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This morning we radioed in early to the Denarau Marina to see if they had any mooring buoys available. As we had arrived offshore late in the evening we were some of the first to check for any openings. Little did I realize that this could pose a challenge. Until now we never had a problem finding a mooring buoy in Fiji and I just assumed it would be the same here.

When we called in however we were told that they would have to get back to us. We waited patiently for 30 minutes for a call back. Maybe I missed the VHF call or not but I heard another boat radio in asking for a mooring spot and heard them being offered one. I called right in and was told we could take the last available spot. Only two moorings became available today. We quickly made our way into the narrow channel to the marina and took a mooring. I was greatful we did not come in the night before because not only was there no space, but the water is extremely shallow. Over the course of the day I heard at least 5 other boats ask for space from the marina only to be told that there was nothing available.

After safely in the harbour my first course of action was to go ashore, check in with the office to see how long we could stay and then to see if we could get someone to repair our leaking window. I had been anxious to get the duct tape off of the window since it went on in American Samoa. While it did a great job of keeping the leaks out, it didn’t look very pretty.

We found out that there was only space in the marina for two days. By Saturday we would have to find another place to anchor. This was rather disappointing as we had wanted to stay for a little over a week. In a few days we had planned to take a five day cruise to the Yasawa Islands with Captain Cook Cruises. I called another marina in the area and they too were booked up. They told me to check back later.

So I headed off to the repair facilities at the marina to see if they were able to help us out on our boat. The first shop only handled welding and so they directed me to Baobab Marine. I was rather surprised to be greeted by someone from New Zealand who could tell I was a yachtie. He asked if I needed help on my boat. When I explained the leaking window we needed repaired, his first question was, “Would you like it repaired today.” I was stunned, many places can help on the day you go in but that is rarely what they offer first. I immediately replied, “Yes, the earlier the better.”

One of the workers were sent with me to scout out the project and so I motored him over on the dinghy. We ended up walking around the marina a little bit because after being dropped off, I didn’t see where the others had dropped of the dinghy. Sure enough it was on the last dock (and the closest to where we originally were) we checked.

After a quick look at our boat the repairman suggested removing the window completely and re-sealing it from scratch. I had already had 3 people repair the same window. It only leaked slightly after the second repair job in Tahiti but after the repair person in Tonga by a Moorings charter repair employee, it was leaking like a faucet, enough to require the emergency use of duct tape!

I also had him look at a broken piece on my dinghy. For the past few months the fuel line kept coming off as the clip holding it in place had rusted and snapped. This meant that whenever the dinghy went over a certain speed, the fuel line would detach from the engine. If not caught right away, this caused the engine to keep stalling. As a result we resorted to holding the fuel line with one hand while steering the dinghy. The repair person suggested a friend do the job for us but that we would have to wait until after lunch to have all of the work done.

We spent the next hour wandering around the shops at the Denarau Marina. It is a very nice shopping mall style facility in a very poor country. It almost felt out of place except for the fact that some very expensive boats were clustered around the marina as well. There was even a Hard Rock café perched at the edge of the waterfront with employees dancing outside to the Village People’s YMCA song to drum up business.

As soon as it was possible I picked up our repair guy and brought him and a friend over to the boat. They got to work on removing the old caulking around the window, reattaching the window and then resealing it. I had them also do a small spot on another window and when they did, the window popped right out. This resulted in us having to buy more sealant than we had anticipated. 7 tubes later the job was complete. They did such a good job that I decided to have them reseal the sink that had been done two times but with the wrong stuff. They opted instead to use the same material that went on the windows, just white instead of black.

While the main worker was tackling the big project, his friend who had come along to help with the window got to work on “repairing” the dinghy fuel line. He had brought “his own part” and offered to fix it himself. They claimed however that Honda motors are not common in Fiji and so they offered to repair the fuel line connector with a Mercury outboard motor line. At first they wanted 120 to 160 dollars for the little connector but settled for 40 per end (two ends). I told them I only needed one end repaired and so they got to work on it. As it turned out the job got done and while not the most ideal of finishing work, the fuel line was no longer in a postion to keep coming off.

When the work was completed, the workers asked me to pay the friend directly for the work. He was doing this “on the side” and he asked that I not mention anything to their employer. My guess is that he gets paid a lot more when billing directly rather than having to process his work through his employer. I paid more than was probably necessary for the part ($60 FJD) and sent them on their way.

