Out of the frying pan into the fire...

After almost two weeks of island hopping my stay in Fidji came to an end. As mentioned in the last bog entry there was only a very short goodbye between me and Matthias when he was going from the Yasawa ferry towards one of the resorts while I was coming from another ressort boarding the ferry. The dark clouds at that moment should have told me that there would be one hell of a ride waiting for me.
As soon as the ferry had left the wind protected bay, it pretty much got its ass kicked by Big Papa Pacific: Waves between four and five meters high made the boat - after all a pretty big 45m long catamaran - dance as if it was a little raft. Soon the first passengers were gripping the white paperbags in front of them, while the usual group of drunk english guys shouted and laughed as if they were on a roller coaster ride. However, by the time its route led the ferry further away from the islands towards the open sea the fun was over for everybody: The waves became even higher, the passengers grew even more silent if that's possible. The lowlight came shortly afterward when suddenly in all that jumping around a life raft came loose and had to be fastened again by the crew while the boat was getting heavily beat by the elements. To add even more fun to the ride, it became quickly apparent that the boat wasn't entirely airtight: Heavy drops were dripping steadily down the ceiling of the cabin and with every other big wave (read: pretty much with every wave) water also splashed in through the doors which couldn't be completely shut.
It wasn't until the boat reached Beachcomber Island that the elements allowed it and the passengers to catch their breath again. At least so I thought up until the boat came to an abrupt stop with a loud scratching sound that promised nothing too good. Complete silence befell the cabin, on the outside the wind was still howling and the waves breaking, and when the motors growled and the scratching continued, everybody realized what had happened: In the darkness the captain had "landed" the ship on a coral reef and now couldn't free it. At that time it was already 7.30pm, the ship was hours behind schedule, but theoretically we were only half an hour away from the harbor. The delay was more than just a small nuisance, because at 10pm my flight was leaving towards LA.
9pm: Finally a backup ferry arrives to get the passengers to the harbor. 9.40pm: The backup reaches the harbor (Good job captain!). 10pm: we're told that our flight, by that time probably already filled with the other 459 people, would be waiting for the six off us that we're still on the ferry. 10.10pm: At the airport, finally, now hurry: Passport? Got it! Boarding ticket? Got it! Visa application number?.... Shit.....
At this point I also have to ask: Why the hell do you have to fill out two copies of the same shitty application for the so-called "land of the free", one for the customs officer, one for the Department of Homeland Security? That seems even stupider when the application to be filled out is full of ridiculous questions like "Do you plan on dealing with drugs?" What kind of answer does the Department of Homeland Security expect to get here? "Hell yeah, I'll get rid of the 10 pounds of coke that are in my backpack, buy an atomic bomb with the drug money, blow up the White House and dance Lambada on its ruins!!"
But hey, what the hell, so we all filled out the stupid visa application (At least I wasn't the only one that had forget his application number), right before the Check-In-Counter closed, basically ran through the security check, off to the gate and with a last quick "Bula!" we're off to LA.
What's kind of funny though: Right before our last flight together we had joked about how cool it would be just to be sitting in front of the gate and wait for the flight attendants to call out your name as the last passenger remaining to get on the flight, to personally invite you to join the flight, so to speak. Having been forced to live that situation for real now I can definitely say: Matthias, don't try it, it's not fun, it's bad enough that one of us had to go through that experience!