Savusavu Onward 26 June

The Airport at Savusavu

Mary on the plane

We returned to Fiji after nine days back in NZ. We had six flights over that time. We left Savusavu by taxi and arrived at the local airport for our flight to Nadi. We flew on a 14 seater plane over the many reefs and then over the highlands of Veti Levu, the main island of Fiji. What a glorious flight that was, with magnificent views. Tony spent the time in NZ rushing from meeting to meeting and Mary enjoyed the time with the grandchildren.

The Views of the reefs from the plane

On our return to Fiji, we were very pleased to see Windspirit sitting on her mooring but not so happy when we opened up the boat to find mildew everywhere. The climate is so hot and damp and so it is a continual problem. So out came the elbow grease and bleach.

We had not filled up with water since leaving NZ at the beginning of May except for the rain which we collected when possible. So before leaving Savusavu we needed to fill the tanks and we would normally have bought water from the wharf, but as there was another boat booked to stay on the wharf for three days, that was a problem. So we had to use jerry cans and load them from the dinghy. We have three, twenty litre containers and had to do multiple trips to the tap. That took most of the morning as we collected 450 litres before the tanks were full, a very tiring task. Then we cleared customs and finally left early afternoon for our three mile trip to the entrance of Savusavu harbour in preparation for the trip the next day.

Next morning we woke early and headed off to Fawn Harbour, a distance of about 30 miles. Initially it appeared that we would have a lot of wind right on the nose and so we set a reef in the main sail and unfurled our stay sail. But the wind gradually died away to about 3-4 knots. So then we had to burn our precious and expensive diesel.

We set our fishing rod in a very scientific manner. It goes something like this.

“Okay, which lure shall we use?”

“Hmm! That glittery one looks good.”

“How far shall we trail it?”

“About that! No! Perhaps a bit further out.”

“Okay. That’ll do.”

Well! Lo and behold about twenty minutes later the reel screams. After lots of winding, we brought a beautiful bright yellow and turquoise Mahimahi on board. It was almost too beautiful to keep but my appetite for fish was too strong and it got the chop. We had both raw fish in coconut cream and fried fish for tea. There is plenty left in the freezer for two more big dinners. Yum!

Mahimahi for dinner

We arrived at Fawn Harbour about 2 PM. We threaded our way through the well marked reef and dropped anchor in 8 metres of water. It was like a mill pond. We were the only yacht in the whole bay. Heaven! It wasn’t long before we shed our clothes and swam in the beautiful cool water.

We also had a motor about in the dinghy before tea to check out the harbour. Most of the coral looked pretty dead but we did see three black and white sea snakes curled up in the shallow water.