Savu City and Anchorage

This will be a brief description of the thriving city of Savu and our anchorage. To get in to the anchorage and port you first have to pass through a large fringing reef that is visible at low tide but completely covered at high. The approach to the main pass, which is a fairly wide natural channel into the interior deeper water, is marked with large day markers with night lights on either side. The markers are large when you get near them but very difficult to see when a couple of miles out and anxious to find the channel without hitting the reef. The guide books all go out of there way to tell you that the paper and electronic charts are all off by as much as a mile so you are just a little bit uptight on the approach. We had a GPS waypoint which we assumed would be more accurate than our electronic chartplotter but in fact the chartplotter was dead-on and the waypoint would have put us on the reef. We had to correct when it was obvious it was not right but at that moment we were close enough to see the reef and had to make a big course change. Nevertheless, all was well and we got in okay.

The harbor is a major seaport for the South Pacific, bigger than we have seen other than Auckland in NZ. Big cruise, cargo, tanker and fishing ships all put in here at the big wharves and boatyards that line one side of the harbor. This is all built up with the cranes, warehouses, fuel tanks and other structures found in any major port. There is a very large Chinese ship that has four enormous satellite antennas on equally big supports coming out the midline of the ship. It is a "research" ship, which is patently a lie, as those kinds of floating antennas would only be necessary to eavesdrop on the communications and radar facilities of other countries, in other words, a spy ship. It must be 400ft long - a monster. You do see this groups of single Chinese men wandering around the city, in plain clothes. This is also a major port for smaller Chinese fishing boats. These boats are coming and going at all times. One came in the other day that was listing so bad to port that it looked like it would capsize at any second. They got to the wharf and fixed whatever was the problem and took off again.

Scattered around the harbor anchorages are groups of derelict looking medium size fishing vessels or inter-island freighters, some more than just hulks. We are anchored near six of them. Three next door are being refitted by gangs of workers who come out in small open boats. They are painting, scraping and doing other maintenance on these very old and well-used boats, probably 150ft each, with three of them sharing the same mooring buoy. The men wave and smile at us when we see them go by each day. There are larger strings of ships at other buoys around the bay, one with at least 10 ships tied up together. I would not want to be near them if a cyclone was imminent.

We are anchored in about 20ft of water just off the Royal Suva Yacht Club. The club is a relatively classy club with a small marina, dinghy dock, fuel dock with a very small boatyard with a slipway on the same channel. The club is a real members only club but cruisers can buy a temporary membership for $8/day which allows you to use the dinghy dock and get very good tasting water at the dock. The bar has a good happy hour with an excellent little restaurant next door. We left our laundry there and it is picked up for you and brought back the same day ($26 for two loads). I have been taking in 3 gal water jugs and filling them up and bringing back to the boat for our tanks. The water here is too dirty to use the water maker.

The club is about 2 miles from downtown but buses run in front on the main road, along with inexpensive taxis. The road is very busy and honking is a way of life for the drivers. Unfortunately for our anchorage there is also some kind of waste processing facility along the road away from downtown and they burn something all day long. This drifts in to the bay and makes for a smelly anchorage. It really detracts from an otherwise excellent place to stay.

The town is hustle-bustle to the max. Very exotic with two major racial mixes and some minor ones, primarily native Fijians who are dark, big and very friendly, and Indians brought in to work the sugar plantations generations ago by the British. There are also some Chinese, Europeans and others but definitely in the minority. The Fijians and ethnic Indians work and shop together but do not intermarry at all, or almost at all. The recent coup is from the tensions between the two groups. The Indians are go-getters, shop owners, government workers and are always trying to get ahead. The native Fijians are just as smart but are not as enthusiastic about working, money and business. I won't bore you about the issues this causes but you can see it everywhere in the world, including the US. The military here have tried to "fix" it their own way several times though hence the three military coups over the last 20 years. The latest one is causing major grief here to the economy. They just promised new elections in 2009 - may be.

We went to the big produce market downtown yesterday - Saturday. It was extremely difficult to even walk the sidewalks and through the market because of the throngs of people. The whole thing assaults your senses. Cindy kept saying she was overwhelmed by the masses, the noise, the heat and the smells. The market had hundreds of small vendors selling fruits and veggies of all kinds - carrots, taro, ginger, okra, cabbage, tomatoes, watermelons, lemons, limes, etc. etc. Fresh fish were offered along a separate fish market with the vendors swishing cane "fans" over the fish to keep the flies off. Any kind of fish you can imagine was available. Upstairs in the big market is the kava area. They sell the roots and stems of a plant in the pepper family which is used to make kava. Traditionally the roots were chewed by boys or women until masticated. They would spit the large ball of "stuff" into a bowl and then strain the juice out with coconut cloth into a big bowl. Small bowls are dipped in to that and passed around. We have not tried it yet but it looks and tastes like well-used dishwater. It has been an important part of traditional life here for centuries, and on other islands as well. When you cruise to other smaller islands you are supposed to ask permission from each local chief to anchor and visit there by offering kava to the chief in a sevusevu ceremony. Otherwise you can't stay, simple as that.

Kava is a big part of everyday life in the towns and cities too though. The men (mostly men) sit around and drink this stuff. It is a mild intoxicant, with the first obvious symptom is your lips go numb. It supposedly relaxes you and makes the world all right. Fights are not common with kava, unlike alcohol. The locals around the islands can be very aggressive with alcohol so kava is a good thing.

Even though the military have taken over, there is no evidence of it walking around the city. Life goes on. The army is not out at checkpoints like they were just a few weeks ago. They are trying to get the tourists to come back. The US, Australia, Great Britain and New Zealand all have travel advisories to Fiji though and that is not helping. Fiji also just through out the NZ High Commissioner (like the Ambassador) so the Prime Minister of NZ just told all kiwis to stay home and not come here. Kiwis are still coming but not like they have in the past. Suva is not a major tourist destination though as it is wet here and across the island from the main international airport. Most tourists stay on the west side of the main island or immediately go to other resort islands. Fiji is definitely worth a visit if you want a tropical vacation, especially for snorkeling and scuba diving with fantastic fish and coral.

Overall, we like it here so far and we have not even gotten out of the big city. The people are friendly, the prices are good and it is warm (actually too hot for us). We will take off for the cruising areas next week some time after seeing the university here, the museum and a couple of other places. We also still need to top off the fuel tanks and get a couple of parts fixed.

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