It is Tuesday here in Savusavu Fiji and it will be our last night in this delightful little town in the Fiji Cruising Capital.

Over the past couple of days we have met a lovely French couple with two small children on another Catamaran named Jiminy Cricket. They are a very lovely couple that have sailed from France all the way to Tahiti where they sold one boat and bought the Cat. They also had two very lovely little children during that spans of time.

Over the weekend we decided to have Bob and Ann of Charisma come aboard and head for a sleep over on our Orcinius down the peninsula at the Cuesteau Resort. We weighed mooring on Sunday mid morning and headed out to make some water, do some laundry and catch some fish. We didn’t even put up a sail. We did motor up along the reef and back several time chasing the elusive fish, whether it be tuna, dorado or wahoo. We were about ready to give up and when we pulled the lines in we realized we had been hit several times and very hard. The luer on one of the poles was missing, the handline on another had very big teeth marks that scraped the entire plug and the handline on the other side was also missing a luer.
Damn, we missed them. So after getting all the lines back in we decide to make one more pass. We rig all the lines and get them in the water as we head back out. I know have the fishfinder depth sounder on and we are paying close attention.

After heading out to the pass and finally turning back we get about half way back in on the reef and sure enough we get a hit on the port handline. Bob yells to Ann, “set the hook” and so Ann is setting the hook so hard it looks like she wants to give the fish a chance to get away. Bob, very mildly says to Ann, “that is enough”.

We get the fish in. It is a 22 lb Wahoo. I get the gaf in it’s gills and then lasoo the tail to let it give up the ghost. After all is tied up I proceed to remove the gills to terminate the pain. All that being done we wait for the muscles to give up also.

A half hour later I am on the back stoop filleting out the fish. We end up with about 1kg of raw fish which we proceed to make cheviche or poison crue (for our French friends) out of. We had so much we took several filets and a healthy bag of lime cured Wahoo chunks over to Jimminy Cricket. Then we proceeded to make a very delicious meal.

The next morning we rise to a wonderful day. After making a quiche, consuming it and having several cups of coffee, we clean up and then get all the dive gear ready to dive the split rocks. It was Bob and Ann’s first dive of the season so it took a little time for re-aclimation. We head over to the rock in the dink and get everyone into the water. We have a very nice 45 minute shallow dive which gave everyone their confidence back and then returned to Orcinius where we cleaned all our gear and waited for it to dry. By mid afternoon Jimminiy headed back to Savusavu to get ready for their trip down to Falunga or the Southern Lau group. We followed to get a full load of fuel, some last minute provisions and a nice dinner with Charisma.

All went well. Bob and Ann return to the US on Thursday and will be there for a couple weeks and when they return, weather permitting they may try to make it down to Falunga. By then we will be heading to Nadi to pick up Lisa’s sister and brother-in-law for ten days of sailing, sunning, diving, fishing and great food and fun. Shortly after there visit my three grand daughters will show up. Can’t wait for the whole adventure.

All for now.

Cheers and best regards.

John