The sun always brings out the color of the water.

Except for the cruise ship and its passengers, Suva was deserted on election day. The bus terminal was almost empty. The vegetable market and all the small shops along the main road were closed. It was funny to see groups of passengers from the cruise ship sitting in coffee shops checking their smart phones. Seems an odd way to spend some of the eight hours the ship was docked in Suva.

We were at the customs office around 0930 but the officer we were supposed to meet was running late. The staff brought us black tea and biscuits with Australian butter while we waited and we talked about voting and the ink stains on their right pinkies. It was quite civilized and they were very nice to us. The officer finally arrived a bit after 1000 and we completed checking out (clearance papers and stamped passports) around 1045. We walked over to the large grocery store and picked up a few things and then took a cab back to the Yacht Club where we said our goodbyes and headed out to the boat.

We pulled the anchor around 1230, motored out of the harbor, and once we'd cleared the reef, put up the main and pulled out the jib and have been sailing ever since. The winds have been between 15 and 20 knots from the ESE. The seas are running one to two meters with a few larger swells coming through every twenty or thirty minutes. We pulled in the jib last night after we cleared the islands and were able to set a course directly for Port Resolution on Tanna island in Vanuatu (without a pole, it's hard to get it to fly with the wind behind and large swells). The wind is almost directly behind us, but we've been making good time, 5s and 6s, with a single reef in the main.

The stars were out last night and the waning half moon rose around 0300 this morning. The sky was quite bright by 0500 and the sun rose around 0600. Except for the departing cruise ship last night, we haven't seen any ships or planes and only a few birds.

Lamb sausages and fried onions with mashed potatoes, onion gravy, and carrots for dinner last night -- bangers and mash. Corned beef sandwiches for lunch yesterday and today. Fresh pineapple in the morning.