Waya Yasawa – Part 1

The Yasawa group lies to the west of Lautoka and the main island running in a north/south line. In Lautoka, we had another round of customs hassles so we were only too glad to leave. It seems that before visiting each onward island group, you are required to get an additional clearance despite the fact that we had already obtained all the cruising permits in Suva. In Nadi, we were advised that for the Yasawa group, we had to go to Lautoka – a place we really did not intend to visit.

While Steve went ashore in Lautoka, I stayed behind to do an oil change on the John Deere and check and replace all of the engine zincs. About an hour later, Steve returned and told me that we were lacking a document that was to be issued in Suva. He took everything we had back to the Custom’s officer and was gone another 1.5 hours. As I was finishing up, Steve returned with the Customs Officer in the dink – seems he wanted to tour our boat and go for a “fast ride” in our dinghy. He told me that he had issued the necessary papers for onward travel without requiring us to go back to Suva – something he often did – or fining us – which he often did to other less cooperative yachties, because Steve was cooperative and was suitably “remorseful” that we didn’t have the required document.. We got off with a warning even though it wasn’t our fault that customs in Suva hadn’t given us the document in the first place.

Once we got rid of Mr. Customs, we quickly fired up the engine and got out of Dodge bound for Waya. It was a stormy looking afternoon as we approached the formidable Waya. We chose the south anchorage as we wee losing daylight and the winds were to be from the north. THat left us with the lingering southeast swell. The flopper stoppers were deployed and we settled in for a very stormy night – the kind where you really love that big 240 pound Rocna.

The next morning we left for the north bay as the winds were to go southeast – and the north bay is where we had wanted to go before the unscheduled stop in Lautoka in the first place. Glad Steve had dealt with Mr. Customs – I probably would not have been suitably “remorseful”.