Bev's birthday

Tucanon
Dick and Irene Craig
Fri 2 Jul 2010 04:49
When we arrived at Denarau marina around 1pm on Friday 25th June, we tied up
port side, against a finger pontoon, taking stern lines to the main pontoon.
There were already a number of other WARC boats here, although this hadn't
been scheduled as we are all cruising independently.
The facilities are excellent with a variety of shops and an amazing
selection of different restaurants serving meals at affordable prices. The
first night that we went ashore for a meal, we were thrilled to be able to
watch two separate groups of dancers on the podium, just behind the fountain
which ejaculated water from the tiled, pavement-like surface, where children
stood in swimsuits. Both the male dancers and the female dancers were as
good as any we have seen so far on our travels.
We celebrated Bev's birthday on board, before the young people went out on
the town and Dick and I settled down to watch a film.
We caught a local bus to Nadi, a nearby town. The bus route went through the
metalled streets, bordered by manicured lawns, cultivated gardens and
roundabouts, modern hotels and expensive residential property before
entering the real world of mud tracks and small, one-storey houses occupied
by local people. We passed fields of sugarcane and cattle, even saw a
tethered bull on what looked more like string than rope, adjacent to the
road on which we journeyed. The trip took about three quarters of an hour
although when we returned in the shuttle bus which was direct, it took only
ten minutes.
Nadi town had much more of a Fijian flavour than Suva and not very
dissimilar to a Caribbean town other than the large number of Indian shops
and businesses, which lined the streets.
We visited the market stocked with fresh fruit and vegetables. One section
is dedicated to the sale of kava. We ate a curry lunch in what resembled the
equivalent of an English, down market fish and chip shop. The food was very
good and cost about $5US per head including a soft drink. No alcohol on sale
here. As we approached the corner of the road, from the "fish and chip shop",
just across the road we could see the Sri Siva Subrahmaniya Swami temple,
built by craftsmen in 1994, flown in from India. This south Indian style
temple is the largest and finest of its kind in the south Pacific. To enter,
one should not have eaten meat for a week or this was what we were told by
the guy to whom the admission fee was paid.
We left Port Denarau around 10am on the 30th June, just after refueling and
made passage to Musket cove where all the WARC fleet are expected to meet
ready for the start of the next leg on July 3rd.
During the period we have been in Fiji, 7 of our boats had either hit a
coral head and been damaged or they had actually gone aground. One tipped
sideways and water poured in through the open hatches resulting in a Mayday
call.
The night of the 30th we all attended a barbecue arranged by the marina.
Next day during the afternoon 4 teams took part in beach sports with the
Tucanon team and the Sundeer team being overall winners. The wind was
blowing 23knots and we were not sorry to be tied up to a pontoon. That night
we all went ashore to Dick's bar (nothing to do with us) and enjoyed a
Fijian feast and traditional dancing by both men and women.
Three more boats officially left the rally. Ronja, who plan to join the next
WARC, as do Dreamcatcher. Noel Luna are off to New Caledonia and then home
to Singapore. This will reduce the number of young folks on the rally quite
considerably.
We walked around the island and up a hill from whence we had an almost 360º
view of the island.
Friday afternoon and it was time to visit immigration and customs to check
out of the country tomorrow. Fortunately, rally control had arranged for the
officials to come to Musket cove to complete the formalities thus saving us
a taxi fare of $75 US for the privilege.




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