Yesterday we got an early start, cleared the pass and sailed the 50-miles or so from Levuka to Suva. We had a nice breeze, close reaching under full main and jib along the outer fringing reef for most of the day. It was overcast and except for the reduced reef visibility, was a welcome change in temperature and sun. Pulling into Suva harbor was a bit ominous as we sailed past 5 or 6 ship wrecks strewn along the outer reef. There was a heavy "damaging southwest swell" and it was pretty exciting watching huge wave's crash with great power on both sides of us as we entered the reef passage. I had apprehension about going to Suva at all because it's a big, dirty and noisy city with no stable government. Pulling into the harbor area we were immediately surrounded by an oily sheen on the water and large ships of all kinds. Freighters, tankers and fishing boats of all lengths, even a square-rigger was anchored amongst the few yachts at the head of the bay. We dropped the hook in 36 feet of mucky water into mud just behind a crane that was off-loading another barge, and right next to a raft of 5 listing steel fishing ships. We launched the dingy and rowed ashore to have a cold beer at the Royal Suva Yacht Club - which after meeting fellow cruiser friends turned into dinner. We had to laugh as we all ordered the tuna burger, because it was the same price as the regular cheeseburger. It was delicious. Today, we made a failed attempt to attain our letter from immigration allowing us to travel out and back into the country without a return ticket and after waiting for several hours at the immigration office (just like the DMV). We decided to try our luck in Lautoka instead as they are more accustomed to dealing with yachties. So we spent the day walking around Suva, eating Indian food, going to the markets and exploring the sights. The open air vegetable market was simply gigantic compared to what we've seen in the rest of the south pacific and we bought fresh pineapple, papaya, limes, onions, cucumbers and even a strange fruit called "wee." Guess we will find out how it tastes after it ripens a bit. After filling our bags, we went upstairs to find what must be the largest market in the world for Kava. Though we'd already bought our bundles for sevusevu (ceremonial kava offering for villages) in Savusavu, we could not help but buy some kava bowls, powdered "waka" (already ground kava root) a strainer bag and even sample a bowl of kava ourselves. There were huge bags of amazing, colorful and exotic spices. It was a fun day, but I'm ready to leave the bustle and noise and get to clean water again. Hope I can get the anchor out of the muck and off the bottom tomorrow.