After the debacle at the Fiji Air ticket counter, we dreaded the possible SNAFUs of arrival into Fiji. What unknown paperwork would be required? What items would they confiscate? All of these questions were unanswerable but possible pitfalls.

After a sleepless but dozing 11-hour flight, we touched down at 0600 local time.

Immigration? We sailed through. We were SO relieved! He looked at the Fiji Immigration form, our passports, and we got our entry stamp. Hurray!

Customs? Well, they didn't like the food that we had packed into Conni's blue box. Thankfully, they didn't dig through my boxes, not that there was contraband, but re-packing would have been complicated.

It was the Costco canned chicken and the Zatarain's boxed meals that gave them pause. After a conference with colleagues, our guy gave us the stamp of approval and we hastily re-packed and moved through Customs.

I bought a SIM card for my new unlocked phone (Blue Products for $50), Conni exchanged money to Fiji money, and off we went to First Landing. The phone works, by the way and it's MUCH cheaper than an ATT global plan. I'll just buy SIM cards where i need a phone.

The boat is fine. We haven't been aboard, but we scouted the exterior and she looks fine. Dirty? Yes, but that's easy to fix. We'll go aboard a bit later today.

When we get the room, we'll check that all of the stuff that we hauled so far has survived. I didn't hear the toilet bowl rattle like broken pieces.

By the way, the date for this post is incorrect: it's 4/11 here in Fiji. I wonder when things will synchronize.

Now the work begins.