Author: richwest3

June 12, 2013 in Savusavu, Fiji

With landfall comes markets and big decisions…

Who will we eat?…

Bessie?  Or…

Maybe Dolly?

Whichever, it should taste better with some of this! -Rich

June 2013

While Savusavu has two main marinas: the Copra Shed and the Waitui, there’s a lesser known marina further down the waterway. It’s not a straightforward trip: a boat needs to wind its way through shallows and reefs to get there. There’s no one to greet the vessel on arrival, and I don’t think there’s even anyone to answer the radio. There’s no reception area, and no eatery or bar. They do have a few moorings and one dock boats can tie up to. It’s a small, quiet place just outside town, used mostly by locals but handful of cruisers always wind up there and seem to enjoy it.

We took a walk down the road to take a look at it. It’s too far out of town for us, and with all the mangroves I fear it would be buggy. But it’s a peaceful place and probably perfect for the few people who find their way here. –Cyndi

June 11, 2013

We woke up to a cloudy morning in Savusavu after a night of heavy showers. A good rain after an arrival is on every cruiser’s wish list–it’s how we get the passage salt washed off our boats. The morning’s cloudy skies were a gift, not only for giving us a clean boat but allowing us a leisurely morning onboard without guilt that we weren’t running out to see the area. (Pictures of cloudy mornings in Savusavu–click to enlarge and scroll.)

By lunchtime it was clearing up and time to go see Savusavu. Our adventure started at the Waitui Marina’s somewhat rickety and funhouse-adventurous dinghy dock. There are no slips at this marina, just the dinghy dock and the main building, which I’d call rustic. The people who run it, though, were as nice as could be and got our paperwork started for our cruising permit (something required for cruising around Fiji’s islands). After that, we went out to explore the town.

The town of Savusavu is several blocks long and runs along the waterfront. Most of the business are on the inland side of the street but there are a few scattered along the shoreline. The Waitui Marina is near the south end of town, and a 2-story appliance store marks the north end. In between are a multitude of small shops selling things like electronics, hardware, cheap home goods, videos, clothing, souvenirs, etc. There are numerous tiny Indian markets, a few eateries, a pharmacy, a wonderful liquor store/market, and two small supermarkets. Along the shore side are the Waitui Marina, the Copra Shed Marina, a large open-air marketplace, a bus depot, and a few businesses at the north end of town.  (Click to enlarge and scroll.)

With the exception of the very nice Copra Shed Marina building, I’d describe the town of Savusavu as somewhat weathered. The streets are potholed, the sidewalks come and go, and some of the buildings look pretty worn, even the newer ones. If you were to just see the buildings, you would not think of this as a pretty town. But then there’s the backdrop: the islands just offshore, the waterway filled with boats, the beautiful canopied trees, the thick green vegetation and colorful flowers, the towering mountains in the distance, and the swaying palm trees. This backdrop gives Savusavu an ever-present, underlying gorgeousness that doesn’t get squelched by muddy, potholed streets or less-than-pristine buildings.  (Click to enlarge and scroll.)

Add to this is the warmth and friendliness of the people here. They are about equal parts Fijian and Indian-Fijian with a scattering of Chinese and palangi (white people). Everyone says bula (hello) as they pass on the street, and they smile these beautiful warm smiles, especially striking on the Fijian faces with their bone structure and wide faces (Farrah Fawcett has nothing on these people!). This warmth and friendliness adds to the magic of this place.

After getting a feel for the town, we headed to the Copra Shed Marina. This truly is a marina in that it actually has a dock with about 12 slips. The building itself is 2-stories high with a few small business on the bottom floor, and features two restaurants and a deck bar. It’s a really nice place. We opted to try the Captain’s Deck, the casual eatery, for lunch. It’s on a deck alongside the water and a very pretty little place. The food is good, too.

Later we headed out with our friends Bob and Linda from Bright Angel to explore the supermarkets and then down the street for our arrival celebration dinner at the Surf ‘n Turf restaurant, generally considered the best restaurant in town.

We had a great time drinking wine and comparing notes about the passage. It definitely wasn’t an easy one, and it was so nice to have it behind us. Rich and I split wahoo in coconut cream and steak Diane, with chocolate coconut ice cream for dessert. The food lived up to its great reputation!

After the day’s wonderful introduction to town, we headed back to our boats to catch up on more sleep. In came another round of heavy, boat-rinsing rain, a perfect end to a Savusavu day. –Cyndi

June 13, 2013

We arrived in Fiji after a mixed passage.  Some of it was rough, the kind of passage that makes you wonder why you keep subjecting yourself to this crap, and some of it the kind of dream sailing that makes you feel like one of those odd ducks who “prefers the passages.” We finished the passage with good conditions as we motored up to a mooring at the Waitui “marina,” one of two “marinas” here.  Really these are not so much marinas as a large area of moorings between a small island right offshore and the main island, in basically a large river, with a few slips next to the marina offices.  I estimate there are about 60 boats moored here.

