Tag Archives: port denarau marina

Port Denarau Marina Preparations

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We head into Port Denarau Marina for provisions, laundry, a shipment, and to meet my cousin Jeff who is visiting for a few days.  Lots to do in a short amount of time but it always seems like it becomes a hurry up and wait situation.

We made a reservation for a mooring ball from 12-16 October with the hopes of completing all of our errands and projects.  Hope being the operative word.  However, when we arrived they had no space for us on the moorings so they put us in a berth.  Wow, ok.  Scramble to get the lines and fenders out and in we go with 20+kts pushing us around the tiny slip.  But, we made it safely with no issues with the marina’s help.

Early morning on the dock at Port Denarau Marina.

The good news is we are on a dock which makes it super easy to do a lot of our projects.  Matt starts off with washing down the boat using the marina’s fresh water (yeah, not our hard earned fresh water from the watermaker).  While he is busy doing that I take 3 loads of laundry in and make good use of their industrial machines.

Bring on the Heat

Yes, it is super hot and humid in Fji, but I am talking about actual heaters for Sugar Shack.  No, I have not lost my mind (well….).  It is darn cold in NZ and our current heaters onboard no longer work.

Matt had been in communication with Espar Michigan/Espar Parts in MI and with Heatso in CA (both in the U.S.).  Heatso responded with information on the wrong part at first so Matt sort of wrote them off.  Espar responded, but then went radio silent for months.  When they finally responded we were in a red hot rush to get the parts shipped to Fiji while we were here.  Why do you ask?  Well it is easier to import parts into Fiji than it is into NZ.

Long story short, Espar didn’t have all the parts and pieces.  They wanted to ship a partial order and then ship the rest to my cousin Jeff who was flying to Fiji to meet us, but even then they couldn’t get the order together to make it work.  Their communication was less than stellar and their stock was horrific.  They just couldn’t get it organized.

As a last stitch effort, Matt contacted Heatso again.  It was a thursday afternoon.  The owner said he had all of the parts and could ship everything out the next day.  He answered all of our questions, called to confirm all the measurements and pieces, and offered us a 10% discount because we were buying 2 kits (without me even asking – which you know I would have done).

Heatso sent the large box overnight to Fiji Freight in California, our freight forwarder who received it on Monday. Fiji Freight then put it on a plane and sent it to Fiji. It arrived Tuesday, cleared Customs Wednesday evening and was delivered to us on Thursday!  The delivery from CA to Fiji within a week of contacting Heatso and Fiji Freight!  Now how about them apples!  Whoop Whoop!  Talk about amazing service from both Heatso and Fiji Freight.

This will have to be a project for another day, but at least we have the parts!

Errands & Projects

We brought in our propane bottle and got it refilled, made several trips to the trash and recylcing and picked up my cousin Jeff. All made easier being at the dock.  But alas, all good things come to an end and we had to move out to our morring.

We had loads of preparation before our passage.  Matt prepared pre-cooked meals and froze them; we stowed a lot of stuff; got out the jacklines, ditch bag, first aid kit, PFDs, foul weather gear, and priority bag (for computers/phones/paperwork); refilled both diesel and gasoline, tested systems (Iridium, PredictWind tracker), re-scheduled our prewritten blog posts, and prepared our Fiji departure paperwork & our NZ entry paperwork.

Help on the Passage

We did not have much time with Jeff so we tried to make the best of it while still preparing for our passage.   

We enjoyed many tasty meals, but this one at Bone Fish stood out as truly delicious.  I had grilled prawns and the boys had Wicked Wahoo.

Overlooking the marina where we are staying…can you spot Sugar Shack on the mooring?

Hiking Mt. Silo

As we wait for a weather window we take Jeff on a few hikes.  The first weas a walk around Malolo island during low tide.  Super easy, flat walk that is about 4.5 miles.  The next hike is shorter but has a lot of elevation (up and down and up and down).  It is the ridge hike or the hike to Mt. Silo.

Many beautiful views on the way to the peak. I just love the variation in colors in the water.

I tried to capture the boys as they were on the trail, but they are so small and hard to find 🙂

And more gorgeous views.

We made it to the bunker and the top of the highest peak.

We reward ourselves with some great snorkeling along the outer reef and see some marvelous fish, soft and hard corals.

Departure

We were starting to see some weather activity and decided to head back to Port Denarau.  Jeff was heading to New Zealand by plane and Matt and I in Sugar Shack.  

Super fun time showing Jeff around Musket Cove and Port Denarau.

In our last blog post we share our adventures on several different islands.  Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind live events.  This blog occured mid-October.  Did you read our last blog “So Many Islands, So Little Time?”

Port Denarau: Viti Levu

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We motored 2-hours from Musket Cove to Port Denarau where we had lots to do.  First, we had to drop off Wayne so he could catch his flight.  His 3-week visit went by fast and we are so grateful he came!

Port Denarau is not nearly as “pretty” as Savusavu or even Papeete.  The hillsides are brownish green, the water is brownish green, and the traffic is unbelievable.  There are tons of cruising boats, fishing boats, tour boats, cruise ships and mega yachts.  It is a big city on the mainland of Viti Levu.

As you enter the anchorage, you see rows and rows of condos and resorts on the seaside.

Like, Papeete, this is not our favorite place.  But, it is a necessary evil to have to come here to provision and run errands.

We have to be careful here as they have a 1.5. tide which makes the marina look odd against the sand dunes.

First things first, we need to dump 3 weeks of trash and recycling off.

Truth be told we were rather surprised at our waste amount.

Next we had to go shopping.  The Konis’s are coming in a few days and the boat is desperately in need of food, beverages, produce, and staples.  We hire at taxi driver to take us to multiple stores, the butcher, the liquor store, the baker, and the farmers market.

The farmers market was incredible and was housed in an enormous warehouse!

Almost everything you could imagine in produce, vegetables, fruit, spices, eggs, and kava!

As you can see, we loaded up until we ran out of time, energy and money!

We were not able to get everything that we wanted, but we certainly got most of it.

In addition to shopping we had to do a massive cleaning of the boat, bake some tasty treats, and prepare the boat for 4 more people.

We love having guests, but the preparation and the after math can be tiring.

Events from this blog occurred in the last two weeks of July.  Our blog posts run 8-10 weeks behind actual events.   In our last blog, we enjoy a fabulous snorkel and then party it up at Musket Cove and Seventh Heaven.