Unfortunately Joe needed to decline the offer to go with Tom into his village because of her thesis but I said very happily, “Yes, I would love to see your village with you!”

There is nothing better than getting such a chance to see something really Fijian.

On Sunday, on the way to the shore, he picked me up with his tender. After getting of at the shore, the boat was kept in deep water with a bigger piece of metal at a bow line as an anchor, and a stern line to a branch of a tree.

We stopped by at the place where he and the young guys, who he trains on boat work, have their meals. A friendly guy charged over night his mobile phone and offered us a cup of coffee and a piece of scone from the backing tray. We declined because we wanted to go to the village and took off. When we reached Lami, the next village, Tom recognized he forgot his phone. Thus, we jumped a taxi, went back, got the phone, and his friend who offered us coffee and scone, came with us. Back in Lami we bought a few packs of candies, Tom wanted to give to kids.

Then we took another cap to Suva’s bus terminal where we changed to a mini bus. “They depart as soon as all seats are occupied”, Tom explained. Passengers carried all kinds of things they bought in town and helped each other with placing these things in the mini bus not having really space for load.

Then the bus took off. On the way to Sausori the bus stopped stopped scrambling times to let passengers get off. We got off in Sausori to change the bus.

Right at the beginning of the town Tom explained the story on how the place got his name.

‘A young boy and his “sau” which means “grandfather”, stood close to a tree with bats. The boy threw a stone, which bounced back from a branch and hit the grandfather. The boy apologized and said “grandfather, sorry” which translates into Fijian to “sau sori”, which gave the place the name “Sausori”.’

Since Tom wants to publish videos about himself and Fijian culture on Facebook, he asked me to take a video of him explaining the Sausori story. I took the video. It was the first video of the day, more should follow.

We walked through the town towards the bus station. A very normal town with simple shops and street sellers, all kind of people with friendly “bula” greetings. Just before the bus station, Tom went to a street seller and we bought some wraps filled with boiled potatoes, and juice to quench our thirst. While eating the wraps we walked to the bus station. As these busses are running cashless, Tom charged his card at one of the charging booths pretty solid built to make them safe. Although it’s difficult to imagine that these friendly Fijians burgle somewhere. However, reality seems to be different. Unfortunately.

Then we left Sausori with the bus to our final destination Nakaile Village. After a while it stopped directly at a river. Here people get off to be picked up by small boats. A common way of traveling along the river.

We finally got off shortly later in the middle of nowhere. A sign said “Nakaile Village Stage 3 Road”. We walked the rest of our way to the village.

When we passed one of the first houses on the right sight a call came out of it. A former fellow fisherman, who was with Tom on Canada, recognized and called him. They greeted each other very warmly. Tom explained me about him and that he had, while working in Canada, a brain cancer surgery in the US, and just recently another surgery in his stomach area in Suva. Tom asked me for the next video and I recorded what he wanted to say about his former fellow fisherman during their time in Canada.

We continued walking into the village.

At one rather big house there were, visible to me, about 8 children. It seemed to me that in that place 2 – 3 families are living. Tom gave the children of the candies we bought and kept walking to the river. That spot there was important to him and I understood that it had to do with his childhood in the village. Another video was taken in which he explained about the river and the fields.

We went back into the village and again people recognized him, came out of their house to welcome him. Videos were taken and we continued. We also walked to Tom’s parents house. It is empty since his parents passed away. I felt that Tom’s heart wanted to see the house but not to go inside.

Tom also paid respect to the ‘head of the village’ but he wasn’t there.

We finally reach a house of a cousin of Tom. About 2 – 3 families just finished lunch outside on the terrace sitting on a palm tree mat, the typical ‘furniture’ to sit on and even lay on.

Immediately Tom and I were invited to eat although they just finished. We took off our shoes and sat down on the palm tree mat.

