Commodore
July 21, 2024

Monday 22 July – off to Fuluga

We had just finished breakfast when I kept saying it was weird how close we were to Alia Vita. We have been swinging round and round and much faster than Alia Vita as we have more windage on our hulls and we are most probably quite a bit lighter. Rowan dived in to check the anchor as we were getting way too close and to his horror found the anchor upright with the chain wrapped around it a couple of times. He managed to untangle it and then it was a mad dash back on board to move us. Phew what a debacle!

We assume that going round and round the anchor had just lifted itself out. There is quite a strong current and tide. once we were back secured we headed to the gorgeous little beach and had a little look around. The bush is so thick behind the beach it looks impenetrable. It was good to stretch our legs before we picked up the anchor and went through the pass just after high tide.

Moon setting as daylight breaks

Rowan’s early morning rainbow over the reef

Exploring the surrounds

Looking back at the boats

Dramatic cliffs

Hidden beach

Sheer cliffs full of caves

The beach we explored

Rowan found a chair, thick jungle behind him

The two Catanas

Gorgeous islands and coral formations

Spiky sharp coral looks like lace

Looking smart

Going out the Ongea pass, with shallow coral on our left

Fuluga is less than 5 miles away, it was not worth the faff of getting the main sail up and down, we just got the jib out. We followed Alia Vita as they have been in and out of Fuluga, it is a much more tricky pass, much longer and narrower with big bommies in the middle. All went well even though we didn’t quite follow the plan and landed going right over the big bommie we were meant to avoid, luckily we cleared it easily.

The scenery coming into the atoll was jaw dropping. We realise that we may never beat this in terms of scenery. We could see at least 15-20 boats around the atoll, which is not surprising as we have another big weather system coming through, it is not another Bogi Walu but after NZ’s weather bomb last week where they have gone from the highest pressure system on record to an extraordinarily low one (winds of up to 100 knots), it seems to be causing all sorts of knock on effects. So loads of boats have come in here as it is extremely well protected.

We headed to the little bay area where the village keeps it boats, we needed to do our Sevusevu handing over our Kava to the chief. Frances and Rob came with us as she wanted to check up on her couple of patients, one she had stitched up his arm from a barracuda deep cut, and the other just a nasty infected wound. It was a 20 minute walk up and over the hill to the village on the windward side of the island. An extremely tidy and lovely village with quite a few old shaped houses in corrugated iron, they’ve had many hurricanes pass through so I guess nothing really old survives. We met our chief and did the little hand over ceremony, of course we have no idea what they are saying, but they seem incredibly earnest and grateful. There was no pen to sign the guest book, we will have to come back to do it later in the week. What is quaint in this village is that you get assigned a host family. Bar is our very jolly host, she had just come in with a basket of some good sized fish. She invited us to church on Sunday and lunch afterwards which will be an experience. We were taken to a wood carver’s house, carvings is what this village is famous for. I bought a lovely in laid shell bowl, I’m very happy to support them, there was no pressure to buy. The carpenter’s son came over, he had an amputated foot, with a prosthetic attachment into his shoe. Tragic as he looked like he was in his mid 20’s. The operation was done over 4 months in Australia, he was desperate to go home to the village. Now his other leg is looking really bad and they asked Frances for advice. She will come back tomorrow with a DVT sock and some spare cortisone cream I have. The islanders seem genetically predisposed to Diabetes 2, which is so just so sad. Bar (our host) offered us lime tea, but as it was heading towards sunset we thought we better walk back in the light. This is a much bigger village than Ongea, a population of about 180 people here apparently. Our path over the hill was like a motorway compared to the path to the village in Ongea. When we got to the dinghy we met a local lady who had just come in on a Kayak with a lethal looking spear, she had 3 enormous octopus in her bag which I was rather sad about. But at least they are living well off the sea and land, no shops for provisions here, the supply boat comes once a month, as long as the weather permits.

On the way home my ear began to really throb, it hasn’t been feeling good for a day, I put my special cream on which usually works like a treat, but it appears the cortisone cream inflamed it further. Got home and was so grateful that we had managed to get some antibiotics in South Africa from Rowan’s old school friend. No doc in the UK would give us any antibiotics. I also have my sister Lynda’s expired Augmentin tablets. I feel pretty confident I can nail it, Frances has an Auriscope and managed to confirm it was a really nasty infection. I know exactly when it happened, my earplug fell out while snorkelling and I pushed it back in harder trapping sea water. You can see the water is just teaming with little nutrients.

It was a lovely sunset and while Rowan was interviewing people on zoom I was very pleased to go to bed. The last two nights have been really rolly and I was pretty tired.