This is a myna bird. They are everywhere in the Pacific Islands, introduced from somewhere but they have really made themselves at home. They are like starlings and have an amazing variety of calls.




This is the local hospital in Savu Savu, well part of it anyway. They charge patients for treatment. Lots of locals have no shoes we noticed. I bought some for less than £2.00.





Some of the more up market dwellings many of which are little more than corrugated shacks...though quite a few sported satellite dishes!!
Well, if you need to keep up with the World Cup I suppose....



Schoolchildren...the girls wearing purple, many shoeless. Lots of the boys wear the traditional pareo/skirt.






Greetings from Savu Savu, Fiji! We finally arrived here once again just as the rest of the Rally left for the other resort. This has been the story of our lives so far but we seriously intend to be with the main bunch for the sail to Oz. Lots of other rally boats have had trouble en route with pretty major breakages…camshafts, transmissions etc but no one has had as many things go wrong as us(!) and they have all caught up with each other now in Musket Cove, an idyllic resort apparently, on the other main Fijian island, Vita Levu (we are in Vanua Levu) and where we shall be in a couple of days I hope…..well all the rally boats apart from one currently still in Tonga, the story of which involves much drunkenness, fighting and marriage proposals!

However, we are currently held up with the weather which is wet and windy….even needed an extra layer last night! The sail across from Tonga got quite chilly at night too and I wore socks on watch for the first time in 18 months. At least we are alongside with water and electricity plus internet which is intermittent but not too expensive thankfully. The Savu Savu yacht club is about 5yards away and Fiji beer is good and cheap. There are even showers here. I realized that I hadn’t had a “proper” shower, ie using as much water as I needed, since the beginning of February when we were in Panama. Ooer!

I finally managed to organize a reasonably priced ticket back to the UK from Oz for next month so I can get to see family and friends for a few days but with the internet connection here it was very frustrating and the flight costs went up exponentially so it seemed with each delay. I also spent about three hours on and offline trying to sort out the horrendous rules for entering Australian waters. I think the best plan may turn out to simply eat everything on board or throw it away somewhere mid ocean and then declare absolutely everything that contains anything at all with animal or plant origin. I’m hoping this may bore the customs officers into letting us in!!

This little town of Savu savu is wonderful…full of very busy Indian run shops selling incredible things at unbelievable prices. As it’s less than 5 minutes walk away, I keep on going back just to buy “one more thing”. The DVDs are a real bargain here at 65p each. Of course, they are pirate copies but they are good ones..some of the ones we’ve bought have been rubbish, completely unplayable. I should say that I wouldn’t normally be buying these pirate copies except that it’s impossible to buy a legal DVD anywhere and I haven’t in fact seen any since we arrived in the Caribbean in Jan 2009.

Next stop after Musket Cove will be Vanuatu about 500 miles from here. I don’t think they have up to date technology there so this may be the last blog until Australia in about three and a half weeks or so. I have always wanted to visit Vanuatu ever since we read a book at school about some Pacific Island somewhere and there’s also an active volcano on the nearby island of Tanaa which I really want to visit. All fingers crossed therefore that the boat will have no more problems from now on.


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