Savusavu Fishing

The weather in Savusavu over the last week or so has been the best.
Beautiful mornings, with just a cool breeze, & sunny days with very calm seas.

We just had to go out this morning, as we don't know how much longer this weather will last, it was 6.15am, when we finally got away.
The sea was like glass, just the wake of the boat making waves on the ocean.

It took us a little while to find the birds, but once we had, we soon had a double strike, landed 1 lost the other.

A few more fish on board, then the reel starts to spin out, Terry stars to wind it in while I come down to bring in the rest of the lines. It is a nice Wahoo, but before it gets close to the boat it bits through the nylon trace, & is gone. These fish have razor sharp teeth, 1 lure down.

Later another double hook up, land one but the Mahi mahi gets off, I couldn't get down quick enough.
Next, Terry is bringing in a small Yellow fin when the outside line reels off, the fish goes straight down, we think it could be one of those big Yellow fin Tuna we saw jumping out of the water a while back, Terry gets into the chair & tries to wind it in, sadly a few minutes later the line snaps, another lure gone.

We are in amongst birds when the line goes screaming out again, Terry grabs it & I come down & start to wind in the rest of the gear, after a while Terry realizes it is a shark, he plays it for 20 minutes, this time he gets it right by the boat, I get ready to take another picture when wham, it snapped the line, & was gone, lure number 3, think that is enough for one day.

On the way home we hook another nice Mahi mahi, it jumps right out of the water & throws the hook,well it will be there for another day!

We end up with 3 Yellow fin, 4 skip jack tuna, & 1 small barracuda, not bad but it would have made us a lot happier if we had been able to land the big ones.

All up we had a good fishing day,& the weather was perfect, what more could we ask for!

Fijian Handcraft

Things are slowly picking up in Savusavu after cyclone Tomas.
The coconut trees are showing new growth & the banana trees that we lost have new shoots appearing beside the old plants, so we should have bananas again by early next year. Even the flowers are looking healthy, it doesn't take long for nature to repair itself.

There aren't many tourist around, & as the ships aren't calling in like they did last year, there isn't much spare money around.
The Ladies from the villages were able to earn them self some extra income, through the sale of their handcraft, when the ships were in port.

We have had a lot of rain since we got back into the country, so we haven't got the shortage of water, that the North Island of NZ is experiencing.
In all our visits to NZ, we have never seen it so dry.

Namena Island

This information is for the many people that have visited Fiji, & travelled onto Namena Island either by one of the dive live aboards or going to Moodys Namena, to dive on the reefs around the Island.

It is with great sadness that we learned of the passing of Joan Moody.

Joan & Tom made Namena their home over 30 yrs ago.
They transformed the unhibated Island into what it is today

Namena reef is one of the best dive spots around, the resorts doesn't have any tv or phones in the bures, but has all the home comforts.
With only 6 bures accommodating 12 people Joan & Tom give their clients a different type of holiday.

We carried Namena clients back & forth to the Island for 10 yrs, often we noticed that on the way over to Namena, some were so stressed out, but on the way back they were completly different people.

That is what Joan & Tom did for their clients, thay gave them a very careing & relaxing holiday, that is hard to find.

Goodbye Joan it was a pleasure knowing you

Recovering After Hurricane Tomas

Well it has been a week since Hurricane Tomas caused all the destruction in the Fiji Islands.

Reports coming from the Lau Group, haven't been good, there has been a lot of houses & crops destroyed.
A family with 4 children, lost their yacht during the hurricane, but thankfully are all safe.

The strong winds have left all vegetation brown. so hillsides that once were lush with different shades of green, are now all brown.
Thankfully Mother nature will soon put it back the was it was.

We have spent the last week clearing & cutting up the coconut trees, to make it easier to dispose of, we did manage to save a few trees, just have to wait & see if they grow back.

We were out on the boat last Thursday & saw the RNZAF plane doing one of the checks of the Island, for damage

On Tuesday night after Tomas, we had such a lovely sunset, guess a lot of people like us, sighed a sigh of relief.

After Tomas

After waiting since Friday, Tomas finally passed us about 1.30am, on Tuesday, I don't want to go through that again, not for a long, long time.
Again we had Lady Luck on our side & Tomas moved slightly more to the east so we were spared the direct hit, that we were expecting.
Even though, the winds were pretty strong, at times the house would shudder, ( we have a new, well built house) Terry & I would look at each other & not say a word.
Sea Rov rode the storm very well, Terry was kept updated through out the night by the person on his yacht moored next to Sea Rov, it was so bad at times, he had to put his engine on to keep the yacht into the wind.
Only one boat broke it's mooring, & landed up on the reef just away from us, thankfully it missed all the other boats on the way, before going on the reef.
I haven't got a picture of this yet, as we have been too busy cleaning up the property.
We, like a lot of other people, lost a lot of coconut & banana trees. there is hardly anything left of the tropical plants I had planted around the place, but all these things can be replaced, & in this country, it won't take long before it is all growing again.
Power came back on to the town area last night. & we got it connected this evening, so things are slowly getting back to normal.
The smaller Islands in the path of Tomas would have taken a beating as the seas were huge.
The Government Officials were doing a survey today to see how the people on these Islands fared. Once they get back into Suva we will have information on how they are.

Tropical Cyclone Tomas

All the warnings went out across Fiji on Friday, as the Tropical Depression was upgraded to a Cyclone.

All the schools closed their doors, at lunch time, & the children were sent home.
A bit early I thought, as it is still days away, but guess they have to take precautions , once the Cyclone warning has gone out.

This time Savusavu will be very lucky to escape damage, as the Track shows it going right through Vanua Levu especially Savusavu.
Well, all we can do is prepare for it by making everything around the house secure.
Searov has been put on her mooring, & tied down as secure as one can do. Just have to hope all the boats ride it out without too much damage.
All pontoons & walkways have also been dismantled from the Copra Shed & taken to a secure mooring.

Next thing is to store some good drinking water, as sometimes it takes a few days to restore electricity back, & all the town water relies on electricity.

It is a good thing the Cyclone has slowed down, this gives us more time to prepare. The winds are getting stronger than they were earlier in the morning, so it must be getting closer.

Well that's it for now, will post something once Tomas has passed.

Savusavu

It is another beautiful day here in Savusavu, lovely sunshine with a very light sea breeze.
We did manage to go out fishing last Monday

When we got to the sea mount, birds were working & fish schools were seen. We had a strike within a few minutes & had landed our first Skip jack Tuna, & thought we were in for some good fishing.

That was the only fish that made it into the boat, we had lots of fish on, but as soon as we started to bring it it, the sharks would appear & take the fish.
Terry played one for about 20 mins, got it to the boat, but the bib on the rapala broke off, at least we got all of the line back.

That day we lost 4 lures, to sharks.
In the end we gave up & headed home, lures are too expensive to loose that way especially when we weren't able to get any fish in quick enough.

As the weather is so nice we might venture out again next week, but will have to go somewhere else, where the sharks won't be around, we hope