Cyclone Renee blows through. Cyclone Renee unleashed her full fury on the Ha’apai islands during the early hours of Monday the 15th. With sustained winds of 90 knots (160kph) and gust to 125kn (230kph), she is the biggest storm to hit Ha’apai for decades. While it was awe inspiring to be in the middle of such a furious display of nature’s power, we were also a little concerned for the safety of some of our Tongan friends whose houses are a little less robust than the dive base. Fortunately the only real damage, apart from some flying roofing iron and flooded houses, were to the coconut, papaya, mango and breadfruit trees as well as the banana plantations. Matafonua Lodge was the place to be to see the most dramatic storm scenes. At times the ocean waves were breaking up against the fales and the whole area was under water. Amazingly the fales suffered very little damage and were all repaired and liveable within a few days. The gardens are going to take a little longer to recover however. We have now had a chance to dive virtually all our dive sites and I’m very happy to report that the only noticeable damage is to Benny’s Place which bore the full force of the cyclone. Amazingly our mooring is still intact but that’s about the only thing that hasn’t changed. I estimate that well over a hundred tonnes of sand was moved during the storm. In the main channel, where it used to be a sand bottom it is now newly exposed coral rock. Sadly at least 60% of the coral cover through the channel has been damaged but this has created a bonanza for grazing fish and already there are signs of new colonisation the bare rock surfaces. Despite all the damage at Benny’s it was still highlight for the divers this week with the resident, scorpion fish, stone fish, lionfish, mantas shrimp, and catfish all providing ample photo opportunities. It will be fascinating observing the re-colonisation here. The only other sign of the cyclone we have seen at our other dives sites are some large tree branches on the bottom at Inga’s. We also welcome a new staff member to the team. Kay Vimahi has just joined us as boatman and dive assistant. Kay has just returned from 2 years missionary work in New Zealand and is the brother of one of our former boatman and whale guides Tala. Kay has his Class 4 captains licence and is very keen to get into diving.