Author: cruisingrunner

We celebrated Brenden’s 13th birthday while in Savusavu, as well as Jonathon’s and Victoria’s, so it was fun that all the kids got to be together this year. Last year for his 12th birthday Brenden was brooding over the fact that Lady Carolina had left us in Tonga, so I’m really glad it worked out that Fluenta stayed in Savusavu. Brenden’s request for his birthday was, “Pizza, pasta, cookies, and ice cream.” And we were able to deliver on all accounts.

It’s hard to believe that “baby B” is now a teenager, although at the same time it’s not. As with every year, he seems to be right where he should be.

We hadn’t gotten Alex a 14th birthday present yet even though it was well over a month since we celebrated it, so Tim went all out and got the boys a surfboad and a kite for kitesurfing (purchased from our friends on Eleutheria.) The surfboard is a big improvement for dinghy surfing over their other foam Costco boards, but they still haven’t dedicated the time to master the kite.

We had spent about 5 days in Savusavu at the very beginning of our Fiji adventure, and at that time we stayed on a Copra Shed mooring ball for no particular reason. This time as we were approaching the harbor I again radioed Copra Shed, because what can I say; I’m a creature of habit. Copra Shed didn’t answer, but Waitui Marina called back and the friendliest voice I’ve ever heard on the radio asked if she could help us in anyway. That was Jolene, and she hooked us up with a mooring for our entire 3 week stay this time in Savusavu. The Waitui facilities aren’t as posh as Copra Shed, but the price is less, and it always feels good to be patronizing an establishment with helpful people.

One of the first things I had to take care of in Savusavu was get our passports stamped for the visa extension I had paid for back in Nadi. So, I took our passports and the payment receipt to the immigration office and hoped for the best. Although there were two or three people in the office, I was told I would need to come back another day because, “the lady who stamps passports is sick.” Kind of funny that the function of stamping passports is a single point failure given that it is, after all, the immigration office. But there’s nothing you can do but smile and go along with it. When I came back a couple days later, the day our original visas were to expire, the “passport stamping” lady was well and in the office, so after about a half hour of making phone calls back to Nadi, she handed me our stamped passports and I was on my way.

We caught up with some friends we hadn’t seen in a long time… Eleutheria and Skabenga who we hadn’t seen since French Polynesia, and Hot Spur, who we hadn’t seen since, wow, Mexico. Everyone had their various adventure stories to tell about “how I spent the cyclone season” and it was fun to hang out and catch up. We also met a new kid boat, a French speaking family from Belgium on a boat called Sept a Vivre. They had kids just the right age to hang out with Alex and Brenden, but sadly they were only in Savusavu for a short time. We had hoped that we might run into them again later in The Marshall Islands, but, spoiler alert, that never quite panned out.

The sad good-byes were really getting old and now it was time for good-byes with Fluenta and True Blue V. Fluenta was going back to New Zealand for cyclone season and TBV was going to wait another season out in Fiji. TBV had been the ones to put the idea of going to The Marshalls in our heads, but in the end they decided they would stay in Fiji instead. I’m not going to get too sappy as I write about these good-byes, because spoiler alert: we will see Fluenta again at Taveuni before we leave Fiji, and in true cruiser fashion, TBV will change their plans again and join us heading north after all!

Even though we really needed to get to Savusavu to sort out the watermaker issue, we decided to head just a little bit south for a few days to the island of Namena, which is a small island in the middle of a marine reserve. I thought when Tim learned that he couldn’t spearfish there he would change his mind about going, but I guess the pristine diving still enticed him. I really didn’t want to go. More than ever, I was ready for fresh provisions and restaurants, and I really had my heart set on arriving in Savusavu sooner rather than later. However, I was much less grumpy about the decision about going to Namena when we arrived to find our good friends on True Blue V already there.

