Savoring Suva

We spent a week in Suva on Fiji's biggest island, Viti Levu.  It's a small city of 200,000, with a busy commercial and fishing port in a large harbor enclosed by a protective reef.  There are several scraps of shipwrecks on the reef that remind us to take extreme care.  Part of the visit involves the ritual of visiting Customs to clear in .  Fiji is has several customs districts, and we have to clear in and out as we move around the country.

Everybody says Suva sucks, but we enjoyed it.  Granted it was a bit noisy.  There are big rusty fishing boats running 1-cylinder generators day and night,  Nearby shipyards and drydocks seem to work around the clock.  But it was interesting and not that loud.

We anchored off the Royal Suva Yacht Club, though scruffy, it's convenient, clean and friendly.  And interestingly, there's a prison across the street. 

RSYC has a big open clubhouse, a mediocre cafe and a big open friendly bar.  G&Ts $3.50Fj ($2.50 US)!!! Yay!

Suva's central business district is bustling, with department stores and many small shops and restaurants.  And real drugstores!  And coffee shops with good coffee!  We hadn't seen those in months. 

We provisioned at the supermarkets and the big, colorful municipal fruit/vegetable/kava/spice and flower market.

Cassava,Dala (taro) etc

Taxicabs are numerous and cheap $2.50-$3 Fj, ($1.50+ US!) so it was a breeze getting around.

We met some new people around the yacht club: a Finnish family was anchored next to us, a couple from Nanaimo and N Carolina, and Peter from the shipwrecked Troutbridge who was working on his boat,  Then we all went our separate ways....After a week of shopping and internetting, we weighed anchor and set sail for Ono and Kadavu islands to the south.

Levuka, old colonial capital of Fiji

Levuka turned out to be the "Mayberry" of Fiji.  Lots of friendly townsfolk.  The customs agent was outraged at the exhorbitant price somebody charged me for papaya.

Lovely people




Combined bell tower and range maker



Town Hall

Old Masonic Temple





Old Royal Hotel Lobby - very Graham Greene, no?

Hotel Veranda, enter Peter Loree



 

Every place since burns rubbish

 



 



More About Makogai

There's more to Makogai than giant clams and the Leper Colony ruins.   We went to church at the other end of the island by boat.  It was a Methodist service conducted mostly in Fijian, so we didn't understand too much.  But there was lots of "testifyin'".

Bag Lady and preacher

Of 1,000 graves, only a few are visible.  The "rest" are swallowed by the jungle

Makogai Island Fiji

We went a few miles south to Makogai Island, site of a former leper colony.  It has a great curved and protected bay.   

Leper Colony Ruins

Our host in jail

Currently, the site is used for breeding giant clams and turtles. The clams were really amazing:

Closup

Incredible blue lipped clam in tank on shore

Clam on the reef

another tank specimen

Savu Savu, Again

We left Dolphin Bay and headed back to Savu Savu. The weather being much cooler, this visit was more pleasant than before. We made some new cruiser friends and the young Danish couple we met at Dolphin Bay were in town for a couple days. So we all hung out.

SavuSavu - steamy tropical backwater

We finally got the bikes out and took a bumpy ride down the unpaved road along the shore to the Cousteau Resort on the point.

We got water, fuel and provisions and moved on to Namena Reef. Namena Island is a sliver surrounded by a large reef. It's a private reserve. We had a very bumpy anchorage, got the anchor chain wrapped around the keel and spent 45 minutes undoing "anchor chain macrame" around the coral when we left.

Dolphin Bay Divers Retreat

Dolphin Bay resort is a low key, un-fancy Gilligan's Island kind of place. They can accommodate 14 guests. In addition to the hospitable Swiss owners, Viola and Roland, the wonderful Fijian staff and the delightful British, French, Slovenian, German and Danish guests, enjoyed some wonderful company for a few days. It's kind of nice to see some new faces and make new acquaintances as many of our cruising companions have moved on. here.

We spent several enjoyable days hanging out (and eating ashore) and went on some great dives.

Finally, here are some photos.

Matagi Island, not a mistake this time

We moved east to nearby Matagi. We were pleased to see our Dick & Patricia from the Netherlands on Geremar, beautiful Malo 48. Matagi is a tiny creseent shaped island formed by a sunken volcano caldera. The only development is a small resort at one end. The bay formed by the caldera is steep sided, with a pretty beach and lots of coral. The resort brings a few guest over to a the beach for picnics. (We were asked not to disturb them. hmmm)

We did a little snorkeling outside the bay. The bay opens to the north and the wind was predicted to swing around from that direction, so after peaceful nights, we moved around to Qamea Island. We anchored at Namata Bay at Qamea, on the east end of Qamea. There are several houses there and lots of boats coming a going. Our friends Howard and Lorraine from Tasmania on Namzamo were there. One night we had drinks aboard their boat and the following night, they planned came to Jarana to watch a movie with us.

Namata Bay

ur itty bitty movie projector has turned out to be a good way to entertain our friends with a movie. Since Jarana has a big plain white bulkhead, we can project films on it. We can almost comfortably seat 4 people for viewing.

I (Kathi) spent all day cleaning the boat interior for "company".   I was exahusted by the end of the day.  But the wind was changing to the north quickly and Namzamo was closer to a reef.  So they decided to stay aboard that night.  Because the wind had passed through the north quickly, so we decided to head back to Dolphin Bay Divers Retreat on Vanua Levu for a couple more dives on Rainbow Reef.  (Bill had previously dived with them one day while we were at Viani Bay.)