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With a tropical cyclone lingering in the north, this anchorage gives us protection from all sides, just in case we need it! We are watching the progress of the cyclone brewing in the Solomons, it does not seem to be heading our way, but we still might have some strong winds as it passes by. It was s bit tricky getting in to the lagoon, we touched the bottom on the first attempt and had to reverse off the shallow patch in the channel. Had to wait until almost full tide to get enough depth of water in the passage, but inside the lagoon there is plenty of room and we are anchored in 12m of water. Sharing the lagoon with Trigger, Mawari and 3 other yachts, but plenty of room for several more. As we anchored a dugong surfaced behind us to welcome us into the bay.
The lagoon is behind Oyster island, which is behind a reef, which in turn is behind another chain of little islands protecting us from the sea. There is almost no wind at all in the anchorage and no swell. The entrance is marked by channel markers and the passage at high tide is clear of obstacles, but nothing like the charts! The track we made on our electronic charts (Navionics) coming in shows us travelling over reefs and land to get in, but the charts do not resemble reality! There is a river running from the lagoon up to the Blue Holes swimming spot which we will explore one day soon, plus there is a resort with a nice restaurant on Oyster Island which will beckon us over for sure. An idyllic spot, with easy access to the main road and buses into town if we happen to run out of paw paws. We do have a wonderful life!

We arrived in Espiritu Santo, locally known just as Santo Island, on Sunday afternoon. After a blustery couple of days sailing we were looking forward to dropping anchor in a calm sheltered bay. We poked our nose into the channel towards Luganville Bay, saw the wind funneling through the channel and yachts hobby-horsing around in the chop. Decided instead to opt for Palikulo Bay. Well sheltered from the waves and swell, we still had the wind howling through the bay and shrieking through the rigging, but at least we were out of the roll and pitch we had put up with for two days. Monday was town day, a day on land to do some essentials. First, we needed to find Immigration to extend our visas before we became overstayers. By 8.30am we were on shore and walking the 12km towards town. About an hour later we got picked up by a passing ute and had a ride in the tray of the ute the rest of the way. Luckily the driver knew where the Immigration building was. All we knew was it was a blue bui lding, somewhere on the main road. When the ute stopped outside we could see it was a blue building, but there were absolutely no identifying signs on the structure at all! Nothing on the door either, but when we sent inside we saw a fellow wearing an Immigration Officer uniform, so guessed we had come to the right place. After checking all of our forms and photos and passports about three times over, we were then advised that they could not accept our money at this office becasue they had no cashier. We were given a payment slip and instructed to walk 15 minutes down the road to the Government Cashier office to pay the fee (6000 vatu each, approx NZ$90 each), then we would need to get a receipt from the cashier and bring it back to the immigration office as proof of payment. At that time, Immigration would then issue our visa extension. OK, we asked, where exactly is this building and is it signposted? We were told, it is on the main road, about 2 blocks before you get to the supermarket. Very helpful as we had no idea where the supermarket was, but presumably if we got the to supermarket we would know we had gone too far! Thankfully we found said building, paid our fee and returned to Immigration just after 11am. If we hadn't made it before 11.30 we would have had to wait until 1.30pm as they close for lunch for 2 hours. Upon return a second Immigration officer completed yet more paperwork and then asked us why we wanted to stay longer, he said he needed a valid reason why we had to be in Vanuatu for a longer time! Incredulous, Heather replied: "because you have 83 islands and we have only seen 14 of them so far". That seemed to do the trick and our passports were duly returned, allowing us to stay until we fly out in August. At the Immigration office we also met fellow sailors from Dreamtime, who we had met in Gulf Harbour and seen briefly in Port Vila a month ago.
