Graptolite - Kava & Sari
Graptolite's Sailing Log
Martyn Pickup & Heike Richter
Sat 21 Jun 2008 09:36
Yesterday we crossed 180 degrees which is a point close enough to be
half-way around the world from the UK and something of a milestone.
Naturally another bottle of fizzy had to be opened.
A bit later, I caught a biggish mahi-mahi but had to wellie it a good few
times with a new Tongan carved fish-billy for it to come quietly and be
filleted.
Before dark, we were in Savusavu, Fiji. There is a fine tradition of
bureaucracy here, presumably left over from the time Fiji was British, and a
big crowd of officials turned up at the boat with armfuls of forms. We had
one sorry-looking orange confiscated but no other problems apart from
writer's cramp and then they gave us a permit to go ashore. But we didn't
and stayed aboard instead and watched 'The African Queen' on DVD and ate
fish.
This morning we did go ashore to do some shopping and bought a big pile of
dried kava root in the market. Kava is a druggy substance which is handed
over to the island village chiefs to keep them from becoming hostile. Colin
and Belinda also turned up today and we now have the full Fiji cruising
crew.
M