by Judy Handley | Jul 9, 2007 | Fiji, Sailing Logs Year 2 |
Day 76, Year 2: Bus Trip to Waisali Nature Reserve and the Town of Labasa
Date: Monday, July 9, 2007
Weather: Beautiful Day
Location: Savusavu, Vanua Levu
It’s 9 PM and we just got home. We left Windbird at 7 AM to catch the early bus north across the island of Vanua Levu. We had really only planned to take the bus to the town of Labasa on the north coast, but at the last minute we decided to make a stop on the way. There are no printed bus schedules here, so after talking to the bus driver, we discovered that we could get off the bus at the Waisali Nature Reserve and then catch the next bus north to Labasa. Marie of Ranger went with us and we
all enjoyed the early morning ride to Waisali. At some point along the way, a man got on the bus and the bus driver introduced him as the man who would be our guide at the nature reserve. Actually, the park ranger was not actually going to open the reserve until later in the morning today, but since we were on the bus, he went with us and let us in the “back door.” He didn’t have the gate key with him, but he showed us how to get in by going around the gate and how to get started on the trail.
He explained that he had to leave, but would be back before we caught the next bus to Labasa. We thanked him and started off on the trail.
The Waisali Reserve is a rainforest in the highlands between Savusavu and Labasa. It is about a thirty minute walk to a waterfall down the mountain, and then another thirty minute walk back up the mountain. There were lots of tree ferns and lush growth. There were even some kauri trees in this forest like the giants we saw in New Zealand. The waterfall was not spectacular, but it was pretty. It hasn’t rained much recently, so there wasn’t as much water as usual. We got back up the mountain
and still had an hour to spare before the next bus, so we just sat by the road and talked and waited. A truck pulled up and let off a whole group of people. They were carrying a five-gallon bucket of kava and platters of food. We weren’t sure what was going on, but then we saw the park ranger and he explained that the village Peace Corp volunteer was returning to the US today and that they were having a little celebration before his departure. He was actually taking the bus to Labasa with us.
The men all went in the gate to the park and invited us to come with them, but we stayed outside the gate with the women and small children and talked. The men were drinking kava and the oldest woman explained that women still don’t participate as a rule. We took some pictures of the enthusiastic group and before we knew it, we were on the bus to Labasa.
The mountain scenery from Savusavu to Waisali was just beautiful, but shortly after leaving Waisali, we started the descent out of the mountains and into drier, flatter, sugar-cane country. It is not as dramatic as the mountains, but it does have it’s own kind of beauty. We didn’t arrive in Labasa until 12:15 and the next bus back to Savusavu was leaving at 12:30. Marie and I bought tickets and got on the bus to hold seats and Mark and Steve went to find some food. They came back empty handed
and suggested that we wait and take the 3:30 bus home. There’s not much to see in Labasa, but just the same, it did seem a little crazy to just turn around and leave. Marie made the decision to go on back, but I got off the bus and went with Mark and Steve to get some lunch and walk around town. We felt bad letting Marie go back alone, but she assured us she would be fine. We had a nice lunch, visited a Hindu temple, and walked the main street of town. Labasa is a working town and is mostly
Indi-Fijian. We didn’t want to miss the last bus back to Savusavu, so we had to turn around before we got to a Sikh mosque we wanted to see, but we did see some homes with beautiful lettuce gardens in their side yards. Little heads of bibb style lettuce sell for $1.00 here, so I’m supposing these little gardens probably bring in $30 a week. The bus ride home was not eventful, but it was much faster than the trip north in the morning.
