Savusavu had become a "tarpit harbour" for us and we were finding it difficult to leave this lovely anchorage. Fresh produce was available in the market, there were good supermarkets, a bakery with delicious meat pies, a number of good restaurants, not to mention hot showers, laundry and lots of opportunities to socialize with other cruisers. However, we had been here three weeks and Judy and Steve on Code Blue had already headed north. We had not gone with them, because we were still waiting for Ted's replacement Visa card to arrive - we discovered the card had been compromised in New Zealand and cancelled. Visa assured us the new card would arrive in 3-5 working days, although we thought this a bit optimistic. Purolator first sent the card to Lexington, Kentucky??!! It was returned to Toronto to start the trip all over again and arrived in Nadi (Nandi) about a week later. The agent in Nadi wanted us to come and pick it up; but finally agreed to send it on to Savusavu, once we explained that we were on a sailboat. It had taken almost two weeks, but a friend's card took 27 days by USPS. Jan and Carl (Sequoia) had just arrived from New Zealand, so the delay gave us an opportunity to spend time with them.

The winds, which had been quite strong, finally eased and we headed up to the Jean-Michel Cousteau Resort with Sequoia. The resort had been badly damaged by Cyclone Winston and major reconstruction of buildings and the sea-wall was in progress. It was a beautiful place to anchor and we enjoyed snorkelling on the reef. The coral had sustained quite a lot of damage, but there were many different varieties of fish. It seemed a world away from Savusavu, although only a few miles up the coast. Three days later we left at sunrise for the 40 mile trip north to Viani Bay. The sea was like glass and we motored most of the way with lovely views of the Hibiscus Coast of Vanua Levu to the west and the mountains of Taveuni to the east. The cyclone destruction on the south end of Taveuni was clearly evident.

The charts in Fiji are not accurate and reefs abound everywhere - a real challenge for navigation! Before we left New Zealand, we had downloaded Satellite images of every anchorage we thought we might visit and obtained waypoints from other cruisers for routes and entrances through the reefs. In addition we consulted a compilation of routes and anchorage waypoints called the Soggy Paws Compendium. The owners of SV Soggy Paws have gone to a lot of effort over a multi-year period to compile information from several boats on cruising the South Pacific from French Polynesia to Fiji. The waypoints and route suggestions contained in the compendium have been very helpful especially in areas, such as Fiji, where the charts are not very accurate and/or lack detail. This, plus waypoints from the Fiji Atlas which Ted was able to download into iNavX on the iPad, gave us reasonably accurate routing. As we entered through the south pass into Viani Bay, it was a great comfort to be able to see the satellite photo showing the reefs and our little boat on the iPad at the helm. Despite all this information, however, it is imperative to sail through the reefs in good light with the sun behind you and keep a very good watch to avoid unmarked hazards. The "Mark 1 Eyeball" is still the most important aid to navigation in these conditions! The additional challenge in the tropics is the amount of cloud cover that abounds, and one may wait days for suitable conditions to move. One special challenge moving in this particular area is that we are on the date line. Consequently, our satellite photos don't cross the dateline and one must circle all the way around the world to get to the other side! A major pain when trying to navigate through these waters.

Code Blue was still waiting for us in Viani Bay, but planned to sail over to Taveuni the next day to re-provision. Steve had made several dives on nearby Rainbow Reef and he showed us some beautiful GoPro videos of these drift dives. Jack Fisher, a well-known local Fijian, came by the boats to ask if we were interested in having him take us out to dive or snorkel on Rainbow Reef. All four of us were keen to snorkel, so we agreed to go with him the following day and take both dinghies. We had been using our new 2HP Yamaha motor exclusively since arriving in Fiji; however, as it was quite a long way out to Rainbow Reef, we now needed to put the bigger 9.9HP Mercury on. The motor had been serviced in NZ and it should have been a simple job to transfer the motors; however, nothing is ever simple on a boat! Ted took it for a test spin...the throttle wouldn't work and it stuck at high RPM; and then it wouldn't change gears! Back at the boat, Ted was working on the throttle when it suddenly went into gear driving the dinghy and Ted right up the back of the sailboat! Fortunately he was able to stop it before the dinghy flipped over, but it was a shock and could have ended very badly! He managed to get it running well enough to go out to the reef, but he didn't really trust it.

Next day we heard Jack on the radio making plans with other boats to go out, so we knew he would not be taking us. We pumped up the kayaks and paddled around the island to the reef on the other side and snorkelled along the reef, towing our kayaks. Code Blue headed to Taveuni to re-provision. Jack arrived the following day to take us out to the reef. Unfortunately, by then the wind was up and the waves choppy, but at least we had sun. Fiji is well-known for its excellent diving, and it is especially noted for the marvellous multi-coloured soft corals. Jack dropped us at a big "cabbage patch" coral on the south side of the pass and we spent an hour working our way along the reef with the big breakers rolling in just a few feet away. The colours and diversity of the soft corals was amazing - red, orange, lavender, teal and purple; and the hard corals - huge table corals, stag horn, brain and many encrusting forms covered in brilliantly coloured little fish. We could have spent hours there, but we were starting to tire from fighting the current and I was getting seasick from the choppy waves. The first time I've been seasick swimming! We moved to the north side of the pass, but visibility was deteriorating with the choppy water, so we headed back to Viani Bay. The cost of the trip was $10 each. Jack was pleased when we also gave him some food for his family - it had been a great day and money well spent. Code Blue arrived back from Taveuni with a tale about their scary experience when their dinghy motor failed. Fortunately, they didn't go up on the reef with all their groceries, but it had been a close call and they were exhausted from battling the wind. Judy had missed having her dinner out that evening which was a major disappointment for her. But all's well that ends well and the three boats were now back together.