A very young lady, with an incredible smile, moved the remainings towards us, gave us a plate and spoon, and asked us to eat. With no idea about Fijian eating customs, I watched Tom carefully and did what he did. I had a very delicious Fijian meal combined of real Fijian cuisine and one dish was Fijian-Chinese fusion.

I had to take two more videos in which he explained about the people around us. Being too focused on taking the video I did not really understand what Tom explained.

I learned in this village that these people are very rich in happiness; it’s something money can’t buy.

After having a good time with these people we left for going to Tom’s farm. It was quite a distance to walk.

While being in Suva, Tom, a Fijian sailor passed MaRe daily and stopped by to say “hello”. We had a cup of tea or coffee and talked about many things.

He worked like some others from his village, on Canadian fishing boats. In Canada, he also got Canadian certificates and licenses.

Here in Suva he tries to get 5 – 6 old, mostly Chinese fishing boats back in operational state and wants to set up a small fishing fleet, which will improve the local employment situation. He even trains students of the Maritime School on Suva during their time off.

This is particularly good because in Suva I saw a few young man, most likely without jobs but quite a high level of alcohol. It was sad for me to see these drunken young men but it was very good to see Tom’s initiative.

One day, he asked if we want to visit his village next Sunday. What an offer!

S 17° 34.274
E 178° 40.626

At 1430 the anchor was down ain the NW corner of the island. We have a land shelter from E to SE. In the N there is reef which protects us from bigger waves. The anchorage is very quite. A small sandy beach is even here. Curious how landing will be.

It took 4 h from our anchorage in SW of Levuka to where we are now. Had to run the engines for two reasons. We went inside the outer reef of Ovalau Island, which means I have to be on stand-by for uncharted things in the water. The other reason was the wind. No wind to sail. This is fine when I need to motor for safety reasons.

Originally I wanted to do this sail already yesterday but the wind was too strong and for most of the time on to our nose. Additionally it was raining for most of the day. Thus I used the day for emails and preparing for our sail to Vanuatu. Their custom officers are very responsive. This morning, I had already the reply. Excellent!

Joe submitted here Bachelor thesis on Mondays night local time. Thus, the next day we took the dinghy and went to the town Levuka, which is the old capital city of Fiji. I’ll write a throw-back on this very enjoyable visit later.

A Visit to Dalice and Nasau villages on Makogai Island – Fiji

August 9th and 10th made such a deep impression on me that it was difficult for me to write about it that same evening. That’s why this will be a throwback.

The last image of the first day was Vina, an eight-year-old girl standing on the unfinished pier trying to catch a fish and waving at us with her heartwarming smile.

Back to the beginning.

In the morning, Norah, Peter and I went ashore (Joe was writing her bachelor’s thesis) hoping to meet the ‘kape’, the village chief, to give him kava roots that we had brought from Savusavu for the greeting ceremony ‘sevusevu’. A Fijian tradition that we learned about in Savusavu and thus had prepared the yaqona roots as a gift. From the yaqona roots, by grinding them, the basic ingredient for ‘kava’ is made, a traditional, non-alcoholic drink.

We met the kape at the beach with a group of men waiting for a boat to pick them up for diving and fishing. But before we met him, the kape, he was already giving us directions about the channel through the reef to the beach and that we could tie our dinghy to the lines of their boat.

When we approached the above-mentioned group of men and asked for the kape, it turned out that it was the kape who had advised us. Norah gave him the yaqona roots and he appreciated them. According to tradition, he told us that “whoever owns the land owns the sea” and that we were welcome to anchor in the bay and walk through the island and village. He also asked Emma, his 10-year-old daughter, to show us the ruins of the former leper colony. She did so more than happily. She already speaks very good English.

Shortly after we began our walk with Emma, Vina came running up to us from behind, beaming across her whole face. We already knew each other from the day before. Today was Saturday, so no school.

The leper colony was nothing but ruins. We saw remains of the cinema and the prison and what could have been houses. At the end of the colonial period, the island was uninhabited for another 10 years, then the first settlers came. The father of today’s kape was one of these first settlers.

