Viti Levu – Suva, Vuda, Suva…

Suva Harbour is disgusting!!! The water is brown. The harbour is littered with derelict wrecks and partial wrecks. The holding is mud so when you pull up your anchor it is covered with this thick black ooze. Honestly, if you didn’t have to go here you wouldn’t!!

We anchored outside the Royal Suva Yacht Club (no idea where the “Royal” comes from!!) and dinghied ashore where we paid our $45 for a month membership, which gave us access to the dinghy dock, half price drinks at the bar, and if you paid a further $10 – a key to the shower block – we didn’t bother – one of the two in the men’s was broken and the women’s smelly and dirty.

A great selection of fresh fruit and veges at the markets, open from 5am,
loved how all the produce was sold in "heaps"

Not so sure about the lack of refrigeration - or am I just being fussy??

The bus stop to Suva central, however, was conveniently just outside and the buses very regular so we filled up with fruit and veges and topped up on internet. Unfortunately our battery charger had died just before we left Matuku so unless we ran the engine, on a cloudy day we couldn’t charge the batteries. Fortunately, Phil was coming to join us for a few weeks and could bring a new one with him from Australia.

A wave of sludge coming towards us in the harbour

We left Smelly Suva Harbour on Sunday 2^nd September for Vuda Point, the last straw being the wind change the previous day had sent a huge dirty oil slick in our direction covering our nice, previously white topsides with a three inch high layer of black – we had to get out of there to clean it. First night was spent in Vunanui Bay and at 6am next morning we upped anchor and had a lovely sail all day, going along steadily at 6-8knots with just the screecher up. Fishing lures out, as usual, but no fish. We were anchored in Momi Bay before 4pm with just a short distance to Vuda left for the morning.

It was a gorgeous morning, we were up at the crack of dawn, no wind, but the water calm and beautiful all around us – then – WOO HOO – we caught a Wahoo – big smiles indeed – wahoo are delicious eating fish and this one would make us a few meals. Within 10 minutes we had another on the line, but, he went under the boat and unfortunately we had pushed the engine control just past neutral and the prop was still turning so it very nicely wrapped the line about a hundred times around the propeller – damn – we lost the fish, the lure and about 100 metres of line, and Jamie had to get in the water with a knife and cut it from round the prop. Sad day indeed.

Anchored outside Vuda Point Marina, no berths available inside, we spent a couple of days there, we took the bus to Lautoka, to the market and found juicy sweet early mangoes – delicious.

The watermaker had developed a couple of leaks which we wanted to sort sooner rather than later and we had been given the name of a man who could fix it here in Vuda, Neil was superb, he came when he said he would, showed Jamie how to dismantle it, diagnosed the problem was new O rings needed, went away and next day was back, he and Jamie put it back together, tested it and all good. Great service, thank you Neil.

We had decided to return to Suva as from there we would be able to visit a couple of ‘non-touristy’ islands when Phil and Lilly arrived on Sept 21^st.

A heavy and cumbersome task - first remove the battens, then fold the sail, then lug it to the dinghy, load it, then take it to shore, all the while praying you don't drop it into the water!!

We needed a few repairs whilst in Suva, we had a small hole in the mainsail from rubbing on one of the shrouds when hove-to off Tonga, which I had temporarily repaired, plus she was looking a bit worn in a few other places, so we decided to take the mainsail and the jib both off to get them restitched before more ocean passages – not such an easy task – the mainsail particularly, weighed a ton!! And then we had to load them into the yamahama and take them ashore.

We took the sails to a local man – but after two days he had not gotten back to us with a price, so we decided to hire a car and drive to Vuda and get the job done there. We would collect them when we got Phil and Lilly from Nadi airport.

Although dirty and full of wrecks in the day, by night Suva Harbour is entrancing

And no, the domestic chores don't stop, even when you're living the dream!!