Makogai

Stardate October 12, 2023

25 mile hop to Makogai Island.  The preferred entrance is on the west side, so we had to loop all the way around.  The preferred entrance is also next to a breaking reef.  I mean right next to a breaking reef.  Looping from the north, you are barreling straight for breaking waves and at the last minute you turn 120 degrees to follow the ferry route.  Criminy!  Nick tried to cut the corner and wound up in 21 feet of water.  I noticed his quick dogleg to starboard to get back out to deeper water.  


I followed him after his course correction - we were still off the ferry route by 100 m or so.  I saw 28 feet on the depth gauge as I crossed the underwater ridge.  Way too close for comfort.  










Anchorage was protected, good holding.  We hopped in the dink to sevusevu and were received with a blissfully short ceremony, following which a woman named Mare took us around.  


Makogai was the home of one of the largest leper colonies in the world, apparently, in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  There were thousands of lepers here, scattered in settlements according to their nationality.  They had their own electrical generation, hospital, cinema, police and jail.  We got the tour of the ruins from Mare.  It must have been pretty impressive in its day.



Mare and Nick in the midst of the old movie theatre.  It was huge!


Projection holes.

Graves.  There are supposedly hundreds up the hill but the area has been overgrown to the extent you can't get to them without a lot of effort.  All headstones are made of concrete.


Yep, an open crypt.

The jail.





Cyclone Winston in 2016 pretty much destroyed the island.  In the rebuilding process, the houses have been made virtually storm-proof by the use of 4x4 aluminum frame members.  These are anchored to concrete pads in the ground.  Even the porches are constructed of aluminum framing.  






The clam farm is run by the Fisheries people in Fiji.  They take the fertilized eggs and plant them on a concrete pad in long races with running water.  There they nurse them to the point where they can be introduced into the ocean.







RIP their largest clam.  He had just been removed the day before we arrived.


Should have put my foot in for scale.  About 2.5 feet long.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Taveuni tour

Image
 Stardate October 9, 2023 Marina at the Dive Academy in Viani Bay had suggested we contact Jass for a tour of Taveuni.  So today we had the tour. We started with the waterfalls.  They are on the opposite side of the island from Paradise Resort.  Think of a reverse question mark with PR as the dot.  Or you can look at the map below.  The red arrow is not the boat - it's the position of my cell phone at the waterfalls.  Paradise Resort is at the lower left. Now this is not a big island; about 26 miles end to end.  Now the road...  Jass had a Prius and we were traveling on Press on Regardless roads.  The first ten miles was gravel, ruts and rocks.  Did I mention potholes?  I asked Jass if the road was ever graded.  He said "Once every six months."  You could tell. It took us two hours to reach the waterfalls, but we got the entire island history, which houses were owned by which rich foreigners.  (The guy who owns Red Bull owns an entire island.).   The road was paved a mile
Read more

And back to Volivoli...

Image
 Stardate October 14, 2023 A milk run until the last hour.  We had planned on stopping in Viti Levu Bay overnight.  We had made such good time that Nick suggested we push on to Volivoli point.  I think cold beer may have been the deciding factor.  I did point out that we would be passing up our last chance to do sevusevu and get rid of some kava.  Beer won out. The passage between the island and the reefs is not as fraught as it looks on the chart.  Plenty of room, good visibility, and the wind had dropped considerably from the crossing. Until here.  By now the wind had shifted to the east and was on the beam at about 35 knots.  The Navolau Passage is rather narrow and I had the main full up.  I wasn't worried about the narrow passage, but making that 90 degree turn to port did give me pause.  Especially in that wind.  I elected to keep the main up, thinking that I could use it further on (which was true).   So I come up to the turn and pulled the wheel over.  I had the preventer o
Read more

"Somebody has to do it."

Image
 A quote from Nick.  We're sitting on the bluff watching the sunset.  Taking pics of our sailboats.  Drinking cold beers.  He comes up with "Somebody's got to do it."  Meaning us being here.  Yep, Nick.  You nailed it. Fleur. Peregrine photobombed by catamaran. Look at that sky!
Read more