About the leper station:
https://chatgpt.com/share/68a66456-e99c-800b-b475-550d3114b053
Above link gives a longer story which matches information I got from other AIs I’m using.

Then came the question “Have you ever eaten ‘wara’?” “Wara, what is that?” “Come with us,” and we left the path. Emma searched in another corner and Vina took us along. She quickly pointed to a coconut from which a shoot was already emerging. So that is a ‘wara’ and you can eat the contents. We took about 5 waras with us. When we arrived in the village, Emma briefly went into her parents’ house and got a machete. Then we went to the “village tree”. I call it that because it has spreading branches with many leaves. Under it is an approximately 60 cm high, about 2m x 3m large, somewhat aged wooden platform on which the people of the tiny village gather in their traditional way.

Emma placed a wara between 2 stones on the ground and split it lengthwise with a few well-aimed machete blows. And then she showed us the inside of the wara. It’s not just the normal coconut meat on the inner walls, the whole coconut is filled with a different “meat”. You simply take it out with your fingers and eat it. Vina also showed me that there’s a fibrous structure inside that you also simply pull out. This part tastes fresh and has a much softer consistency than normal coconut meat. A delight and I learned something new about coconuts again.

Then Ateca also joined us. She is a young woman who came to the island through the fisheries ministry and spent 5 months dealing with the cultivation and release of mussels into the sea. From her we learned quite a bit about life and the people on the island. In the end, she gave me her email address so we could send her photos.

In the meantime, Peter had brought Joe back to the MaRe so she could continue writing her bachelor’s thesis.

Then we set off for Nasau, the other village, about 4 km from Dalice.

The path, an unpaved road, went up and down and repeatedly opened up views over the sea. Since the sun was shining well, it was more pleasant to walk where the canopy was closed over the road, even if the humidity was higher there. Jungle atmosphere.

When we arrived at a crossroads and wondered which way was right, a woman joined us. She led us on the direct path into the village and to the covered veranda where everyone was sitting, singing to guitar music, drinking kava, and having a good time.

We asked for the father of the kape from Dalice. He was sitting right in front of us. Since we no longer had yaqona roots, we apologized for this and asked for permission to visit his village as well. We were most warmly welcomed and asked to sit down. Of course, we immediately got kava to drink in half a coconut shell. Besides the normal questions “Where from?”, “Where to?” regarding us, we learned what happened in Nasau after Cyclone ‘Winston’ (2016). Ian, an Australian sailor, started a project to rebuild the school. Bruce, a sailor who was there with his wife, had come back to the island the day before with Ian on his St Francis after about 7-8 years. What luck we had. We saw a long list of sailors who were also involved in this project. A particular challenge was landing building materials because in Nasau there is no pier, only a sandy beach. So everything had to be brought ashore from small boats by walking through the water. It was, so it’s said, work that was done by the women of the village. I can only take my hat off to these women.

The school today consists of two buildings with several classrooms, office, and teachers’ room. All students on the island are taught at this school, including the children from Dalice. They are transported back and forth in an open school boat and have to walk a few steps through the water when getting in and out. (What would that be like for helicopter parents who would prefer to drive their children in an SUV right into the classroom?)

I remember one classroom very well. It was for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade. There were 5 tables for 5 children in 3 age groups.

What I really liked were the many hand-painted posters hanging on the walls. Here the students repeatedly see the most important things about a subject; with us, the books are closed and the material is forgotten. So that the little ones remember the multiplication tables well, it’s painted on an exterior wall. Simple. Practical. Effective.

What I had already noticed with Emma and Vina was the good English they spoke at the ages of 8 and 10. Thanks to Vitalina, the English teacher, for that and for the tour through the really interesting school.

