Out of the water

This is where I left the yacht.

Australia

There was a lot more land in Australia than most of the small islands that we had visited.

Volcano in Vanuatu

There were no gates or fences. You walked from the parking lot up to the edge of the crater and looked down at the volcano.

Vanuatu traditions

The volcano trip included a stop at a village where the men performed traditional dances in their traditional dress and a fire lighting demo.

Port Resolution, Vanuatu

The villagers welcomed us with traditional songs and dancing. It was part of the traditional welcoming ceremony that includes the exchange of gifts. They were very generous as they gave us a live pig! It is considered very rude to refuse a gift so we asked the villagers to butcher the pig and serve it to us in a banquet that night. I was told by several people that the kava was very strong and that I really ought to try some, but I refused anyway.

When I was provisioning for the passage to Australia in Luganville, I noticed that most people in the butcher's shop were only buying half a pound of the cheapest meat. I'm pretty sure that they were buying the meat for their families which means that the gift of a pig was very generous indeed. I don't think most people in Vanuatu eat a lot of meat.

Dillon's Bay, Vanuatu

The children at the local school prepared flower garlands and baskets of fruit for us in return for our presents of paper, pens, pencils and crayons.

The skulls are apparently the skulls of the 19th century chieftains, but some are very small. These skulls look like children's skulls.

Yet another rally yacht

A rally yacht motor-sailing into Savusavu, Fiji. This yacht later hit a reef 200 miles off Australia and sank. The two crew members onboard were rescued.