Back in Savusavu 16 46.685S 179 19.937E
Aurora_b
Mike and Liz Downing
Mon 9 Jul 2012 10:57
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A quick snorkel on Split Rock and then it was back
to a buoy in Nakama Creek at Savusavu. It's the first time we haven't been
at anchor since we left exactly 6 weeks ago. We were able to go shopping just
once in that time and were glad we had plenty of provisions on board. The
breakfast cereal ran out a couple of weeks ago and so it's been bread and
marmalade for breakfast. Making one loaf a day was enough for lunch the same day
(nice warm bread) and breakfast the next day. Milk supply was fine as we
had skimmed UHT, which isn't bad, and powdered milk, which you mix with water
and it's very good. We have plenty on board so are never short. We've been
drinking quite a lot of tea, which we never used to do in the tropics, but it
can get quite cool in the evenings here and a nice hot cuppa goes down well. Our
biggest concern food-wise was that we almost ran out of Chocolate! Our last bar,
kept for emergencies, saved the day. So now it's time to restock, and refuel. We
used just over half the tank and will add 200 litres of diesel.
There's no fuel dock in Savusavu, so it will be 5 trips ashore to the local
garage with our 2 (20 litre) cans. This should get us within 50
litres of being full and we'll top right up when we find a proper fuel dock on
the western side of Fiji. We've used more than expected running the generator 4
or more hours a day to keep the freezer going. This was too much and
it didn't take us long to decide to eat everything in the freezer and
switch it off. This reduced generator time down to 2 hours a
day to keep the batteries charged up and top up the water tanks. We
always run the water heater (an immersion heater) when charging the batteries to
load up the generator and make it work (even then it's only 30% loaded) so we
always have lots of hot water for showers. Solar power has been a bit
disappointing. Everyone's been complaining about it, so it's not just us. With
quite a lot of cloud we've generally been getting 8-10 amps or
less, instead of the 16 we hoped for (and did get on good days in New
Zealand). It's supposed to be better on the western side of Fiji and we
hope so.
Since leaving Savusavu the first time, Fiji changed
the check-in rules for yachts. When we left we had to get coastal clearance
at each of the main ports to travel to the next main port, checking in
with Customs on arrival. So going from main port to main port was a
bit like going from one country to another. However, while we were away, they've
decided yachts no longer have to obtain coastal clearance and once
they have a cruising permit (which we got when we arrived) they can go
wherever they like, but have to contact Customs once a week to report their
location. So we will now send an email once a week saying where we are and where
we're intending to go. It's a much better system and makes it a
lot easier.
Our cruise to the east was only supposed to be for 4
weeks at most, so we're behind schedule. There's a BFH (Big Fat
High) to the south west of Fiji dominating the weather for the whole area.
It's up to 1039 which means strong reinforced trades of
20-30kts until early next week and big seas to go with it, so
everyone's staying put until it the winds ease up and the seas go down. So
that's not going to help our schedule. it looks like we will now spend longer in
Fiji and not leave until early September.
The coral at Split Rock was disappointing after the
reefs in the Somosomo Strait, but there were quite a lot of reef fish and they
came very close. Being close to Savusavu, this spot gets lots of visitors
and the fish are clearly used to people.
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