17:36.06S
177:26.45E
Anchored in lautoka
It is now Tuesday mor at 6:30am. Yesterday at noon we
anchored in the harbor
of Lautoka. We had
one of those ideal sails from the reef entrance to here, because we still had
the strong winds, but the protection of the reef gave us perfectly flat water
. It was exhilarating and releasing for me; especially of the tension of
finding and negotiating the reef entrance. Seeing Marta on the Suva reef affected us
all; Thom mentioned that upon seeing it there, it reminded him that all
this was no joke. Anyway, it was a sunny terrific ride and everyone
became a little more animated, now knowing the open water portion of this leg
was over.
We then hit Fiji
bureaucracy. Even though we had checked into Fiji,
and out of Suva,
we had to check in again in Lautoka, with the same 6 forms in triplicate, using
2 sided sheets and carbon paper. This town is largely Indian and Ken made
a big impression with the officials with his knowledge of speaking Hindi.
In fact it is quite amusing to see the surprise on the faces, when this whitest
of white guys, starts making casual comments in Hindi. I think it is just
comments like, Nice Day; I really don’t know, it may be, that guy over
there (me) is a real bore and the quicker you do this, the less time I have to
spend with him. Ken’s facility with Hindi warmed up many hearts and
got us rides and info. He couldn’t get us our cruising permit inside
24 hours. We want to go to visit one of the western islands, the
idylls of picture and legend and Tom Hanks’ Fedex movie but you need a
special cruising permit only available from another government office nowhere
near the harbor, in town. We went there, found the office, and the
right person, only to be told that the secretary was gone for the day and the
flash card with all the forms was in her purse and they couldn’t issue
anything until she came back, the next day (today). So, here I am, up at
6am, preparing to go back to the office, for opening at 8am, while the others
are sleeping. It is a dinghy ride and a cab ride. When I sailed on
other boats and I watched as other captains gathered all the passports and
visited customs, immigration, et al, I thought; how interesting; interacting with
local customs and idiosyncracies and I had a romantic notion of the ancient
traveler crossing continental divides and making first contacts with new worlds
and new peoples. Now having done this in the extreme; it is dull and
boring and I am tired of it.
Oh, another thing about our illustrious crew; last night
while sailing, both Ken and Dick seemed to go through a twilight zone.
First, when Ken woke me up for my watch at 2am, he mentioned he gave me an
extra half hour sleep and it was 2:30am. As I got up I looked at my watch,
I saw it was really 1:30am. Upon discussion about this with
Ken, it seems he (who does not wear a watch) was still using a clock set on Tonga time.
Then, at the real 2:30am, Dick came bounding up on deck. I said it was
nice of him to join me for my shift but not necessary. He said he had
arrived for his 4am shift Anyway, the twilight zone passed quickly and
everything was ok.
Off to see the government again, so we can visit Malolo
island about 12 miles away for 2 days and then we will return to Vuda Point
Marina.
Babelfish
