Pitufa.at

2024 didn’t kick off great for us: we had to go to Suva because I had a cracked filling and the super-thorough Fijian dentist discovered quite a few more issues for both of us (Christian did a check-up as well and had to go back for another appointment)–looks like our nice French dentist in Tahiti was a bit slack (blow a noisy raspberry while shrugging your shoulders expressively and you’ve got the correct French gesture).

As soon as the most pressing building sites were finished we left Suva and did a daysail back to Ono to enjoy the upcoming calm summer weather–unfortunately with some bug as stowaway: a day later Christian got a fever, bad headache, all-over-ache (not great to have 39 degrees fever in a 35 degree cabin…). I didn’t stand a chance, no social distancing on a 41 ft monohull, so I prepared some meals ahead, baked bread (bug preparation resembles passage preparations) and got ill the next day.

Now, after a week of quarantine off an uninhabited island, we’re back on track, still a bit weak, but ready to enjoy the summer weather. We moved to an anchorage with a pretty reef yesterday and have been spending hours in the water. Near the shore the surface temperatures are higher than 30 degrees now and the table coral’s bleached to pastel colours and some even white, but they all look a few years old, so they must have survived such extreme temperatures before. We hope they’ll cope yet another time!

Before we sailed to Fiji we did some online searches and expected only basic facilities (expats basically warned about hospitals). After one and a half years here and plenty of visits to specialists and hospitals we think that the hospitals are quite well equipped, the doctors are mostly competent, friendly and moreover it doesn’t take a long waiting time to get (very affordable) appointments with specialists here in Suva.
Yes, the big public hospital (Colonial War Memorial hospital) is crowded and smelly and apparently has long waiting lists, but the same specialists who work there do after-hours at the modern, clean private hospitals. Oceania hospital has most equipment (CT Scanner, ophtamologist cabinet, etc.), Pacific Specialist Healthcare has different specialists (e.g. a dermatologist and they have just opened a new hospital in Nadi with modern equipment, but specialists only occasionally fly there from Suva) and there are a few more private facilities we have not dealt with.

The same goes for dentists: at public facilities (e.g. hospital in Savusavu) they only seem to pull teeth, but the dentist cabinets here in Suva have very modern equipment and well trained dentists!
So there’s really no need to fly out for treatments or delay due dental check-ups

PS: I’m writing this blog entry while waiting for my turn for a second appointment with the dentist I saw last week, while Christian’s getting a filling, so wish me luck

Last week we finally finished our errands in Suva and we really wanted to get out of the harbour again and into clear water. But where to go? The weather forecast showed strong east-south-east winds until the end of time (meaning 10 days ahead in our model) and that’s not south enough to make it to the northern Lau islands, but also not east enough for a comfy ride southwards to Kadavu… We set out anyway and ended up bashing close-hauled into high, steep waves.
Fortunately it’s only 45 nm to the first protected anchorage there and we reached Nabouwalu bay on the island of Ono in the early afternoon already.

The next day we went ashore to introduce ourselves and bring the traditional gift of kava (sevusevu). We got a super-warm welcome, and a tour of the spruced up village (they just won a prize for having the tidiest village of the district ). It seems incredible that Ono lies so close to Suva and still remains undeveloped: no roads, just one resort on the other island and lots and lots of nature! We were invited to have kava in the afternoon with the young headman, his pretty wife and the rest of the village “youth club”. For now it’s still blowing hard and we’re pinned down in a bay, but I think we’ll spend a while here and explore this beautiful island!

There is some nasty weather coming up, so we left Matuku to sail 100 nm to Suva. With winds around 25 knots from the SE the waves were quickly building up–slate grey, white-capped peaks towering over Pitufa’s stern before rushing through with a WHOOSH letting her surf down with up to 9 knots before lifting her yet again. We left Matuku early in the morning and arrived in Suva at midnight–it takes quite some stress out of passage planning when you know you can arrive during the night without tricky passes or obstacles and we’ve been to Suva often enough to know our way around. We picked up a mooring in Lami Bay and have settled in for some boat–project days while it’s grey and rainy outside.