We arrived at the Yacht Club at 7:00 and decided to have pizza and beer for dinner at the Captain’s Cafe. Ranger, Maggie Drum, and Scot Free II were already there and had decided separately to have pizza as well, so we dubbed Monday night as “pizza night” at the yacht club. We didn’t get to see them, but we found out that a whole group of boats that we are close friends with arrived here today from Tonga. Tom and Bette Lee of Quantum, Dick and Lynn of Wind Pony, Robin and Rick of Endangered Species,
and Penny and Greg of Long Tall Sally are here. Just yesterday we had heard that Penny had broken a number of ribs and wouldn’t be arriving for about a month. Evidently something changed. We are really anxious to see all of these guys tomorrow–which will be our last day here. We plan to leave on Wednesday, so we’ll have to spend a lot of tomorrow catching up with good friends.
by Judy Handley | Jul 8, 2007 | Fiji, Sailing Logs Year 2 |
Day 75, Year 2: Snorkeling Off the Jean-Michel Cousteau Resort
Date: Sunday, July 8, 2007
Weather: Partly Sunny with Sprinkles Here and There
Location: Savusavu, Vanua Levu
The weather today was not pristine, but it was certainly good enough. We had a lazy start to the day, and then at 11 AM Paul and Marie of Ranger came over and we headed out to the point on Windbird. Safina, Scot Free II, and Maggie Drum had second thoughts about going on the snorkeling expedition, so it was just us. It took less than an hour to get down to the point and anchor off the Jean-Michel Cousteau Resort. The resort is one of those beautiful South Pacific resorts with individual cottages
built in the traditional style. A one-bedbroom unit costs about $1,000 a night, so we felt really good about sitting on the Windbird “resort” which is considerably cheaper! This resort sits at the end of the eastern end of the Savusavu Bay where it meets the Koro Sea. It is a beautiful setting. Our goal today was to anchor and take our dinghies out toward the lighthouse at the very end of the point. We got about halfway out there and found one of the Cousteau moorings for their dive boats and
decided to hook on to that and snorkel from there. It was a bit windy and choppy today, so the water was not as clear as we would have liked. but still there were lots of beautiful little fish swimming amongst the coral. It was an okay first snorkel here for Steve, but it certainly was not as good as other experiences we have had in Fiji. We are sure hoping for a fantastic Fiji underwater experience for Steve in the next few days. After snorkeling, we had lunch on Windbird and then headed back
to our Copra Shed Marina mooring.
Mark, Steve, and I had dinner at the Cafe Bula Re. There was live music by the same group that was at the Yacht Club last night and the food and service was superb. Tomorrow we have to be at the bus terminal at 7 AM in order to get a seat on the 7:30 bus across the island to Labasa. They say the scenery on the way is fantastic, so this is another of those experiences where the journey is much more important than the destination. Labasa is the largest city on the island of Vanua Levu and is mostly
Indo-Fijian. I’m sure we will enjoy the market there and will hopefully have a great Indian lunch before returning to Savusavu.
by Judy Handley | Jul 7, 2007 | Fiji, Sailing Logs Year 2 |
Day 74, Year 2: Happy Long Life to Mark!
Date: Saturday, July 7, 2007
Weather: Beautiful, Sunny Day
Location: Savusavu, Vanua Levu
What a wonderful birthday for Mark. His brother Steve arrived early this morning. That was birthday present enough, but Steve brought a bag of goodies that we had requested and it was more like Christmas than a birthday. There was a new GPS, a new solar shower, a new toaster, and a new Olympus underwater camera–that was the birthday surprise from me to Mark. Heather did the leg work to get it to Steve. Mark was thrilled. As we walked through town today with Steve, people kept asking if Mark
and Steve were twins. They look more and more like as the years go on. Steve is younger, but his hair and beard are whiter, so some of the locals thought he was the oldest. That thrilled Mark as well.
