn't been done in a few years, so they were sorely needing it.

All for now!
Lisa