From Ann
Yes, we made it to Suva and are happy to be on a mooring ball in a bay just off of the main harbor. With the weather that is headed this way, we are set! We hope.

Not much here, but they had a nice restaurant where we enjoyed our evenings having dinner with Rand.

But we never quite shared our story of Leleuvia and that’s what I am ready to do!

As Bob said, we stopped here because our friend, Rand Axelrod who we met in Aitutaki and spent time with in New Zealand is here. Rand is helping farm coral in the lagoon. It is a very interesting process. Here is how Rand describes the process:

“Coral trimmings are taken from a healthy distant patch of coral then transplanted into small cement pots and place into a submerged rack. After 60-90 days the coral will have calcified onto the cement pot. Once this occurs, the pot can be wedged into a hole in the reef that is to be regenerated.”

Who would have thought you could grow coral in cement! Rand took me on a snorkel tour of the garden and it was fascinating. This area has many varieties of coral in a ton of different colors. I also got to see the clams that Rand helped move to a protected location. They were about 6-8 inches across with beautiful lips! Rand took pictures so when he sends them to us we will share them!

The other joy of Leleuvia was the paddle boarding! At low tide a lovely sand spit forms along the south side of the island. Perfect place to paddle to, right! So we jumped onto the boards and away we went. Oops, we found a lot of coral and shallow water as we got closer. No problem! We stepped off our boards and carried them about 100 meters to the high spot of sand. We parked the boards and went exploring!

The tide pools were full of shells and eels! We were able to explore for well over an hour as the tide turned and started to rise. As a result we only had to carry the boards about 10 meters before we could float again. And just as I was putting my board in the water an eel made a bee-line for me! Yes, I screamed like a girl and jumped up on my board. Bob was concerned I would squish it because it stayed hidden under my board! So what! Fortunately it finally decided that my board was not the best hiding spot so headed first for Bob’s and then back into the tide pool! Phew!

We were able to paddle down wind back to Charisma just as the wind and waves were beginning to pick up. Perfect timing. Love these paddle boards!

Finally made it into The capital of Fiji! In good style too! We came through the reef and into the harbor under full sail.

Suva is the first large town we've been to all season.

We had a very good, if long day. We left Leleuvia at 0600 on the dot for our 55 mile passage. It was a great ocean sailing day. Sun, wind, blue water, we had it all. We averaged 5.5 knots and made the trip in 11 hours, tying up to a mooring off the town of Lami on the sw side of Suva Bay at exactly 1700. Good timing, since that’s just about “Charisma Time”. That gave us extra incentive to fold the sails and tidy up and we were comfortably sitting in the cockpit gazing across the bay, Charisma in hand, by 1730.

It feels a bit strange to be back in civilization. We can hear cars on the road and a generator on one of the little islets off in the distance. But we’re looking forward to visiting this largest of Fiji’s towns for a few days and thanks to our friends on Ladybug, we’re tucked into this really nice snug cove instead of the industrial area off downtown Suva where most folks anchor in mud. We definitely want to visit the area, especially see the Royal Suva Yacht Club, but we’ll do it by bus and enjoy our relative peace and quiet At our anchorage on this, the opposite side of the bay away from the industrial areas.

More tomorrow as we grab a bus into town and explore Fiji’s only really large, industrialized city.