Makogai lies 130 nautical miles west of Vanua Mbalavu. We sailed quickly with the wind behind us at 6-7 knots through the night. It was just getting light when we arrived at Makogai. After carefully navigating through the narrow pass in the coral reef we arrived in the lagoon in front of a village.
A friendly sailor from a catamaran came to us and warned us where not to anchor because there are some large coral bummies. 
We were shown around by the children of the village. The chief’s 8 and 12 year old children climb the papaya and coconut trees, drop a few coconuts down and chop off the top with a machete to give us food and drink. First visit is the cemetery. Makogai was the only leprosy colony in the South Pacific until 1969. 1500 people, patients and caregivers (nuns and missionaries French, English, German from monasteries in our area) are buried here. Houses, central accommodations and even a cinema to make the lives of leprosy patients as bearable as possible. Second visit is the local prison and they show us several churches all in ruins while the jungle takes over. The kids also gave us sprouting coconut. The water inside is then replaced by a kind of sweet foam. Tasty.
It is a small village, only two families live here. Over the last 30 years giant clams and turtles have been bred here with varying degrees of success. A nature project. Hardly any plastic on this island. Pure nature. We then walked to the southern tip of the island on an overgrown road (railway line?) and came across more abandoned houses. Here each ethnic group had its own leprosy colony. Everywhere you meet very kind people and those children where great!
It’s Saturday and we have come in to get fresh produce at the stalls on the seafront and see the old slaver capital of Fiji. We successfully got ashore through the small waves where we where greeted by the harbour master and after a chat with the friendly customs officer who could not see our Fiji flag we promised to purchase another one.
