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Fiji Paradise

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Fiji has over 300 islands ranging from the very remote Lao group to the populated Viti Levu and Vanua Levu.  There are plenty of picture perfect, white sandy beaches, endless coral reefs, pristine forests and world-renowned dive sites.

Fiji is comprised of five unique archipelagos:

  • Viti Levu (largest island) and North West islands
    • Mamanuca and Yasawa’s are strung out over 80 nautical miles
  • Kadavu and Beqa
    • Beqa, Kadavu, Tavuki, Vatulele, Great Astralobe Reef and Lagoon
  • Central Waters: Vanua Levu and the Lomaiviti Group
    • Vanua Levu, Bligh Waters, Koro Sea, Makogai, Wakaya, Koro, Ovalau, Batiki
  • Taveuni and the Ringold Isles
    • Tavenui, Ringold Isles, Rabi, Qamea, Laucala, Matei
  • Eastern Archipelago (Lao group)
    • Nothern Lao, Southern Lao and Eastern Lao

The 300 islands are spread over 200,000 square miles and they cross over the international date line even though there is only one date/time across all of Fijian waters.  What’s funny is while navigating close to the date line, our digital charts freak out and always mis-calculate until we cross over the date line.

The two largest islands are Viti Levu (which has the nation’s capital, Suva) and Vanua Levu.  Most of the islands are volcanic in origin and most of the summits of mountains have distinct craters (even though activity has long since ceased).  Fijians own more than 80% of the lands in Fiji. However, it is not held by individuals, but rather by small tribal units.

Sugar is grown near the plains and lowlands of the north-west of Viti Levu and is their largest export..  They also export coconut oil, pearls, and copra. 

The Fijians

Only 100 of the 300 islands are inhabited. Fiji has many, many nationalities and is rich and diverse in cultures.  The population is near 800,000 with about 49% being Fijians, 46% being Fijian Indians and the remaining 5% being Europeans (most from New Zealand and Australia), Chinese, Roumans, and other Pacific Islanders.

Overall, Fijians have been truly the nicest and friendliest group of people we’ve ever met.  They stop everything to greet you with “Bula.”  And its not a softly spoken, under your breath “Bula” it is a loud, almost shout “Bula” coming from the heart.  Whether you are walking down the street, in a store, on the bus, or in a small town – big and small, young and old will greet you with a wide toothy grin and a “Bula.”

It was only 50 years ago that Fiji gained its independence from Britain (October 1970) who had control for over 96 years.  In 1987 Fiji was declared a republic and in 1992 the first elections were held when Fiji returned to an elected parliament.

Rich in Life

We spent most of our time in the outer islands where the villages are small (less than 100 people) and life is simple. Most do not have tables, chairs, utensils, appliances, or modern amenities. Several of the villagers are missing many teeth, but they are trim, happy, and healthy.  They eat what nature provides for them, they grow casava and taro root (both starches like potatoes), the enjoy lots of fresh fruits (bananas, papayas, mangos, breadfruit, soursop) and freshly caught fish, octopus, lobster, and crab.  Rich in life.

This is one of our host families.  The headman assigns a host family to us each time we visit the outer islands.  This family is in Fulaga (Lucy and Nico).

This is inside their modest home.  We are sitting in their living room, the kitchen is in the background and they have a small separate room to sleep.

Each Fijian encounter is a unique and blessed experience.  They are truly happy to meet you, know you, and share their world.  They might not have much, but they will offer you what they do have. 

Our last blog shares our arrival and all the arrival procedures in Fiji.  Events from this blog occurred the end of June.  Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual events.

Welcome to Fiji! Bula!

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We made it to Fiji in a little less than 12 days!  It is green and super pretty as we round the corner to our destination of Savusavu.

First time into a new country requires a lot of paperwork to “clear in.”  We arrive Savusavu on the island of Vanua Levu on Friday at 10:30am.  By the time we are safely moored on a mooring with Waitui Marina it is closer to 11:00am. Our agent and the marina coordinate the 3 sets of officials that have to get us through the formalities.  I will walk you through it just so you can get a “taste” of what it is like for us.  Keep in mind that Fiji is truly one of the most straight forward and simple process that we have been through in all of the dozen or so countries we have cleared in.

Savusavu has 3 marinas.  We are staying at Waitui Marina on one of their mooring balls.

Marina Waitui

Marina Waitui

The marina has been around for over 60 years and is a work in progress.  The people are first rate and super friendly! 

Waitui Marina Fiji

Waitui Marina Fiji

Health Officials

The first officials to come to the boat are the health officials.  They administer covid tests to ensure we are “clean.”  After a stick to the brain, we get the all clear.  Then we are handed (2) invoices.  One is for $40F (which is about $20 U.S.) per person for the covid tests.  We pay this to the marina and the nurse picks it up later.  The other invoice is for $163.50F ($82 U.S.) which has to be paid at the hospital which is 1.2 miles from the marina.  Then we can either email the paid receipt to the nurse or we can drop it off at the hospital court office (we emailed it).  Once we email the paid receipt, they email us our negative covid certificate.

