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.

Relaxing times

Savusavu Bay

The courier pack with the hydraulic parts arrived on Wednesday 4th June and we cleared customs on Friday afternoon so we could get off the mooring and have a change of scene while getting the autopilot pumps back in working order.

Once you have officially entered Fiji, you have to clear out with customs when you leave and then enter at the next port of entry relevant to the area of Fiji that you go to. Since we were here last time, the definition of Savusavu harbour appears to have become more restricted as yachts now have to advise customs when they leave Nakama creek, even if just going to Lesiaceva Point which is still within Savusavu bay. We cleared with customs on Friday afternoon and they gave us permission to leave early Sunday morning as we still had some work to do on the steering. We were getting tidied up down below in preparation for leaving when we saw the Police boat patrolling the river and as they came past, Mary heard them say “this is the boat that is leaving early this morning” so we hurriedly started making visible preparations for departure. About twenty minutes later, we saw them coming back in our direction so we quickly started the motor and slipped the mooring!

Savusavu District School. Note colour of Uniform

We anchored just off the Cousteau Dive resort which is located just before the reef at Reef Point, an area which has really good snorkelling. Once we had the steering all operational, we spent some time enjoying the warm water and snorkelling but then had a lot of rainy weather which was good for getting water into our tanks but not much good for snorkelling. We had initially intended going to Fawn Harbour but the wind forecast was for strong E to SE winds which would have made it an uncomfortable slog. Instead we enjoyed a few quiet days by the Point instead, got befriended by Bait, the dive master at Cousteau’s, who popped over most days to chat.

A small Village near Savusavu

The heavy rain was forecast to continue for some days so we later decided to return to Savusavu. We expected problems with anchor retrieval as snorkeling had revealed that the chain had crossed over an old coral bommie a couple of times which we thought may have happened as we could hear the chain growling on coral whenever we swung around. Our tropical anchor retrieval skills soon came back and we got the anchor up with no real problems.

Windspirit is now on a mooring close to the Copra Shed – Savusavu Yacht Club, where we will leave her while we fly back to New Zealand for a week or so. One of the guys from the Copra Shed will run our motor each day to charge the batteries, needed to run the fridge and freezer. We are flying on a small plane from here to Nadi on Monday 16th and arrive in Auckland later that day. Tony has a number of business meetings and we will also catch up with family in Auckland and Wellington. We fly back to Nadi on evening of 23rd, staying the night there and fly back to Savusavu the next morning.

The Lush Forest in the Highlands of Vanua Levu

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Life at Savusavu

Copra Shed Moorings – Savusavu, Fiji

The moorings in Savusavu are very sheltered and the people at the Copra shed, most helpful and organised. There is a laundry service at a reasonable price, two restaurants and a yacht club and also several shops. Two minutes walk away is the town with many shops and restaurants.

On 27 May, we took the local bus from Savusavu to Labasa, a three hour bumpy and drafty ride in a bus which was probably almost 50 years old and had open sides which was great when it was hot but as the bus travelled over the mountains, became very cold.

Inside the bus – note luggage of weed-eater

Labasa, population about 24,000 is the largest town on Vanua Levu and third largest in Fiji. It is on the north-western side of the mountain range and is about 5 km inland on the Labasa River. The sugar mill was opened in 1894 and has a predominately Indo-Fijian population. It was flooded to a depth of 1.2 m in 2003 Ami but there is no sign of it now. We had an interesting day shopping in the industrial area for steering parts and then wandered through some of the clothing stores and the local market. We bought some Yagona (Kava) which we will need to present as Sevusevu when we wish to visit some of the Fijian villages. About 350g seems to be the going rate for this and in return the villagers must offer full hospitality and take responsibility for the safety of their guests.

Yagona for Sevusevu

We look forward to that experience with a little trepidation. We finally arrived back at the boat at 7.30PM, tired, dusty, hungry and thirsty but pleased to have had the experience.

One morning we heard the sound of much squealing and laughter. When we looked out, this is the sight that we saw. The locals make rafts out of bamboo but this one either had a floatation problem or was overloaded. However, everyone made it to shore, albeit, rather damp.

