Update from Alan...
Wednesday July 7th
Bula! Bula! (hello or welcome in Fijian) We arrived in Lautoka today after a 24 hour sail from Savusavu on the north island of Fiji. Most of the sailing was through passes of calm water with coral reefs all around. We tried to time the trip so that most of the passes were done in daylight. I have been pretty surprised at what Fiji is like. I guess I thought it was a tropical island paradise like Bora Bora. If you had told me it was lots of mountains, Indian food, hot springs, pine forest and sugar plantations I guess I might have been surprised. It has a little bit of everything. Including some of the best reefs and scuba diving in the world (which we didn’t get close enough to take advantage of) and like almost every place we have been, I am continually seeing things that I wish we could do but don’t have enough time and know that I could spend a month here and not be bored or see it all. We have met many many cruisers who HAVE seen it all sailing the pretty much the same route as us and left Canada or other east coast ports 3-5 years ago and have only gotten as far as we are now. One couple who we met upon our arrival here said it best, ”Man you guys need to drop out of warp speed!” Our mantra seems to be “darn, I wish we could do that but were leaving in the morning.”
Lautoka, also known as the sugar city for its big sugar exportation industry is the 2nd largest city in Fiji and has a much different feel than Savusavu. It is much more “city like” with literally hundreds of busy shops mostly run by Indians who are decedants of the migrant labor brought here in the early 20th century to work the sugar plantations. There is a bus station and a train, a mall, large produce and handicraft market and a large shipping port. Similar in many ways to Papeete, Tahiti.
We anchored around noon and cleared into customs and spent the day on the town. We found a place to get some cheap food, and saw the produce market. I bought a small bag of ground Waka which we will use to try and make Kava later. Kava is the ceremonial drink of the western pacific islands. It has a mild grassy flavor and gives a feeling of relaxation and somewhat of a buzz but very mildly so. It is mostly similar to tea I suppose but very traditional and ceremonial. Later, Will and I went off on our own and Adam and Amanda went exploring on their own. We have done this so far it works well since they walk very fast and Will and I like to stop and smell the roses a lot usually without a plan just breathing it all in and going with the flow. It works really well and I have yet to regret this way of exploring.
We stopped at a barber shop because Will wanted a hair/beard cut. Almost every Indian shop here advertises as a barber and a tailor for the matter, so that wasn’t hard to find. I was even asked if I would like a haircut while walking down the street. Will got a very nice haircut for 3 fijian dollars and is very clean cut looking now with a trimmed beard even. I opted to stay a spectator. Afterwards, we wandered into some random shops and looked at everything from second hand cloths to DVD’s to handicrafts. We enjoyed just walking around and reading the random advertizing signs like, “Meat Bird for sale, Inquire inside”, or “Cloths for sale, 5 dollars each.” Many eateries offer “takeway” food and almost every single shop has fried food that has been sitting under a hot lamp which is usually cheap and delicious. We also found some ice cream OF COURSE.
We were also in search of a place to maybe watch the world cup tomorrow Will is a big follower. Another game is tomorrow at 630am local time so that may be difficult but that didn’t deter us from at least checking out a couple of places that were recommended by the cruising couple we met on the way in. The Sea View Hotel was an unlikely looking place on the water and we asked the lady at the desk where we could find a place to get a beer. “You can get one here of course, have a seat!” was her reply. So we did. They had a TV but she looked confused when we tried to ask if she would be able to get the game in the morning at 630. The second place we checked out was across the street from “The most exclusive night club in Lautoka” (that was the name of the place) but we didn’t see a TV so we moved on.
We kept wandering, wondering if Adam and Amanda would be headed back to the dinghy dock since it was already around 630pm. We decided to head that direction and made a detour to check out one last place “The Northern Club” a country club type place with some tennis courts, a pool and large dance floor area with snooker tables, a big bar and a deck. We just had to sign our names and they let us in. There we saw Adam and Amanda just sitting down at a table. We were surprised but glad we didn’t have to keep guessing if they were waiting on us back at the boat. We hadn’t made a plan to meet up anywhere. Oops. Anyway we all had a few beers there and asked about the world cup in the morning but it didn’t sound like they were that excited about it and Will didn’t seem too worried. Personally I’ll be surprised if we are out of bed before 730 tomorrow morning.
We walked back to the dock through the container ship port and rowed the dinghy back to the boat which is where I now sit, recalling our days adventuring.
Plans:
We plan to spend today here exploring some other areas, maybe bussing over to a new town. Unfortunately, the Fiji water bottling company does not offer tours of their facility which we were kind of hoping to see. Then on Friday, we will move the boat about 12 miles further south to a proper yacht marina to fill up on diesel fuel before leaving directly for Vanuatu. We are planning to make landfall there at, Tana or Tona, not sure how you spell it but there is apparently an active volcano on the island that you can hike up which I hope will be a great highlight of our stop there! It’s about 650 miles to Vanuatu and then another 1300 and change to Carins. Will and I are very much looking forward to spending time in AUS and travelling down the coast to Sydney exploring along the way.
