Suva

 

Tuesday morning we awoke to the sound of the anchor chain being pulled up at 6:45 a.m. – Rod was apparently in a hurry to leave for Suva. We motored (no wind) across the water following our computerized MaxSea GPS track from a previous voyage. This leg of the voyage turned into a great fishing trip! We were trolling a line behind Raven as we traveled and it didn’t take long until we hooked a small tuna. I was reeling it in and it gave a couple of good jerks and escaped, to our disappointment as the freezer was currently empty of fresh fish. However not long after we hooked a mahi mahi and hung onto that one. Mahi mahi are good game fish as well as good eating and this one put up a fight and leapt clear of the water several times before we landed him. Not long after we hooked another fish – this time a nice big rainbow runner. Needless to say, it was fresh fish for lunch. Rod added to his list of Suva errands a visit to the fishing shop, from which he had purchased that particular lure, to stock up on a good supply of identical twins.

In Suva we brought Raven into the marina dock – a tricky maneuver in very tight quarters which took all four of us coordinating our efforts. Anouk stood guard in the dinghy to help push the bow around if needed. I stood by with a spare bumper to drop it over the side wherever it seemed most likely that we would bump against our neighbors (the rest of the bumpers were already deployed at strategic points). Rod motored in and then turned Raven so that she was stern to the dock, Mike dropped the anchor, and then we backed off the anchor into our spot between a huge aluminum powerboat on one side and a small fishing dinghy on the other. A few volunteers on the dock helped tie off our stern lines and the entire maneuver went very smoothly.

The point of coming into the marina instead of anchoring out was primarily to fill up the water tanks for our coming passage, and also the convenience of not needing to dinghy to and from shore for every errand. We’re in Suva to clear out of immigration, inspect Raven and make any required repairs, stock up on the food and supplies, etc., before the passage to New Zealand. Our tentative schedule is to pull out of the docks at high tide Friday (around 4 p.m.) and anchor in the harbor. First thing Saturday morning we will motorsail to Kadavu Island 45 miles or so from here, and enjoy Kadavu for about a week. However each day we’ll be checking the latest weather, and when conditions look right we’ll be ready to go to sea.

There’s a tradition that it’s bad luck for vessels to leave port on a Friday. We speculate that it came about originally because the crews probably preferred Friday nights on the town! However it is an extremely ingrained superstition and the Raven policy is to honor it. Anouk tells us that the British Navy tried to dispel the notion. They built a ship and named it HMS Friday, launched it on a Friday, and it embarked on its maiden voyage on a Friday – and was never seen or heard from again!

So we’ve been enjoying big city life in Suva waiting for Saturday to arrive. Mike and I saw a recent release movie at the Village 6 Cinema (Lord of War with Nicholas Cage). Anouk and I have been shopping – supposedly for Raven supplies but we keep getting distracted by goodies in the windows. As a result we have added to our stock of gifts, souvenirs, clothing and jewelry. On Wednesday we shopped non-stop, except for lunch at the Curry House, from 10 til 5.

A San Diego couple stopped by Raven that evening to introduce themselves and beg a look at the boat. She is a nurse here for a few weeks to train Fijian nurses at the Suva hospital in CPR. At home she has horses and is interested in breeding thoroughbred/Irish draft crosses. He’s a former sailor currently boatless, having totaled his 77 foot sailboat on rocks in Mexico on his night watch!

More visitors aboard Raven Wednesday were Dutch friends of Anouk who run a high-end lodge named The Five Princes here in Suva. Their clientele are primarily businessmen and diplomats moving to Fiji and needing transitional living quarters until obtaining their own housing. We bumped into them on the sidewalk during our shopping expedition and invited them over for a beer.

We gave both sets of visitors the Raven tour, although she wasn’t at her best as we had $500 worth of groceries all over the saloon table and the galley countertops preparatory to stowing in their proper places in the fridge, cupboards, and under the sofa seats.