January 24, 2026 Savusavu, Vanua Levu, Fiji

Today the sky was sporting fluffy white clouds. The weather forecast called for afternoon showers. At 7 a.m., the temperature was 28°C, wind WSW 11 km and humidity 82%

Today was originally scheduled to be Dravuni Island, located in the Kadavu group of islands. The tender jetty repairs had not been completed at Dravuni Island after a recent big storm and the captain had to change the destination just three days ago.

Vanua Levu island is the second largest of Fiji’s islands and has three of Fiji’s 14 provinces. Savusavu is in the province of Cakaudrove Province. Savusavu was originally a port for trading ships and has become a tourist hotspot. The town is located on calm waters of Savusavu Bay and is surrounded by mountains and there is a deep volcano crater. It is often called the “Hidden Paradise of Fiji”. Not far away are natural hot springs. Nearby are opportunities for snorkelling or diving on the reefs, kayaking, Rain Forest hiking and staying at sustainable, eco-friendly resorts. Vanua Levu is known for the spectacular Nakawaga Waterfall.

NEWS: CBC News reported “. . .cold weather warnings have

been issued from Prince Edward Island all the way west to eastern

Alberta — and it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) says temperatures

in some parts of the Prairies could feel like –55 C with wind chill,

as an Arctic airmass firmly establishes itself over the region.

The cold snap is expected to last through the weekend in most

areas, with parts of southern Ontario also sitting in the eye of a

snowstorm that could bring 20-30 centimetres of snow on Sunday.

Orange alerts cover all of Saskatchewan and Manitoba and parts of northwestern Ontario due to the cold, with wind chill values

ranging from –45 to –50 C.

"Wind chill values may improve slightly during daytime hours but

are expected to drop back below –40 each night for the next several nights," the ECCC stated in its warnings for Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

On Friday, the cold prompted several school or bus service

cancellations in Manitoba for the second consecutive day.

It’s also made emergency response operations a lot harder in

Winnipeg. Fire crews have been dealing with frozen equipment

and quick-freezing water, along with the biting wind. “

Reuters reported “Travel disruptions, power outages and frigid temperatures are expected to affect 150 million Americans on

Friday and through the weekend as a massive storm clobbers the

U.S. with heavy snow and freezing rain from the Central Plains to

the East Coast, the National Weather Service said.

The storm, which could impact nearly half the country's population,

will bring up to 20 inches (50.8 cm) of snow in the Appalachians

and West Virginia mountains, while most people living in the eastern

U.S. could face dangerous slick or frozen roads and potential power outages from ice-laden trees and branches falling and snapping

power lines, officials said.

The storm is expected to clear out of most areas by late Sunday

or early on Monday. The extreme cold from an Arctic blast of air from Canada will bring a high temperature of only 5 degrees below zero

on Saturday in Fargo, North Dakota.

Farther south, the main storm hazard will be ice, weather

forecasters said. From Central Virginia to Northern Texas, the Southeastern states could receive accumulations of up to a

half-inch of ice.”

We had breakfast in the dining room as the ship established its position to facilitate tender operations into the town of Savusavu on Vanua Levu island.

By 9 a.m. the tender boats were starting their ten minute voyages from the ship on fairly calm water to a jetty closest to the town centre. When we returned from breakfast our fourth laundry order was returned. neatly hanging on hangars. We boarded a tender boat about 10 a.m. A five minute walk from the jetty was the bus depot and a new covered market just opened in May 2025. The market was very clean with many people buying produce on a hot Saturday morning.

We walked from one end of the town to the other, stopping in several shops to take advantage of the air conditioning and browsing the colourful printed shirts and dresses. We found a tiny shop that sold just vanilla ice cream. It was delicious. They also sold some Fiji beer brands. There were several very light very short sun showers on the stroll. After a couple of hours we returned to the jetty and only had five minutes to wait in line for the next tender boat back to the ship. We had walked 4.26 kilometers. The temperature was 30°C, but the wind was a bit stronger and the water had meter high waves with whitecaps. It was a good voyage back to the ship and fairly easy to transfer from the tender boat to the ship’s platform and up the stairs to Deck A for the usual security check.

After cooling showers, we climbed up to Deck 3 for frappés at the Library Café. Again today Gerald Carney joined for a chat. Then we organized our notes and photos from this morning.

We wandered out to the Promenade Deck to get a photo of Savusavu, but our phones couldn’t zoom in quite enough for a good shot. The wind was stronger and we could see sheets of rain nearby. Then the rain reached the ship and there was a jagged streak of lightning immediately followed by a loud clap of thunder. The torrents of rain made the shore invisible for several minutes a few times within 30 minutes. The captain made a ship wide announcement that the tendering operation was temporarily halted and there were still about 300 people away from the ship. The rain and wind continued for about 25 minutes. We could see two of the loaded tender boats floating and rocking in the water. It brought back memories of last week stuck on the tender boat of 90 minutes rolling among the waves. A cheer arose from the people watching the tenders as one of the tenders approached the ship’s platform and started to slowly unload its passengers.

We headed inside for Happy Hour and sat with a couple from the Australia’s Gold Coast which is south of Brisbane. We quickly changed for dinner and were not sure if Sue and Sandie would appear as they had a 3 p.m. snorkelling tour, which was cancelled four minutes after their boat headed out, but got the order from the captain to discontinue the trip, much to their relief as conditions were deteriorating rapidly.

The next captain’s announcement was during dinner. He stated that the ship had been anchored in water 227 meters deep. The ship should be leaving about 6 p.m. entering the Coral sea and then the South Pacific Ocean on the way to Vava’u, Tonga.

The six of us retired to the Library Café for coffee. The show tonight was the singers and dancers “Solid Gold” which we had enjoyed three weeks ago, so we went to the Vivace Duo concert and found it was a solo concert by Inna playing her violin and sometimes the piano. Daria had played with Inna in a concert early in the day. At 7:45 p.m., 15 minutes into the ”Solid Gold” performance we peeked in to the World Stage theatre and it was standing room only.

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