Savu Savu

We finally arrived in Savu Savu on Sunday, September 18. It was a bit of a mistake arriving on the weekend because we had to pay health, quarantine and immigration an additional 3 hours in overtime fees. The journey from Tonga to Fiji was longer than we expected with unreliable winds but luckily for us relatively calm seas. As we arrived into Savu Savu at 8am in the morning I had never felt so tired. When I woke up at 3am to do watch I had to literally pull my eyes open. Anyway it was worth the journey as Savu Savu was a very welcoming anchorage set in a very friendly village. We received excellent services as well from the Copra Shed Yacht club. We basically spent most of Sunday clearing in with the 3 official government agencies. In the evening we went ashore for beer and pizza and a long hot shower. The sunset never happened but a beautiful rainbow appeared amongst the storm clouds in the anchorage. Monday was spent paying the 3 government agencies and I had my first hair cut in 3 months. The haircut was great but the colouring was a bit uneven and I remarked to Ian that I looked like a skunk! Ian snapped a quick photo of me in the hair salon. We planned to have a nice quiet dinner out on Monday but when we went to shore and headed for a shower we were asked to have a beer with a local couple than some yacht friends joined us and we were still at the bar at 8pm. Ian ended up ordering a takeaway meal from the restaurant and we ate it at the bar. At 10pm the bar tender turned the lights off and said she was going home so we left soon after her. Unfortunately Ian and I had come ashore in the kayaks so we had to waddle our way back in the dark to Faraway. We had a short hot shower when we arrived back to the boat. On Tuesday morning we paddled over to shore and Ian attempted to race his kayak with a guy on his traditional raft to shore. How amazing that they can paddle the rafts with sticks and balance produce like coconuts as well. On the way to shore we saw our friend Pascal who sailed with us from Cocos to Galapagos. We went to the café for coffee with him to catch up on all his news. It was a strange coincidence that he had just gotten off a ferry and saw Faraway in the anchorage and came by to say hello. After coffee we went to the markets and bought a load of fresh fruit and vegetables. It was so nice to have such a fresh selection and we went a bit mad with our purchases but everything was very cheap. Ian had a great time bartering with the ladies and he ended buying more chillies than we would ever need in a lifetime. We also bought lots of Kava (pepper root). The purpose of buying the root is to offer it to the Chiefs of the village anchorages that we planned to visit. It is offensive to anchor, fish or walk on an island without offering the Chief some kava first. We finally had all our stores for the next leg of our journey to Tavenui. In the afternoon we motored Faraway onto the water dock and I filled up while Ian cleared customs. We realized for the first time since we had started sailing that we were getting pretty confident with going alongside the dock and departing from it. The procedure used to give me heart failure but finally we seem to have it figured out. Early tomorrow morning we will set sail East for Taveuni stopping at anchorages along the way. My brother Graham from Melbourne plans to meet us there on the 29th to explore some remote anchorages and do some scuba diving. We are looking forward to having him onboard Faraway.