Easter Weekend

The last few days have been cloudy with rain showers, thank goodness Terry decided to anti foul Searov on Monday & Tuesday.

Both days were beautiful, although very hot for the work involved, it was great for drying paint.

This job always takes us 2 days, as we can only do 1 side at a time, we beach her on the beach at high tide, & wait for the tide to recede, paint her, then wait for the tide to come back in so we can re float her.

On Tuesday night while waiting for the high tide, we watched the ferry that takes passengers & cargo to Viti Levu, the main Island of Fiji, load up at the main wharf.

This morning the sky was a lovely red, a bit stormy looking, but great to take photos of.

Happy Easter everyone.

Savusavu Airport.

Such a beautiful day in Savusavu, while enjoying the cool breeze on my porch, I was able to see the Pacific Sun plane arrive in from Nadi.

What a day to be flying into our little town, visitors couldn't have chosen a better day, clear Sky's, lovely blue calm waters, just the day to see all the reefs, as the place flies over them

Geoff Taylor sailed in with his recently refurbish yacht, it looks really good sitting out in front of the Copra Shed Marina, its now so different to the yacht that he purchased last year.

Copra Shed is getting ready for the arrival of the overseas yachts that should start to arrive soon, Pio is busy painting newly made barbecue tables & chairs to have arranged on the lawn in front of the Bar.

Europa's Visit To Savusavu

The German cruise liner Europa made a unexpected visit to Savusavu a few weeks ago, with about 250 passengers.

Bad weather diverted her to our shores, which was a blessing for the handy craft sellers & villages who had organized tours to their village.

There aren't many tourist around this part of the country at the moment, so this was a great help for the local traders.

Passengers were seen walking around town visiting the little shops along the shore, so this at least, was a help to the local businesses.

Europa didn't arrive into the port until Midday & left round 8.00pm.
It was a pleasant day in Town, sunshine, with a slight breeze to keep the visitors cool.

The passengers seemed very happy with their visit to our town, Savusavu is a little different to other Fijian ports of call.

Great Day Fishing

We couldn't make up our minds whether we were going to go out or not, so were a little late getting out on the water.

As we approached the usual fishing spot I could see a good work up ahead.
Once all the lines were in the water we made our way to the work up.

It looked like schools of skip jack tuna, we managed a hook up & yes it was Skippies.

There were a lot of birds & fish around, it wasn't long before & we had a nice size Yellowfin Tuna in the boat, about 10kg.

While I was driving, I could see big Yellowfin jumping out of the water in front of the boat, but were gone as soon as we caught up.

This went on for a while, them disappearing just as we got to where they were feeding.

Suddenly the line went screaming out, Terry grabbed the reel while I came down to bring the rest of the lines in.

Finally it stopped taking line & Terry was able to start to reel in line, then it started to peel out again, then went down.

Terry settled in for a fight, & I went back upstairs, at one stage we thought we might have a shark on.
It took about 20 mins to bring it to where we saw colour & then to see it was a nice Yellowfin Tuna.

Once the gaff was in I helped him pull it in, just as it hit the deck, the lure fell out, boy we were so lucky.

Once back at the dock we weighed it, a nice 35kg fish. That was a good day.

Columbus visits Savusavu

When the ship Columbus visited us on Sunday with 340 passengers, the town didn't seem so busy, the Pacific Pearl, had close to 2,000 passengers when she called in last week.

We had a beautiful day, sunshine with a gentle breeze, this made it easier for the passengers to disembark for tours around the countryside & to wander around the shops at their leisure.

There wasn't the crowd getting off the tenders, no queue to get back on & it was a much calmer atmosphere all round.

Not all the shops opened their doors it being a Sunday, but think there were enough open to make shopping interesting.

Their departure was delayed until early evening, so it gave the people in town a lovely sight seeing the ship all lit up, anchored just off the main wharf in Savusavu bay.

Pacific Pearl Visits Savusavu

Yesterday news was received that the Pacific Pearl would be visiting Savusavu, this was brought on because of cyclone Atu.

Because the cyclone passed over Vanuatu, the ship had to divert away from the cyclone, so came to Fiji instead.

This was very fortunate for Savusavu, as it has been a while since a ship this size has visited us.

The Savusavu Yacht club had just finished alterations, & Captains Table had recently open its doors for business, so this was well timed.
Pacific Pearl will leave this afternoon.

Catching Mahimahi

Last weekend we were all watching the low above Fiji wondering if it would develop into a cyclone.
Thankfully it moved away to the west, before it formed & ended up hitting Australia.
Watching the pictures on TV we couldn't help feeling sorry for all the people that lost homes & property.

Yesterday was another lovely morning in Savusavu, we thought we would take Searov out for a run, & look at the new fad that has been put down on the Koro seamount.

Not long after leaving the lighthouse, we had a nice Mahimahi on, a little later another in the box.
We finally reached the fad but nothing was working there, we worked it for a while then decided to head towards the other seamount which we usually go to.

There was a lot of birds working on this one, but nothing would take our lures, & they were moving so fast. There had to be fish around but deeper down, finally we got a skippy.

On the way home we had a triple strike, this was a lot of hard work for Terry as he was on the deck by himself, I came down & started to bring in one of the lines until, he had brought in the first Mahimahi.

I needed to turn the boat so went back up, as I started to climb the ladder the Mahimahi hit the back of my leg with it's tail, thankfully I wasn't any closer.

Once I had the boat in position Terry brought in the second Mahimahi & started on the third.

I could hear banging in the cabin & on investigation found the first Mahimahi had worked itself into the cabin, some cleaning up has to be done in here later.

Soon the third Mahimahi was in the box & after a short breather, we were on our way home

Another lovely day on the water & to top it off 5 nice Mahimahi, biggest one being over 12kg, others between 9 & 7kg.