Getting Cleared into Savusavu in Fiji and Exploring Nakama Creek by Dinghy

Hello friends my name is James and this is my 1965 Alberg 30 sloop Tritea. We are on a mission to sail around the world and see as much of this beautiful planet as possible. We're currently working our way through the south pacific. I can't wait to show you everything we see. I'm loving these dudes bamboo raft fantastic so cool. We are um been talking to customs on the VHF just re-sent them my forms to a different email address. Start the clearing process here at Suva Suva Fiji. I'm excited to clear in get ashore and do some exploring it's beautiful here. That was the boat of the last officials. Man wasn't it like rad experience they were all super cool and really funny cracking jokes. There at the end the biosecurity officer was messing with the customs officer and he like the customs officer almost picked him up and threw him overboard. It was very funny they were like cracking jokes night and day experience from what I had to deal with at American Samoa clearing in. Everybody here was so nice so now I gotta hurry get the dinghy in the water and get ashore so I can pay for my cruising permit. So the customs officer has to apply for me a cruising permit takes three to five or it takes I think it takes three business days to get back so he's like come today so we can get it started so that you can get to cruising um which is awesome. So now I gotta go ashore find an ATM get some cash and then get to his office and get that knocked out and all of that with I think another rainstorm is coming. Super stoked to be cleared into Fiji super super stoked. Just driving around Nakama Creek checking things out just saw a big patch of corals trying to figure out these navigation marks they're very unusual the way they're laid out maybe they're telling you it's clear to drive up to the shore right there I don't know but I did see a reef over there I didn't get close to it but a lot of mangroves here. Can you jump off? Nice putting that boat to good use. Good morning from Suvasuva here in Fiji. Yesterday I tried to go get cash out of the ATMs but two different ATMs I went to couldn't read my card my card is old and kind of like worn out so not surprising um I'm gonna and yesterday was like a public holiday so I couldn't just go into the bank so today I gotta go do that go in get some money out and um head to all the agency's offices and pay my dues it's kind of a bummer like no one told me it was Fiji day yesterday until after the officials had visited so I got charged all kinds of crazy overtime but it's gonna cost me 300 bucks to clear in so had they told me it was like a holiday beforehand then I would have said no I'll just stay on the boat overnight and then clear in the next day it would have saved me like you know it's probably like double the charge but it's okay it's only 300 bucks so that's the plan for today is to get totally cleared in and have a look around Suvasuva and get some provisions and stuff kind of skinny on the boat food right now but I'm excited to be here and look forward to exploring this gorgeous gorgeous place they drive on the opposite side of the road here which is always dangerous to me when I'm crossing the road good morning awesome just got the customs thing knocked out got all paid up and I paid 115 Fijian dollars which is like 50 bucks and got my cruising permit so now I'm allowed to cruise Fiji it was cool too he showed me the cruising permit and it's all in Fijian he said it's in Fijian because it's for the villages he was like they almost never asked for it he was like but if they do that's why it's in Fijian and then I just have to send a weekly email telling them where I'm at and where I'm gonna go and that's that so now we get to go find biosecurity and get paid up with them okay so I got customs done I got immigration knocked out and I got biosecurity taken care of I still need to walk to the hospital which is like a mile and a half so I don't want to walk flip-flops I'm gonna go put on real shoes and make that trek and I spoke with the marina here copra shed they're so chill they're like yeah you just you know let us know when you're ready to leave and you can pay it's like so chill and it's like 50 bucks a week to stay on a mooring which is very cheap um I got a little bit of groceries some like essentials that I was running out of and um yeah pretty stoked feel better about everything now that I got money and got my bills paid for the clear end and um yeah the future's looking bright little goats hanging out with the trees it's like bringing it back to the huajini style walking down this hibiscus highway to the hospital keeping my eyes out for new and unusual birds I've never seen and we are all paid up and cleared in and I learned the word thank you in Fijian is dinaka I think if I remembered it correctly historically I don't remember correctly but we'll cross reference later stoked to have that all done um I can't remember off the top of my head right now the exact money it cost to clear in so I'll put it on the screen after I add up the actual numbers wasn't too bad but it was worse because I cleared in on a holiday so don't do that if you can avoid it stoked to be done though now I can just chill and get into Fiji one thing that's interesting I've noticed here that I've never seen anywhere else is they don't have trash cans they have these raised platforms maybe to keep rats out of the trash but they're just like raised up and then I guess the garbage men just come and scoop it off into something I don't know but they're I've seen them all over the place so that's that's how they dispose of their trash here these mangroves are cool there's all these funny little bitty crabs look like fiddler crabs and they have like bright yellow one bright yellow claw they're too quick to get on video there's also all these like scanning up there these crabs are funny these like uh I don't know are these I don't know what these are mussels scallops clams maybe they're clams I bet they're clams people are like so aggravated in me right now watching this video because I don't know what this is but what are you gonna do there's a bunch of them though and there's like some kind of weird snapping sound coming from the mud flats pretty neat if you enjoy the content on this channel and would like to contribute you can consider joining the patreon crew thanks for watching fair winds until next time