From Leleuvia Island, we continued south towards the "Astrolabe Reef".
"North Astrolabe Reef" is just a ring of reef with a small islet in the middle, and an (extinguished) lighthouse on it.
The reef didn't show well when we passed, and we know of one vessel that hit that reef last year, but survived and got repaired in Vuda Marina.
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| The slightly green line is the reef |
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| Easier to see from space. The red line is our track. |
Next to the south is the "Great Astrolabe Reef", in which there are several islands. The iqoliqoli rights for the northern portion, including north Astrolabe reef, belong to the village on Dravuni. Since we want to drop anchor and enjoy the area a bit, knowing we will have to visit the chief here and present our Sevusevu.
The entrance / pass into the reef was uneventful, it is deep and wide.
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| Dravuni with a sandy beach in the distance |
There is lots of coral here, but with help of satellite pictures we had pre-identified some sandy patches. It was getting late with the sun low, to really see the bottom well. Our #1 spot was taken by a floating dock with no access to land ?!?!
After a couple circles, we did manage to drop the anchor in sand, then floated the chain, and settled for the evening. With binoculars we figured out the purpose of the dock. There were more sections of floating-dock stored on the beach, plus pairs of pilings sticking out from the water:
The village is visited every month or so by a cruise ship. Then the pieces of floating dock are tied together and positioned between the pilings. Then the tenders from the cruise ship can shuttle their "over-fed, newly-wed, or nearly-dead" guests to shore. When the cruise ship is gone, the pieces of floating dock are stored to not be damaged by wave action.
We settled for the night, knowing to have to visit the chief before we can explore any further.