In all the materials cost more than the repair job. It was just over 500 FJD ($300) but considering what the wages were in other areas, this was nothing. In San Francisco we were paying $100/hr, in Tahiti $50hr, in Tonga $15 to $20 and her in Fiji $30 (45 FJD). While Tonga was cheaper, the work was horrible. This was the best value work we have had done on our boat since we bought her.

With the repairs completed, we were ready to head out for some “Rest and Relaxation”. We had planned on being in Mana Island tonight but due to bad weather and anchorages, we were two days early in Denarau (good thing, now we had a mooring buoy). As a result we changed our reservation at the Sonaisali Island Resort to check in today rather than on Saturday for two nights. We had a mooring for two nights and we wanted to take advantage of it. It was a safe place and now was our chance to overnight in a nice relaxing hotel.

I had thought the hotel was nearby in the Denarau area but when I asked around with our packed bags in hand, I found out that they were 45 minutes away. I found out that the taxis in the Denarau terminal are not metered and so negotiating the fare in advance is extremely important. I was told that it should be only $30 to $40.

Sure enough when I asked a taxi driver, they asked me how many people were going. We had found a 15 passenger van and so I hesitate with this question because they always want to charge a price per person. I on the other hand know that it takes almost the same amount of gas to get from point A to point B no matter how many people are in the vehicle and so the negotiations began. At first the driver asked for 90 FJD. I explained that I was told it woud be $30. He said not for my family of 9.

In the end he dropped down more than me and we were both happy to settle on $40. Not too bad when you compare it to the Taxi fares in North America. That equated to $25 US for 9 people to travel 45 minutes. It sure was better than taking a $1.20FJD bus to Nandi and then another out to the main road by the resort. That would have meant a 4 km walk down a side road to the resort.

The ride went by quickly as we were all excited to have our first resort experience in many years. We had breakfasts and dinners included and we were excited to not have to prepare food or to do the dishes. We turned off the main road down a dusty side road with sugar cane fields and the sugar cane train tracks similar to the ones we had seen a few days ago. We finally came to a little shack that had the words Sonaisali on it. It was a decrepit old building along a dusty dirt road and I looked at my wife in horror. If that is the check in office, I don’t want to see what the rooms are like.

I asked the Taxi driver in horror. Is this the Sonaisali Resort? That’s when he motioned us towards a dock to the opposite side of this “Security Office” building. The resort is on the other side of the river. A wave of relief ran through my body as I looked out over the slow flowing river to a beautifully manicured resort on the island to the other side. We all grabbed our bags and headed over to the dock to find someone getting off of the shuttle boat. We simply had to step on and go for a quick 2 minute ride across the river and over to resort.

We were warmly greeted on the other side and walked about five minutes to the reception area with our bags. We unlike most of the others coming to this island, only had some day backpacks to take care of our needs for two short nights. Shortly after presenting ourselves to the front desk, we were greeted with a welcome drink and provided with our room keys. While we were not located in any of the little bungalow style cabins, we had some deluxe Ocean View rooms in the two story traditional hotel style building at the resort. The kids looked around in awe at the white sand beach walkways, paths and play areas throughout the resort. They were also excited about the swimming pool. It was only seconds into the building before Teyauna was asking to go swimming. We were fast approaching dinner however and so we checked into our rooms and then made our way to the dining area for our 3 course dinner.

We were able to choose between an ordered meal or a quick buffet dinner. Had I known it would take an hour and a half to get our meal I probably would have opted for the buffet but the prawns, imported New Zealand steak and chocolate cake with ice cream sounded too tantalizing to turn down. The servers were gracious and made the kids feel very welcome and we were all excited to have such a fancy meal out and off of our sailboat. It reminded me of the meals we had at some all inclusive resorts we stayed at in Mexico many years ago.

By the time the meal was over, Teyauna had forgotten about the beautiful swimming pool that wrapped around the open wall side of the dining area and was asking to be able to go to sleep. She went back with Zakary and I who were also tired while the boys already had their swimming suits on for a late night swim.

I have to admit that I fell asleep almost as early as Teyauna. I didn’t find out until the next morning that the kids were all so excited that they seemed to have already scouted out the entire resort. They tried out the tennis courts, ping pong tables, scouted out the windsurfers for tomorrow and other activities. They wanted to be well prepared for the next day which would be the only full day at the resort. I on the other hand couldn’t be awakened, even while Kirsten had a maintenance person check a problem with Sour broken air conditioning and then move rooms when it couldn’t be fixed at 11pm. Here in Fiji we do have to be patient. It took a few hours for the maintenance person to come and it even took a few hours for the crib to be brought to the room for Zakary. But they eventually did come.