The daysail up to Suva was fast, but not too uncomfortable. As we pulled into the harbor we were happy to hear that almost the whole gang was there… everyone except Lumbaz. Caminante, Fluenta, and Nirvana, were all anchored in the back row, but in typical catamaran fashion we edged up to the front row and tried our best to anchor equidistant from other boats including a few derelicts and a wreck or two.
Derelict fishing boats and a sunken ship. Just a few of our neighbors anchored in the Suva Harbor
After a few days in Suva, here is an email I wrote that pretty well summed up my impressions:
Suva is a full fledged city, which has been quite a shock after being in The Lau Group for over a month. Here are the highlights so far: 1) Our first evening here we walked across the street to have a cheap dinner out. It was cheap, but it really wasn’t that good, BUT the highlight was that our kids almost immediately joined in playing with the local kids. They played some sort of tag and also did some relay races. 2) We are here with friends, four other kid boats, and while I write this we are waiting for another to arrive (they are within VHF range already). 3) Cost-u-less. It’s like costco with items in bulk but they also have a lot of US and NZ products. They even had Tim’s beloved vanilla coffee creamer! 4) The Suva market… holy fresh fruits and vegetables! And the second floor has kava and all sorts of Indian spices. 5) Everything is cheap! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said, “that’s cheaper than Mexico!” Except for rum. 😦
Here are the downsides, not that I really feel the need to complain… 1) The weather has been crappy. In the 5 days I think we’ve seen the sun for a total of 4 hours. Luckily, we have access to gasoline so our generator has been humming, and Tim is working on version 10.0 of the rain catcher. 2) The Royal Suva Yacht Club showers are neither high pressure nor hot. 3) There is a prison very near the Yacht club, but on the upside when we pass the guys in orange jumpsuits they are every bit as happy as your average Fijian. 4) Yeah, I can’t think of any other downsides.
It didn’t take the kids long to make friends in Suva
Here’s a little more information about Suva:
Royal Suva Yacht Club. Inside the breakwater at the head of the harbor there is a small marina, and on shore there you can find “The Royal Suva Yacht Club.” We joined for 1 month, it wasn’t too expensive, but turned out to be more than what it was worth, given that I only used the showers once. They have happy hours every night with cheap Fiji bitter on tap, which was a bonus. There was a big grassy area for the kids to run and play, and apparently the popular game while we were in Suva was cops and robbers.
Laundry. They have a very cheap drop-off service at the yacht club. It was almost half the price as the drop-off services in Savusavu, and they even returned it the same day. Almost. When I went to pick up my bag in the afternoon the guys face drained of all its color when he saw me, because he knew he had already given out all the bags of laundry he had. Without telling me what was going on he went to the VHF radio and started hailing the vessel “Another Adventure,” a boat we had actually met when we were in Fulaga. After calling twice with no response I finally asked him if he had given my laundry to Another Adventure, and he told me that yes he did, but it was my fault because our boat name wasn’t written clearly on it. That isn’t true, but I let it slide, I knew he was just at a loss for what to do because he didn’t even have any idea if Another Adventure was still in the harbor, and if they weren’t, then what? I asked him if I could use his VHF, and I called one of our friends and asked if they knew if Another Adventure was still there, and yes, in fact they were anchored close by. So, I told the guy at the yacht club I would go out in our dinghy to get our laundry. But I half smiled as I told him I wasn’t going to pay him yet. He smiled back. We got our laundry back, no problem, which was a huge relief.
Fuel dock. There is a shallow fuel dock at the Yacht Club, so we took some depth soundings from the dinghy to see if it was deep enough for us, and with our 4 ft draf there was plenty of water for us. We went in the morning, just before high tide, and we had 6 ft under our keels. While at the dock we were able to obviously fill our diesel tanks, but we also got to take advantage of a fresh water spigot and we gave Exodus a much needed rinse off and scrub down.
Exodus at the fuel dock in Suva
Suva Market. I know I’ve already mentioned the Suva Market, but oh my god! I can’t overstate how much I loved the Suva Market. I went pretty much every day and would buy the freshest things I could find. Forget shopping malls and clothing stores, after living this cruising life there’s nothing I enjoy more than browsing table after table of baby bok choy, tomatoes, and eggplant. All locally grown and all dirt cheap. They had imported items like apples, carrots, and bell peppers (now known to us as capsicum), and I splurged occassionally, but mostly I stuck to the huge plate of locally grown with the $1 Fijian price tag. For the most part, the Suva Market is just like the Savusavu or Nadi markets only about 10 times the size. The one special thing about the Suva market is the upstairs area with all of the dried goods (including bulk popcorn!) and Indian spices. I could browse up there for quite awhile too! I loaded up on curry powder, because we have found that the curry powder here is much better than what I used to buy in the supermarket back home. I will need to find an Indian market when we go back. I also found ground cumin here too (now known to us as Jeera powder).
Suva Market!
Bulk foods and Indian spices on the 2nd floor of the Suva Market
Other Provisioning. The Cost u Less that I mentioned earlier was quite a taxi ride away, so Tim and I went together and spent half a day and probably $1000 to fill a taxi to its maximum capacity. Closer to the harbor there are several supermarkets, including two MHCC’s. The one where I did our final provisioning is in a totally western style shopping mall. The boys and I walked down there and then took a taxi back.
Taxis. Taxis are everywhere in Suva! And in Fiji taxi drivers earn an hourly wage rather than some sort of commission based on their fares, so the drivers are always more than happy to wait for you while you do your shopping or any other errands. You pretty much can’t walk down the street without several taxis slowing down and honking at you to see if you want a lift. Taxis are cheap too, so we never hestitated to grab one if we didn’t feel like walking or were too loaded down. Usually I would walk down to the market (about a 20-30 minute walk) and then take a taxi back.
Overall, our visit to Suva reminded me a lot of when we went to Pago Pago, American Samoa: Probably would have been enjoyable under other circumstances but visiting among stops at actual island paradises AND being mostly consumed by provisioning and other work made it certainly no highlight. Except for the market.
Gresham Family Exodus 