Hi
Woke up to a black boat - smut from sugar cane factory. Went ashore in morning to get cruising permit and do shopping. Found wonderful taxi guy called Ravin who drove us around all morning - first to get cruising permit - took hours, mainly because the person typing the permits was unable to type and made lots of errors, including errors of nationality, names etc. Eventually completed and then to supermarket and liquor market. Good range of products and reasonable prices. NZ and Australian wines at good prices were a big plus. Then to a massive indoor vegetable and fish market - great range of produce and cheap. There is a large Asian population on Fiji, and the market seems to be almost entirely Asian vendors. The Asians also run many of the businesses and hold positions of power. Very different from the islands, where the chiefs and the population are entirely of Polynesian origin. Ravin our taxi driver is Polynesian. After the market he took us to a couple of other stores we needed to visit, and then back to the docks.
Back to boat and stowed provisions, then we motored round to a bay a few miles up coast, which we hoped would not shower us with black.
Disaster struck when we entered the bay, we followed our charts, keeping as we thought clear of shoals, and went to anchor between two other boats. Depth was OK, but suddenly dropped to next to nothing and we went aground a coral reef (not on chart) with a sickening crunch. Couldn't move forwards or backwards. With help from Roger from Branech we ascertained which way we could possible get out, but luckily with a few shoves we eventually drifted free on rising tide, and didn't have to deploy anchor to pull us out. Thank God that on inspection we had not done any major harm, hard to believe as it sounded as though we had really done some major damage.
Took Roger and Sabine out for meal with us in thanks for his work, and Ann and Don also came. We had arranged for Levin to pick us up at the bay, which involved driving down a rather difficult track, and he took us to what he pomised was a good restaurant. We were slightly sceptical, but it was a v good meal in a lovely setting, with live entertainment, so we had a good end to the day. Picture shows us at meal.
Cheers
Jackie and Michael
roger