Next it was off into town to complete various errands, including a visit to the produce market. The market in Port Vila had been swimming in bok choy and not much else, due to many crops being destroyed by cyclone Pam. What little fruit they had was extremely expensive and usually wind damaged. Here in Santo, they were not hammered by the cyclone and the produce market had everything you would expect, at reasonable prices. Paw paw for 20 vatu each (about NZ 30 cents), bunches of bananas, bags of tomatoes - it was a pleasure to stock up! By the time we had completed our errands and loaded up our backpacks with fresh fruit and veges, plus some local beef from the butcher and some essentials from the supermarket, we were glad to hop into a taxi and be driven back to Palikulo Bay. The road was built by the Americans who had based themselves in this area during WWII and looks like it has had no maintenance since that time, so it is a little bumpy. Vehicles swerve from one side of the road to the other to drive around the potholes, so it is a little hair raising with oncoming traffic on the wrong side of the road, but still faster than walking! By the time we got back to the boat at 4pm we were bushed! Today we listened to the weather forecast, which was for more wind and more wind. These conditions are no good for diving the areas we are keen to dive here and we were growing tired of hearing the wind in the rigging, so decided to explore other anchorages. First stop was Aese Island, much more sheltered than Palikulo and with a pretty bay. A walk over the island to the other side revealed many relics of WWII rusting and overgrown, left abandoned. The island would be a botanists paradise, with so many different trees, grasses, vines and bushes. Wild lemon trees, brambles and many tiny flowering plants producing minute bursts of yellow, pink and purple. Swallows, bats and various other jungle birds swirled around us as we walked. A white sandy beach on the seaward side held some rugged rock pools at low tide. We watched an eel hunting for tiny fish, darting in and out the miniature caves formed in the volcanic rocks. We found plenty of life, but no sign of human habitation on this is land. After a yummy lunch that included paw paw and fresh coconut, we snorkled the bay and discovered a vast coral garden, teeming with fish in a multitude of intense colours. Beautiful! This anchorage, we decided, was much better than Palikulo Bay and we would come back here if our next stop was not suitable. Our next stop was Surundu Bay, with an entrance through a gap in the reef and a wriggle through some shallow patches. Fortunately, once we were through the gap in the reef, the water was calm and clear, so we could clearly see the patches to avoid. We dropped anchor in 5m of water, and looked around us. Flat, calm serenity! No sign of wind here at all and just one other boat in the bay! After a walk through the village and a few donations of seeds and fishing hooks, we returned to Aradonna and invited the French couple from the other yacht over for drinks. It turns out we were in Wallis Island together with them last year! They have recently spent a lot of time in New Caledonia and shared some of their favourite spots with us which will be very helpful for our visit to New Caledonia later this year.
Another wonderful day in paradise. And, at some stage, when the wind stops blowing outside, we will venture out again and do some more diving.

Nabawalu Bay, Ono, Astrolabe Reef 18 53.212s 178 27.775e Janet June 15 Life has gone from monochrome to full colour. The day dawned calm and David woke feeling a lot better. We lowered the dinghy into the sea and loaded it up with buckets of salty laundry, empty gerry cans, kava for sevusevu, and a large box of biscuits to trade for fruit.
We approached the shore with David standing in the stern looking out for bombies. He switched off the outboard motor, raised the prop and paddled. The area was infested with coral outcrops, which would take out your prop in one hit.
Arriving at low tide the shore was a long way out. We buried an anchor in the sand, hoping the dinghy would be happily bobbing in the sea when we got back.
Stepping onto the sand I staggered, my legs registering a solid surface for the first time in five days.
"We have to go back to the boat," said David.
"Why?" "My the zip in my fly is broken, I can't front up to the chief like this." After a bit of fossicking around in my bag I gave David the safety pin from my bandaged hand.
Ashore we strolled along well-groomed paths. The village houses were simple structures with gardens of bright yellow, red and pink vegetation. Loaded breadfruit trees towered over the houses, passion fruit vines wove around fences, citrus littered the ground, and everywhere the ubiquitous coconut palms.
It was all I could do not to forage.
Ahead was a bright pink house, dwelling of the turanga, the chief. In Fiji to enter a village you need to participate in sevusevu. David describes it "This, so far as we can tell, is the expected protocol for gaining permission to anchor and gives pratique to the village. A powhiri of sorts in which a half kg of yaqona (kava) is the accepted koha." "Bula, bula" said the chief, "Come inside." He extended his hand, "Meche." We sat on the floor and handed the kava bundle to Meche. He said a prayer in Fijian and now we were welcome to explore the village. We met a man who had an opinion on Bainamarama. Almost everyone we have met is a fan of 'Frank' the 'elected' democratic leader of Fiji, so it was interesting to hear a view from a villager, someone who didn't think much of Bainamarama.
