We're here in Fiji, eagerly awaiting our departure! We have a customs appointment at 10 am to finalize our clearance procedures. We arrived at Oxygen a few days ago and had the pleasure of a thorough handover from the boat's owner. This was a welcome surprise, as we're usually thrown right into the deep end!
The weather forecast looks decent for the first 24 hours as we head west-ish, planning to sail slightly south of Vanuatu on our way to the Torres Strait. However, there's a developing disturbance near New Caledonia with heavy rain predicted. We're aiming to pass it on the north side to avoid the worst of it before continuing west over New Caledonia. Rhona did a frantic dash to the supermarkets yesterday and managed to return with everything we will need for the voyage. While she was gone we hung around off the fuel dock jostling for position with ferrys, water taxis, high speed tourist boats and unfortunately a cruise ship also decided to berth near by so it was pretty frantic trying to move out of the way of anything moving without hitting anything stationary.
We've hit a little snag – our crew member's luggage has gone astray! He arrived with little more than a toothbrush, poor guy. We've made countless calls to Jetstar, each time met with the same cheerful but ultimately unhelpful script: "We are very pleased to assist you with this and thank you for flying Jetstar - please can you spell your name and flight number for the 15th time, even though you've already provided it to everyone else. We are very sorry to hear about the loss of your luggage and will do everything to help you find it!"
Unfortunately, Jetstar seems a bit uncertain about their own flight schedules to Fiji. It took a while to confirm that they actually have flights coming here, and while they've assured us they can put the luggage on the next available flight, it is perfectly timed to guarantee it will arrive just in time to miss our departure! So we have a crew member who will be outfitted with cheerful "bula" shirts and hibiscus shorts for the voyage.
