We left Fulaga after four great weeks, and sailed the short distance of 6nm to the neighboring lagoon, Ogea. This island is kind of like Fulaga’s little sister. There are only 100 people living in Ogea Levu (meaning Big Ogea), and it is a smaller lagoon, but equally beautiful.
We found an anchor in a lovely bay, which we had to sneak into. We entered right before high tide, and saw about 90 centimeter under our keel. Not too deep, but absolutely doable.
We were surrounded by similar mushroom islets we had seen in the Fulaga lagoon, and only had two other boats together with us inside the little bay. There was just enough swinging room for the three of us, but not much space for anymore boats.
It was a 45 minute hike through a lush jungle to get to town from where we were anchored. We enjoyed stretching our legs again, which sometimes become way too seldom when living on a boat.
Like we have to do in all new locations in Fiji, we have to first find the village chief, to present a bundle of kava root for a sevusevu (welcoming) ceremony. We thought we knew where the chief’s house was, however, it turned out that the chief was out of town, and we found a little guide to help us find the stand-in chief’s house.
As soon as the sevusevu ceremony was done, we were welcomed as part of the village, and were free to roam around. That means we were allowed to swim in their waters, walk about town, and join community activities, like church service.
We thanked for their warm hospitality, and donated 50 FJD to the water wall protection project they currently are planning. Every cyclone season (November – April) they experience saltwater running into the village. And, it is becoming worse every year. This threatens their very existence, as it hurts their crops, damages their freshwater supplies as well as erodes their land.
They have already built several counter measures to fight against the forces of nature, like building the houses on pillars and making an elevated concrete pathway throughout the village. Now they wish to build a wall to protect the city from the saltwater coming in from the lagoon at hight tide.
We returned to our boat just in time to enjoy the beautiful sunset. It turned out that we had anchored our boat perfectly to see the sun sinking into the horizon.
The next morning was a quiet day, and we decided to go paddling and explore the labyrinth of islets surrounding us.
We also went snorkeling on the outside reef, at three different passes, but unfortunately did not bring a camera. The captain spearfished, and we filled up our fridge and freezers again with some fresh fish, and enjoyed a few BBQ fish meals.
After a couple of nights in our little bay, we decided to move 5 nm south in the lagoon, where there were quite a few other boats anchored. As we exited the shallow part of the bay right around high tide, we did have a little wave action, which gave us only 50 cm under our keel. Just enough to make it through, but a little nerve wracking…
We anchored just west of the other island, Ogea Driki (meaning Small Ogea), which is uninhabited. The clarity and turquoise colors of the water was absolutely amazing, It looked like we were anchored directly on the bottom, even with 3 meter depths.
We went on a dinghy exploration trip around the immediate surroundings, and were amazed how good the visibility was. We also visited the main local attraction, which was a reef inside the reef, that almost looked like a waterfall at low tide.
We were there during the weekend, with at least 10 other boats. We all met onshore for a bonfire sundowner on a little beach right next to the anchorage. Some new boats, but mostly people we had already met in Fulaga.
On our last day in Ogea, we had another brief encounter with the Fijian navy ship, who have been patrolling the area after lots of drug packages have been found floating onshore in these remote islands. Unfortunately, Fiji has over the past years become a key transit area of drug smuggling activities between Central America and New Zealand and Australia.
We let Ogea after a lovely short week, and started an island hopping tour towards the Northern part of the Lau group.