Weather In Savusavu

After weeks of beautiful sunshine, we had a low form above us.
This brought us a lot of rain, & a few hours of strong winds, but nothing really to complain about.

For us people that depend on rain to fill our water tanks, for our water supply, it was something we were waiting on, as the tanks were getting low.
The gardens also needed a good watering, so now we are all happy.
Today we have the sunshine back, & everything looks so much greener.

Fishing hasn't been too good, think it is still too hot for this time of the year, we had 32 degrees last week, that is more our summer temperature.

The local fisherman that spend all night out, are catching some good fish, so maybe we will have to do that.
They sit out there in their little boats before sunset, & fish all night, coming back in with their catch after sunrise. Last night was a beautiful night so maybe there will be a lot of fresh fish in the market.

We caught a nice 16kg Wahoo a couple of weeks ago, the couple who charted us gave us most of the fish as they were leaving the next day, it made some lovely meals!

New FIRCA Office Openes in Savusavu

Yesterday, Commodore Bainimarama opened a new FIRCA office in Savusavu, this one is more central for the Yacht's to get clearance, & more space to carry out the increase in business for them in Savusavu.

From next January, tourist will be able to get the Vat refund in Savusavu before leaving Fiji. Nadi & Suva are the only ports at the moment, were these refunds are payed out, so this is a good thing for the Port of Savusavu.

There was also a cocktail party held at the Hot Springs Hotel, so that Commodore Bainimarama could meet the business people of Savusavu.

Snapped a photo of a rainbow over the airport, hope this is a good sign for us!

Savusavu Port Entrance

On our way out of Savusavu Port the other day, there was a yacht entering the harbour, & the Inter Island Roll on Ship Suilvan, leaving the Port for the Island of Taveuni.

The Suilvan starts its journey from the Port of Suva, Fiji's Capital, to Savusavu then onto Taveuni.

We have 2 of these vessels servicing Savusavu from Suva, bringing goods also for the town of Labasa, which is over the mountain ranges from Savusavu.

Labasa is the main centre for sugar production on Vanua Levu, also housing the sugar mill, where sugar is exported overseas from.

Taveuni is smaller then Vanua Levu, it is called the Garden Island of Fiji & is the only place that the Tayimaucia flower grows.
There are a few good resorts on Taveuni,& is also a place where many tourist go for diving.

Savusavu Seawall

This morning we had the Paul Gauguin arrived in port for her return visit, with her new load of passengers.
There were a few more passengers on board this time, a lot more going out diving with our local dive operators.
It should be a fun day for them, as some of the dive spots in this area, are well known dive sites.

After years of waiting, work has begun, on the upgrading of the road that goes down to the Cousteau Resort, people along this stretch of road have been waiting years, to have it repaired.

During Cyclone Thomas, it was further damaged, some parts becoming dangerous during very high tides, & during storms, as parts of the seawall was washed away.

On our drive along the road today, the digger was busy building a retainer wall, which will help, in stopping further corrosion of the wall.

Paul Gauguin Visits Savusavu

Cruise ships visiting the port of Savusavu is year are so few, so the sight of the Paul Gauguin in port was a very welcome sight for the town.

She only had about 150 passengers, still that is a number the town can cope with very nicely.

The passengers came from Europe, but boarded the ship in Tahiti, Savusavu was the last port of call before the passengers disembarked in Lautoka for the flight home.

On Tuesday she will again visit us with a new load of passengers, starting the voyage through the islands on her way back to Tahiti.

We had another beautiful day, & this makes it nicer for the passengers to enjoy themselves, & many passengers told us, they were pleased with their short visit to our port.

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.