I noticed that all roofs have three medium-sized solar panels. Vitalina showed us her system with 2 x 100 Ah 12V lead batteries and an inverter to 230V. Vitalina said that the system is just enough to charge the phone. It’s a shame that more doesn’t come out of it. This is primarily due to the lead batteries that are finished after 5 years. The equally old solar panels probably also only produce part of the performance they once delivered. Someone, presumably from the government, paid for the initial equipment but forgot about the aging process.

Where is there someone who finances a dozen replacement batteries and possibly the replacement of solar panels?

The school tour was already triggered by Diana. A girl of about 10-11 years old from Nasau. She, accompanied by two younger girls, showed us the simple church that people love to live their faith in.

Then the conversation turned to papaya. Diana offered us some. When we said that she needed them herself, an “Oh no, we have plenty of them” came out of her mouth. So we set off again to a papaya tree right next to the church. It was probably her younger sister who quickly climbed up the papaya tree and twisted off the two already ripe papayas and threw them to Diana. You have to know that the papaya tree is a good 5m high and has a smooth trunk. It’s not easy to climb a papaya tree barefoot. But here everyone seems to be able to do this.

Slowly the time to say goodbye came. We still had to walk back. If I remember correctly, it was the kape who was sitting next to me who said we should go back with the school boat that was supposed to bring Ian, Bruce and his wife back.

So there was another green coconut for each of us to drink; I love this delicacy. Refreshing and nutritious.

Then came the departure. Almost everyone who was gathered went with us to the beach. Two young people went ahead and began to bring the motorboat, which was anchored in sufficiently deep water, to the beach so we could all get in easily. Something that the school children from Dalice have to do twice every school day. At the not-weak outboard motor, the guitar player took his place. He knew the boat and he also knew the waves. Extremely skillfully he steered the boat through the surf and only gave gas when the waves allowed it. But then he really gave gas. Very quickly we went extremely close past coastal rocks. He knew the route, the boat and the waves.

Then we arrived and the farewell came. Not an easy one because the people had grown close to our hearts in one day.

Back on board, Norah had the idea to bake chocolate chip cookies and give them to the kape of Dalice the next day with the request to share them with the people in Nasau. I made the dough in the evening to let it harden in the refrigerator. The next morning I baked 60 cookies. Joe painted 6 bags from memory with motifs from Dalice.

We then brought the bagged cookies and a few English books that Joe brought from the Whangarei Marina library ashore.

Since the kape wasn’t there, his neighbor accepted the small gifts. Just as we were about to get into our dinghy, some of the churchgoers returned with the school boat. The women had to lift their skirts in the water; it’s certainly not an easy church visit.

Farewell, you wonderful people on your island, and stay happy.

While writing, I had another thought about what our experience was probably like for the children with whom we were able to experience these two wonderful days.

Strangers come to the island. They are friendly and visibly like us children. Just when we have also come to like them, they get into their boat and sail away again and only in very few exceptional cases ever come back.

You’re right, children.

We can also only say that you remain in our thoughts and hearts even when we are far away again.

S 18° 05.365
E 178° 51.015

We are about 5 NM east of our WPT Suva E. My inner watch woke me up before Joe could do it. I like when my inner watch triggers me.

I changed only the course and did not trim the genoa and small jip to slow down a bit. Still MaRe runs often up to 9 KN STW. The new course is a bit less bumpy because the AWA is 90 – 100 deg.

With this course and few adjustments, I’m heading to a point about 5 NM east of the outer reef of Ovalau island. Once I’m there, I’ll heave-to and drift slowly and comfortably towards the pass on the reef because I want to have the sunlight on my back when going through the pass. The drifting will be the right time for breakfast while being very stable outside at the sea.

After having been several times in Suva, the actual capital city, I curious how Levuka, the old capital city will be.

S 18° 25.697
E 178° 21.895

At about 1630 we lifted the anchor. It needed some cleaning because the sea bed at the anchorage was very thick mud, which gave us a good hold while at anchor. The anchorage was a really nice place.

