Suva to Musket cove to Lautoka

After a few more days at a couple of anchorages, and never seeing another boat, it was time to head back to the main island but over to its dry sunny west side and to Musket cove, a yachty hangout. It was a easy overnight passage here and we motored through an easy pass and then to the anchorage where there was about 30 other yachts.

We joined and became lifetime members of the Musket Cove yacht club for a one dollar. They had all the facilities there, water, laundry groceries and a few nice places to go for a good walk into the hills. There was only one boat here that we knew and that was an Australian boat Delicado. They kindly gave us a bunch of copy charts of Indonesia which should prove handy.

We spent 5 days here and then went over to Lautoka and checked in with officials who told us we should have come here first before going to Musket Cove which was on our cruising permit, luckily we got off with just a warning. They are about as bad as Mexico with there check in and out bureaucracy and lots of paper work. The anchorage by Queens dock and near the customs dock is ok except for the sugar mill and wood chip mill that spew ash and smoke and get ash on our boat deck. So we are getting out of here tomorrow morning and off to Port Resolution on Tanna the Southern island of Vanuatu which is about a 5 day passage.
Info:
Anchored in 60ft at Musket Cove at 17 46.369 S 177 11.126 E. Join Musket Cove yacht club for a $1.00 and can use the dinghy dock there, but half to pay for drinking water, make sure switched to correct tap and not getting washing water. Some provisioning available and other small shops. I though holding was a bit dodgy in places, got windy and we seemed to be dragging so re anchored, several other boats did the same, thin sand is on coral. Would have taken a buoy but none were available.

Suva Fiji

Suva the capital of Fiji, is the first place where I truly feel I am in a foreign city. It is a busy, colorful, exciting place. There was not very many yachts in the anchorage I think because of the bad reputation of the custom officials, though we had no problem. Just lots of paper work and time consuming to check in. We enjoyed exploring the city, the cheap spicy Indian food which Dorothy liked but I was not to keen on. We took taxis many places as it was usually only $2 Canadian or less for a ride.
We got our Australian visa after a long day of paperwork and $200 each!!
I bought a Quad band, unlocked world phone and called mom for a great rate. everyone seems to have a cell phone here and it is a good place to get one.

Info:
Easy entrance, but call port control on 16 to anounce you are entering harbour. The anchorage was good with lots of room when we were there. Anchored in 30ft at 18 07.344S 178 25.391 . Call Royal Suva Yacht Club, RSY they will arrange for customs to come out to your boat. You pay RSY a small fee to become a member and then you can use there dinghy dock and water for a fee. and some laundry ladies there will do your laundry. Later you need to get a cruising permit to cruise Fiji and Customs will tell you where to go to get it and it was free. Q was $30 I beleive.

Suva to Kadavu Island

It is time to leave the excitment of Suva/Fiji and head for the outer Fijian island of Kadavu an overnight sail away. We left at 3:30AM and had a good sail though we were hard on the wind all the way with boat healing and spray flying. We could just make our course sailing the boat as close to the wind as it would go.


We arrived at our chosen anchorage of Nabouwalu Bay late in the afternoon. What a difference from Suva. We are back in the wilderness, a beautiful bay surrounded by reefs and palm trees with a tiny village at its head, no cars, they still live back in time here.
We went ashore the next day and walked around and then looked for village chief to get permission to stay here. A elder said the chief was away but he brought us into his home and talked to us abit and then asked us to come to dinner tonight at 7pm. Next his daughter showed us around village and took us to a waterfall.
Later we went for a long walk up a trail to a small resort a couple of miles up coast. That evening we left a bit early for our dinner appt. as we wanted to get there before pitch dark so we could find our way there. There are no lights in village. On arrival we gave the daughter a printed copy of a picture we took of her which she seemed to really like. This house was the only one with a light on, he had turned his small generator on just for us. They usually used kerosene lanterns For dinner we sat on the floor on mats and food was placed in front of us only and they all watched us eat. I asked if they were going to eat and they said later. Dinner was taro root, dall soup and a noodle dish dish with some fish in it which being allergic to fish, I could not eat. After we ate they sat down and ate there dinner including the six children.
Later heading back to the boat we headed for the only light in the bay, our anchor light, and new there was nothing in between us and the light. It was pitch black with no moon.