Arrived in Fiji

We are here in SavuSavu Fiji - YAY!
Last night was not too bad - Finally had to start the motor around 0430 - the wind really died down (less than 10kts). It tried to come back, changed directions some, but never got strong enough to turn off the engine. We were all tied up to a mooring ball by 1030 local time (that is an hour behind Apia for those of you following behind us).
It is a very tight little mooring field. Our mooring is in 50 feet of water - pretty sure we can see at least 30 feet down the mooring line. The CopraShed Marina security guard led us to our mooring, then brought out all of the officials we needed to see. Quarantine didn't even get on the boat, we just filled out a form and will go pay at the hospital on Monday. Customs and Immigration was all one person. He had all the documents I had scanned and sent, but also wanted the originals, 2 copies of our crew list, and then I filled out arrival cards (like you get on the airplane). He was very pleasant, and only stood in the salon and then left. The biosecurity guy saw us walking out of the marina office and we did his paperwork at the restaurant there. Crazy easy.

We had lunch at the one of the marina restaurants - best curry I have had in a long time. Josh was not too enamored of his pork chops with teryaki on them, but they disappeared quickly anyway. After that we split up, I went to find an internet place to do some immediate email, and Dennis and Josh went to the other marina office (we are on their mooring ball) to check in with them and see if we needed to move (we don't) and then an ATM. We met up, found an atm, I went to immigration to deal with on coming crew paperwork (Paul will join us next week), Josh found new earbuds to replace the ones that just died (another one of those disposable things it seems), Dennis and Josh picked up a USB internet modem from Vodaphone. 50 US for the USB and 11 gbs of data. Hopefully that will get us through the next 6-8 weeks. AND best of all, the dinghy engine started with only half a zillion pulls - a good omen I think.

So we are settling in. Have several projects that need to get done while we are here, not the least of which is laundry, but it is cheap here and they do it for you 2.50 US per load wash, dry fold - woohoo I have died and gone to heaven!!! On the downside, the bimini I put together in Mexico is on its last legs, so really need to make a new one. I hope I have enough fabric. Oh yeah and we need to clean out the spare bunk for Paul. That will be interesting, not sure where it will all get stowed, but pretty sure I can figure it all out. Watermaker filters need changing too. Just like a house, there is always something.....

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com