Next day we headed up island to Buca Bay. We explored the bay by dinghy on our first full day. We went ashore at the Mission at Natuvu Creek which provides dental and medical care for the local people, as well as those from the neighbouring islands of Taveuni, Kioa and Rabi. There is also a large school, which we think is part of the same complex. One Fijian father brought his two children over to see our boats on their way home from school and said we could bring our dinghies in at his house, if we were coming to the village at the head of the bay. We thanked him, as our exploration had shown that it was too shallow to get our dinghies in at the village.

The Hibiscus Highway runs along the SE coast of Vanua Levu from Savusavu to Buca Bay. We had read that it was a scenic trip, so we decided to take the bus back to Savusavu and use the opportunity to re-provision and take Judy out to lunch. Ted decided to stay with the boats to work on his outboard. The bus departs from the Mission, once the ferry arrives from Taveuni. The ferry from Taveuni was crowded, to say the least; and as it pulled into the dock it leaned scarily to starboard. It was amazing to see how many people and the baggage that came off the boat and the line up and baggage going back on! I received a phone call from a very frustrated Ted just as the bus was about to depart. Apparently, the watermaker was not working again!!! He suggested I buy water, in case he could not fix it. The 80 km trip took over 2 hours because the bus constantly stopped to pick-up and drop-off passengers (possibly the most interesting part of the trip). Back in Savusavu, we had a delicious lunch at the Grace Road Kitchen, run by a group of Korean Presbyterians. They are working on an agricultural project in Fiji, growing various types of rice and organic vegetables. Their excellent produce is used in the kitchen and is also for sale, so we stocked up on lettuces, cucumbers, eggplants and ridged gourds. As we each had several bags of groceries and, in addition I had 8 gallon jugs of water, we arranged for a taxi to drive us back to Buca Bay rather than try to manage on a crowded bus. Ted met us at the dock with a big smile. After consulting with the technician in New Zealand, he had taken the intensifier pump apart to free the stuck pistons. Apparently, it is a known problem; and HRO had recently posted a Service Bulletin with instructions on how to fix the pump. Ted had got to use his famous "big hammer" approach to free the pistons, much to his delight.

Next day we headed north to Albert Cove on Rabi Island at daybreak. The weather pattern over the last few days had had relatively clear skies in the morning with clouds developing by the afternoon. As we had a number of reefs to negotiate on our way up past Kioa and around to the north end of Rabi and two sets of reefs to negotiate through the pass into Albert Cove; we left at dawn and hoped to arrive at noon with the sun at our backs. We started off motoring, but were soon sailing in a lovely 15-20 kt breeze. The waypoints were excellent and we had no difficulty making our way through the reefs. Our friends, Michael and Barbara (Astarte) and the Quebec boat (C. Coquin) were the only boats anchored in this idyllic spot. We spent four days snorkelling on the reef, kayaking and walking the beaches collecting shells.

The island of Rabi was purchased by the British government in 1942 for resettlement of the Micronesian inhabitants of Banaba in the Gilbert Islands (now Kiribati), as their atoll island had been ravished by phosphate mining. Consequently, as the population is Micronesian, not Fijian, we had read that a traditional sevusevu presentation of kava was not required. Two families live in Albert Cove, although only one was at home while we were there. Pauline, John and their three children were very welcoming, but extremely poor. We brought them gifts of food and clothing and were invited into their thatched hut to chat. We appreciated the green coconuts they gave us to drink - the only thing they had to give us in return.

It was time to move on again. Carl had to fly home to the USA for his mother's memorial service and they were returning to Savusavu. We had intended to sail on to the Northern Lau Group with Code Blue, but now with the outboard problem, we decided to return to Savusavu with Sequoia. From Rabi we sailed to Dakuniba Bay, just south of Viani Bay. Astarte had given us the waypoints and we had no difficulty negotiating the deep, but narrow entrance into the bay. Michael had told us to watch for the Fruit Bats at sunset. We could see that the trees in behind the mangroves were laden with fruit bats hanging upside down and could hear their squabbling. Around 5:30 pm a few bats took to the air and languidly flew overhead before heading south over the ridge. By 5:45 pm a few more were in the air. Suddenly at 6:00 pm, as the sun went down, the air was filled with hundreds of fruit bats silhouetted against the pink clouds - what an amazing sight!

Next day we sailed back to Savusavu. As we approached the entrance to Savusavu Bay, we saw Chara come up on our AIS, heading for Savusavu too. We hadn't seen our friends, Bob and Joyce, since 2014. Chara suddenly stopped after coming through the pass and disappeared into the mist. We radioed to them, concerned that they had a mechanical problem. "No problem" said Joyce, Bob just caught a 100 lb yellow-fin tuna! Once they were safely docked, Bob filleted the fish and generously gave us a couple of tuna steaks - such a treat!

While in Savusavu, Ted got the outboard motor serviced and it is running better, but not perfectly. He learned of a person who specialized in repairing small electrical motors, so he took the watermaker feed pump in to be serviced as well. It now runs better and the water quality has improved somewhat. We decided that, as Jan would be on the boat by herself and Carl was bringing back spare parts for us; we should wait in Savusavu for his return in 10 days time. We were anxious to move on to the Lau Group; but we kept busy and time went quickly - there are always boat jobs to be done, friends to socialize with and lots of roads and trails to explore in the hills above town.

We have been checking the weather and listening to Gulf Harbour Radio daily in preparation for leaving. Unfortunately, there are a number of lows passing through bringing clouds and rain and the South Pacific Convergence Zone (SPCZ) has dropped south of Fiji, so the weather for the next few days is not looking too good. We will keep our fingers crossed and head out to Vanua Belavu at the earliest opportunity.