agility @ sea

Jerri:
Bula is the word for hello in Fijian.
It is the third and final night of our (so far) uneventful and pleasant passage to Fiji. After arrival, it’s necessary to anchor and go through a rigorous check in procedure before entering the country. We have to be approved by the health, agriculture, and customs officials. Some of them will board our boat at anchor, take our garbage to dispose of properly, and make sure we aren’t bringing anything problematic into the country. I think fruit flies may be a problem, but I also believe they will let us keep our existing food on the boat. Then we will head into the dock to get through customs. It will be good practice for NZ and Australia.
There has been more traffic than we’re accustomed to and probably more the norm going forward. Yesterday morning, our friends Moonshadow passed us right after sunrise. We had a good time waving and taking photos of each other.
One of our batteries shut down in Tonga causing a little concern. Fortunately, battery 2 is behaving well and we have a part on the way to Fiji to repair the other.
Tim and I are both looking forward to Fiji. We should be able to get some things done there due to more services, markets, internet, etc, in addition to it being a lovely place and tons of fun. My mom and cousin will visit for 2 weeks at the end of Sept and it looks like the perfect place for that as well.
2 1/2 more hours on watch to go. Last night we did 3 hour shifts due to some concerns about reefs, but are back to 4 hours tonight. I find the 3 hour shifts difficult because I spend the first 45 to 90 minutes panicking about getting to sleep. 4 hours typically means 3 hours of sleep for me until I get to night 3 or 4 and then I can pass out at any time. I had to wake up Tim during each of my watches for various reasons too and I always feel bad about that. We’ll sleep well tonight.