First week in Savusavu, Fiji

Carol purchasing Kava roots for chief of local village we were to visit

Curly conducting navigation seminar for BPO| boats

Huge market in Labasa

MAGGIE dressed for the Savusavu Open

First week in Savusavu, Fiji

July 26 2015

We are glad that we made this extra stop in Fiji. It is a difficult place to navigate and not an official BPO stop so we have been on our own researching. I've already touched some coral with the keel while hunting around for our mooring ball. There are now 4 BPO boats here. Curly, who does a morning net, also puts on a 3 hour seminar on Sundays on navigation and regulations here. He was kind enough to do a special session on Fri for us as we need to get moving today or tomorrow and we are all taking one route to the west side. It was very useful. Rob is spending this morning entering waypoints in the chart plotter to weave our way through the coral. The weather is not good for the trip but isn't going to get much better in the short term. When it is windy the wind is accelerated between the 2 large islands by about 10 knots. You also have to spend the first 4 hours beating to windward to get around a reef.

It has been a fun week to be here as the town council has had its first fair ,the Savusavu Open. The usual info booths, food stands, rides and entertainment in the evenings. You could buy a raffle ticket to win a goat and a case of beer. Each night there were 2 more goats there. Surprisingly the speeches were in English, but very long winded. With Hindi and local languages it is the one they all have in common. Entertainment was mostly dancing, either Indian style, contemporary, or the local village historic styles. And it is true that they cannot sing as well as the Polynesians. The town council asked if the boats would "dress up" which means putting up all of our flags. It did look impressive in the harbour. We put up a couple of strands of flags and won honourable mention. We lent another string of flags to one of the BPO boats who shared first prize. The mooring balls are just inside of the mouth of a river so we are close together and close to shore so right in view of people walking along the one street.

There are a lot more shops and restaurants than in Tonga and the prices are much lower. The food prices are so low that we have mostly been eating out. The first night there were 3 of us with 5 Indian entrees. The total bill was about $15 US. I got my hair cut for $6. We purchased a new smart phone that comes unlocked for about $100. The sim card was $1.50. We are having a lot of fun getting internet on the boat with it! Rob also found the cables we needed to watch the movies on the computer on our large screen. A seamstress repaired the holes in the bimini and someone did our laundry. Alcohol is the exception with a limited, expensive selection.

I took advantage of the fact that there is a clinic in town and had a Dr check my broken toe. I stepped into the bilge when a floorboard was up and I was carrying laundry down the stairs. Three weeks later it is still swollen and sore. It was for my peace of mind to know it is healing ok. He just said I need to rest it more which is a challenge when you have to walk everywhere. Other than that and a few scrapes and bruises we have been very healthy.

We took one tour to a village and waterfall inland on Wed. which was interesting. Sat we took the local bus to Labasa on the north coast, about a 3 hour trip. Mostly we wanted to see the rain forest that you have to cross to get there. It is a larger city with a huge market.  On the return trip I'm sure the number of passengers was double the maximum capacity, with three to a seat and all the aisles full. We have been told to be careful about stealing here which I guess comes with the larger more urban population.

In the marina there are 2 women on the boat, Interlude, which is from Toronto. They have been here for 2 years. Mostly, however, we have visited with NZ sailors. It has been fun for us to learn more about NZ as we will be visiting there in Sept.