Scot Free II and Safina arrived today, so we had a big birthday dinner on Windbird. We first went to the Yacht Club for Happy Hour and there was live Fijian music tonight. They sang Happy Birthday to Mark and I loved their rendition. It was “Happy Long Life to You” instead of “Happy Birthday to You.” I think I will sing that song with those new words from now on. There were eleven of us on Windbird for dinner–Paul and Marie of Ranger, Joe and Cindy of Maggie Drum, Donna and Gerry of Scot Free
II, Jean-Pierre and Colette of Safina, and then Mark, Steve, and myself. It was a boatful, but it was fun. We ate freshly caught dorado, lobster tail, fresh prawns, fresh green beans, a wonderful fruit salad, and fried pumpkin and eggplant. It was a feast befitting a king. So I guess Mark was King for a Day. Add to that the fact that this is the seventh day of the seventh month in the seventh year. It was a very special day.
by Judy Handley | Jul 6, 2007 | Fiji, Sailing Logs Year 2 |
Day 73, Year 2: Getting Ready for Steve’s Arrival
Date: Friday, July 6, 2007
Weather: Beautiful, Sunny Day
Location: Savusavu, Vanua Levu
Our internet frustrations continue. Maybe the problem is not the internet here, but possibly the program we use to upload our photos. Other cruisers are having no problem uploading their pictures on their blog sites, so I guess we just need to continue trying to solve our problem. It is so frustrating to spend so much time to no avail. Mark spent his entire morning and early afternoon in town trying to solve the problem, but he got nowhere. We are going to try a few more tricks and then give up and send pictures home on CD’s and have our son upload them. It will take a couple of weeks for the CD’s to arrive, but at the rate we are going now, it could be months before we get all of our photo albums uploaded. So if you want to see our photos, you will just have to be patient. We’ll get them up as quickly as we can. Hopefully the wait will be worth it.
While Mark went to shore to work on getting the photos uploaded, I stayed on the boat and did the cleaning required before a visitor arrives. Mark’s brother Steve arrives tomorrow morning, the v-berth needed to be made up, bathrooms cleaned, floors cleaned, etc. I also had to finish up the clothes washing, including all sheets and towels. I decided to do all of this by hand instead of sending it out to be done. There are no laundromats here, only laundry services, so I decided to be my own laundry service.
Ranger came in this afternoon and we enjoyed Happy Hour at the Yacht Club with Ranger, Maggie Drum, Camdeboo, Rise and Shine, and Vidora. We then went to the Savusavu Chinese Wok for dinner. It was good, but nothing compared to last night’s tuna at the Captain’s Cafe at the Copra Shed. Tomorrow Mark’s brother Steve arrives, and we plan to have Ranger and Maggie Drum over for a birthday dinner–lobster tail from Vanua Balavu, dorado that Ranger caught today, and fresh veggies from the Saturday produce market.
We are really looking forward to Steve’s arrival and our exploration of Vanua Levu together. Every day just gets better.
by Judy Handley | Jul 5, 2007 | Fiji, Sailing Logs Year 2 |
Day 72, Year 2: Good Day, But More Internet Frustrations
Date: Thursday, July 5, 2007
Weather: Sunny Day with Clouds Hanging Low Over Most of Vanua Levu . . . Again
Location: Savusavu, Vanua Levu
Wash a load of clothes, wash the king-size sheets and mattress cover by hand, buy fuel and oil for dinghy outboard, fill water jerry jugs and start filling water tanks, get photos from the past month uploaded to the internet, try again to get photos from the past month uploaded to the internet. The list stops here because we just couldn’t get the last job on the list done. Mark tried for two hours, but he could not get one photo album to upload. It appears to be a Picassa problem, but we just
aren’t sure. I guess we’ll continue to work on that one again tomorrow. Our internet explorations were not all for naught, however. We were successful in viewing new pictures posted on the web from both of our children. Our grand baby Sam’s pictures from the 5-month folder are precious. In one photo, he is reading a post card from us and in another he is starting to show interest in the computer keyboard. Before we know it, he will be reading and he’ll be in full control of a computer. Our
son Justin made the decision to leave Venice, California, because it was just too expensive. In the past couple of weeks, he and his new wife Jo moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico. And they have a new family addition named Alphie. This is a new puppy and he is REALLY cute.
