Week 15 - ROC Presidential visit and a fishing trip
The weeks leading up to Wednesday, 4-Dec, were busy for Tuvalu residents and Government employees as they cleaned up a lot of the untidiness around the island's central, more populated parts. They gave the road markings a going over and pruned all the shrubs and bushes along the three main roads, including all the crossroads. They mowed the grass along the runway edges and cut the road verges with multiple line trimmers. Even the viewing platform got a fresh cost of paint.
All this for Mr Lai Cheng-ti, President of the Republic of China's (Taiwan) visit. We had earlier discussed the logistics of this with the local Ambassador, Andrew Lin because there were to be two jets flying in. This was an issue as there was only one recognised parking space, and we had already claimed it with about 1,500 tonnes of asphalt aggregate.
Due to the jet blast, jets are not allowed outside the terminal building, but for this visit, the Authorities made an exception. I called it the Tuvalu two-step. It went like this. The first jet landed and taxied into the Terminal but didn't turn around. It discharged its cargo of people and 6 cases of Kavalan single malt whiskey. The second jet carrying the President landed, and while it went to the other end of the runway to turn around, the first jet backed out onto the runway and then backed back towards the start of the runway.
Watch as the President's Dassault Falcon 7X lands
Watch as a F900 tri-jet reverses back onto the runway
Want to know where it is and where it's been? Check out Flightaware and for the President's Plane, Flightradar24
The second jet came to the taxiway, did a U-turn on our new asphalt, and then remained on the runway level with the terminal.
Local high schools formed a guard of honour and laid out the "red carpet" island style.
Watch as high school seniors lay the "red carpet"
Then, when it was time to leave later in the day the whole process was reversed so the President's plane could leave first. Sounds complicated but it was quite a simple and elegant solution to a logistical problem.
The other significant happening of the week was a planned fishing trip with a couple of local lads working for us. The skipper, Pale (pronounced like the footballer Pele), is a bosun in another life, his first mate is Apolo, and the deck hand is Tuaeli. Now the boat is an aluminium Hammerhead dinghy about 5m long powered by a 30 horsepower outboard. I should mention there were no lifejackets, radio or electronic equipment, only one small outrigger style paddle and no anchor.
I had discussed with Pale previously, if he would take me around the atoll to a couple of nice spots of his choice. He asked if I was up for catching Tuna. I thought this was a great idea. We had planned to go a week ago but the weather wasn't good so it was postponed to last Sunday.
The trip exceeded my expectations and lasted over seven hours. We motored south from Fongafale and exited the atoll through the eastern shipping channel, Te Ava Pua Pua. Trolling back and forth parallel to Funamanu resulted in a zero catch so, we headed south to round the southern islets of Funafara, Tulele, Motulia and Motungio. As we passed Mateiko and Luamotu, Tuaeli caught two barracuda in quick succession. In shallows of the south end, he caught a small red coral trout. 3-0-0 scorecard wasn't looking good for me or Apolo.
Watch as the crew head south
We continued on up the western side of Funafuti atoll, passing many small islets with Pale extolling the history of each as went by. One had large trees that got smashed in a storm (Fuagea) while another sandy (unnamed) islet appeared during the same storm. Many of these smaller islets are in the Conservation Area. To land on them you first need approval from the island council, Kaupule, and no fishing in less than 25m of water.
At one point we suddenly headed due west towards the Solomons. I was releaved to discover we were heading for a bouy which was designed to encourage fish aggregation. Pale explained that more small fish meant tuna. With later research, I discovered this was one of many "lizard FAD's" (fish aggregating device) designed to attract pelagic fish (technical term for fish that live away from land).
Read the full report from Tuvalu Fisheries FAD is on page 25-29
We had hoped to continue north and enter the lagoon through the northwestern shipping channel, Te Ava I Te Lapi but as we neared the westernmost point of the atoll, Te Aka Fuafatu reef we noticed a big swell with rolling waves and decided to head back to the "American Channel," Te Ava Fuagea.
Ironically, we caught two yellow fin tuna and a trevally at the lagoon end of the channel.
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