Overturned wreck and old fishing boats moored in background. This is the anchorage in Suva!
Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Suva; Restaurants, Shops, Cars, Oh My!

We had no longer pulled out of the hairy Fulaga reef pass, motored on a bit farther so we could safely make our turn to head into the wind and started to pull the mainsail up when I heard a funny sound. "Something's wrong!" I said. "Go, go, go!" Larry yelled. Then suddenly, "Stop!" Running up to the mast to have a look, his worst fear is confirmed. Damn! How could this happen to us twice?! Didn't we just have this replaced in New Zealand so it would never happen again?! So as we are bashing head on into the wind and waves, as needed to do to raise the mainsail, our boom has separated from the mast! This is not good on so many different levels. This is the path of - first this goes wrong and then this happens and then this breaks and before you know it you end up in real trouble that you can't recover from. Or you get seriously hurt. Or you just simply emotionally lose it. No, no, no...we can do this! God, God, God...please help us. And that is what He does. Larry and Ben go into high gear. It is great having such a big, strong fourteen year old! And after a good hour or more, they are able to winch, lift, then force the gooseneck back into place and put a new cotter pin in to hold it. Phew! We all felt deflated and slowly had to decompress. Once again I have to say, this sailing life has extreme highs and extreme lows, with a smattering of "scare the pants off of you" moments. You find yourself craving the monotony of hum-drum.

So, finally after the sail is up we turn a 180 and start heading the direction we need to go - a downwind run, about twenty six hours.

Suva, the capital of Fiji, located on the island of Viti Levu, the rainiest place in Fiji. It's big, it's loud, it's noisy... And there are cars and taxis everywhere! Population, about 80,000. We anchored far out in the bay off the Royal Suva Yacht Club, with all the other rusty, disgusting, foul fishing boats. It's depressing to see these hulks, quite often moored together, leaking ooze from their pores. The fumes from the diesel in the water almost make Larry and Ben sick as they work up on deck. It's really hard to eat another piece of bought fish after you see this.

The "royal", in the Royal Suva Yacht Club, ain't so much, but a restaurant they have and we are in! And there begins our week of some fabulous meals out, with our friends on Buffalo Nickel and Pikuditu, who happened to be here at the same time. Shut up! A Cost U Less, I say?! Sounds like a Costco wanna be to me so now the Lisa Kay is once again happily weighted down by all things food and wine:-)

Our second day in Suva we immediately got to our task of offloading all the goodies we had brought. The chief of Fulaga 's son was in touch with us right away to pick up the kava bowls and huge bags of dried fish that were sitting on our back deck. We had heard theft could be an issue in Suva and it made us a bit nervous with this cache. Turns out he is a marine biologist. His project at this time is monitoring the removal/harvesting of beche de mer (sea cucumber) and the effects on the local reef system. We explained to him our little knowledge of what we had observed and heard about in Tonga, and he said he was well aware.

Next project, finding nurse Batai's mother, and delivering her gift. I thought we could make it to her home in the afternoon but Larry ended with a last minute emergency visit to the dentist. When I called to try and reschedule with her she informed me she had been cooking all day long and that we had to come! No problem, okay, we'll just jump in a taxi and be there in a few...not so much...the cab driver looked at me as I showed him the hand drawn map of how to get to her home, one block before you reach Sams Shop, which is just past the second circle, down the dirt road, second house on the right after you make the turn etc...and he said, "Oooh, that's far." "Far," I asked, "How far?" Needless to say, we made it. It was actually very cool to drive up into the mountains, through the different areas from shanty towns to embassy homes, crossing the largest river in Fiji on their new bridge. The effort did not disappoint. Batai's mother was absolutely lovely and the highlight was being able to show her pictures of her son, in action, on the far away island of Fulaga. The food she cooked was absolutely the most delicious we had eaten as of yet in Fiji, including her home grown eggplant, yum!

We pre-paid our taxi very well to wait for us and once again he did not disappoint. I can't even begin to tell you how many countries we have been in, and how many times we have felt eternally grateful for our taxi drivers. If you get a good one, which there are many, you instantly gel. They take you in, reassure you that they can get you to where you need to go and back again, and always are a wealth of information along the way. We discuss everything from politics to jobs to schools to cultures. They become our personal bodyguards, so to speak.

On Sunday we were kindly picked up by Bale's (our hostess in Fulaga) brother in law. We had made a promise to Alfreddy and Bale that we would attend their Jehovah's Witness church in Suva. Everyone was very nice and the service was very different from what we are used to, but I have to say it was a bit creepy. Sorry, but I am just being honest. Different strokes for different folks - whatever works for you.

If you are ever in Suva, don't miss the museum. It is nothing fancy, but has a wealth of information and artifacts of all things Fiji since the beginning of time, including the hand carved wooden forks the cannibals used to eat your brain with. Very impressive! And it's on the presidential palace grounds which are gorgeous in their own way.

Another not miss thing is the produce market. Holy cow! Two stories!! And you can pick out your own personal man to follow you around with a wheel barrel, carefully transporting your fruits and veggies and eggs as you move from vendor to vendor. I almost went into a vegetarian coma!

Bye, bye big city! It's been real, it's been fun, but off to the Great Astrolabe Reef we go - the fourth largest in the world!