Savusavu is beautiful, with lots of lush tropical vegetation covering the hilly terrain behind the town.  The town is small but bustling, with two small supermarkets, numerous eateries, plenty of car and foot traffic, bakeries, shops, etc.  The prices, compared to New Zealand and French Polynesia, are low, the people are warm and friendly, and the food is terrific.  I’ll have lots to more to write, probably as I’m sitting somewhere back in New Zealand, but for now I will say we’re in a good place. –Cyndi

June 10, 2013

It was a sunny, breezy morning as we approached Vanua Levu, the northernmost island of Fiji. We weren’t alone: our friends on Bright Angel were close behind us, and we had four boats ahead of us! I was a little nervous about getting a mooring. It didn’t help that the Waitui marina’s radio barely worked and they couldn’t be reached until we were pretty much there. Finally we got an e-mail confirming that we did, in fact, get a mooring. (It’s not the end of the world if the moorings are full as there’s a somewhat acceptable area to anchor; but it’s far, far better to be on a mooring.)

When we set off from New Zealand, I didn’t know much about Fiji and only had a vague impression from travel shows I’d caught on cable TV. Somehow all those shows tended to feature a small, exclusive resort at place called Turtle Island, and I just had the impression that’s what all of Fiji was like: small scrubby islands with nice beaches and palm trees where people bring you drinks while you spend way too much money.

On the passage, I’d started learning more about Fiji and had mixed feelings. Looking through our Lonely Planet guide, I learned that Fiji is so much more than my initial impression. Some islands are like Turtle Island, small with windswept beaches and swaying palm trees, but there are others that are large, mountainous, and heavily vegetated with rainforest.

Fiji basically has two very large main islands, and scattered around them like satellites are smaller islands that coalesce into groups that often have their own character. Some islands have traditional Fijian villages and a way of life that goes back centuries. Other islands have luxury resorts and cater to tourists looking for the classic tropical island vacation. Many islands have a combination of both with smaller, less flashy (but no less beautiful) resorts and a proximity to more traditional ways of life. The big south island of Viti Levu has a port and a major city. It all looked pretty fabulous, and who wouldn’t want to spend time in a place like this?

On the other had, I also looked over the Soggy Paws Compendium (a cruising compendium for traveling boats) and got the impression that for boaters, Fiji is all strong winds, deadly reefs, picking your way among coral heads into anchorages, and then a rather high degree of village life participation once you do get anchored. I do like the Soggy Paws Compendium and consider it an invaluable resource, but reading it now made me think Fiji might be a big pain in the ass. I wondered if we ought to just head for Vanuatu instead.

When we arrived, we rounded the point and entered a huge area called the Savusavu Bay. We then made our way along the shoreline to the town of Savusavu, about a 5-mile ride from the point. I was struck by how hilly this island was and its thick green vegetation. Turtle Island, this was not! I was very pleased: this place was beautiful!

Savusavu is a waterfront town that lies at the base of the hills just behind the shoreline. Just 200 meters offshore are two islands: Nawi and Vatuakuawawa, that somewhat enclose the area and give the impression that it’s on a river. This is where all the moorings are, and it’s a very well protected area. The vegetation here is lush, and while it doesn’t have white sand beaches, it does look like tropical paradise. I can’t imagine any cruiser arriving here is ever disappointed.

A very nice employee of the Waitui marina came out in a motor boat to lead us to a mooring and help us tie up. He explained he would be bringing the various agency officials (Heath, Customs and Immigration, Quarantine) to our boat. There are two main “marinas” here who oversee the moorings, and both of them take care of bringing officials to and from all the arriving boats (even the boats that anchor instead of taking a mooring). This happens over the course of a day; all we had to do was sit and wait. Once we were cleared in, we could go ashore.

I was nervous about getting checked in because you never know what to expect. We don’t ever have a problem with the allowed alcohol limits except for one thing: our two plastic jugs of vodka for killing fish. It’s ultra-cheap, awful vodka that we’d never drink, but we do use it on the fish we catch, pouring it into their gills to quiet them and help them pass on more quickly. It makes perfect sense to us, but try to explain it to customs officials! Thankfully, while these guys took a moment to ponder the concept of “fish-killer vodka,” they accepted it. By the end of the afternoon, we were all checked in and could take down our yellow Quarantine flag.

Normally I love our arrival dinner ritual, the one where we treat ourselves to one of the nicest restaurants in town and eat and drink way too much. We had planned to go with our friends Bob and Linda on Bright Angel, but by the end of the day we were all too exhausted to blow up our dinghies and walk around town. (Besides, Rich had I had gotten a head start on the celebration drinks.) We decided to put it off for tomorrow and just relax on our boats this evening.

After our busy day of getting checked in, enjoying arrival drinks and a post-arrival-drinks nap, we got up in time to sit in the cockpit and enjoy the evening. The start of the cruising season definitely has a feeling, a bit like the first day of school (if school were fun). You look around and see the people you will be cruising with this season. We saw friends and acquaintances from our Class of 2012 (the group who crossed the South Pacific last year), Kiwi boats we’d seen in Opua, and a few we’d never seen. We looked forward to catching up with some old friends and meeting new ones. We had a neat moment at dusk when dozens of fruit bats took off from the little island next to us and flew over to the main island. We liked this place a lot already, and we hadn’t even been ashore yet.–Cyndi