Levuka

Levuka was once the capital of Fiji . It has the atmosphere of little frontier town. It was a 45 minute ride by fast boat from the island of  Leleuvia  where we were anchored .We decided to let someone do the driving It was an enjoyable little trip.

This was our ride to Leuvka instead of going with the yacht.

Sam and Marilyn from Catharpin Blue.

Inside the Catholic Church.

School children, look at all those beautiful smiles.

Catholic Church.

A little old lady we met, who was talking to the flowers and the bushes saying that they were her fathers.

This is a shot of the reef that we went through on the way to Levuka.



The handicrafts of Levuka..

A Hugh date tree. It is really loaded.

The sign speaks for itself.

Fire truck and station.

It looked like you where in little old western town.

Love the architect.

The open market.

A side view of the Catholic Church. It must have been all stone at one time.

It does look like a western town.

Don' you think it looks alittle western?

On the way back to Leleuvia from Levuka

You can see the waves breaking over the reef.

The Anglican Church in Levuka.

MAKOGAI ISLAND TO KORO ISLAND

July 23, 2013 Tuesday

Meandering all over the arc of the anchor and hearing the anchor chain grating on the short coral is nerve wracking!  Magogai Bay is quite deep and I had 210' of anchor chain in 56' of water depth.  With williwaws boxing the compass and intermittent periods of calm, two nights were enough in this lovely place.  We heaved up anchor at 0930 hrs on July 23rd and sailed over to Koro (17-16.5' s; 179-21.6 E) which is about 32 nm bearing 068 T deg. from Makogai.   I decided to go out the NE pass (Daveta Loboni) for which I had Way Points but the chart was inaccurate and need an offset.  There is a new navigation technique developed and being used by yachties which incorporates Google Earth views which are placed over an existing area of a chart and then a "transparency" can be created on top of the chart and the offset can be seen and corrected.  The GE2KAP program then allows the navigator to slide the chart to the Google Earth view and "voila" the offset and correct chart view are there.  All this doesn't mean much to most of you but it's brilliant to a navigator!  I'm always impressed with the amount of savvy, knowledge and computer programming skills that are out here amongst the yachties.  The end result of all this was that we navigated through the reef system flawlessly.

Dere Bay (17-16.5' S; 179-21.6' E) in Koro has four strong mooring balls that are available to visiting yachts.  This makes it easy for a yacht to pick one of these up instead of anchoring.  The moorings are anchored to the seabed with special helix anchors which provide a safe anchoring system for the yacht.  The only thing required of the yacht is to pick up a floating line attached to a mooring ball and make it fast to the bow cleats on the yacht.  After that the yacht swings with the wind direction.

Koro is a rather strange place.  It appears that there was a frenzy of building and marketing with the selling of lots to Americans, Kiwis and Ozzies.  The Dere Bay Resort was built and, due to the extensive reef system, has the longest pier in Fiji to get out to deeper water.  The Resort seems to have all the amenities vacationing landlubbers and property owners demand but there just aren't many people around.  The Resort was only open during the evenings and if a meal was wanted it had to be ordered a day in advance.  The island seems to be eco-conscious and an American reality show was filmed in one of the bungalows that was built for the filming.  Later there was feuding and law suits from all the participants over property rights and ownership.  Today, the bungalow is abandoned and in shambles with no one able to buy or sell the property: a lawyer's orgasm!

We have been travelling in the same direction with another boat "Catharpin Blue" since Suva.  It's an Island Packet 420 and lovely she is.  Anyway, we signed up a day in advance for the evening meal and met an American ophthalmologist and his partner.  They were sporting a bottle of Patron Tequila and generous is sharing.  Patron encourages speech and stimulates the imagination even if the senses are dulled.  A good time was had by all.

We managed to get over to the local school and donate a box of books that were picked up in Opua, NZ for remote schools in the islands.  The headmaster was an interesting Fijian who had a progressive outlook on getting his brightest students into higher education.  Unfortunately, the school only had one computer for all the grades.  I'm not seeing much of a trickle down effect from the Resort or those big homes on the hill that drink "sun-downers" every evening and ogle the Sun.  Be that as it may, every Fijian has a million dollar smile and a personality to go with it.   Absolutely a fascinating and beautiful country!

LELEUVIA ISLAND TO MAKOGAI ISLAND FIJI

July 21, 2013 Sunday

The "bogiwalu" (8 nights of strong enhanced Trade Winds) has finally started to blow itself out.  Last night we had our final "lovo" (baked in an underground oven) of fish, chicken and assorted vegetables at the wonderful Leleuvia Resort.  This is a really low scale place catering to backpackers and cost conscious clientele.  Nevertheless, it is run by a very experienced staff under the management of one of Fiji's outstanding resort management families: The Philips Family.  On Leleuvia, it appears that the management has been placed in the hands of a younger brother, Colin Philip and his lovely wife.  What a magnificent job they are doing!  This resort is so low keyed that everyone in treated like "friends".  They will make it a priority to know your names and escort you to and from the dinghy dock.  One will not find the rich and famous here and, thankfully, there are no super yachts.