Tom, my Fijian friend, who took me to his village and farm on Sunday, came by with his boat to bid final farewell. He really is a nice guy and in glad he came by in one of the early days we were in that anchorage. Since then we met daily on board of MaRe for a cup of tea and a talk. Yesterday he even brought his 3 year old daughter with him. She is a boat girl.

Forecasted wind 10 – 20 KN, 135 deg.

First, we sailed about 200 deg until the Suva E WPT appeared under 60 deg. Then we tacked and sailed a COG of 60 deg giving still some leeway to the WPT.

Next a Chinese fishing boat crossed our course and I decide to move to PRT by 30 deg. It was a strange encounter. The AIS showed a Chinese cargo vessel and called it on VHF CH16. No reply. When the vessel was less than an NM away a Chinese fishing vessel was shown by AIS. When it passed on STB the lights indicated a fishing vessel and i could not see a cargo vessel. Is this one more bug in Raymarines latest SW update or what was this?

Joe feels again a bit seasick but so far not she did not feed the fish. I hope she makes it until we can sail less upwind.

As for my story about Makogai I wrote a bit more today but is still not yet finished; I’ll do my best. Not now because it’s a bit bumpy. Despite STW of around 8 KN it will take about 4 h more until we reach the WPT Suva E and can go on a more comfortable course.

S 18° 06.519
E 178° 23.711

I am still writing on my narration about Makogai Island and it’s wonderful people.

A lot of time I had to spent on my new mobile phone. I always have highly customized Android phones and Linux PCs. The new phone was necessary because my old Huawei’s screen turned slowly but steadily black. I could complete all just in time before the screen could not be read anymore. Just a few files I still need to transfer from my PC on to my new phone.

As a lot of settings are different from my old phone, the setup took quite some time. To find settings faster, I used Claude AI. Pretty good for such work.

What also takes a lot of time is training the keyboard to understand my swipe typing. This slows my text creation quite a bit down these days.

I also was 3 times in Suva downtown for some shopping. The bus ride is fun. All kind of people are getting on and off. At the bus terminal the surrounding streets are crowded by cars and people. Suva is a bustling city. What you don’t see on the islands but here are begging people sitting on the street. A sad thing which I haven’t seen for a long time.

As about 50 % of the population is Indian origin, the melange on the street is very nice. The jobless rate is said to be high which reflects on the streets, or in bars.

In Suva I got among other things a new stainless steel bowl for making the dough for our bread. My glass bowl broke during the very bumpy ride from NZ to Tonga. Joe broke the glass bowl for brewing tea. For this only got a stainless steel pot, which works.

Although I started already a few days before I could do a big chunk of work for the routing of the next long sail in Fiji today. Basically I’ll sail counter- clock wise around Viti Levu and visit the islands along the way. You will see on the tracking eye we’ll go to.

On Sunday Tom, the Fijian fishing boat sailor who stops by at MaRe every morning, took me to his home village about 2 h bus ride on way. Also about this day I’ll catch up again

Last night he came to me with a special request. I should write a letter for him. The Suva port authorities threatened to buck him heavily because one of his fishing boats sits on a reef since the last cyclone paid a visit to the area here. Also his other 5 boats, which are at a big mooring buoy are threatend to be bucked as well. After listening to his story, I wrote, very early this morning, the letter he had asked me for the night before. The printout will be done in a typing shop, not in printing shop. A different world in days, where everyone is expected to have a PC but most people only have a mobile phone.

Now I’ll upload this narration and then go to bed. I’m tired…. is what I wrote, but then I “died’ before I could do it.

S 18° 07.630
E 178° 44.748

You saw that the tracker (https://share.garmin.com/P435) is moving. We are on the way to Suva. Norah & Peter need to fly home. They will take a bus from Suva to Nadi Airport.

What we experienced yesterday is a longer story, which I write down tomorrow.

The night is pleasant. The moon had a spectacular rise on deep red. The sky is covered with small, high flying clouds indicating the continuation of good weather. The moon, now high up at the sky, illuminates them nicely from behind.

