It was a breezy close reach about 40 miles down to Koro island. As with most anchorages here we tried to arrive in the early afternoon for better visibility to see the coral passes. Our original plan was totake a mooring off the resort in Dolphin harbor, but given the strong southerly component, the wind was howling a solid 25+ knots right into the harbor. Seeing that, we decided to turn and run a few miles around the top of Koro Island and we found good shelter at Vatumatau Bay.

The next day we went into Nabuna Village to offer our sevusevu to the village chief. As with all the other villages we were well received and the chief was thrilled with the reading glasses we brought for him. We then asked to visit the school to drop off a few supplies from Wendy's stores and we were promptly assigned a guide who escorted us through the village where we were introduced to every soul we met. I don't think this village gets many cruising boats visiting since we were treated as quite the celebrities. After about a half mile trek through the jungle we came upon a very nice school on a hill with a stunning view of the sea. It turns out we had arrived on a special day and the kids were learning to "Say no to drugs!" and as part of the celebration they were putting on a production of the Lion King. This proved to be big fun for the kids as well as us and we hung out for most of the morning. The teachers were grateful for the supplies and when asked if drugs were a problem, they said not so much on the island, but the older kids go to the city for higher education or jobs and can develop drug problems there.

After 2 days at Vatumatau Bay we said goodbye to our new friends in Nabuna Village and set out for an overnight passage about 90 miles down to Suva. The kids were particularly sad to see Wendy leave.