Hi
from Clare, 8-2018 Savusavu, Fiji 8th
September 2018
We
left Tonga 1st September and sailed to Fiji in near
perfect conditions. It is a three and a half day trip and we had the
spinnaker up for the last thirty hours. We rarely experience a trip
as good as this and to top it off we caught an 110cm Mahi Mahi along
the way.
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| Oops no time to get dressed |
A
PRETTY SPOT
We
are on a mooring ball in the Nakama creek alongside the township of
Savusavu which is known as the hidden paradise of Fiji. This is
because Savusavu, nestled in amongst the mountains, cannot be seen
either by land or sea until you are in the creek. We are at the old
Copra Shed Marina, built in the 19th Century and renovated
in recent years to house the Savusavu Yacht Club. It is a very
pretty spot in perfectly flat conditions. The marina staff are very
pleasant and we are enjoying the facilities of the Yacht Club. It is
nice to have hot showers available, a laundry, shops, coffee lounge
and a bar area where we gather every night to catch up with friends
for happy hour and to enjoy the sunset.
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| The mooring field at Savusavu |
GOOD
TO HEAR
The
Check In process to the country was a very pleasant experience. The
Health and Customs Officials were helpful and interesting. The
Health Official talked about how to stay healthy whilst in Fiji
taking into account the local water, mosquito bites, eating out and
generally the things that might cause us some concern and what action
to take if necessary. In our fourteen years of cruising this is the
first time a Health Official has mentioned such things. The Customs
guys talked about the most recent and powerful cyclone Winston, other
lesser cyclones and which boats survived the cyclones and why. They
also told personal stories about families crowded into a bathroom or
toilet to gain maximum protection. They mentioned how the children
were terrified and crying and how one family came out of their
bathroom after Winston to find that the bathroom was the only room in
the house left standing. I don’t blame the kids for crying, under
these circumstances I think I would be crying too.
WHAT
A TREAT
We
are mostly in company with ‘Acapella’ and ‘Jonas’ but we have
sailed with and have friends on some of the other boats located here.
I am particularly enjoying the air conditioned IGA supermarket with
many Australian and New Zealand products available. It’s quite a
treat to see reasonably priced Australian wines, Vegemite and Tim
Tams. The local fruit and vegetable market is huge with high quality
local produce at very inexpensive prices. In addition IGA imports
fruits and vegetables not grown locally. Last night we went out to
The Wok Restaurant with ‘Acapella’ and ‘Jonas’ and shared
seven different dishes with rice. The food was delicious and after
splitting the bill three ways, our meal cost us AUD $28.
THE
BEST MADE PLANS ….
Yesterday
we had this great idea of taking the local bus to the island’s
capital Labasa. We heard via the Cruisers Net that the bus left at
10am. Acapella, Jonas and Eye Candy arrived at 9.35 only to find
that we had missed the bus by five minutes. So after confirming the
correct departure time with a bus driver we planned to be on the bus
the following morning. However the driver failed to tell us that as
today is a public holiday the buses are not running. Oh well we
don’t feel too bad about it as we have now spoken to some cruisers
who did catch the bus yesterday. They said the trip took two and a
half hours each way, there wasn’t much to see when they got to
Labasa, the bus didn’t have air con, the seats were hard and the
bus was crowded, particularly on the way home with people packed
along the centre isle. So maybe missing the bus was a blessing in
disguise:)
WHAT
WE NEED TO KNOW
We
have booked in for a Seminar on Sunday about cruising Fiji presented
by a colourful expat called “Curlie”. There are many islands to
explore and some of the charting for the area is under developed.
Curlie has lived and cruised here for a
number of years. He provides a lot of information along with chart
overlays with way points he has established. We will be very happy
to receive this information as we certainly don’t want to run into
any uncharted reefs.
SO
WHAT’S NEXT
Fiji
is our final destination for this season. So now we can just relax
and enjoy the area before leaving the boat here and flying home in
November.
For
now we are looking forward to moving away from the town and exploring
what Fiji has to offer. We have read and heard that the diving and
snorkelling is good. The weather is a little warmer than Tonga and
the water temperature is a lovely 27 degrees. We have a nice
feeling about Fiji and we are very excited about the coming weeks.
Love
Candy xx