Just doing the first few things on our list took all morning. We returned to Windbird in time for a late lunch. The catamaran Holokai arrived from New Zealand with parts for Cheers, Cheers left for Kadavu, Vidora from North Carolina arrived and became our new neighbors, and Maggie Drum arrived from Suva by way of Gau and Koro Islands. Mark went back into town on a beer run, and I met with Jennifer of Camdeboo and her friend Maureen. Camdeboo left New Zealand and went back to the Cook Islands,
American Samoa, Samoa, and Tonga before coming to Fiji this season. They have only a month left on the boat before it is handed over to new owners and Jennifer has very little information on Fiji. I was able to share our cruising books and our experiences with her. We talked for well over an hour about Fiji cruising possibilities, and before we knew it, it was time to head to the Yacht Club for Happy Hour. We were anxious to see Joe and Cindy from Maggie Drum, and to spend more time getting to
know some of the other cruisers here.
Tonight we sat with Chris and Kathy of Two by Sea, Nick and Bonnie of Rise and Shine, Patrick and Johanna of Vidora, and Cindy and Joe of Maggie Drum. It was great reconnecting with Cindy and Joe. Joe was our neighbor at the Riverside Drive Marina in New Zealand, but Cindy was not there as she had gone home to work for the off-season. By the time she had returned from the US, we had already left Whangarei, so we had lots of catching up to do. Patrick and Johanna are a young couple who worked
as marine geologists before taking off on their own boat. Patrick is from near Charleston, South Carolina, but his boat is from North Carolina. Johanna is originally from Finland, but moved to the United States in 1998. They are probably in their early 30’s and are really great couple. Once again, we ate at the Captain’s Cafe at the Yacht Club. Maggie Drum and Vidora joined us. I had blackened tuna and it was absolutely delicious. And it only cost $8.50Fiji which is about $5.00US. Eating
out here is a really good deal.
Tomorrow we get ready for Mark’s brother, Steve, to arrive. We meet him at the airport here early on Saturday morning and begin our adventures together. Saturday is also Mark’s 65th birthday, so it will definitely be a day of celebration.
by Judy Handley | Jul 4, 2007 | Fiji, Sailing Logs Year 2 |
Day 71, Year 2: Settling into Savusavu
Date: Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Weather: Sunny Day with Clouds Hanging Low Over Most of Vanua Levu
Location: Savusavu, Vanua Levu
It was July 4th here today and we put out a brand new American flag as our celebration. This is our third flag. Our first was used when it was given to us by friends at Shipyard Quarters back in Massachusetts and it made it to Panama. We were able to buy a new US flag there and that is the one we retired today. We bought the one that is currently flying when we were home in the US. Mark also started reading James Patterson’s “4th of July” today. So that is how we celebrated the 4th.
We started our morning by having coffee with Steve and Toya of Cheers at the Yacht Club. Steve and Toya are a young couple from Namibia, just north and west of South Africa. They are leaving here as soon as a rigging part arrives and heading south to islands off the east side of Viti Levu, and then on to Kadavu. Steve is a surfer, so I was able to tell him what we learned about surfing in some of the Kadavu passes. Steve and Toya are going home to Namibia for six-months to work during the South
Pacific summer, and if they decide to leave the boat here in Fiji, they will also be visiting the Lau Group if they can get a permit. We told them how we did it and gave them some information I have written about that. We learned that Steve has a diamond diving business back in Namibia. Evidently some of those precious stones travel down the rivers and into the ocean, and when they do, Steve’s divers are there to find them. I’d never heard of diving for diamonds before. Something new everyday.
