Gary's condition is worsening.
Perhaps our last week heading from Savusavu to Lautoka might shed some
light on just what I mean.
We head out of the amazingly
sheltered inlet at Savusavu around the southern corner of Vanua Levu to the
anchorage by Nasonisoni Island. The trip was only about 30 miles and with
our motoring average of 7 knots (there was no wind), it should have taken us
just over 4 hours. So, how could this trip possibly take 6 hours?
Fishing.
We had been to a seminar by
Culry, a local cruiser, on cruising the Fiji Islands and were told the
Nasonisoni Passage was an awesome fish spot. This was not good enough for
Gary, he had put out the lures the moment we left the anchorage and made 90
degree turns away from course to investigate birds he saw on the horizon
through the binoculars that might as well have been glued to his face.
Luckily for me, he also
managed to spot a pod of whales relaxing on the surface. We tried to
keep a good distance and watched their strange antics, popping their heads
vertically out of the water as if they were part of a
"whack-the-weasel" carnival game.
Our hopes for a successful
fishing day soared when we came across a school of big Mahi Mahi chasing flying
fish. We watched as Mahi Mahi, about a metre long, skipped along the
surface. Unfortunately, our lures were just not
interesting enough and the fish disappeared.
We caught up with another
school doing the same thing. Gary went wild when a Mahi Mahi jumped out
of the water chasing our lure, but again we were disappointed as it turned away
at the last minute.
We turned our hopes to the
Nasonisoni Passage, but came out the other side still fish-less.
We made the anchorage mid
afternoon, whereupon Gary took off in the dinghy to try his luck through the
passage again. As dusk fell, he came back a very unhappy boy.
The next day we pushed onwards
up the coast to Bua Bay, another 35 miles away. Gary kept well on course, largely
because there is only a narrow channel between the offshore reefs and the coast
for boats to pass through. We arrived on time, but again with no fish.
Day three, we crossed Bligh
Water and headed for Nananu-i-ra anchorage on the northern coast of Viti
Levu. The weather had been slowly building the last few days, and we were
on the wind in 20-25kts for the 5 hour passage.
As we neared Nananu Passage on
Viti Levu we were still without dinner. Just when we were thinking about
dropping sails for the pass, both lines screamed with yet another double
strike. We furled the jib and completely eased the
mainsheet to slow the boat down, before reeling in our catch. My arms
ached as I pulled in the largest Yellowfin Tuna I have ever caught. We
kept both, on Gary's insistence, and headed into the bay with a full freezer.
We off
loaded some of the catch to our friends from Confederate, who then treated us to fish
dinner aboard.
For the last four days I have
been trying to cook the fish a different way each night: fish in Caribbean
spices; fish in Creole fish fry; fish and veges in oyster sauce; and fish
steamed in tin foil pockets with lemon juice, white wine and capers.
Unfortunately, the freezer isn't looking any less full.
With so much fish packed in
the freezer, you would expect that our trips over those last four days
to Lautoka would be "fishing-free". Unfortunately, that is
not the case. I growl at Gary every time he puts the lines out, only to
be confronted with promises of "catch and release". We haven’t
caught another fish yet and fingers crossed it stays that way until we have
eaten our way through the last two!
