Outrigger Canoes in Savusavu

People of Savusavu & surrounding villagers in the North, were treated to a special occasion this Diwali weekend.

Two Outrigger canoes, one from Suva called Uto Ni Yalo, & the Hine Moana from Tonga, were in Savusavu to take part in the 1st Outrigger racing weekend planed for Savusavu.

These two canoes were part of a group.
7 Pacific Islands got together, to preserve & develop their traditions of ocean voyaging in double hulled canoes.

Earlier this year, all the canoes set out from New Zealand, to travel onto Tahiti, Cook Island, Samoa & Tonga, on their first voyage.

Uto Ni Yalo arrived back in Fiji in July, having taken 4 months do do the voyage.

She was in Levuka & Makogai before travelling to Savusavu, doing a survey, helping with recording whale songs & transportation.
To record the whale songs, the crew were using a hydrophone.

Yellowfin Tuna

Yesterday morning was one of the best mornings, we have had in a long time.

After all the rain we have had, we needed to take Sea Rov out to run the engines, & charge the batteries.

One out on the water the seas just got calmer & calmer, until there was hardly a ripple on the water.

At the usual fishing spot, there didn't seem to be a lot of activity, so we just trolled around for a while.

Soon we were getting double hook ups, the fish weren't big but they were putting on a good fight.

After a couple of hours, we headed home, this had been one of the better days we have had out, for a long time.

Savusavu Weather.

It has been months since we have had any decent rainfall in Fiji, water has had to be carted to Islands off the mainland, as they had run out of drinking water.
A lot of us in Savusavu are on tank water, so without decent rainfall for so long, our tanks were starting to run dry.

Well, over the last 2 weeks we have had enough rain to fill our water tanks, 10 times over.
This is good news for most of the Fiji Islands, as we were all in a similar situation.

The farmers are happy again, the ground, was so dry before this rain, that it was beginning to crack, crops & the vegetation were turning brown.
Now everywhere is again, that lovely lush green colour, trouble now is, the lawn is growing twice as fast.

We haven't managed to do any fishing lately as the weather has been too rough, we had a charter but had to cancel, as a strong wind warning was declared for our area, & the people left before it calmed down again.

Our bananas, breadfruit & pawpaw's are finally starting to ripen, we lost most of our crop during the cyclone & it has taken this long to come right.

Over the last 6 months or so, fresh fruit & vegetables have had to be brought in from Suva to be sold in our local market, as all the local crops, hadn't fully recovered.

The cyclone season is just upon us again, so hopefully we will be able to enjoy some of the fruit before the destructive winds come & destroy it again.

These are photos of the full moon, taken at dawn from our property.

Tara's Record Mahimahi

Things have been fairly slow for us lately, but we did manage to get out a week or so ago.
This charter was for 2 couples from the States.

We had, had to cancel a day earlier because of the windy conditions, but the morning looked fine when we left the wharf.
They arrived later than planned as they had a eventful night.

A hour or so into the charter, we had 2 Yellowfin on board, when the outer most rod went off with a bang.

It was Tara's turn in the chair, this was a nice fish, it jumped a few times & everyone saw it was a Mahimahi.

It took Tara 20 minutes, to get the fish close enough to the boat for Terry to gaff.
It just kept reeling out line, as soon as she brought it in.
Once on board we could all relax as Mahimahi can be tricky to bring in, as they just keep jumping & don't seem to tire out.

This fish weighed in at 50lbs & would have been a record if caught within IGFA rules, but unfortunately, Tara had help bringing the fish in.

It was her 50th birthday, so this was something to remember it & Fiji by.
Terry cleaned & filleted the fish so they could freeze, & take it back with them to the States.

Repairing Seawall

After the last couple of cyclones, the seawall out in front of Morris Hedstrom's main store in Savusavu was badly damaged.

Fortunately, money has now been found for the repairs of this.

The repairs also extended down as far as the Daku Resort.

Here the road runs along the edge of the sea wall, so gets a lot of damaged, from the surge of the sea, breaking right across, during storms & at peak tides.

This, with the repairs, & tar sealing of the road is a big plus for the town of Savusavu.

Upgrading Road to Cousteau

The residents along the road that goes from town & ends at the Cousteau Resort, have been waiting years for the road to be tar sealed.

Well, finally, their wishes will soon be granted.
Work has started, all the big machinery is here, & at the moment I don't think they have to worry about the weather, as we are in a drought, so the work should progress well.

I drove a short distance along it yesterday, & they seem to be coming along fairly well.

Some Savusavu drivers aren't helping though, they drive at quite a speed on the newly graded part, throwing up all the loose stones, they just don't know how to slow down.

Once this is done, the residents won't have to put up will all the dust every time a car drives by, & it will be a nice drive along the seaside as Savusavu Bay is such a beautiful sight.

Trolling Namena Reef

A week or so ago when the winds weren't blowing 20knts we managed to do a fishing charter.

Not far from the lighthouse we got into a school of bait fish, there must have been bigger fish around, but only the smaller Yellowfin were interested, so after a little while catching these we moved on.

Out in the distance a big splash was noticed so we headed to it, I saw what I thought was a stick in the water.
That was no stick it was a nice Sailfish, it took 3 attempts for it to finally hook on.

Line started to reel out & the fish jumped, all lines were brought in & the fight began.
Unfortunately it had taken one of the lighter lines, so this made it harder for the angler.

After a tiring 20 mins of bringing the fish it, the line snapped.
There was a sudden quiet on the boat as we all looked at one another in despair, as we had seen it jump 3 times, so knew it was a really nice fish.

That's fishing the fish isn't caught until it is in the boat, so all lines were put out again & we headed towards Namana.

On the way home we were treated to a display of 2 whales broaching, what a sight to see these huge creatures throwing themselves out of the water, & doing back flips, we sat & watched them for at least half a hour.

The batteries on my camera died so I was very unfortunate not to have been able to take any photos