Day two at sea is exactly the same as day one, which is slow, rocky and not fun. We have accepted that it is impossible to make it to Vila before sunset and have slowed the RPM’s down to 1700, which is closer to what we ideally like to cruise at. The moon is rising around 2300 (11:00 pm) right now, so we need to slow down so we have moonlight to see by as we approach the pass. If we come in too early in the evening, it will be pitch black.

We wanted to take a moment to comment on the “political turmoil” in Fiji. We were surprised to find out that there has never been any kind of violence involved with any of the coups. All were peaceful transfers of power “coup of words only” many people told us. In all cases, life for the people pretty much went on as normal. The reason we were surprised was because we had heard warnings that you shouldn’t go to Fiji in times of “political strife” which made it sound like Fiji was potentially dangerous. Other tourists told us that they think certain Democratic governments make the coup situations out to be much worse than they are as a punishment to Fiji for going against Democratic principals. Tourism is Fiji’s biggest industry, so discouraging tourists is a big blow to the economy. All the locals complained about how slow the tourist business has been since the coup in December.

We asked everyone who we met about the political situation. Every single person waved it off with a comment along the lines of “Oh, all governments are corrupt” or “It’ll work itself out”. When we pressed, we got a few people to talk about it, but most said they weren’t interested in discussing it. We only gleaned bits and pieces of information, and since it is second hand info, we cannot vouch for it’s accuracy, but this is what we what have pieced together from what we were told.

It sounds like the Fijian people have been generally supportive of all three of the coups. We were never explicitly told this, but we got the impression that the first coup was because of voting fraud. Everyone agrees that government was corrupt, yet they were in power a very short a time. It sounds like the last president that was overthrown in December was selling villagers land out from under them to foreigners. We never got much detail on the middle coup.

The current government is actively trying to fix the voting system. While we were there, they did the first census in many years and planned on drawing new district lines that better represent the people. The hope is that there will be no more need for coups in the future if the voting system works better. The current government is also trying to improve infrastructure in the villages so that people do not need to move into the cities. They are hoping with better infrastructure that people will move back to the villages. Some people think this is good, some people think the government is regressing instead of progressing.

We saw no overt signs of racial tension between the Indians and the native Fijians. We have read that the source of the tension is over land ownership. Almost all the land is owned by native Fijian villages, with little land available for Indians to purchase. Indians usually lease land from the native Fijians. A couple people told us that the two groups co-exist quite peacefully and that the “tensions” are created by an outspoken few that try to blame the other group for economic and societal problems.

Prices in Fiji are low by American standards (outside of Nadi and Denaru), but cost of living is very high compared to what the locals earn. Unskilled workers make about $100 Fijian per week. A ferry ride from a nearby island to Denaru is $20 each way, making living in the island villages and commuting to work unfeasible. A tourist pays $60 for that same ride.