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2C Update #147
- Savu Savu Tease - August 28 - September 7, 2006
Sorry, no photos,
camera broken
Waking up in Savu
Savu, there is no question that we are somewhere new.
The land and the people are markedly different from
Tongans, even though the Fijian, Tongan and Samoan
people have long traded (and warred) together. Savu
Savu wakes with a bustle. Birds chatter loudly in the
anchorage, a stereo fires up full bore before coffee,
and traffic in town rumbles busily on the main street
which runs right alongside the anchorage. The freighter
or ferry backed up to the commercial wharf across the
mouth of the inlet has changed color and name overnight,
while dark-skinned families pole by the boat in
impossibly narrow craft bound for the day’s fishing.
And Curly’s daily “Good morning, SAvu Savu” VHF radio
net has, if not shot you to your feet, at least got you
reaching for your calendar to schedule the weeks
activities.
Curly’s official
business is the Bosun’s Locker, a small storefront that
offers services catering to cruiser’s needs: mail; cell
phone rentals; office and Internet services; bookings
for tours and dives; yacht moorings, maintenance,
minding, and deliveries, not to mention Curly’s famous
“Fiji Fantastic” fishing lures.
Curly’s Seminar
But Curly is
probably best known for his seminars introducing
visiting sailors to the realities of navigating Fiji’s
complicated waters, negotiating cruising permits for out
islands, and most importantly the peculiar protocol
essential to successful visits to traditional Fijian
villages. With our return tickets to Tampa booked for
November 2, we figured we had just the right window of
time to cruise northern Fiji before we had to find our
way to the Vuda Point Boatyard to haul.. So feeling
motivated, we made our way to the Sea View Café for
Curly’s Tuesday afternoon seminar on applying for
cruising permits and village protocol.
Fiji is a
complicated place. For far longer than other island
groups they kept out invading cultures thanks to the
tricky reefs that encircle the islands and their
reputation as fierce and frightening (augmented by some
rather creative body paint and gruesome clubs!)
cannibals. But eventually, come those cultures did,
primarily, of course, the European opportunists – the
preachers, the whalers, the traders, and the land-hungry
growers. As happened elsewhere, the plantations needed
labor, but the native Fijians did not take to the role
“offered” them. Enter the East Indians. An industrious
people from an overpopulated and socially restrictive
homeland, the East Indians came to Fiji and turned labor
into opportunity. As a result, East Indians now number
nearly half Fiji’s population and are responsible for
most of the commercial bustle in towns like Savu Savu
throughout the nation.
While the East
Indian community does its thing, and the outside
influences do theirs with their luxury resorts, the
ethnic Fijians have determinedly maintained a more
traditional lifestyle. ..at least one modified by its
mating with the Christian Church. The Fijian community
is one of intense village hierarchy, and the national
government protects that in part by controlling access
by outsiders. So, for example, it is said to be very
difficult for cruising sailboats to get a permit to
visit the most traditional outpost of Fijian culture,
the Lau Island group. This is, of course, because
visitors have abused the privilege and failed to respect
local customs. An ironic outcome is that many cruisers
don’t bother with the real Fiji and only touch base at
Fiji’s Europeanized outposts.
Curly’s objective is
to educate cruisers in the ways of Fijian villages and
the proper behaviors to make us welcome there! So,
after walking us through the filling out of forms to get
a cruising permit for the places you want to visit
(including the Lau Group), Curly and his Fijian friend
Bobby set about introducing us to the all important
sevu sevu (prounced ser-vu ser-vu) –
the kava giving and drinking ceremony.
First, it seems the
kind of kava – called yaquona in Fiji (and
pronounced yan-gon-nah) – is very important.
Although “instant” yaquona can be bought in a
powdered form, it is more politic to bring the original
root, and that root should be bundled in just the right
amount (not too much and not too little) and tied up a
certain way in a cone of newspaper. Then when you land
on a village’s beach, you ask the first person you meet
to introduce you to the chief’s spokesman, who then acts
on your behalf making the introduction to the chief and
the village. Then we learned the proper way to sit in a
kava circle, the proper way to accept the bowl (one
should drink the whole bowl, especially the first
time), and the proper way to clap (with cupped palms,
once before accepting the bowl and three times after!)