The satellite image below shows where we exited and entered the various reef systems. We exited the Vanua Levu fringing reef through what is labeled “Nadi Passage.” It was wide and it was easy to see due to the breaking waves on the reef, but there were some strange wave patterns in the pass due to current which were a little unsettling as I viewed them from a distance. We entered the Namena reef through an unlabeled pass that we had chosen by examining the satellite imagery. There was a wider, obviously deeper pass further to the south, but the pass we chose a little more direct. In the pass there were two pinnacle coral heads that we spotted rather late but still avoided in plenty of time.

We anchored on the north side of the island, and we mostly had light winds while we were there, but they say you can also anchor on the south side if the prevailing wind is from the north. The island is mostly uninhabited, in that there is no village or anything. But there is a single dive resort on the north tip of the island, but from our vantage point in the anchorage you barely knew it was there, except for the dive boats. There is also a dive operation based in Savusavu that brings people out to dive the Namena reef.

The weather was actually perfect during our stay, or maybe just a bit too hot, and Tim and Brenden broke out the huka to do a dive out on on the reef. They went to a dive spot called “The Chimneys” and it turns out that these were the same two pinnacles that we had previously avoided as we entered the reef. They thoroughly enjoyed the dive, but from these two you don’t hear about how pretty and healthy the coral was or how many fish there were, no you only hear about all the big fish that would swim right up to them, taunting them because they couldn’t spearfish.

Myself, I enjoyed the crystal-clear water by taking the paddle board around the island and exploring an amazing white sand beach on the other side. One of the unique things about this island is the abundant bird life. The boobies (red footed) and frigates are so numerous; it reminds us a bit of Isla Isabel in Mexico. We were pondering what makes this island have so many birds when we haven’t seen that anywhere else in Fiji, and we think probably because there’s no fishing allowed so they have abundant food close by, and also because there’s no predators, no humans to take their eggs. I also went on a brief snorkel with Max and Liz on the southwest tip of the island, and it was nice healthy coral and lots of little “aquarium fish.”

On another day Tim took both boys out on hooka dive. Yes, Alex even went this time. This time it was to the north pass to a dive spot called “Grand Central Station.” Tim seldom writes notes in our logbook, but after this dive I found the following note in his handwriting: “Awesome dogtooth! Walu, fish, sharks, coral”

When we departed Namena we left up through North Save-a-Tack pass and had an easy day sail up to Savusavu. It was a cold, rainy, and foggy day, so the visibility was pretty bad, but we were happy for two reasons: 1) We were able to sail, like actually sail with no engines or anything. After all the upwind motoring we’d been doing to get back east, it was very nice. and 2) We were accompanied by a pod of dolphins. Back in Mexico it seemed like you couldn’t move 2 miles without seeing dolphins but since then they’ve been more sparse. They swam with us for a while and it was good fun.

It turns out that Father’s Day in Fiji is in September, and we were invited to church and then afterwards to a lunch with the Chief’s clan, so of course we accepted.

Being Father’s Day it was a special kind of church service. Instead of the pastor giving a single sermon, several dads of the village got up and read scripture and did a little of their own preaching. It was all in Fijian so we couldn’t understand a word, but it was interesting to observe the different styles of the men who were speaking. Some were quiet and reserved and some were real fire and brimstone. However, this format produced the longest church service ever! Well over 2 hours. The kids did great, and so did the adults. As usual, what really made it bearable was the singing. It’s also in Fijian, but so beautiful you feel like you can understand it anyway.

After church went to the big family lunch with the entire chief’s clan, something like 50-60 people including many, many kids. It was an enjoyable afternoon, and I must say that this was the nicest, most welcoming village that we had been to since the Lau group. As is the usual Fijian custom, the men and children ate first and then after they had dispersed from the meeting hall, the women had a turn. Being the guests, it was expected that Liz and I eat in the first round, which we did, but then we hung around with the women after, and even helped with washing the dishes. I liked Liz’s observation that she shared with the women… it’s good that they wait until after the men and children leave to eat because then they get to eat in peace! There was a little bit of laughter at that comment.

One day the guys hit the walu jackpot. Brenden got a big one, while Max got a HUGE one. We still had some of the last one in the freezer, so we decided to split Brenden’s fish between our two boats and then give Max’s to the village.