Blog

We left Taveuni last Monday to head to Savusavu.  Savusavu is a busy entry port on the Vanua Levu, Fiji’s second largest island. There are several marinas as well as options to be on a mooring ball. We chose to book a slip at the Copra Shed Marina which was reported to be very convenient to all the shops and services.  We arrived mid afternoon and called the marina on the radio for assistance with docking.  I had read that they typically will send someone out to meet you in the channel and guide you in.  This was not the case for us.  We arrived to find out that we needed to back into the slip and then grab the mooring ball in the front.  The dock hand was not in the dinghy to assist but was standing nearby on another boat yelling directions which was not the most helpful situation.  As is usual with our big girl, her bow likes to swing so it took a few attempts to back in.  And where might you ask was our slip? Directly in front of the restaurant with lots of people watching the action.  Fortunately, a few other cruisers came to our assistance with the lines.  Unfortunately, on my first throw I missed the dock and got the line wrapped on our monitor windvane.  I might have said a very loud swear word that was heard by the people in the restaurant.  My second attempt with the other stern line was much more vigorous, actually hitting the guy in the head who was attempting to help us dock.  I guess I am out of practice but fortunately all ended well and the dockhand finally got in his dinghy to help with attaching us to the mooring ball.  

We got Meraviglia settled and went to the office to check in.  While Copra Shed isn’t the fanciest marina in Savusavu, it certainly is very convenient and walking distance to all the stores and restaurants.  First order of business,  find some Indian food! Bob and I love Indian food and Fiji has some great options.  We decided to head to a place called Delhi 6 Wine and Dine. The menu looked promising.  We arrived and initially were the only ones in the restaurant.  We placed our order and quickly became amused as we listened to their music selection – American country music.  Livin’ on Love by Alan Jackson was not only playing but our waiter was singing along and the music video was playing over the bar! Yes, for the rest of the meal we got to be serenaded.  The food was good but certainly not the best we have had in Fiji so the search continues.

On Tuesday we rented a car since we had to get fuel and do a lot of provisioning.  We typically fuel Meraviglia using jerry cans. Because it had been a while since we fueled, we needed to make two runs to the petrol station to get diesel.  This also means carrying the jerry cans twice from the parking lot, down the dock and onboard Meraviglia, no helpful carts at this marina.  Did I mention that since we had to stern into the dock it also required climbing up on our monitor windvane to get across to the stern of the boat?  Let’s just say it was a workout to carry the full Jerry cans back and forth and hand them across the windvane to the boat. Twice.  The food provisioning was good though, they have multiple grocery stores in town including one, Sea Lovers Wines and Spirits, that seemed to cater to cruisers and had many hard to find items.  We were able to get restocked and most importantly find a LARGE bag of fresh coffee beans – hooray! And a random purchase of the first pretzels we have found in Fiji called “Ass Kickin’ Nashville Hot Pretzels”, they were okay but not Snyder’s or Utz for sure! We had lunch at a place called the Planters’ Club. This is a historic club that was established in 1954 as a gathering spot for the local copra plantation owners when they brought their crops to town.  It is a colonial era building with a big open air patio overlooking the water.  Now it functions as a  private club but allows visitors for lunch. Lunch was quite good and we enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere before heading back to the boat.

Wednesday was a project day that included Bob going up the mast.  Unfortunately, it ended up being really frustrating and required multiple trips up the mast for Bob.  We wanted to switch our main halyard around due to some chafe. Let’s just say, it sounded easier than it ended up being and took way longer than we thought.  Bob however may be famous know as multiple tourists at the restaurant and coming in off the cruise boat took his picture while he was up the mast!! It was quite an afternoon, so we ended the day at the Savusavu yacht club with some pizza and wine!

Thursday was very rainy but we still decided to take a walk into town.  We visited a few stores and hit the local farmer’s market to purchase a few more bundles of kava before leaving Savusavu for the Yasawas. I then realized that we needed to extend our visitor’s visa for Fiji in case we need extra time to get a weather window for New Zealand.  I am glad I realized it while we were near an immigration office as the information was confusing. So we decided we would walk to immigration in the morning before leaving Savusavu.  We then had dinner  at the marina restaurant called the Captain’s Table.  It was the best fish curry I have had yet in Fiji. It was a lovely meal and the service was great – a nice way to close out our time in Savusavu.

We got up Friday morning and headed to immigration with all of our documents. And of course, you cannot process it in person, only online. But they did write down some instructions for us so back to the boat we went to try and submit our application online. What felt like 5 hours later (but really only 2) we finally had uploaded and submitted everything.  We got the boat ready and pulled out of the marina to head about 5 miles out to the Jean-Michel Cousteau resort anchorage to spend the night before beginning our jump to the Yasawas. It was very pretty but very windy so we just hung out on the boat and got a good night’s sleep as we needed to get up and leave pretty early the next day.  

We headed out of the anchorage in the morning and headed towards the Nasonisoni passage that would take us through the outer reef and allow us to head up along the inner east coast of Vanua Levu.  We timed the pass well and had only a couple of knots of current against us.  We were able to sail the whole way and were making great time.  We arrived at Coconut Point where we were planning to anchor but decided to take advantage of the conditions and keep going further to Bua Bay.  We arrived at Bua Bay around 4pm and of course the wind picked up as we prepared to anchor but the bay was huge and had a mud bottom so we got Meraviglia set on the first try. We settled in and checked the weather and routing to make the jump to the Yasawas. It would be a 70 mile passage and probably take about 10 hours. We had seen swell warnings posted by Fiji Meteorological service but Windy and Predict Wind looked okay so we decided to get up early on Sunday and make the jump. We finished the day with some homemade pasta carbonara!

We left Bua Bay around 6am on Sunday. It took a while to weigh the anchor as there was so much mud!! We have never had that much mud before so no wonder the holding was solid! We headed out and started to make the crossing below Yadua out into the bligh waters.  The winds were between 20-25 sustained but it was downwind for most of it.  We had one small section where we had to be more directly into the wind. That was less fun but fortunately it was only about 30 minutes. The swell however was impressive.  I never get seasick but I was trying to work below on my computer and had to give up after about 40 minutes as it was definitely making me not feel good. We did however make a really speedy trip – the swell pushed us over 9-10 knots surfing down the waves and we made the trip in 8.5 hours instead of 10! We were not even anchored yet when our No Foreign Land app was signaling that we both had messages.  Apparently in this village there are numerous families who will provide a local Fijian dining experience for a fee.  And apparently they are in competition as they were definitely making their case for why we should choose them! We also got a message offering laundry services or massages! We thanked them for the information and told them we would let them know but we needed to get anchored first and rest overnight after our swelly passage. On Monday morning we woke up to the winds still howling in the 20’s.  We got the dinghy in the water without injury and headed into the village to do sevusevu.  This is the first village we have been to that has built a really good and easy to use jetty. It was super helpful because with the wind and swell it would have been quite difficult to land the dinghy on the beach.  We walked up the beach to the chief’s house and completed sevusevu.  It is a beautiful village and the beach is pristine, one of the prettiest we have seen. We hope the weather will improve as we really do want to explore while we are here and maybe sample the local cuisine!