Bobby is most impressive presiding in his bare chest and
sulu (sarong), not even batting an eye as the
cruisers giggle. Hardly looks like the same person who
runs around in shorts and singlet helping with boat
projects in the anchorage.
Engine Mounts
Speaking of boat
projects, shortly after arriving in Savu Savu, Don
decided to tackle the big one that had been preying on
his mind for some time: Tackless’s front engine
mounts. They had gradually become distorted over the
years and definitely needed to be replaced, and we had
brought back with us from Florida two replacements
mounts. While in theory the project could be a
straightforward exercise, given a twenty-five-year-old
installation, we had balked at messing with it in Vavau
where any kind of mechanical support service was
minimal.
Savu Savu is hardly
a metropolis, but Don got to gabbing with Curly, and the
next thing I know the boys have decided to plunge ahead
without further ado. The project required loosening the
old mounts, jacking up the front one side of the engine
at a time, disconnecting and replacing the mount, and
then realigning the engine, all in very tight spaces and
with the anxiety of many things going wrong that could
render the engine unusable. The first and most major
accomplishment was breaking the mounting bolts loose
after twenty-odd years. As is often the case, all those
month of sleepless anticipation (Don does a lot of his
planning in the wee hours!) were for naught as the bolts
broke free relatively easily. Then they had to jack the
weight of the engine off the each mount on the engine
bed. The boys first tried using a come-along attached
to the mounting bolts of the binnacle above it , but
that system failed when one of the bolts broke.
Instead, they fashioned a fulcrum with cement blocks on
one side, a hydraulic jack on the other and a bar across
the top with the engine attached to a chain over the
bar. This worked. Once the engine was raised up, they
propped it with blocks to give them room to work. Here’s
where we really appreciate Tackless’ access to both side
of the engine! Don reattached the new mounts to the
engine with new bolts, then reset the mounts to the
engine bed with new lag bolts. This all took about
three days. Finally, Don and Curly realigned the
engine, a committee endeavor between them, and the
project was done!
Exploring town
While the boys were
having all this fun, I divided my time between working
on my computer in my corner of the salon (my new monthly
column – “The Admiral’s Angle” – for Latitudes and
Attitudes Magazine was calling for some
unaccustomed discipline!) and exploring the town with
other cruising women. There are two fair-sized
“super-markets”, one at each end of the street, a half
dozen or more smaller food stores between them, and two
bakeries. Similarly there are at least five “hardware”
stores scattered the length of the main street. Mixed in
are some restaurants, some internet cafes, and some
“general merchandise” shops.
What I persist in
thinking of as the “Mercado” – the town’s open air
veggie market – is right in the center of the town,
conveniently next to the bus depot. This market is
packed with fresh veggies – huge eggplants, round
cauliflowers, bouquets of broccoli, piles of bok choy,
mounds of peppers – and of course all the local veggies
and fruits we’d had in Vava’u, only in much more
bountiful quantities at much lower prices. Plus, there
were the rows of pungent spices in sacks and tables of
the exotic snack mixes that so characterize Indian
cuisine. Next door at the bus station we found several
ladies selling local “fast food” – long East Indian
curried-potato rotis rolled in foil or wrapped plates of
Fijian fish and root dinners – dispensed back to back
from coolers on picnic tables. The ladies of the
different cultures were dressed in bright outfits and
far more outgoing (once the initial temerity of speaking
with foreigners was overcome) than I ever found Tongans
to be.
In the evenings we
quickly fell into the routine Curly orchestrates of
happy hour at the yacht club followed by
specially-priced cruiser dinners at various
restaurants. The yacht club, located at one end of the
Copra Shed Marina complex, is a most amiable hangout.
The local members – mostly expats of various countries
(with a distinctly more Australian flavor ) make the
yachties welcome over specially-priced Fiji Bitters and
Fiji Golds – the local brew. The conversation is often
about upcoming passages (which route is better to
Lautoka, Musket Cove and Vuda Point….the long sail
clockwise around Viti Levu or the more direct but
laborious weather-bound crawl through Western Fiji’s
labyrinthine reefs), visiting villages, and, while we
were there, the stunning demise of Steve Irwin,
Australia’s beloved crocodile hunter. The cruiser
dinners range from a Fijian umu, to an Aussie Bar-B, to,
our favorite, a buffet of East Indian curries up at a
hotel overlooking the anchorage. At each gathering
there are from eight to twenty cruisers, some folks who
have just arrived, others who have, as their stay in
port lengthens, become regulars.
