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American Spirit II - Day 159; Arrived Suva, Fiji & the Big Tonga Screw Up!; Friday, June 13, 2014



Today is Friday the 13th, and it would live up to its (bad) reputation for us as the day unfolded.

Up at 6:00 AM. Suva, Fiji on starboard bow. A cruise ship, the Paul Gaughin, passed us around 5:00 AM while Joel was on watch. Joel had to talk to the ship as it looked like it was going to collide with us. Good job Joel. Its common for cruise ships to enter their next port early in the morning so the cruise passengers can tour the island during the day time hours. We've actually seen this ship before...in Bora Bora 2 months ago. Small world.

Joel went to bed at 6:00 AM while I rolled the jib and main up. Almost no wind. Boat speed 4.5 knots. Dark clouds overhead. Locally in Fiji it is one hour earlier, so we'll change our watches and clocks now; and my log will use the 'new' time henceforth. Dawn fast approaching.

I slept about 4 1/2 hours last night. The most in a while. I'm over the worst of the cold. I was still dead tired getting up today. Hard time getting out of bed. (Joel, want to stand a double or 10 hour watch?). Not happening.

Boat speed now 3.1 knots. We're fighting a 1.7 knot head current. At 6:15 AM our boat GPS system alarmed, stating on the screen 'Position Lost.' Means that we lost our satellite coverage for the GPS. Really loud sounding alarm, because the alarm sounds the boat lets out are so soft that Joel and I have a hard time hearing them. So Joel wired a really good speaker to the system, so when an alarm sounds now, you think we're under attack. At any rate, the solution is to turn the boat navigation system (meaning computer) off, then on again. While doing this I have to hand steer because the Auto Pilot is off at the same time. We lost position 2 more times before the system started working again properly.

At 6:54 AM I contacted Suva Port Control on VHF Channel 16, telling them that we were 4 hours out. Our instructions said that we had to call them at least 3 hours in advance. I was instructed to call the Royal Suva Yacht Club when I get in, and that they would assemble the immigration and customs people to come to our boat for clearing into the country.

A couple of minutes later I increased the engine RPM (revolutions per minute) from 1,600 to 2,000 because our speed was too slow. That increased our speed from 4.0 knots to 5.6 knots. Worse fuel consumption, but we'll get in sooner.

At 7:25 AM the clouds over the mountains ringing Suva looked like snow blanketing the hollows and valleys of the mountains. Wow! The mountains in Suva were gigantic and numerous; ragged and foreboding. Breathtaking.

The sunrise at 7:30 AM was beautiful. The underside of the clouds was red. However, no green flash. Clouds on the horizon obstructing the upper limb of the sun as it rose. Got a great picture with my camera.

At 7:47 AM I saw the reef to starboard 3 to 4 miles. There was a fine mist rising above the reef as a result of the waves crashing onto the reef. That's one of the ways we know a reef is there. Mist above the reef, even before we see the reef.

During the 9:30 AM net (really 8:30 AM Fiji time), Adela, Ghost, Hebe and our boat were the only ones communicating.

At 8:42 AM, following the 'track line' on our chart plotter, we turned right and headed into the Levu Bay at Suva. The 'track line' is a line on the chart that gives you a preferred route to take into a location; or thru a pass. Very helpful.

At 8:55 AM I contacted the Royal Suva Yacht Club, asking them to contact customs and immigration and health officials for clearance. They said that they would do so and call me back. At 9:10 AM we tied up to a yellow buoy, a Quarantine buoy. We were also flying a yellow pennant on our port shroud to indicate that we were a non-cleared yacht. Until we were cleared by the authorities, no one on the boat can leave the boat to go ashore; or leave the boat to visit anyone on another boat. The RSYA called me back and said that we'd have visitors to the boat to clear us at 1:30 PM.

From 10:30 AM to 12:10 PM I took a nap. Joel awakened me then as Lucy, a Suva official with the health department, was already on board. After filling out some paperwork and paying her $101.00 she sprayed our boat. Apparently boats from Tonga were bringing in mosquitos carrying a certain type of virus or disease. We were told that Customs and Immigration would be on board at 2:00 PM. They arrived at around 2:30 PM. Island time, meaning no one is ever on time.

