Dear F&F, August 29th – September 4th……
After the shark dive, we had birthday cake and wine with Peter and Diana for Peter\’s birthday. Then we had a lovely dinner at The Pearl Resort (Don\’t tell….Anja had a date after dinner with the Brazilian Marine Biologist! shhh! LOL).
The next morning, we thanked Charlie for his hospitality and got some dive waypoints from Joe (our dive guide from yesterday) as Peter helped us off the dock. The exit was less dramatic as we planned our departure on the rising tide. The day turned gorgeous and we had a magical sail for 40 miles. The wind was right behind us, we had Beqa Island to our left and Viti Levu to our right. We paralleled the coast the whole way going 9-11 knots with a full main and the genoa \”poled out\” to our starboard side. It was so lovely, I took video. I may even get around to posting it!…ha! (Right after the shark video that is!).
Late that afternoon we pulled in to Natadola Bay where the new Intercontinental Hotel is located. We met up with s/v \”Dreamtime\” (Claudia and Joerg) who I\’d not seen since last season in Tonga. They invited us for a lovely spaghetti dinner and we did some catching up too. Claudia and Joerg are divers and we were swapping stories and locations. We\’d meet them again in Port Denerau Marina.
The next morning, we headed off to Port Denerau which is Fiji\’s premier marina. Very \”first world\”, all facilities and shopping. There\’s even a \”Hard Rock Cafe\” here. The day was lovely, the wind was gone. We pulled into Port Denerau where Peter helped us to get into the dock.
I had to take a one hour each way taxi ride to go to customs in Lautoka (where Kate and I originally arrived) and \”re-check in\” to keep all the rules and paper work in order. Fortunately, the Customs official likes me and made some of the details easier than they might have been. We\’ll still have to take the boat the two hours up the coast to Lautoka to do our \”check out\” when we leave the country, but hey, it\’s their country; they get to have it their way.
A bit of maintenance, shopping and relaxing before we finally check out of Fiji (Officially) and head to Vanuatu, two days to our west. It was great to get the outside washed and the inside housekeeping done.
A few more surprise adventures are planned before we (actually) leave Fiji, but we\’ll see!
KIT, Scott with Anja – Port Denerau Marina, Viti Levu – Fiji