After a slow day with the wind on the nose it finally relented and moved back to the south. We had a very calm night with enough wind to keep up four knots which is all we needed to arrive here in the morning. All night we had the glow of Suva on the bow. There are extensive reefs around Suva and approaching as it got light was just perfect. We took a few fixes to check the accuracy of the charts and were happy with following our electronic charts in. It always seems far more difficult when looking at the approach on the charts, but once you get there it always seems a lot easier than one presumed. We anchored near the Royal Suva Yacht Club and cleared in with the port captain who told us to contact the yacht club to complete customs etc. We called them on the radio and they said we could check in and pay or wait until tomorrow ... so here we are relaxing and sleeping our day away.
The harbour inside was filthy with tons of oil on the surface as well as general rubbish. There goes our nice clean hull. The harbour is filled with deep sea fishing boats rafted together. These are all long line fishing boats that are stripping the pacific of its pelagic fish. The other thing one notices is that they all have Chinese flags off the stern. All around the pacific the Chinese are taking over putting some money into the country for basic development and then collect all the fishing grants etc and clean out their natural resources. Since arriving we have seen a few of the boats rafted near us dumping their rubbish over the side. It's no wonder that the harbour looks as it does.
On a lighter note while Colin was on watch a bird crashed on deck. Shining a light in its direction he found a rather dazed Bird of Paradise with its squid lying on the deck and it stumbling around a little stunned. It did not have much room to take off so flapped around helplessly. Fortunately it flapped down the side past the cockpit where Colin got hold of it. After trying to calm it he was going to launch it, when it latched onto his finger with amazing power for such a small bird. The beak is serrated to grip squid which are extremely slippery from the surface of the water. It took a while for Colin to pry its beak open and launch it skywards in the dark where it found its wings and got going.
So tomorrow we sign in and will head into town to explore. From the water the town has many new and modern looking buildings. Apparently the shops are also well stocked. There are a few things that we need so hopefully they will be available here. Our last shop was in Tahiti almost two months ago.
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