When the Customs officer was going over my paperwork, he asked me how much money I had on board. Since I'd already emailed Fiji that number, he already knew it, but he wanted me to tell him any way. The amount was over $8,000. He asked if that was just for me or Joel and me. I told him for both of us. (Though 80% was mine). He seemed surprised that we had that much money on board. I'm surprised that he didn't ask to see it.

Then he asked me where my Clearance paper was. Oops. I had left Tonga without my Clearance paper, so the Customs official was not going to clear me into Fiji. Meaning that I was stuck in Suva until they got the form; or that they might throw me out of the country without the form. Or I could be fined up to 20,000 Fijian dollars (about $10,000 US). And how was your day? He told me that the matter could not be resolved until Monday. I told him that I needed to be in Port Denarau Marina in Nadi, Fiji Monday for maintenance. Too bad. He then gave me a slip of paper with 2 addresses on it in downtown Suva, stating that if I could get to those locations by 4:00 PM today, perhaps I could get my problem resolved today. It was now 3:00 PM. I commandeered the Customs launch, having the boatman drive me into the Royal Suva Yacht Club marina, where I got a cab and hurried downtown, during rush hour, to get a Cruising Permit; and to go to the Customs main office and plead my case to the officials there. Once I got to the main Customs office, the head official there told me that unless I got the Clearance paper from Tonga, I wasn't going anywhere soon. I asked him if he could call Tonga Customs and he said that he didn't have their number. Furthermore, Tonga is an hour later than Fiji, so Tonga Customs had already closed for the day. I ran into Tom and John from the rally boat II Audeacious in the Customs office, also; getting their paperwork clearance to leave Suva. I asked the Customs official if their office would be open Saturday, and he said yes. I asked what time, and he said 8:00 AM. I told him I'd see him at 8:00 AM tomorrow.

TO BE CONTINUED LATER IN THE LOG

Back at the boat by 5:30 PM, I was not in a good mood. As Forrest Gump once said: 'Stupid is as stupid does.' It was raining, hard at times, but at 6:30 PM it cleared momentarily for a while and we dingied in to the yacht club to have dinner with Tom, Marianne and John from II Audacious. Dinner was OK, and the manner of payment was different in that you had to pay for your dinner and drinks separately. Joel had bought 3 internet cards, so after dinner we tried to get online so I could look up the phone number of Tonga Customs in Vava'u Group, Tonga. But the web site we had to go to was nowhere to be found on the internet. And that problem wouldn't be resolved until 9:00 AM Saturday. Island time again.

We were back at the boat at 9:15 PM, where I got on my computer and sent out an email to Rally Control in the United Kingdom. With a 12 hour time difference, while it was 9:15 PM here, Friday; it was 9:15 AM there, Friday. I was hoping they'd be able to help me by supplying some phone numbers for Tonga Customs, among other things. When I went to transmit this email and another one to a lady I met in Tonga who I thought could help me out, it took over an hour to send the emails because the SSB transmissions weren't working very fast. Atmospheric conditions, sun spots, whatever. I gave it 30 minutes or so, then re-connected via the SSB again, and I had an answer from Paul Tetlow from Rally Control on who to call at Customs, even an official's cell phone number. But the key number that he gave me, that proved vital, was the cell phone number for Lisa Molloy with the Tropicana Cafe. She was a lady that Joel and I spent a lot of time with at her business in Tonga. She helped up with laundry, internet, filing clearance papers for Fiji, etc. We even took her out to dinner our last night in Fiji thanking her for all her help. I'd also sent her an email asking for her to go to Customs Saturday morning to help me.

The trouble I had in transmitting the email via SSB was that I tried to go through the following SSB stations on a number of island receiving stations: Niue, Manihi, Darawank NSW, and finally Honolulu, Hawaii. On all but the last one, I was disconnected. Meaning, the SSB radio wasn't getting a good enough signal for me to transmit and receive information.

It was imperative that we leave Suva Saturday because we were scheduled for maintenance on the other side of Viti Levu island Monday morning. With my daughter, Angela and her husband, Chet coming to visit me June 29; everything needed to be fixed before they got here.

I was in bed by 1:00 AM.

373 Days until home.

Brian Fox


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