The marina comes to pick them up and take them to their next boat.  A few minutes later, Customs and Immigration are delivered to us.

Customs and Immigration

Two people come for customs and immigration.  We have to provide a lot of paperwork to them including our boat registration, passports, exit paperwork from French Polynesia, vaccine cards, negative test. C2-C entry form, crew list, and we sign a few more forms.  They stamp our passports (sweet) and tell us that we need to go to Customs in a few days to pick up our cruising permit.  We are charged $40F because they came to our boat during their lunch break (we did not have a choice in the matter).

The marina picks them up and whisks them to their next boat and then they bring biosecurity.

Biosecurity

Biosecurity is responsible for ensuring we do not bring anything “illegal” into the country.  Are you thinking guns, pets, weapons?  Well that too, but they are looking for honey, seeds, shells, feathers, meats, produce.  Yep, all of that is against the law to bring into Fiji!  We pass with flying colors, mostly because it is Friday afternoon and I think he wants to call it a day.  He gives us an invoice and tells us to go to his office to pay $85F ($43 U.S.).          

The Race

It is now close to 2:45pm and all of the offices close at 4:00pm.  We have to go to shore, find a bank, and pay all of the invoices.    The race is on!  Lucky for us, Fiji makes it easy in Savusavu.  There is only one main road and everything can be found in the small town.

We find the bank, go to a market to buy some drinks (mostly to get change) as the offices want exact payment.  We first hoof it to the hospital as it is the furthest. The guy was super nice and made us laugh.

We manage to hit all the offices in time and then we reward ourselves with some cold drinks.

The next few days are spent exploring the town, finding the fresh market (see photo below), and visiting with a few friends who we met in French Polynesia.

We had drinks and snacks at the neighboring marina, Copra Shed Marina.  Our friends on Major Tom (Anki and Sivert) joined us for many a cocktail.

Can you guess where I am?

View from the boat opposite the marina.

They are building a new marina which they hope to be ready before cyclone season (in 4 months).

New Marina in Progress

New Marina in Progress

They have lots of hot springs in Fiji.  Some of them are right next to the mooring fields. 

Hot Springs

Hot Springs

In our last blog we transit across the Pacific from French Polynesia to Fiji.  Our blogs run 10-12 weeks behind schedule.  This blog occurred mid-June, 2022.

Tauna, Gambier

We Vamoose from French Polynesia

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There is a lot we need to do before we vamoose from French Polynesia and head to Fiji.  This will be the longest passage Matt and I do solo together.  We sailed 18 days with 2 other people which split the shifts up nicely.  We sailed 11 days with just the two of us (from Easter Island to Gambier), but this passage will be between 13-16 days.

So, you might think…what do you do to prepare to be at seas for up to 16 consecutive days in a row?  Drink heavily?  No, well, not really.  There is lots of paperwork to do to clear out of French Polynesia and to clear into Fiji.  We also have to prepare meals, return items, and ready the boat to vamoose.

Sugar Shack, Matt and I have to legally “clear out” of French Polynesia prior to vamoosing.  We cleared into the country 11 April 2019 (over 3 years ago).  Can you believe we have been here for that long?  We certainly did not anticipate staying here this long, but it has been a wonderful adventure!

Requesting Permission to Enter Fiji

Before we can depart French Polynesia, we have to receive approval to go to Fiji.  Easy enough for us as we hired a local agent to help us with the clearance process.  We technically did not have to hire an agent but since we had engaged with one prior to the “hiring of an agent requirement” was lifted we decided to continue to use her services.

It seems like we have to jump through hoops, but in reality, it is no different than any other country.  We submitted:

  • Copies of passports (all crew)
  • Vaccination cards (all crew)
  • Arrival health declaration form (each crew to complete)
  • Photo of Sugar Shack
  • Arrival Immigration Statement
  • C2C Form (which is 18 pages!)

The clearance approval usually takes 3 days, but since we have an agent it only took 3 hours!  We have friends who did not use an agent and they waited weeks for their approval.  So worth the $350 to use an agent!

We remain in contact with our agent and tell her when we depart.  Then again, we alert her of our impending arrival 72 hours in advance.  She then arranges for all completed paperwork to be sent to the local authorities as we are not clearing in at Denerau where she is located.  We are clearing in at Savusavu on a different island.  Let’s hope that process goes smoothly too.

Clearing out of French Polynesia

Technically, we have to vamoose immediately after we get approval to leave.  The hiccup lies in the weather.  We want to leave on a “good weather window” not because we are being asked to leave the country.  It takes 3 days to clear out, so we take our chances and start the paperwork.

