One wreck after another

Serendipity
David Caukill
Thu 16 May 2013 23:27

Friday, May 17th, Suva, Fiji  18:07S  178:25E 

Today’s Blog by Richard (Time zone GMT+12.00; UTC +12.00)

 

Time for a quick blog to let you know that we arrived at Suva, Fiji, last night. Whilst our phones are all showing full signal, they have steadfastly refused to connect any calls or send all but one text! We are in quarantine, awaiting Fiji Customs clearance, which can take some time. We understand they will pay us a visit at 14.30 today.

 

After the fun we had on Wednesday night, the remainder of our passage was uneventful – in fact, boring, as we had to motor, non-stop, for 28 hours: another record for Serendipity. We entered Suva in darkness but the entrance is well lit with bright leading lights and reasonable buoyage. What we couldn’t see was the abundance of wrecks in the harbour. Here is a picture of one wreck after another:

 

 

Daryl asked me if I was insinuating that he was one of the wrecks. (Reader to decide). Here are some pictures of other wrecks.

 

No 1: Daryl’s beard

 

 

No 2: David  spent virtually the whole of yesterday down below trying to fashion an eye-splice into the end of one of his ropes. He printed out some instructions which, unusually for a man, he read from top to bottom, declaring “these are useless – they tell you what to do but not how to do it”. I knew things were going badly wrong when I saw him tie the rope to the companionway steps and start heaving wildly on it – this was definitely not in the instructions. I stood on the steps to stop them being ripped from their mountings. Anyway, as it was getting dark last night, David decided enough was enough and resorted to Eddie Izzard tactics by throwing away the instructions and smashing it with a hammer.

 

 

I am quite concerned as he is now at it again and, if it all goes wrong once more, I fear for the safety of Customs officials when they arrive 9and the crew, for that matter).

 

No 3: My drinking Spree

 

 

Won’t be buying that again. Bye for now.