Savusavu and Labasa

After Zophia left, we spent a few more days in Savusavu getting ready to head out again. This means provisioning and doing some boat jobs like filling our water tanks, picking up and installing the four AGM batteries that we had ordered from China, and getting extra cockpit cushion covers and salon curtains made.

Before leaving Savusavu, we took the bus to the Northern coast of the island to the town of Labasa. The drive across the island is very scenic. We went on market day and it was a bustling town. The market is much larger than in Savusavu and much of the produce in the market in Savusavu comes from Labasa.

Is this grafitti?

Local Bus to Labasa

Labasa market

Labasa market

Bok Choy at the Labasa market

As we were waiting for the bus back to Savusavu, we struck up a conversation with a local woman who was also returning to Savusavu. She worked for the Ministry of Immigration and visited the boats as they arrived to Fiji for the official check-in process. When our bus arrived at the station, there was much pushing and we asked Malcolm to go in front of us, push onto the bus and save us seats. Unfortunately, in all the mayhem, Malcolm felt his wallet lifted. It happened so fast, none of us could detect who had done it. There was nothing to do about it.

Rather than push onto the bus, the local woman stayed with us. She felt terrible about what had happened. As the next bus was in two hours, she invited us back to her boyfriend’s house for tea and cake. With the return taxi being late and a bit of a traffic jam, we almost missed the last bus back to Savusavu!

A few days later we left Savusavu, trying to work our way east to get to the Lau Group of islands. So, we motor-sailed, close-hauled, in the rain for 8 hours eventually anchoring off of Paradise Resort on the SW tip of Taveuni Island. By then the rain had stopped, so we joined del Viento, Interlude V, Moondance, Kiapa, Onivas and Koza for happy hour at the resort.