Most boats clear out of Tahiti as that is where the main customs, immigration, and Douane offices are located.  But since covid restrictions have been lifted we can now clear out of Raiatea, Huahine, and Bora Bora.  We decided to clear out of Raiatea.

Documents to Clear Out:

  • Entry paperwork (original clearance documentation)
  • Boat registration
  • Passports for all crew
  • Vaccination for all crew
  • Extension letter (we got a 3-month extension to do some work on Sugar Shack)

We arrive at the gendarmerie, perform some hand signals to tell them what we want and are handed 5 more documents to complete.  30-minutes later we hand in all the paperwork and are told to come back in a few days.

Two days later we inquire about our status and are faced with several confused faces.  Oh dear.  The Gendarmerie search and search and low and behold they finally find our approval email and are able to stamp our passports and documents. 

They hand us one document that has to be mailed to Papeete and one document to hand to Fijian officials.  Then they tell us to vamoose quickly. We are officially a boat without a country!

Up Next

Now that the paperwork has been submitted, we start working on other preparations.  We anticipate bad weather and prepare accordingly.   In bad weather, it makes it challenging to cook.  So, we, well really Matt, prepares a lot of meals and freezes them.

Matt has precooked 2 meals for 2 people of the following dishes:

  • Butter chicken with bow tie pasta
  • Chicken Rotti
  • Pulled Port
  • Tuscany Chicken

Plus we have pork chops and loads of sausage and pasta we can easily prepare.

I made an army of gingerbread men (thanx to my grandma’s recipe) to take care of me and help prevent sea sickness.

We fueled up the boat with diesel and gasoline.  Got to make sure we have fuel in case the wind dies.  We hand off our Polynesian propane tank to our friend Eve on “Auntie.”  Sugar Shack have two American tanks which will keep us going until we get to Fiji and can purchase another local tank.

We have a local Vini (cell phone company) contract with a small router that we purchased 3 years ago.  But in order to cancel the contract to get our deposit we have to live without internet.  Normally not a big deal, but we want to stay connected before departure in case there are any issues with our clearance paperwork.  So, it looks like we will walk away from our $100 deposit (suckage).

The cases of beer come in a plastic 20-bottle case. There is a deposit on the bottles and case of about $40.  We turn in our last 2 cases to get that deposit back and are able to apply that credit to our provisions!  Sweet

Hidden Gems

Fiji does not allow a lot of items into the country.  For example, all meats, cheeses, dairy, fresh produce (fruit and veg), seeds (including popcorn), and honey are forbidden.  So, we have to eat all of this prior to arrival.

In addition, they do not allow sea shells, wood, feathers, and sand/soil.  You probably think that these are not a big deal, but I live on a boat and have collected these items for the past 12 years!  We have sea shells (found on the beach) from the Caribbean, Bonaire, Galapagos, Easter island, and of course French Polynesia.  I have a small feather head band from a Marquesan Heiva, a sand and soil art piece created just for me and lots of wood décor.  Oh dear!

I did manage to bring an entire bag of sea shells to my sister (thank you Kimberly). I do not plan to take any of these remaining items off my boat.  Some of these items are stuck to the boat so they don’t fall over while underway.  Those items that are double sticky taped are still out in the open – too hard to remove them and I am hoping they see they are truly décor with no living creatures.  I then did the unthinkable…I hid a few items.  We are talking about carved oyster shells, carved drift wood that have been painted and shellacked, and other items that clearly have no critters.  Fingers crossed 🙂

Safety First

The last thing that we do is prepare the boat for a long passage.  We install jack lines which are a strong tether that goes from the stern of the boat to the bow.  If we have to go to the bow while we are underway, we tether ourselves to this line so we don’t fall over and get lost at sea (slightly important).

We take out our ditch bag and first aid kit.  These items have emergency items (flashlights, water, some food, batteries, water bottle, mirror, etc…)  We also set out our foul weather gear and PFDs (personal floatation devices).  Everything has to be easily accessible.

We stow any and all items that have the potential to fall or break. Secure all cabins, cabinets, and closets. Create a snack basket that is easy to access during night passages.  Check all EPIRBS, put in fresh batteries in them and the hand held GPS.  We double check our Iridium and sent out texts, emails and a phone call.

Check, Check, Check.  Now we just need a weather window!

Stay tuned for passage details coming up next..

Do you remember Marvin Gaye’s album cover “Sugar Shack?”  It sold for close to $15 million!

Marvin Gaye's Sugar Shack cover

Marvin Gaye’s Sugar Shack cover

Did you read our post on the Liward islands?  Be sure to check it out as we say goodbyes before we vamoose!  This blog occurred in late May. Our blog runs 10-12 weeks behind actual events.