ALMOST in PRISON!

18. November 2014, Tuesday
17° 40' 59" S, 178° 50' 4" E


Great, that's a suuuuper surprise!
It was just missing that we would have been taken away in handcuffs.
But first things first:
After completing our visa run to Wallis and Futuna, we sailed back to Fiji to clear here. This time in the old capital of Levuka on the island of Ovalau. Compared to Suva, things should be quite simple and unbureaucratic there.

First came 2 Fijians from the health authority on board. Lots of laughter, as always with the Fijians, a little chat, pay the fees and the process was done.
Then came the customs on the Odin, a hundred and ten percent Fijian of Indian descent, a very sharp dog with apparently a lot of boredom.... ...and sooooo important.

He's probably the type of person who checks proverbs for their truthfulness.
This time it was about the saying:
He who seeks finds!

We will be asked for a C2C form to fill out a few days before boarding the ship to Fiji. But we haven't. The reason: Another customs office told us that we only need this form for the very first entry.
Due to this missing form, which one simply has to fill out on the Internet, we are now a high-risk ship. Uiuiuiui!
Now the ship is felted.
Tataaaaa....a switchblade, and that's forbidden in Fiji, it had tasted blood.
Somewhere on the DVDs he also found 3 old, fairly harmless 70s porn videos that friends had given me considerately for lonely hours on board in 2007 as a farewell gift. Banned in Fiji! Tatatataaaaaa...
Now he was so fed up and in the hunt fever that the drool almost ran down his lips.

When he first asked if we had weapons on board, we answered truthfully, no, because they had been handed over to the police with the ammunition when we first entered the country in 2012, as per regulations. There she remains until our final departure.
But Tatatatatatatatataaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa): more: he finds 2 packs of 9mm cartridges in the onboard safe, which i just overlooked and forgot to hand in.
Mea culpa, but you should be able to understand this argument!

Now our Indian became the XXL Criminal Ghandi.
Police came on board. Odin has now been properly turned upside down, but without anything being found.
Uts and I were provisionally arrested.
Off to the customs hut.
Interrogation by customs and police.
Until then, we thought this trifle was fun, but our XXL Criminal Ghandi is very serious.
According to the law, I should now, as a captain, for these capital crimes,
Introduction of dangerous weapons (the little switchblade), ammunition smuggling, distribution of pornographic material (yodeling in leather trousers), and not filling out an official form in jail.
But this is where the fun stops!
Especially when it comes to Fijian prison!
After some back and forth phoning with the headquarters in Suva, I was allowed to return to the Odin overnight.
My passport was confiscated and we are temporarily not allowed to sail any further until a higher authority decides on the case.
Now we are anchored here in the busy port of Levuka, right next to a stinking fish factory and are rocking like crazy, so that you could get seasick even at anchor.
Let's see how it goes on in our beloved Fiji.