We just had a watch duty shift. Peter took over from Norah. During the change I decide we pull out the genoa and reduce the RPMs of the engines a bit more. Poor works fine.

In the morning the bakery was in full swing. First I baked 60 chocolate chips cookies for the people of the island . Second I baked 2 breads for us.

Norah & Peter jumped into the water and started cleaning the hulls while I was busy with baking. Later I too jumped into the water to clean the deeper parts. MaRe will thanks us for this treatment by a speed increase of 1 or a bit more knot.

Joe beautified 5 paper bags with her sketches of motives she saw on the island for the cookies. Then she also brought some English books, she got from the exchange library of Whangarei Marina for the school library.

We took off with the tender to go ashore. While being on the way to the house of the Kape, Keri saw us and came running from the fishery building to us.

The Kape was not at home so we gave all to the neighbor lady who happily took what we brought.

Joe wanted to look at the pools where they grow clams. About 3 or 4 smaller ones we still found one basin. The others were already out in a net the sea.

As before Keri came running from the fishery building, I thought Ateca might be there and went to the building. It turned out that Keti’s parents where there doing some email work. So we finally met the parents of Keti, Vina, and their elder brother. But then we also met the youngest of the family, about 2 years old who was happy when I took her up. A short conversation with the friendly parents and we bid farewell.

When we just arrived at the little beach, the school boat came around the corner; as always at high speed. Beside Ateca we saw Emma and few others we met yesterday again. Farewell to all you very friendly people we could meet at Makogai Island.

On the way back to MaRe, we had a stopover at Bruce’s boat, a St. Francis cat, to say farewell to him and his crew who we met yesterday.

Sometimes I’m lucky and learned from him about the Royal Yacht Club of Suva and a good anchorage A bit further west in a smaller bay on the western side of Suva harbor is a pretty good anchorage. Thanks Bruce for that and we don’t go into the RYC, which has only a depth of 2 my. They gave us this value without the information of the tide level. In general, based on the communication with this marina I do not feel comfortable with going in.

Finally we had quick stop at a NZ monohull, which came in just this morning. Shortly after being at anchor, they came over to us to say hello. The crew, a NZ couple and French lady. Very friendly people. As we just used it, we told the channel through the reef on the eastern side of the pier.

Then we prepared MaRe for departure, lifted the hook and left Makogai Island through the western pass, through which we came in. Unfortunately there was not other humpback whale jumping beside MaRe to bid farewell.

With the first daylight wer lifted the hook and went towards the pass through the outer reef. It turned out, as expected the WPT from Don, was perfect. So we went through the pass without any concerns.

Thereafter it was pretty easy. With a bit of wind on the nose we had no choice but use the engines. Thus, cruising RPM of 1800, and the autopilot on track mode and the 25 NM to Makongai Island was only a question of time.

However, I was very busy with attempts to get the Raymarine Control app on my tablet running. Also pretty buggy, it normally runs quickly; today it did not run at all and I have no clue what the root cause could be. Will ask my “Raymarine guy”.

Then I turned MaRe about 100 deg to PRT and she was on the line to go through the pass of the outer reef. On our STB side there was the big Vavu Value reef with big breaking waves. Impressive, but I’m glad to keep this reef on our STB side in sufficient distance.

After we were just beyond the middle of the pass, I saw dead ahead a pretty white wave. Although, it was about 2 NM away I was shocked that I didn’t have this reef on my mind. In the next moment I understood why; it was a whale jumping out of the water and splashing back in. Then we saw a few more jumps. What a pity that we could not be closer. After we turned again to PRT on our way to the anchorage behind an island, it was Joe who told me that there is a whale just 100 my on front of us. The fluke was nicely to be seen. We all looked very concentrated into this direction when there was suddenly a loud noise just at the PRT side of MaRe. A humpback whale jumped 5 m away from MaRe’s PRT hull. What a scene!