We learned the village tap was turned on at three. Back to the boat for lunch and David retired to bed. Later I motored in on my own struggling to see the bombies and rowed the last two hundred metres just in case. I was anchoring the boat way out on the reef and wondering how many trips to get the laundry in to the village when two men appeared. One took my dingy and towed it up a small stream anchoring it near the houses and the other lifted my heavy laundry bag as though it were a bag of feathers. "I'm Joe" . We shake hands.
The tap was right outside Joe's house.
"Bula," said a smiling young Fijian woman, with a two year old balanced on her hip, who emerged from Joe's house.
"Bula, I'm Janet, from one of the yachts in the bay," I gestured to the three anchored boats half a mile out.
"I'm Queenie and this is Ester," she introduced her child as she popped her on the ground. "Can I help you with that?" She said pointing at my piles of salty clothes and bedding.
"Really? Yes please!" She filled one of my buckets, helped herself to washing powder and started pounding the clothes. She didn't even blanche at squeezing out David's undies.
Food and cooking is my way of getting the flavour of a place and of creating links.
I pointed at a bunch of stubby looking bananas and asked how they are prepared.
"You boil them," said Queenie.
"How do you know when they are cooked?" "When the skin is brown. Would you like some?" Back at the boat, laundry flapping in the rigging, I boiled the bananas.
"Ugh, that stinks," said David, "Are you going to eat them?" He has a mild mistrust of strange foods.
"Of course." Despite my foolish moment with the shellfish at the market in Suva I'll try almost anything.
Using a pair of tongues I pick a banana out of the pot and peel it. Yum, soft, but not gooey, and sweet. First one I chop up, pour on coconut cream and have for breakfast. Sustained me all morning. The second one made into a 'potato salad'.
"This quite nice," says David at lunchtime.
June 16 1700 Sundowner time "Cheers," I clink glasses with David and sip on my shotglass of vodka and fresh coconut juice.
Things are looking up. We both had more energy today. I baked brownie, and made a divine sweet passionfruit sauce. David, not to be outdone, produced three jars of marmalade with grapefruit I collected from under a tree in the village.
Midnight Sun sailed into the bay and we've invited them for dinner and a writer's group tomorrow night.
David now has a date for a colonoscopy in Suva. I'd been wanting to sail out to the Lau group, out east, but there is no internet there to receive the appointment email from the hospital. Now it was decided, we stay at Kadavu till we return to Suva at the end of July. In the 60's in Island Bay (Wellington) there was a Fijian family in living our street and my mother became good friends with their mother. I have tracked down the Nawalawala's village, about 30 miles from here. We'll gradually work our way down there.

What an amazing day we had yesterday! After a leisurely bacon and eggs breakfast we were greeted by our first visitor of the day, a turtle surfaced near the boat and popped his head up a few times to gulp some air and say hello before diving down again to graze. Soon after a dug out canoe came by with a young couple, Isabel and John. We asked if they had a garden and promptly gave them some seeds as well as some fishing hooks. They were very grateful and told us they were paddling their way to the other side of the channel to go prawn fishing. They invited us to join them and we were delighted! We followed in our dinghy, around the reefs and into a small passage between some mangroves. They helped us clamber up the bank and Isabel explained that this land belongs to Johns Grandfather. Isabel was raised and educated in Efate and her English was excellent, along with a little French and German, and of course the national language of Bislama. John was from Maskelyne Island and speaks hi s native local language as well as Bislama, so they speak Bislama together and Isabel became our guide in English. John went ahead, thwacking his way through the long grass and the bush growing over the track with his 18 inch long bush knife. Isabel pointed things out to us along the way. She showed us where they grow Taro and Manioc (Cassava), plus Island Cabbage and Banana. As we walked through the jungle we saw bright yellow and bright orange pods hanging in some trees, they were about the size of Avocados, but more oval in shape. Isabel explained that these are the seed pods of the Cacao tree. John cut a couple down for us and sliced them in half. This was the first time we had seen the fruit that gives us chocolate! It was nothing like we expected, white inside, with a sweet sticky marshmallow like substance covering the purplish seeds. Sucking the white sticky substance off the seeds was sweet and fruity, like lollies! The seed itself was just like a tasteless wax, we have no idea how anyone decided it could be fermented and made into chocolate. We enjoyed sucking on several of these fruit lollies during the