This was one of the most special and memorable anchorages of our 5 year Pacific crossing. We would go so far as to say this is one of the rare “must visit” anchorages. Why?
Firstly, it feels very safe. There are two families who are keen to make yachts safe and who understand the benefits they bring.
Secondly, the wreck of the MS World Discoverer is as photogenic as it is fun. It’s got orchids and greenery sprouting out of it and is located on a sandy lagoon surrounded by coral. Excellent drone footage. But the local land owner, Patrick, has installed a zip line and swings from the wreck, which makes it feel almost like an isolated water park! We spent three days playing there and never got bored.
Finally, the chief of the village, John Ruka, is almost obsessed by yachts! He welcomed us with a flower display that is better than anything in a Flourist’s back home. On our last night he prepared a mini festival, for the three of us, with welcome drinks, a meal on flower plates and Kastom dancing by a fire. It was all very special and a lot of laughs. John can arrange food, dancing, BBQs, tracking or be a guide for a tour of the island, villages or even further afield.
The bay is 20-30m deep and so John has installed a mooring for yachts. We scuba dived the mooring down to the 33m base and inspected the whole set up. As of August 2023 we would be happy to moor our 40 tonnes boat there in moderate conditions. Check for yourself. We gave John a gift to enable him to install a second quality mooring in 2023. The mooring is a little exposed to the SE winds but little fetch for any wave formation. Try to visit here when the SE are not too strong. Do not anchor in the pool next to MS World Discovery, no matter how tempting it looks. We dived the pool and the sand holding to the south is a terrible sponge which offers no holding to even the best anchors, which leads you to drag to the coral to the north of the pool, which is a stunning field of endless plate coral that is so delicate a chain would wipe out large swathes. The only option in this pool is to drop anchor by the beach and stern tie to the large tree to the north of the wreck. This could be amazing, but we didn’t try it.