Makogai - 17:26.48S, 178:57.16E

Serenity of Swanwick
Phil and Sarah Tadd
Thu 12 Sep 2019 08:22
We spent an uncomfortable night on the mooring at Koro Island last night. The moorings are reputed not to be strong and the wind got up in the evening so we were a bit anxious about it’s holding power. It was also very rolly when the tide covered the reef and we were both up during the night trying to find what was banging (the spare oars at the back of the bottomless cockpit locker). When the wind got up again this morning it wasn’t a difficult decision to leave.

We had a fast and enjoyable sail the 30 odd miles to Makogai in fresh southeasterly trade winds. The pass through the reef on the closer, north east, side of the island is not recommended in the conditions we had so we sailed on round to the pass on the western, leeward, side where entry was easy and found a nice spot to put our anchor down off Dalice. Dalice used to be a leper colony run by the Catholic Church but is now a Ministry of Fisheries station breeding giant clams to repopulate where they have been over fished. We presented our sevu sevu and were given a tour of the hatchery and the ruins of the leper colony. Like Koro, Makogai was badly affected by cyclone Winston, but it is noticeable that the workers houses in this government facility have been replaced with well built bungalows.

This is a lovely bay and is supposed to have good snorkelling so we may stay another day.