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to the Website of the Sailing Vessel Wings 

Home Port of Seward, Alaska

     
 
 

We Enter Fiji!

For those of you who followed our blog, you know that boarding Fiji Air flight 811 was not a given. After several hours of desperate and concerted effort, Conni managed to get us approved to enter Fiji and we were allowed to board the plane. Sheesh!

Still, the thrill of flying into another country was unique and thrilling.

For perspective, here is a map of Fiji. The red arrow at left points to Vuda Point Marina where Wings is stored. With so many uninhabited islands, it's a sailor's paradise with clear waters and the most exquisite soft coral in the world. We landed at Nadi International Airport, the largest in the country. Nadi International is just below Vuda Point Marina.

This band welcomed our flight into Nadi Internation Airport, and what a lovely welcome it was. The "skirts" are called "sulus" and are traditional dress, used in government offices and such. We had no problems with Fiji Immigration and very little difficulty with Customs. Customs was concerned with the canned chicken and Zatarain's packaged food, and never even glanced into the other two boxes of boat parts.

Lovely Conni with the two carts that we needed to haul all of ourgear. For a tiny airport, it was quite a crowd. Most American tourists visit Fiji for diving. Fiji boasts the best soft coral in the world, as well as Manta, whales, and sharks.

Our gear awaits a porter to enter First Landing Resort. What a lovely place! That's my ukulele case protruding from the stack.

Our "bare" (pronounced "bar-a") or cabin, is completely self-contained with a kitchen, bathroom, and all amenities.

Vuda Marina, our long-awaited goal and first visit after dumping gear in our room It's a circular cut-out in the coral as you can see. Boats from all over the world gather here for cyclone season. Conni, in black, hadn't changed from her flying clothing and was getting a bit warm.

Wings! Still safely perched in her trench, she appeared to be in reasonable condition. We later learned that we have some worrisome problems, but at this point we were overjoyed to see her.

First Landing's frontage. Not bad, is it? Tradition has it that the first Fijians landed at this spot, hence the resort's name. The bridge leads to "Barefoot Island", an island that is shaped like a large bare foot.

How to make a visitor feel welcomed. Each day, we receive a new message spelled in flowers collected from the grounds.

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