The temperature at the moment ranges from about 22-30°C and is extremely humid. Sleeping is a real problem but we are adjusting to it. Because the mooring area is up the Nakama creek it would not be sensible to swim due to the pollution caused by no sewerage and general rubbish dumping. So we have not been able to cool off that way. Therefore it was a real treat yesterday to pop the 15HP motor on the dinghy and go for a spin out in to Savusavu Bay and have a swim. The only difficulty with that was the problem of boarding the dinghy from the water. We haven’t done that for a long while and Mary, especially had trouble. Good job no one was near with a camera. It was a whale of a tale but we managed. Next time we will remember to wear fins as they give a good lift.

Our spares have now arrived from NZ which will, hopefully fix the steering, once and for all. Tony has also ordered some more bits and pieces from Labasa. The last order he made was delivered on the local bus. The cost of delivery was $3.00. That is certainly good service. We have also received and installed a new rope clutch for the main halyard which cracked on the way up from NZ.

Tony is now working hard to finish the work so that we can get back to cruising.

The water catcher which Mary and Wendy designed and made in Auckland out of a tarpaulin is working well and we have not needed to attain water from other sources. It is easy to put up at the first sign of rain. However Murphy’s Law prevails though and as soon as the catcher is in place, the rain stops. The forecast for the next couple of days is for 6-8mm over a six hour period and so our tanks should be full if that happens. Hopefully the rain will also cool the temperature a little.

The new look. Tony cooking breakfast

Passage from Opua to Savusavu, Fiji

We left Opua at 8AM on 6 May with our good friends, Wendy and Warren. They
have done several passages to the Pacific several years ago and so thought
they knew what to expect but probably got more than they expected.

We had three days of ideal weather and seas, SW winds of 15-25 knots and
Windspirit sailed beautifully. We made 150-160 miles a day. None of us had
any issues with seasickness and were able to eat normal meals.

We had a small bird fly in to the cockpit on our third day out, a Welcome
Swallow. He came and went several times but was not interested in any
crumbs, just wanting to have a rest. He flew back and forth on several
occasions.

On the morning of our fourth day out King Neptune decided to give us hell.
The wind picked up to 35 and then 40 knots from the west and the seas
rapidly built up. The bad weather was a result of a deep low over New
Zealand. The weather maps showed three fronts and we experienced each of
these - periods of one to two hours of consistent 42-45 knots with rain.
The boat was taking it all very well until the auto-helm packed up, taking
with it our wheel steering. We were not too concerned about that because we
had an independent hydraulic steering system all set up and ready to go, but
never anticipated that it would only last four hours (electrics affected by
salt water) and leave us wallowing in those rough seas. Also the hydraulic
fluid had leaked everywhere and was impossible to clean up at the time. The
boat was bucking around and very uncomfortable. We were using a very
reefed staysail and a small amount of mainsail (trysail size) and after a
while were able to set up the boat to sail on just those at about 5 knots
and only about 30 degrees off course. We kept that up for two days until
Tony was able to isolate the wheel steering once the weather eased a bit and
we were then able to take turns at wheel steering. The wind settled down to
20 knots average after 2½ days but the seas stayed high and gradually
deceased towards the end of the trip.

It seemed to take forever to get to Savusavu from when we first sighted
land. It took us another two days to get up the coast as we had either too
little or too much wind and needed to do many sail changes but finally
entered Nakama Creek, Savusavu at first light on 11 May, very tired but
happy to get in to sheltered waters.

We had no trouble with customs, immigration, agriculture or health
clearances. We just had to promise not to take anything off the boat in the
way of food etc. The authorities were very good to deal with.

We were all exhausted but spent that day tidying up the essentials and
getting settled in. On 12 May we spent most of the day in the town trying
to find spares etc and also looking in to our Internet options. W&W flew to
Nadi that day where they were staying for a few days before returning to NZ.

Several days were spent cleaning up the boat. The hydraulic fluid has
ruined the carpet and has filtered in to every nook and cranny. We also
took on quite a lot of water in the rough seas and are gradually flushing
and drying out.