Well, the good news is, I have a camera again. The bad news is that I had to spend the money to get one. It’s not exactly a Rolls (or even a VW for that matter) but it is waterproof and will, I trust, last a tad longer than the last one.
We arrived in Suva after breaking the trip with a couple of island stopovers which made for really nice day sailing. Suva is a big city by Pacific island standards and, despite the very dirty waters in the harbour (make that extremely filthy), is really not too bad. It’s surprisingly free of rubbish but then we’ve found that Fiji, by and large, is extremely clean compared to many other Pacific islands.
It has a brilliant fruit and veggie market and good all round provisioning. I’m in seventh heaven with all the Indian spices available and excellent, inexpensive curry restaurants.
Here, we met up with our friend, Peter of
Troutbridge, the chap who sadly put his boat up on the reef when entering the harbour late at night in May.
Poor
Trouters had her bottom ripped out of her and spent two weeks getting battered on the reef before he was able to float her and have her dragged unceremoniously into the Royal Suva Yacht Club.
His tale of getting her afloat reads like a horror story but it appears that desperation and determination finally won the day. She now rests up on the hard with Peter having to almost totally rebuild. We couldn’t offer much more than moral support but I think he appreciated our visit introducing us to some excellent Indian cuisine. Best of luck, Peter, you WILL get there.
Our bedraggled stowpack (the canvas catchall that holds our mainsail) was a bit worse for wear by the time we arrived in Suva, however, we were able to find a chap who replaced the zip and re-stitched the entire cover, reinforcing where necessary. Hopefully, it will last another few years now.
Our cultural needs were catered for in the form of a visit to the Fiji Museum but, apart from that, most of the time was spent buying a few provisions and holding up the bar with Peter.
PHOTO GALLERY:
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| Old Fijian Outrigger with palm woven sails |
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| Helping myself to the spices |
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| The Chinese fishing "cockroaches" are worldwide |
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| Taro root |
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| The Flower Stand |
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| The pineapple stall |
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| Ginger |
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| Aubergines et al |
Here, we met up with our friend, Peter of Troutbridge, the chap who sadly put his boat up on the reef when entering the harbour late at night in May. Poor Trouters had her bottom ripped out of her and spent two weeks getting battered on the reef before he was able to float her and have her dragged unceremoniously into the Royal Suva Yacht Club. 
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