Finally, after some 6,000 miles of sailing without an engine, we woke up tied safely to the dock at the Savusavu Marina, Vanua Levu Island, Fiji. We got settled in, got through the customs/immigration/biosecurity check-in process, and decided to go exploring on foot just to get an idea of where we were, and what we can expect....we walked out to the road and turned left....
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After passing a modern gas station, we came
our first village and were cheerfully greeted
by about everybody that was up and about. |
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| The village school |
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| The road through the village |
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This must have been laundry day, as many
of the homes had laundry out on the line. (We
later find out that the few times the sun is out
the laundry goes out) |
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| The local cemetary |
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A major means of transportation throughout
the island |
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| Entering the hospital area |
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Quite a hike up this hill. Good thing the hospital
was actually up there in case we needed it. |
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| Nancy still coming up |
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| Hospital entrance |
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Heading back through village...their version
of setting out trash for the garbage collectors |
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| New home under construction |
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| The gas station |
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Back to the marina. Not quite what was
advertised on the web... |
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| The local machine shop |
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The administration building and Veterinarian's
office. |
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| The marina office |
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| The haul out facility (catamarans only) |
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| Access to the dock |
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| Another view of haul out and "yard" |
Then it was time to do a little exploring by dinghy to get a better picture of our surroundings and how we get our "car"(dinghy) into town.
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| The dock and yard from the water side |
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| Abandoned "whaler" partly on the shore |
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Heading down the "creek" with Nawi Island
to the right and boats moored in front of
town to the left |
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| A somewhat derelict boat tied off to mangroves |
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| Getting closer to town |
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| A dock to tie up to near the beginning of town |
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| The Surf and Turf restaurant |
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The restaurant owner's dock, which we found
out was there specifically for cruisers convenience |
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| Walking along an "exercise" path towards town |
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| Nawi Island |
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| The exercise path and equipment along it |
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| Still on the path |
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| Billboard marketing |
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| Taxi Stand at center of town |
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Store fronts, Virtually all businesses are owned
and/or operated by Indians (from India) |
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The main road through town; a section of
the highway that connects to other towns
on this island. |
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Bus "depot" and local cellular provider,
Vodaphone |
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| More storefronts |
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| Bus depot adjacent to taxi stand |
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| Surf and Turn restaurant open for business |
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| We thought we'd try it |
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| The view was nice |
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| The food was superb...definitely coming back! |
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Heading back to the boat looking over our
shoulders.
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Time to get the main engine out of the boat...what a surprise!
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The captain pushing Shakedown with our
dinghy, which is tied fore and aft to boat. |
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Helmsman Benny and mechanic
Luka manning the cockpit |
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Passing the Copra Shed marina on the way
to the Ferry wharf |
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Fellow cruiser Jamie, adding propulsion
power from the starboard side of Shakedown |
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| Savusavu town behind us now |
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| The "end tie" to the wharf |
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Ferry left previous day. Making ready to haul
the engine out. Nancy and Shane (machine
shop owner) look on |
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| Luka and Benny securing hoist to engine |
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Engine out and being loaded on truck to take
it to Shane's shop |
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Sem (mechanic) ready to go back to shop and
tear down the engine |
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| Time to shove off and head to our mooring |
As stated in last post, we are indeed here....it has been only nine days, but we've learned a lot, and are shocked and amazed at how quickly our engine problem has been attacked. Two and a half months in both Nuku Hiva and American Samoa resulted in zero progress in repairing our main engine. We expected even less here in the tiny town (pop. 3,300) of Savusavu. But the engine is out of the boat, with a promise to have it fixed "soon"..
So far, so good.....
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