The transit from Tonga to Fiji took us a total of 44 hours at sea. While it was my first tradewind passage, it was pretty much what I anticipated it would be. The winds blew a consistent 15 to 25 knots from east to west and the seas were generally from the southeast at 2 to 3 meters. As the passage progressed, both the winds and seas dropped to the low end of the range.
We ran at a steady 1600 RPM – barely loafing along for the big John Deere. That gave us a speed over ground of just over 9 knots. There was no need to rush as we wanted to make our landfall in Suva at first light. The engine turned over 300 hours during the trip which translates to over 2700 miles at sea since launch.
Approaching Suva, the island presents as a high, rugged island that is volcanic in origin. There are rain forest on the upper reaches as the peaks catch the moisture from the trades in the form of rain.
Suva harbor was a bit unusual by my standards as it is virtually open visually to the sea from the south. It is well protected, however, by a thorny reef with a narrow passage. Once inside, there is little wave activity.
Customs and Immigration formalities were efficiently handled. The Royal Suva Yacht Club gathers all the officials and brings them all to the boat at one time. The only complication was visiting all of the government offices the next day to pay our fees and obtain cruising permits for the outer islands. That part took Steve the better part of an afternoon as the offices were scattered all over the city and even the officials weren’t quite sure where they all were.
After the small villages and small cities of Nava’U and Nuku Alofa in Tonga, it was a bit of big city shock when we arrived in Suva. Suva is a bustling port city of 350,000 people and I will admit that it took a bit of adjustment to get accustomed to the hustle, bustle, sights and sound of the “big city”.
We were warned by the good folks at the yacht club to be careful of our possessions as pick pockets are a major problem here. We were also warned about hustlers who would charm there way in to your day and make money by guiding you to establishments that gave them kickbacks on your purchases. We had an encounter of the latter kind with Alec – once latched on, he was like a remora. We finally ducked in to a higher end establishment where he was asked to depart and leave us be.
The chore list today is to re provision our perishables at the market, pick up some more fishing gear and odds and ends that we need. The city is an odd mix of modern shopping mall and open air market as can be seen from the following.
The Chinese are here in force with their fishing boats to capture yellow fin tuna. They also have a significant economic presence here – my impression is that it is all set up to their advantage and not the Fijians.
The plan is to move on to Port Denarau tomorrow where some replacement parts are awaiting us and a spa is awaiting Deb.
Cheers