Vanuabalvu

Hi there! What a beautiful place in which we have found ourselves anchored!  We had a wonderful, fast sail from Budd's Reef down to Vanuabalvu, in spite of trying like crazy to slow Sidewinder down; she was just so excited to do a beam reach at night, we couldn't do anything about it! Since we left the pass at 4PM, we arrived outside the pass here around 3AM and hove-to for a few hours while waiting for dawn. We then motored up to the entrance, where Soggy Paws was waiting, along with s/v Secret Agent Man, Guava Jelly right behind us. We went through the pass in a caravan just fine and anchored in front of the village at around 9:30. What a nice bay we have for all of us. With Challenger and Chesapeake coming in a bit later, we all waited until noon, when the chief, head-master, and other village officials were ready to welcome us with sevusevu, the giving of the gift of the kava root. We were welcomed with the Bula spirit whole-heartedly, and in their very organized fashion, we were given a book to write down whatever contribution we wanted give toward which category of need: education, transportation, energy, etc  The council of tribal elders are trying very hard to organize themselves this year, because this Lau Group of Eastern Islands have just opened to the yachties and they want to do the right thing for their people and for those who want to come. I am shortly making a trip into the school to give them some supplies and talk to the class of 7-8th graders; I visited yesterday and they said they would love to answer my questions about their culture, a subject they themselves are studying.  We may move up to the Bay of Islands this afternoon. Love you, S & D