10th June 2015
When we left
NZ, we knew we were taking on one of the trickier passages of our journey. It
can be nasty and terrible, or have too little wind, or be a mixture of both! AS
one cruiser told us, he always plans for a 9 day passage to Suva…. 3 days of
wild crappy weather, 3 days of good sailing, and 3 days of motoring… and
considers that par for the course.
I suppose
that sums up our voyage, with our diversion to Minerva requiring a little more
motoring, but being compensated by visiting a quite special, and unusual reef,
only ever seen by a relative handful of sailors. Plus we were heading for the
most northerly check-in point in Fiji (
SavuSavu), which is about 100 miles further than Suva, which made our 10/11
days for the passage about what we could hope for.
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| Wahoo! |
We have
become experts at slowing down to make our arrival early in the morning, during
office hours, to avoid the extortionistic bull about arriving in “overtime” hours!
Scott-Free
and ourselves checked at 8.00am at SavuSavu, using the services of the very
friendly Coprashed Marina staff, The process was an absolute pleasure, and the
Bio-Security, Health, Customs, Immigration, Cruising permit application handled
quickly and efficiently by WARM AND COURTEOUS officials!! What a pleasure!
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| ST and SF still joined at the hip on the Q Dock! |
It may appear to readers that we travel side by side for the entire passage. Not so!
Frequently we are 20 -30 miles apart, with one taking the high road and the other the low. But somehow seem to find each other at least a few times in a passage! Quite amazing when one considers how different the 2 yachts are with their preferred points of sail.
By 10.00 am
we were cleared in, out on a mooring buoy, and putting the dinghy in the water, so that
we could go ashore, explore, pay the fees, and track down a simcard for the
dongle and cellphone.
Then it was Burgers
and Beers with cruising buddies at the local “Surf and Turf”, before returning
to Sheer for a Lo o o ng , and much needed kip!
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| Savusavu anchorage as seen from the Q dock |
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