While at the Yacht Club, we learned from Dave on La Vie that Savusavu Internet was down today and the guy who could fix it was out fishing, so we went to the Bosun’s Locker office to see if they had a connection. Unfortunately, there was just no internet today, so we weren’t able to call our daughter using Skype and so we could see that grand baby of ours. It has been more than a month since we have seen him via web cam and I’m definitely having withdrawal. We bought a phone card and called, but
a $10 card only gave us eleven minutes. We ran out of time before we said a proper goodbye, but we are hoping the internet will be back up and running in a day or so, and we will make the Skype call then. We had also told Marie on Ranger that we would get weather off the internet for her and send it via e-mail. Sorry, Marie. We’ll try again tomorrow. Ranger left Gau this morning and was heading to either Koro Island or another smaller island on the way to Savusavu. They should arrive here early
next week. We look forward to seeing them again.
While I was on the phone talking to Heather, Molly and Jeff of Kauila came walking by. Their boat is not here, so I was surprised to see them. They biked in from the Jean-Michel Cousteau Resort at the point. Their boat is anchored there and they encouraged us to come out as soon as we can to go snorkeling. Evidently there is a great variety of coral and fish, so as soon as Steve gets here, we will definitely head that way either by dinghy or by moving Windbird’s location. while talking to them,
we saw Camdeboo come sailing in. We first met Cambell and Jennifer and their two teenaged daughters out on Minerva Reef and then at Riverside Drive Marina in New Zealand. They have sold their boat and are returning to British Columbia so the girls can finish high school, but they have until August 7 before the new owners take possession. They have visitors aboard, but we will find time to talk with them before we leave. It is always great to see cruising friends that we haven’t seen for awhile.
I sometimes wonder if we will keep in touch with many of these friends once we are all back home.
We moved the boat today to a Copra Shed Marina mooring. This mooring is at the mouth of the creek instead of being tucked back in. It is definitely a little livlier out here, especially at night. There are loads of local fishing boats that hang very close to us, probably because we are right on the ledge between deep water and the reef surrounding the little island of Nawi. The fishermen have boom boxes and some of the women are obviously having a “very” good time–lots of talking and laughter.
This was the only mooring available, but we might see if something opens up closer to where we were yesterday. I liked the quiet there. The Lonely Planet says Savusavu is “lively and exciting.” Obviously the night fishing is lively, but we don’t sense that in the town itself. For us it has a bit of the “down and out” feel to it, but then we have been out in pristine islands for a month. This is probably just closer to reality.
For our cruising friends who might read this, here’s the skinny on Savusavu. Market days are Wednesday before 10 AM and Saturday until 1 PM. Saturday is the best with everything from fresh prawns to exotic fruits and veggies available. Supposedly the lady with the best vegetables is just to the right when you enter the market from the street side. She has either a freezer or a refrigerator and that’s how you identify her. Friday is the day to go to the supermarkets as new supplies some in late
on Thursday. The Captain’s Cafe at the Yacht Club is a good low to mid-priced place to eat. The chef is married to Dolly, the young manager of the Copra Shed and as soon as she finishes her work in the office at 5 PM, she comes around the corner and serves as hostess at the cafe in the evenings. They are a really super friendly, hard working young couple, and the food is good. Cruisers tell us that the Bula Re Cafe is also a great place to eat, although a little more pricey. On Wednesday nights
the Bula Re has a traditional Fijian feast cooked in a lovo or earth oven and on Thursday nights they have a Cruiser Night where they serve a three-course meal with novel Fijian dishes for just $12 per person. Reservations for either Wednesday or Thursday night are recommeneded. According to other cruisers, the best deal is town is the Sea View Cafe, next to Bosun’s Locker. They have good food at very low prices, although nothing fancy. Information on what is happening in Savusavu is broadcasted
daily by Curly at 8:30 AM. If you monitor channel 16, just a couple of minutes before he will come on and announce the channel to move to for info–usually channel 14. That’s about what I know about Savusavu at this point. Boats seem to come and go constantly. Some of the boats that are currently moored here are Red Sky, Rise and Shine, Scheherazade, La Vie, Rare Earth, and Two by Sea. There are about 30 boats here right now and almost all the moorings are taken. But daily, boats come and go,
so there seems to always be room for more.
