Sunday 30 June – Savusavu hot springs

We enjoyed a good Sunday lie in, we were having breakfast incredibly late when Rob and Francis from the boat Alia Vita arrived. We met Rob in NZ when we were at Marsden Cove, he gave us the bad news that we should not have dropped a weight through our mast to rethread our line for the jib. They left NZ the same time as us, but he got so seasick that they headed to the main island of Fiji along with the boat Ski. They came on board for a coffee, she is a GP, both from Manchester area. They are both on second marriages, which seems to be the majority of the yachties, and have been sailing since 2014. They have been all over the place and spent 2 years in French Polynesia, before heading to NZ where they have been the past few years.

There was intermittent rain all day, but we managed to negotiate a dry spell and had an interesting visit to the very hot springs of SuvaSuva. You cant swim in these hot springs as the water is around 100 degrees celsius! The springs have been used for cooking since the 1800’s. There were local people using them to cook when we visited today. It’s right in the middle of town, interesting to see so many locals there and not a single tourist.

The entrance to the hot springs

The cooking pots are covered with rags which looked rather unappealing but necessary I assume

More cooking pots

There appear to be faults all over the island

Locals putting their pans in the spring to cook

The Pacific plate seems to be moving the most

We met the police out on patrol, they were happy to oblige to a photo with me! Such smart outfits – loved the men’s zigzag skirts

The marina ferry buzzes back and forth to town all day long

We returned to the boat to digest the Sunday papers and then went and had drinks with Alia Vita at 5pm. Their boat is an older style of our Catana, about 14 years old and extremely neat and tidy. They must all gulp at our untidy, cluttered boat! It was interesting hearing all the stories of the places they have been sailing in the last 10 years. We headed over with them to the the Copra shed for a BBQ and live band – it was the same band as last night, remarkably good. The food was not memorable, but we were lucky enough to get home before it poured with rain again.