Makogai

Without any coordination (bar, probably, the need to arrive at Makogai around midday) both Dreamtime and ourselves left Namena within minutes of each other. This led to an exciting convergence at the pass. We yielded to Dreamtime as we already had our fishing line out behind us and they were familiar with the pass. After the pass we diverged as we’d arrived at different conclusions as to which pass to enter the surrounding reef at Makogai. We’d opted for the NE passage while they preferred the longer route to the west passage.

The wind picked up and soon we were making 8-9 knots through the water. The swell also picked up so we changed our minds and altered course to round the atoll and enter the west passage. Later, influenced by the lee of Koro some miles distant, we changed our minds yet again and altered course for the NE passage. By the time we reached their we were out of the lee of Koro and back into the strong winds and swell but we were close enough that we felt it worth closing the gap and checking it out.

As it turned out the lip of the atoll protected us enough from the swell that it was straightforward dropping the sails and nosing into the pass. Had we been familiar with the pass, in hindsight, we could have easily sailed straight. The waters were clear and despite the overcast sky the reefs and the pass between them were quite visible.

We carried on motoring round to the bay in front of the village of Dalice where Jarana and another boat, Sentinel who we don’t yet know, were anchored.

Once Dreamtime arrived and were safely anchored we coordinated our shore trip to do our sevusevu. In the end we agreed to go ashore at 3pm and we would pick them up. While we whiled away the time, Bill and Cathy from Jarana shared some local info which was helpful.

At 3pm we picked up George and Claudia from Dreamtime and picked our way ashore through the reef. Ashore we were met by Camili (need to check spelling) who was the village head man. We performed sevusevu offering our cava on the grass near the boat shed where they were repairing a panga that had recently struck a reef. He then took us on a tour of the area. The village is more or less a research/breeding station for giant clams on the former location of a large leper colony. The clams are being bred as the Fijians have more or less eaten the local population into extinction and the government is trying to reestablish them.

We were shown pens containing young clams and then taken to see the parents which are kept to provide the offspring. The parents were the largest clams Helen and I have ever seen.

He then took us off into the undergrowth to see what was left over from the leper colony. It turned out the colony used to house over 5,000 patients and staff so the facilities, poking out of the undergrowth, were quite extensive. There was a church, a hospital, living quarters, a jail and even a cinema. A small town.

We talked about a number of things including our trip to the Lau. Camili was delighted to learn I’d fixed DVD players and TVs there and said there were a couple of faulty units in the village. I have a job to do.

Camili took us back to the beach and invited us back for cava in the evening. Returning to our boats we stopped by Jarana to see if they were interested. Bill was in for it. After dinner we collected everyone and the five of us went back ashore. Almost everyone from the village, which was not a lot, was in Camili’s large home (part of the research station) watching TV and drinking cava. We joined them, chatting and quaffing for a couple of hours before returning to the boats.