day. When we reached the stream, John began foraging with his bare hands in the rock pools and soon came up with fresh water prawns! After handing a few to us it was clear that we needed something to put them in. No problem, John cut a piece of think bamboo above two segment seams and handed us the hollow tube to pop the prawns into. John went back to hand catching more prawns and Isabel found a few leaves that she folded into a stopper to plug the top of the tube so the prawns could not jump out! Very simple and very clever. We climbed up through the jungle and visited more rock pools, filling our tube as we went. John made it look easy, but you need to be very fast with bare hands to catch these slippery fast movers in the water! On the way back down stream Isabel asked if we had ever eaten Navara. Seeing our blank looks, she explained that when a coconut lying on the ground first starts to spout a leaf, but before it puts down roots, it is called Navara. John split one open and instead of having juice inside, the whole cavity was filled with a white spongy substance. We ate some - yum! It was like coconut sponge cake! Encouraged by our thrill of new experiences, John decided to get us a young coconut to drink. Within a few seconds he had scaled a very tall coconut tree. No ropes, no tools, just bare hands and bare feet and he walked right up to the top! Balancing his feet on the trunk at the top and with one hand holding on to a branch and one hand on a coconut, he turned several coconuts until they dropped. Once back on the ground he sliced the top off a couple of coconuts with his large bush knife, so we could drink the sweet juice. Next he cut open the shell so we could scoop out the soft white flesh with the spoon he had created from a special slice of the outside of the young husk. By the time we had enjoyed our cacao pods, navara, coconut juice and flesh, we were replete - what a way to have lunch! John took 4 of the other young coconuts he had dropped from the tree and took most of the husk off from around the sides, leaving a small peak on the top of each one. Then, stripping a vine from another tree to make a thin strip of string with a hard stick on the end, he then poked the strip through the tops of each coconut, pulled it through and tied the string together so that all four coconuts were tied together and easy to carry by the string. Amazing use of local materials and great to see the skills involved in living in the bush. We can see now why the local people all walk around with their bush knives - they do everything with this one tool! John then cut one of the bunches of vines that were hanging down from the trees and water came out like turning on a slow tap. Isabel plucked a leaf from the vine and in one hand folded it over with a twist and it instantly formed a little cup to be used to collect the water from the vine and drink it. She explained that this was how they quenched their thirst when working in the bush to make their gardens.
Back at the garden patch, Isabel picked some Island Cabbage for us, which is nothing like our cabbage but grows with several leaves from each stalk on a taller plant. To hold the little bunches of leaves together, John cut a banana leaf from a tree and then split the stalk of the large leaf to make a long string. The bunch of leaves were laid into the leaf, folded and tied with the stalk string into a neat packet. So simple.
These generous young people tried to give us more things and wanted to feed us fish for dinner, but we said they had already been very kind and we did not want to take more! So we said our fond farewells, thanked them in English and Bislama and left them to get on with the rest of their day. What a treat we had that day! As we zoomed back to the boat on our dinghy we caught a glimpse of a dugong surfacing, we were very lucky! Back at the boat that afternoon, it was time to go diving. The crystal clear water gave us plenty of light, even at 30m of depth. We found some pretty fan corals, so delicate and lacy in various shades of green and yellow, along with some soft corals in vibrant black, green, white and red. We were astonished to see a very large Lined Butterfly fish. These yellow white and black reef fish are common, but usually we see small ones, about 5 - 10cm. This one was huge! Somewhere between 25-30cm across it was a giant! There were plenty of colourful fish to be seen - mixtures of purple, yellow, blue, white, black, green, some with stripes, some with spots - just beautiful! We also saw a large Spotted Eagle Ray swimming by - a magnificent creature! It was one of those days filled with awe and wonder. New experiences, amazing local people, and yummy treats. We enjoyed our fresh water prawns as an entree and the cabbage became part of our main meal. What lucky people we are! Today we chewed up a few more miles heading north, with the wind building up again as the day went on. Some dolphins popped up beside us for a short visit on the way. Tomorrow we will head off early to make Santo before the winds gather strength in the afternoon.