Palmlea

Joe and Julie, the proprietors of Palmlea farms, are among the nicest and most helpful people we have met on our travels. Palmlea is a tiny resort, with a restaurant, swimming pool, and dinghy dock. They are very welcoming to visiting boats.

The anchorage is an enormous roadstead, with depths of 2 to 10 meters and several square miles of anchorable depths with a mud bottom. Strangely wind protection is good but wind wave comes in from the east.

Like all of the anchorages on the north side of Vanua Levu there is zero swell.

We were informed that the shallows east of the anchorage extend north to approximately 16 24S and 179 14E. This is a very conservative waypoint before turning due south to the anchorage. We anchored in 4m at 16 24.7 S and 179 14.1 E.

Palmlea can arrange transport into Labasa, the largest town on Vanua Levu, or if you are lucky they sometimes will take cruisers into town when they go to provision. We took the bus ( with 5km rides to the bus stop ) twice and tagged along twice. In Labasa there is a large vegetable market, four groceries, and a generous supply of other shops. We bought clothes, hardware, and visited both cell phone providers.

Palmlea has a good restaurant. We loved the Thalie and the desert pies.

Palmlea is vastly superior to any other facility on the North shore of Vanua Levu for going ashore for provisions.