After this massive welcome spectacle, we finally saw two whales blowing just behind MaRe then their flukes went under water again.

I’m curious when AI will decipher the whales’ language and what they talk about.

When we turned into the bay where we wanted to anchor, we were the only boat there. I tested the water depth closer to the shore to decide where to drop the hook. This was finally at 17 m. First the anchor slipped a bit,**** but then with 70 m of chain or got a firm grip.

We were at our destination!

When I tested the depth closer to the shore, we also saw to floats on top of a round reef. I assumed it is the “chimney bommie” described in the Soggy Paws’ compendium.

A while later we got the confirmation. We took the tender, drove over to this reef and snorkeled and free dived around the spectacular reef. Round and tall like chimney it comes up from about 15 m deep ground. We had an interesting time there.

After changing clothes, Norah, Peter, and I took the tender to the pier of the small settlement, which was once a leper colony.

First a boy with his football cane to us to say hello and satisfy his curiosity. He was follow by his a bit older sister. Asking her about the head of the village she brought us to the “kape’s”‘ house. The kape is chief of the village and needs to be asked to anchor the bay and walk around in and around the village. Unfortunately he was not at home. So we will pay our respect tomorrow and present him kava roots, the traditional and obligatory present on Fiji

Someone had the idea to go around the island with the tender. As the island is really not big it’s possible to do it. Thus after a lunch we took off.

Before we reached the NW corner, we passed a pier, leading to a long wooded stair going up the hill. With colorful blossoms at one side and lush green on the other it looked nicely inviting to go up There as bit towards NW on top of the hill 2 – 3 houses.

After reaching the top of the stairs, we saw that one small dirt road leads to the houses, and another, a concrete road, led down the hill into a construction side. We learned already in Savusavu that there is work going on to built a resort. For people interested in diving, this can become a great place. As we also wanted to go to the E side of Namena Island, we walked down into the construction side.

On the way down, we saw a booby bird chicken lying on a strange spot in a strange position.

Joe, with her warm heart wanted to give it food, and I considered that it will die because it fell out of the nest about 7 my above. We left it alone and moved on.

The construction site looked as being in full swing, but no worker was to be seen at all. The cottages, although non was was completed, made a good impression. Large areas of the walls were only built of windows where jalousie type. A wonderful window design for a warm climate like in the Fifis.

We walked to the beach. First Joe then also Norah and Peter jumped into the water but I didn’t want to get wet.

They swam, I walked until a big trees with about 20 nests with young red feeted boobies in it caught my attention. A young Bobby caught my special attention because it was to be seen that it tried for the first time to use his wings to fly and I watched it. Carefully and a bit helpless, but successfully it could fly 4 branches higher, one by one, but when it attempted a longer flight of about 3 – 5 m, it just fell down and crashed with open wings into a branch much lower than it’s starting point. An a bit unsuccessful attempt to use its wings. Learning by doing.

A bent palm tree invited me to half sit and half lay down it. I could watch the bird on one side and looking straight, I overlooked the blue ocean rolling gently on the sandy beach. My OBM commented on the picture of that scene, which I uploaded on the OmaOpa account in Signal, “Little paradise”, which describes it well. These moments on the palm tree stay burnt in my memory.

Later we continued our little tour around the island with the tender. People living on one of the houses up the hill waved us and we waved backed.

Then the wind and waves increased pretty fast and we had not yet reached the NE corner where a bigger reef is. With the increasing waves and wind it could become dangerous to cross the reef and once we are around the SW corner we have to consider that the waves can be pretty high. Thus, we turned around and had smooth ride back. Wind and waves came from astern.

Once we where close to MaRe we decided to go to the SW end of the island. The wind from NE died, but when we reached the SW corner, the wind picked up from SW. As we could have a look around the corner already we turned back to MaRe with stop over at an Australian boat and having a friendly chat with the couple on board.