Soggy Suva

Clearing out of Tonga in Vava'u wasn't the best experience that we have ever had. You have to bring your boat alongside the dock, no matter how much you beg this is their rule and there is no getting around it…unless there is no dock space. The dock is awful, it was spring lows, we came alongside all fenders out and as we neared, realised that the top of the stanchions lined up exactly with the dock overhang. We managed to avoid a prang but only just. Blood pressure back to normal and stern words with the customs officials who didn't even come anywhere near our boat (why couldn't they just accept us pointing at it on a mooring outside their office?), we left pronto and headed for Suva.

The passage was uneventful just how we like it, little wind so a slow one but it was easy navigation between the Lau Group and we arrived in Suva 4 days later. We call Port Control…nothing, we call Royal Suva Yacht Club…nothing. It's 3pm on a Friday by now so we presume everyone has clocked off early, celebrating our arrival with our very last tin of pringles and tub of salsa (it's the small things in life), we settle down for the night and decide to deal with bureaucracy tomorrow.

Soggy Suva

OK so in hindsight we should have got in the dinghy and demanded we see customs before they clock off at 4 as we got stung with overtime fees. In total I think we paid USD$200 extra for clearing in on a Saturday so word of warning, clear in between 8-4 Monday to Friday and if they don't answer during that time, get in the dinghy and go ashore to the receptionists at the yacht club to sort it out for you.

Suva is dirty, smelly, ugly and it constantly rains…but we loved it. We had been told that with such a high concentration of Indians in the city, we would be able to get a decent curry and these rumours were not wrong. I think on one day we had two each! Upstairs in the MHCC mall is a food court, and in this food court is a stall called Singh's Curry House. Hooaaa just thinking about it now makes my mouth water. For FJD$8 you can get a curry complete with rotis / rice, curried dhal and soup. That's less than $4 and a decent sized portion! There was just no need to cook onboard when food was for sale at those prices. So we took full advantage of not having to wash up and ate out every day we were there. Rotis on the roadside were FJD$1 so we snacked on those too!

Rotis on the roadside

One of the many curries we ate

Once your appetite has well and truly disappeared, only then should you check out the fruit and veg market. It is absolutely enormous and full of fresh goodies at amazingly low prices. 

Upstairs from the veggie market is where you find the kava for taking to the outer islands (I'll do a separate post on kava ceremonies). Kava is a type of root that acts as a narcotic when ground, mixed with water and drank. This witches' broom looking root is presented to the chief of a village when anchored in their bay so we stocked up on 4 bundles to keep us going as we tend to cruise the Mamanucas and Yasawas. Amongst the stalls selling kava came the most incredible smells. Nicknamed Little India, the place was rammed with sacks and sacks of spices. I made the unfortunate mistake of inhaling some particularly feisty chilli powder whilst walking past one vendor and spent the next 10 minutes wheezing, my eyes streaming whilst Dylan tells anyone that will listen that I am 'Britishy' and can't handle my spice!

Kava bundles

Making our kava bundles

Another great find in Suva was an eyebrow threading place. I have an obsession with eyebrows, I don't know why or where it came from but I can pretty much recall most people's eyebrow's shape after our first meeting. To feed this obsession when living in London I used to get my eyebrows threaded every 6 weeks but when we went cruising I had to kick that habit despite me persuading Dylan that wielding a piece of string between his teeth really mustn't be that hard. Walking past an Indian jewellers in town I see the sign, double take as…well…why would a jeweller do eyebrow threading…and waltz right in. A slight diversification from their actual service, the wife sits me in a plastic chair and threads away in the middle of the store in front of all the clients for 5 mins all for the sum of less than £1. £1! I pay £12 easily in London for the same service albeit in a leather chair not a plastic garden one (don't tell Dylan that though, he really doesn't understand these things). Dylan looked on in horror as I willingly let this stranger turn my eye sockets into a bright pink swollen mess and even thanked and paid her for the torture.

We enjoy collecting items for our next home from all the countries we visit and Suva allowed us to add to the collection tenfold. The Municipal Handicraft Market is….wow. You can find locally made wooden carved goods at non touristy prices. The big stores like Jacks of Fiji buy from here then mark them up for sale in their swanky shops. Shop around as there are many many stalls selling similar items of differing quality and all sellers we found were up for a good haggle. The other factor that makes you warm and fuzzy is that some of the stalls are people selling on behalf of their family members located in the outer islands who receive a percentage of the money. We tried to buy only from these guys. They mark the items with cruise ship prices and we managed to get them to about a third of the asking price, at times even less if you bought more than one item. I think we are sorted now for all of our friend's and family's birthdays for the next 5 years. Not quite sure how we shall be getting all of these goodies off the boat but shall worry about that nearer the time…

Checking out the wooden carvings

Oooo so many choices

Chopped sea slug on a bed of seaweed anyone?

Lovely local flowers

We aim to haul Orion at Vuda Point in the next week and one of the things on our list is antifouling. We were told the paint was very expensive to buy on the western side and were recommended a Korean dealer in Suva. It's an unpronounceable, unspellable Korean name located on Foster Road, 4/5 blocks down from the yacht club. If you don't mind painting your hull dark red (as that is the only colour they do) then this is the place to go. For FJD$650 you get 15 litres of Jotun Seapro used on the long liners. This is US$150 cheaper than what we paid in Grenada and for 5 litres more!

Keen to move to the drier side of the island before we grew webbed feet but sad to leave Suva, we upped anchor and headed for Vuda Point.