Bula Bula!

 

I’m writing this one as we leave the location I’m about to describe: Nawi Island Marina. Having arrived there on the 23rd August, planning to stay just a few days, we are now tearing ourselves away some 10 days later.

I’ve taken a break from the diary - this coinciding with me getting a cheap sim for the phone with 250G of data and gorging myself on all the delights the internet has to offer!

Let’s rewind a bit though.

One of the reasons we’d chosen this marina was that the ‘Pacific Posse’ rally were having a party here. That turned out to be a great evening: the free rum cocktails helped! Nice to catch up with a few of the boats we’d missed along the way over a couple of excellent mojitos.

The Salty Gingers arrived, always good to see those two, and we enjoyed a couple of sundowner sessions with them. A notable one being atop the hill that overlooks the bay here. We were joined by (among others) Ellie and Omar from a Cinnamon and Zoe and Angus from Mowzer - both couples I wish we’d ‘discovered’ earlier in our travels. I say that not only because they’re lovely people, but also because where we are now, Fiji, brings an end to the inevitable Westward travel we’ve all been following since leaving the Caribbean. From here there is a parting of ways, the boats will scatter: NZ, Australia, and all corners of the earth (literally!).

The town here Savu Savu (back there fading on the horizon as I write this) was a dusty run down spot. The locals are a mix of Indians (brought over as slaves by the British) and the local indigenous Fijian population. Standard attire is grubby rugby or football tops and tatty shorts. In fact, on first impressions it’s somewhere you might be inclined to avoid - thankfully first impressions (as they often are) were wrong. Stepping ashore the smiling faces greet you with ‘Bula Bula’. Even lounging gangs of scruffy twenty somethings will greet you with genuine smiles.. possibly cava related.. but smiles none the less!

We spent a fair portion of the time there working our way through a list of minor boat jobs. It’s been lovely to have unlimited fresh water, plugged in electricity and the showers definitely merit a mention:

Described in the marinas description as ‘inside outside’ showers, they are beautifully designed, rainforest showers with a planted jungle garden - a spa like experience each time you headed to the heads!

The marina is close to brand new, the staff seemingly truely proud of the little sailor’s haven that’s been created.

Unlike almost everywhere we’ve been since crossing the Atlantic there is a distinct lack of chickens - no cockerel dawn chorus - I was quite surprised by the absence once Chez had pointed this out to me.

There’s ongoing building work at the marina, but we were not disturbed by it - suspect the marina (and soon to be resort) will be a very different place if we were to come back in 5 years time.

Another notable neighbour was a massive (and not altogether ugly) mega yacht called ‘Dragonfly’ - $80M worth of floating luxury owned by a gentleman called Sergey Brin - cofounder of Google apparently.

Our final sundowner session was round at Linda and Keith’s (Itiki) who we hadn’t seen since Panama, and before then Gibraltar - that was another good evening, with people we wished we’d met before!

On our last day, we filled up with food at the local supermarkets, and took a taxi out to the local gas supplier. Once past security, we’re directed to a portacabin office, a smiling young lady bula’d us and took our gas bottle to be refilled. This left us alone in the office, next to her desk, with piles of bank notes which she’d been counting left in front of us without a thought. On her return I told her if she did it again, I’d definitely be nicking some - she laughed… but I would

Anyway, as I said at the start: we’ve left there, we’re doing a few day hops around to Musket Cove marina just off the main island of Viti Levu, where we’d originally hoped to catch up with the Conways. That sadly won’t be happening just yet, but it does look like a good place for our next stop.

First day out, a good days sailing - sufficient wind to have us only needing the engine at the start and tail end of the journey. We did have quite a bumpy passage through one of the passes, but that only lasted a few frantic minutes and we were soon into good calm water once we’d come through the reef. Found an empty anchorage mid afternoon and flopped down for the night - both tired: early night & a great nights sleep.

Up at 6 the next day, upped anchor and headed out had another great days sailing. Despite an earlier start we vainly chased the speedy Salty Gingers to a nice anchorage which we arrived at as the sun was setting. Taxi (dinghy) driver Graham picking us up shortly after for a sundowner session with coconut and lentil soup and home made bread - both excellent, and once again we’re marveling at Graham and Julie’s generosity and warmth. Slept like logs.

Now within the reef, having the night before decided to have a day off and stay for a day, we were both up at 6 and wanted to get moving again. Pleasant glide along the 30miles or so to the next anchorage hop, seeing nice guy Greg (new mate from Nawi Island on SY Viridian) along the way. Spent the day wiggling along the path defined by reefs either side, dropped shortly after lunch and spent a restful night alone in a deserted anchorage. Had a good chat with Aussie mates Deb and Lach (currently in Turkey), last spoke to them back in Panama - always good to catch up… possibly next time will be in Bangkok - but that’s another story!