17.46S 177.23E

16:00 Saturday 3^rd July

Eventful last few days. Started with a night entry to Suva  which was fine until we got inside the (vast) harbour which is full of unlit wrecks! [Keith broke with local custom and lit the anchor light] A huge container ship followed us in but, unlike the French of the Paul Gauguin cruise ship, politely waited until we were through the narrow bit before roaring past. Customs took a fair time to arrive [just all day from 1a.m. until 4p.m C] but some other poor chap waited 26hrs!

I quite like Suva which is a bit like Neasden with loads of hardware shops and curry houses but not much else; C didn’t agree. Anyway the computer upon which I’m typing packed up with no easy way to enter the number “9”; this can be tricky with passwords. A chap air brushed it within 2 hrs and all is now well (can this give the word a new lease of respectable life?).

36hrs of continuous drizzle/downpour took the edge of my enthusiasm for Suva and we set out yesterday round the surprisingly large island to the Western side. Loads of stern wind up to 28kts and we ended up taking almost everything in so as to arrive at the passage in daylight. Formalities were their usual quick and cheap to perform.

K

Now that we have moved to the dry end of the island the humidity has dropped from 72% to 49%. As someone commented you couldn’t even sweat properly!

We discovered that to move 100 miles down the coast we had to obtain a cruising permit (other side of town, next door to the Presidential Palace!), clear out of Suva, and clear in again in Lautoka. I can now see why Ellen McCarthur decided to sail non stop.

C