The weather changed as we knew it would. Southeast wind means the anchorage at Nairai is too exposed, so yesterday after church (and the afternoon feast) we said our goodbyes to Esther, Epele and the other folks who have been so nice at the little village of Lawaki. The wind filled in around midnight at about 15 knots, but since the island no longer blocked it, we had two foot waves to try and sleep by. A bit of a restless night and we were anchor up at 0800. Esther was waving from the beach. Such nice people!

We made a 30 or so mile passage to Makogai (pronounced “Mackongai”). A nice 15 knot following wind brought us in through the reef around 1600 and the anchor was dropped in time for Charismas at sunset.

Makogai is a former leper colony and there are some artifacts left on shore that are one of the attractions here. The others are hiking and snorkling. We’ll see what the weather allows tomorrow and then Wednesday we’ll make the final jump up to Savusavu to reprovision for our last push of the season back out to the islands for another month or so before having to get ready for the journey back to NZ to wait out the cyclone season.