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American Spirit II - Day 150; X-Rail Land Tour, Repairs in Fiji and Skippers Fiji Meeting; Wednesday, June 4, 2014



12:14 AM sent emails via SSB. First tried to send via Niue, 229 miles away. No luck. Then connected with Manihi located 1,624 miles away. Frequency 8299.4; same as last night. Took 15 minutes to send then receive all messages. One of the emails I sent was to a repair company in Fiji. I itemized the repairs we needed and labeled them as Critical: new shroud and new 8 D Deep Cycle Flooded Batteries; Very Important: charging system for non-American dock outlets; Important: new sail patches for mainsail; and Moderately Important: change mainsail inhaul furling line. I also asked the agent to get us a slip in the Port Denarau Marina from June 15 thru June 27. Though I think we only need a week to complete all repairs, I'd rather have too much marina time than too little. If we finish all the work in a week, then we'll move out of the marina and tour around some before my oldest daughter Angela and her husband Chet arrive June 29.



Today is our fifth monthly anniversary since leaving Florida on January 4.



Overslept this morning, getting up at 7:10 AM instead of 7:00 AM. Tired, probably due to medication and fighting infection.



Had breakfast at 7:30 AM. Bacon, scrambled eggs, chilled fruit cocktail and hard, heavy Tongan wheat bread, in a loaf more square than rectangular. The bread wasn't very good.



We left the boat at 8:45 AM and headed to Vava'u Safari for an X-Rail tour of the island. Once we got into our vehicle, which resembled one of those mud cars you see on TV, we followed Jeff on our tour. Jeff was our guide and the son of the business's owner, Sandra. We were instructed by our guide to not hit pigs, potholes and coconuts while driving. We went to Utula Aina Lookout, the top of a 500 foot cliff that was accessible only by driving on a rutted road, where the grass and bushes between the two ruts was higher than my head, so you were driving blind a lot. The 'road' was tilted, muddy and full of rocks. At one point we almost went off the 'road' to the left, which would have meant rolling the vehicle over and over down a steep tree and bush embankment. This 500 foot cliff was the one we saw before sunrise when we were sailing around Vava'u on the way to our anchorage. Next we went to an overlook that included a rock archway along the ocean. Then we went to to Keitahi Beach at Onetale Bay. The view there at sea level was outstanding. Desolate and deserted. Finally we ended up at Ene'io Beach at the Botanical Gardens, where we stopped for some refreshments. While there I bought a Tongan War Club. Will fit nicely on the wall at home with my blow guns from the Amazon and spear from Africa.



During this adventure our cart broke down two times. The first time due to a wire that had become detached by a branch; and the second time due to the chain coming off the transmission. On both occasions Joel, AKA 'The Fixer,' had the vehicle running again before our guide came back to see what the problem was and fix it himself.



We were back at the shop at 12:30 PM, then went to the Tropicana Cafe for lunch. Lisa, the proprietor, using her land line and a phone calling card, helped me connect with the repair facility in Fiji, where I confirmed my appointment with an agent to get the items on the boat fixed; and to ensure that we had a marina slip to get the work done starting June 15 thru June 27.



At 4:30 PM we attended a Skipper's Briefing on leaving Tonga and arriving in Fiji. Entering and clearing into Fiji is somewhat complicated in that we have to fax or email to Fiji documents 48 hours before making landfall there; and this will be the first and only country on our around the world trip where we will clear into the country by ourselves, without any rally representatives doing a lot of the clearing for us. This briefing lasted about an hour and 15 minutes. Joel and I both took a lot of notes.



Part of this briefing included which island to clear into in Fiji (there are 191 islands in Fiji), which depended on how much time you had and whether or not you were going to need repairs in Fiji. Twelve boats will be leaving our rally in Fiji, most of which are going on to New Zealand for a year, and then most of them will rejoin the next rally in 2015.



After the meeting rally representative Suzana took my picture because Bali, Indonesia is now requiring that a picture of all Captains be digitally submitted to their government before we can enter their country in September.



After the meeting we went to The Aquarium Cafe where we had dinner with the crew of Folie a Deux. I had Alfredo Pasta and Joel had something similar. While there, Tracy showed me her left elbow, which was heavily inflamed and painful. She has a bad infection in her left elbow. I convinced her to see a doctor tomorrow or to at least get on an antibiotic that will get rid of the infection. Like Doxycyline, what I am on.



We got back to the boat at 9:15 PM, where I hopped on the computer to type emails and send them out via our SSB radio; and Joel went to the cockpit to play Sudoku.



332 Days until home.



Brian Fox


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