The sailing distance from Leleuvia to Makogai (17-26.4' S; 178-57.2' E) is about 30 nm.  With light S x W'ly winds and a favorable outgoing current in the Moturiki Channel, it's a six hour sail over to Makogai Is.  We departed at 0800 hrs and arrived at 1430 hrs.  This island is notable because it was used as a leper colony from 1908-1969.  Today there are only seven families (30 people) living in the former homes that were occupied by the staff overseeing the management of the leper colony.  These homes are made from wood brought from New Zealand and still in remarkably good condition.  Most of the former concrete structures are in ruins.  The last of the lepers were transferred to a facility in Suva, Fiji in 1969.

The Makogai Leprosarium was set up and run by the The Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary.  Many of these dedicated sisters were from France and Switzerland.  At its peak, the leprosarium housed almost 5000 patients from all over the Pacific.  There is a graveyard that has almost 1500 including some of the dedicated sisters.  What a magnificent calling and job these missionary sisters did in attending to the outcasts of society.  There is a brief film clip of a ship landing at Makogai sometime in the late 1940's.  It is bringing relatives and loved ones  for a once a year visit to the lepers.  What stands out is the cleanliness and attention that was given to the lepers.  These Sisters were the dedicated Saints of the Lepers.  There is a book published in 1978 by the Leprosy Trust Board of New Zealand titled:  "Makogai - Island of Hope".  It was written by Sister M. Stella who was one of the caregivers on the island.  Google Makogai and view the British Film Clip and listen to the reporter's Oxford English!

Today, all that remains of this great leprosarium are the wooden structures that housed the general staff and facilities.  There are seven separate families living in the old wooden buildings.  Makogai is now owned by the Fijian govenment and has an aquaculture farm that raises and distributes the giant clams and Hawkesbill turtles that are endangered.  It's fascinating to see the process whereby the giant clams are raised in long cement holding tanks and then moved to different units as they mature.  Makogai Bay has several giant clams that measure over six feet in length.  The mouths of the clams are quite colorful and vary in colors.  Many of the old leper hospital beds have been thrown into the bay and are used to house cages for the giant clams.  The government official in charge of the Wildlife and Fisheries program is knowledgeable and friendly.  He spent quite a bit of time with us touring all the facilities and the ruins of the leper colony.  They are still using the old Lister four cylinder generator engine that powered the  leper colony in the 1940's.  It runs four hours per day: 7-9 am and 7-9 pm.  There are no televisions on the island and the children from the three villages are taken to school by boat.   Like so many of  the Pacific islands, Makogai is very beautiful.  If I had one complaint it would be that the anchorage is plagued by "williwaws" (strong gusty katabatic winds) that descend from the mountains surrounding the bay.  These winds cause the boat to meander all over the place which is quite disconcerting.

Our sail from Suva to Beqa,and on to Leleuvia .

Solstice under sail leaving Suva on to the island of Beqa.

We are anchored in Vaga Bay in front of the Naiseuseu village.

The Naiseuseu village.

Another picture of Naiseuseu village.

Being greeted by the villagers as we dinghyed in.

We were invited to a meal at Ben and Maria's house.

Our meal consisted of wonderful Mahi-Mahi,Cassava, Noodles , Rice, Limes for the fish , and Mango juice. It was very tasty.

Marilyn and Sam from Catharpin Blue , Don and I.

Ben and his children visiting us on SSolstice.

Children  of the village. They love to have their picture taken.

Mushrooms growing on the trees.

We moved from Vaga Bay to Malumu Bay

Catharpin Blue anchored in Malumu Bay.

Solstice anchored in Malumu Bay.

Entrance to Malumu Bay.

An overnight sail from Malumu Bay to Leleuvia where we have been for  here for a week. It a beautiful place to bee to wait for a good weather window to move on.

A beautiful resort with palm trees and white sandy beaches.

Leleuvia

Don letting out more anchor chain.

Fisherman coming back from fishing.

Meeting up with other yachting friends.

Brother and sister, Steve and River with Mom and Dad Amy and Arthur on Morning Glory also doing a cirrcunvation.

This was Lovo night, it was quite a feast. Lovo is food cooked  in an in ground pit.

The food consisted of fish, chicken,, poisson  cruie., taro leaves. different salads, and etc. 

This also includes a band and

Lots of Kava.

Dancing the Fijian two step.

More Kava

The Bar.

This pig is from the Naiseuseu village. He was possing for us.

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Catharpin Blue and Solstice anchored  at Vaga Bay in front to naiseuseu village.

A little waterfall coming out of the Mangoroves.

Ben.s Nephews  who where showing us the different plants and flowers along the shore of Naiseuseu village.