Lingering in Savu
Savu could be mighty easy. The biggest obstacle to that
is the limited moorage available. There are only a
handful of stern-to slips and a couple of dozen moorings
maintained by a couple of different companies (Curly and
Copra Shed Marina being two of them). Otherwise there
is little space to anchor inside Nakama Creek. Cruisers
can anchor outside the inlet along the coast out to
Point Passage, but as any departure requires a visit to
Customs and Immigration, one tends to go or stay!
Feeling a bit that the engine mount project might have
hogged a bit too much time on one of Curly’s precious
moorings, we attended Curly’s other popular seminar on
routes and charting quirks of the Fijian reefs (Curly is
at work his own cruising guide for Fiji, parts of which
cruisers can purchase at his seminars) with the aim of
getting out of town early the following week.
Change of
Plans
This however was not
to be. On Saturday morning, the first of September, a
routine download of email brought the following email
from Don’s Dad:
“A
little news here: I'm going in for knee replacement on
Sept. 14th. No big deal I'll keep every one advised on
progress. I didn't expect to get in as soon as it turned
out, but this way I should be up and running by fall and
ready for Florida after Christmas.”
“No big deal”,
huh?! Don’s Dad is 81, and at that age any trip to the
operating room is a big deal! Plus, anyone who’s been
reading these updates since September 2003 will remember
the six weeks Don spent in Indiana helping his Dad get
through the first one.
I hasten to say that
the email’s announcement was not a complete surprise.
He has needed it since the first one, but so disliked
the experience, he has been putting up with the
increasing discomfort for three years. This past month
or two, the family grapevine suggested that the
inevitable was….well becoming inevitable, and in fact,
we’d pushed our departure from the Ha’apai last month to
get back to Vava’u (where we knew we could store the
boat safely if need be) when said grapevine suggested a
decision could be imminent. However, although we
awaited word, dropped hints, etc, it looked like the
“grapevine” had been jumping the gun. And so off we
sailed to Fiji.
Now, here we were,
one week in the country, twelve days before the surgery,
a long way from the haulout yard at which we had
reservations to store the boat, and it was a weekend to
boot! There was absolutely no question in our minds
that we would pack up and go, it was just a question of
whether we could!
Fortunately, almost
from our arrival, we had been pondering the idea of Savu
Savu as an alternate place to leave Tackless for
cyclone season. Tackless seemed to do so much
better laid up afloat last year than she did after six
months closed up on the hard in Raiatea. Nakama Creek
has a good reputation as a hurricane hole, and
historical statistics suggest that Vanua Levu gets hit
less often by cyclones than Viti Levu (and our planned
haulout yard!) to the south. Plus, Curly himself offers
a yacht-minding service not unlike what we’d had by
Larry and Sheri of the Ark in Tapana.
By the end of day,
it had all come together. Curly had arranged a cyclone
mooring for us through the Copra Shed (his own were all
spoken for), and we began stripping the boat down. By
end of day Monday we had changed our November
reservations to Tampa to the Thursday evening flight,
plus we’d managed to book the one way flights to Nadi
from Savu Savu for Thursday morning despite the short
notice. We even had a place to while away the ten-hour
layover in Nadi, since our friends Bud and Anita of
Passage (last seen a year ago headed for New Zealand
from Vava’u) were in Vuda Marina, an easy taxi ride from
the airport. From Tampa, after a day to recuperate from
the thirty-eight hours, door-to-door travel (including
back-to-back red-eyes, eight times zones, and two
Thursdays!) and to play with our grandson, we would
drive to Crystal River, re-commission the “box boat”
(our RV), and hit the highway to Indiana, about a
two-and-a half-day drive!
The plan went like
clockwork, pure momentum carrying us through, and we
arrived in the folks’ driveway in Morristown, …a very
long way from Fiji…with a day and a half to spare.
We are now back in
the States, as of September 2006, through April 2007.
While in the States'
we are experimenting with using a "blog" (Web Log) in
combination with our regular cruising logs.
Check out Gwen's USA Blog
When we return to
cruising in Fiji, we'll be posting our updates to our
new South Pacific blog:
Gwen's
South Pacific Blog |
