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20-02-2017, 15:57
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#1
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Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 29
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Pirates in Fiji
While anchored in Walu Bay, Suva Harbor, Fiji on the night of 23 Jan, 2017,
I was boarded, attacked and robbed by two thugs armed
with a cane knife.
The thugs who attacked me were practiced and knew what they were doing,
repeatedly asking me where the "big money was hidden",
while torturing me. BTW, my big money" is in Westpac Bank.
A heads up,. parts of Fiji are not as safe as they one were.
I am a resident of Fiji with a Fiji registered yacht.
I love Fiji and see this as a troubling aberration,
hopefully limited to 3-4 bigger cities.
Jim Van Cleve
SY Kalokalo, 1968, P35
Fiji
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20-02-2017, 16:49
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#2
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Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Australia
Boat: Catalina 470
Posts: 4,578
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Re: Pirates in Fiji
Im sorry to hear this.
Sent from my vivo Y35 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app
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20-02-2017, 16:53
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#3
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Registered User
Join Date: Jul 2016
Location: Aruba for 2023
Boat: 2019 Fountaine Pajot Saba 50'
Posts: 319
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Re: Pirates in Fiji
I saw your story on FB, so glad you're recovering. Fair winds...
__________________
-Tom
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. - George Bernard Shaw
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20-02-2017, 21:21
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#5
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Carlsbad, CA
Boat: 1976 Sabre 28-2
Posts: 7,505
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Re: Pirates in Fiji
Saw your boat in Vuda Marina a few years back. Always wondered who the fellow Pearson 35 owner was who sailed their Pearson all that way. Glad you weren't seriously hurt. One swipe with a cane knife could seriously change your life. Believe your experience has happened a couple of times on the major islands recently Hope the authorities get a handle on the assault and thievery before it gets out of hand.
__________________
Peter O.
'Ae'a, Pearson 35
'Ms American Pie', Sabre 28 Mark II
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20-02-2017, 21:36
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#6
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Moderator
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: aboard, cruising in Australia
Boat: Sayer 46' Solent rig sloop
Posts: 28,400
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Re: Pirates in Fiji
roverhi,
Fiji is still pretty tribal. I'd go to the chiefs. But then, we always made a point of doing sevusevu, so that we'd be under their protection. I understand the custom is fading with the years, but we never met a chief who failed to follow through on his responsibility, because if he didn't, he'd lose face. When in Rome......
It's a long time ago, now, but some nationalities really have difficulty with the sevusevu concept. It is really simple. You're a stranger. The expected behavior for strangers is that they make a ritual gift in the kava house, of kava, for the chief. This is practical for him because he has countless obligations to tribal members that also demand the ritual gift of kava. It is practical for the yachtie because it (a) it is one way of showing respect for the chief, the elders of the village, and the people of the village and (b) if the chief accepts your gift, you are then under his protection. Otherwise you are as welcome as a stranger of different color who decides to park in your driveway overnight and help himself from fruit from your trees.
This is also about leaving a clean wake. Now, I am glad Mr. Van Cleve was not worse injured, and I am informed he is a real good guy to yachties, so I am not saying he brought this on himself, at all, 'cause I know s**t happens, and as far as I know, he has done nothing to cause this horrid event. But what I am trying to do is help strangers to understand some of the not so obvious expectations of the villages. Furthermore, it is a good idea to buy the best kava you can, because the more chiefly the gift is, the more it is respected.
Ann
__________________
Who scorns the calm has forgotten the storm.
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20-02-2017, 21:58
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#7
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Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2017
Location: Everywhere
Boat: Colegate 26
Posts: 1,153
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Re: Pirates in Fiji
Quote:
Originally Posted by boatman61
To much internet chatter about hidden safes on boats.. similar thing happened in Panama 2012.. crew went ashore leaving owner on board.. some guys swam out to the boat and beat the crap out of him demanding to know where the safe was..
Glad you survived the incident.. Best wishes..
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Time to implement the decoy safe with inkjet printed currencies.
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20-02-2017, 22:58
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#8
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Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: Nanaimo BC
Boat: modified Spray 56' oa
Posts: 378
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Re: Pirates in Fiji
The kava for the chief is well known by any backpacker who has walked about the islands. Bula bula.
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20-02-2017, 23:39
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#9
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Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 29
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Re: Pirates in Fiji
Suva is a big city, the national capital of Fiji.
Unlike small rural settlements there is no Savusavu in Suva.
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21-02-2017, 01:08
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#10
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CF Adviser
Join Date: Oct 2007
Boat: Van Helleman Schooner 65ft StarGazer
Posts: 10,280
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Re: Pirates in Fiji
I really hate to say it as I loved the diving and cruising in Fiji and cruised there a few times, but compared to many other Western Pacific nations... I found the Fijians in general both aggressive and quite rude to foreigners, while holding their hand out for charitable donations, which we were in a position to do
Dependant but despising of the hard working Indian population, wrapped up in drugs and drink, the men stagger around at night with a macho rugby attitude.
Sort of reminded me of Chuuk Lagoon with a warrier mindset, fueled by booze and drugs.
No interest in returning to either place.
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21-02-2017, 02:20
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#11
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Senior Cruiser
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Thunder Bay, Ontario - 48-29N x 89-20W
Boat: (Cruiser Living On Dirt)
Posts: 49,082
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Re: Pirates in Fiji
__________________
Gord May
"If you didn't have the time or money to do it right in the first place, when will you get the time/$ to fix it?"
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21-02-2017, 23:18
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#12
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Moderator
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: aboard, cruising in Australia
Boat: Sayer 46' Solent rig sloop
Posts: 28,400
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Re: Pirates in Fiji
There may be no sevusevu in Suva any more. And I don't really think you brought this attack on yourself, Jim, not at all. My point was more that westerners generally, should be sensitive to the requirements of the cultures they visit, for they are perceived as wealthy. That wealth may be an inspiration or a cause of jealousy. Furthermore, the Polynesian and Melanesian cultures have standards of generosity that would make any Westerner quail!
I once saw a Fijian man wearing a T-shirt which said on it in bold letters, " Instant A$$xxxx*: just add alcohol". This seems to me to have arisen from drinking alcohol as they do kava. I also knew a young man of chiefly lineage who, having slain a man in a drunken brawl, completed his time in the jail in Suva, and went on to be turanga ni koro in a village we visited. This "drunken savage" was not interested in our crime novels, he asked for "literature!"
On a different issue, never was an ethnic Fijian threatening to us, nor for that matter, a Fijian of Indian decent. In some villages, a Fijian man had taken a Fijian Indian woman to wife. Mostly, those were not totally openly accepted.
Fiji is a nation in process of change, as is every place we visit, and every place we leave. We, as cruisers, can only do what we can to try and respect, ---or move on-- when we visit somewhere we don't understand at all. [We briefly visited the island of Kioa. Bad vibes. We left.]
Ann
on edit: what I am thinking these days is that as the old, in-built ways of conflict avoidance and resolution break down, most probably power gaining takes over... sad to say...
__________________
Who scorns the calm has forgotten the storm.
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