Cruise Ship Europa

Today we had a visit from the cruise boat Europa, she has about 300 passengers on board, mostly from Germany I think.

I haven't got a photo of her in port, as she didn't arrive until midday, & I was on my way home.

There were stall holders setting up their usual stalls when I drove pass, but not as many as there usually is, I think it is because the ship will only be in port for 5 hours.

They have a beautiful day, lovely clear sky's & calm seas, it may be a little on the warm side for some of them though.
This will be the last boat for a few months.

This photo is of a lovo (Fijian way of cooking), it was beautifully prepared.

Koro Island New Dock

It has been nearly a year since we last visited Koro Island.
Since out last trip Dere Bay Resort on Koro, have installed a new floating dock, this made it a lot easier for us, to off load their guest with luggage.

On earlier trips, we have had to pick up a mooring, then the resort boat would come out to the boat, to ferry their guests ashore.
Nice one Dere Bay Resort, it looks & is a lot better then the old method.

Savusavu is experiencing lovely calm hot days, this is after some really heavy tropical downpours, we had last week
For us on tank water it was a blessing, now all our tanks are full.

There is a new cruise liner due in on Thursday, so hope the weather holds for the passengers, mind you they might prefer a little shower of rain to cool the place down.

New Savusavu Marina

New floating pontoons have been installed at the Savusavu Harbourside Marina.
It is looking nice & should be another asset for the visiting yachts that visit Savusavu over the cruising months.
Things are fairly quiet at the moment, we will have a cruise ship in next week, so this will again bring much need revenue into the town.
Locals are busy getting their children ready for the new school year, shops are doing a good trade selling uniforms & books.
Some families on the main Island are finding it hard as they lost all their belongings in the flood after cyclone Mike.
There has been so much rain over the last week, it should have filled up all the water tanks around the country.

Namale Guests Enjoy Fishing

I am a little late with these wishes, but better late than never.
A Merry Christmas & a Happy New Years to you all, may 2010 be a good one.

It was a quiet Christmas in Savusavu, this is mostly a time spent with families, a lot of people come back to spend Christmas in Savusavu with relatives.

The town was very busy with shoppers, more so once the buses arrived at the bus stand from the outer villages, usually about 10am, that's when the town quickly became a hive of activity, it is amazing to see just how many people live around this area.

We haven't been out fishing for a long while. the weather just hasn't been suitable
This morning the winds died down, so were able to take out guest from Namale Resort.

We headed out just before 8.00, which is normally late for us, but Fiji has this year decided to have Daylight Saving, so really it was only 7.00am

Once at the mount, birds were spotted & soon we had hook ups, about 4 triple strikes. This caused a few tangles but that all adds to the fun.

There were 3 guests on board so this worked out fine, most of the fish were small yellowfin, but we did have 3 good hook ups, which we lost, but fortunately only lost one lure.
We think it was a Wahoo & broke the nylon trace.

Once back at the dock, we did a tally, 17 Yellowfin 2 Skippys, the staff at the resort will be very happy.

Cyclone Mick In Fiji

We can count our blessings this morning, as Cyclone Mick left Fiji shores.

In Savusavu we were spared the brunt of the storm, when it was first upgraded to a cyclone, the path it was plotted to take, would have brought it our way.

Fortunately for us, but not for Viti Levu, it changed direction & moved more west, & so took in the whole of the island.
Some reports coming out this morning aren't good, a lot of people have lost their homes or have had their houses flooded. There hasn't been much from the outer Islands as communications are still out.

At this stage there are 2 reported dead, & lots have lost all their crops & livestock.
This is very sad as Christmas is so close.
Still, we have to be thankful, it could always have been worse.

We did managed to get 1 charter out before the storm, even then, it was too rough to go pass the lighthouse.
We had to try, as the group had waited 5 days, & were to fly out on Sunday.

Last Ships Visiting Savusavu In 2009

Gosh, it is December already, this year seems to have passed quicker than ever, it must be because we are getting older.

Well, we have had the last tourist boat in for the year, unfortunately we won't be getting as many visiting next year, this will be hard on the local handcraft sellers, that have had a good year with the amount of ships visiting over the last 11 months.

Last month we had a record 4 boats visiting, Pacific Dawn was the only large one, & as always the locals were very happy with the tourist dollars that were spent here.

We haven't been out fishing since the last entry about the sharks, but have to give it a try again soon.
With the introduction of daylight saving on Sunday, have to give our bodies a week or so to adjust, to the hour we lost.

Morning Lost To Sharks In Savusavu

Since my last entry we have had 2 cruise ships visiting Savusavu.
These ones didn't carry as many passengers as the Pacific Dawn & Pacific Sun, but at least they brought trade to the town.

The first one MV Bremmer had just over 130 passengers most of them being German.
The second Paul Gauguin had sailed in from Tahiti on her way to other Fiji ports, where she unloads her passengers at Lautoka, takes on new passengers, then will call back into Savusavu on Thursday on her way back to Boro Bora. She carried just over 300 passengers.

Thankfully the weather has been fine for the visits, here's hoping for the same tomorrow, when Pacific Dawn calls in for her last tip to Savusavu for a long while.

Reports from friends said Yellowfin Tuna had arrived on the sea mount, so Terry & I went to give Searov a run after doing a service.
On arriving at the mount we had a triple hook up, Terry being the only one on the deck tried to reel in the Yellowfin as fast as he could, as we saw the sharks around, needless to say he couldn't bring them in quick enough so lost all 3 fish, lures & line.

Next try was the same, so we quickly left to find somewhere without sharks.
Again we had a hook up & again a Shark, this time it took about 15 mins to bring him to the boat, at the boat Terry cut the line as he was too big to have around, we lost another lure, so it was time to head home.