Maewo and Santo Islands
Our next anchorage is Asanvari in Maewo Islands. This is the furthest point south of the islands and a very pretty place. It offers about everything one could dream of: bread delivery in the morning (when they have flour!), a pretty beach where the boys spend hours swimming with their new friends, four villages with extremely friendly people and a nice reef for snorkeling. We are very luckly about the timing as there are various festivities organised in the neighbouring villages and we are very welcomed by the inhabitants and the local chiefs Nelson and Luke We are invited by the baker, is a gathering in the nakamal where ladies sell their food for raise funds for school fees (we will find similar events in various places). We enjoy various laplaps with fish, beef or coconut, some Taro with coconut cream, rice with chicken. It is overall very nice food.
The interesting thing is the nakamal is the place for meeting but also drinking the famous kava and is typically accessible to men. I enter the ladies entrance with the kids and stay on their side but cannot join Mathieu and Marc who are invited to share a few shells of kava. The young pirates are not too inclined to respect the "kastom" but since they are boys this is not big deal!! We are also welcomed at the school funding party (the building seriously need some work) which last two days, with volley ball matches, food, music, string bands and this is the opportunity to meet the whole village and somehow contribute to the operation. We also make some arrangements to get some fruits, vegetables, a chicken and two backpacks in pandanus which look very trendy to the locals. We unfortunately only stay in Asanvari for 8 days but we need to pursue our route towards the north.

As we arrive in Luganville the second town of Vanuatu we are very thrilled our old neighbour from Gulf Harbour, Silvertip. The town of Luganville does not offer much and we stay there mostly get some food, gasoline. The market is great and small lunch booths next to the market offer good and cheap food. We eventually find a mooring opposite Aore resort which has a very good restaurant (where we will treat ourselves to fresh prawns and spicy crabs) and a swimming pool which will the joy of the monsters during our stay. Nicolas as ever keeps entertaining us but the highlight is his new idea of putting a small hermit crab in his bathing suit which of course pinches the dearest part of his anatomy in public. We had to undress him in front of a crowd to remove the intruder. We were obviously all laughing and Nicolas kept hiding as he felt very ashamed. Although Mathieu dived on the famous "Coolidge" wreck, we decide to pass as we have not checked our diving equipment recently and we want to avoid a deep dive which is not recommended with malaria pills.
We also eventually listen to the news (first time in three months) and are shocked by the extend of the financial crisis. We most likely would have jobs anymore.

As we leave for the Banks, we finally catch a decent eatable fish, a 85 kilos blue marlin (2.30 meters) which Marc and Mathieu manage to bring onboard after a two hour fight. The freezer is finally full and now the cook has to find numerous ways to prepare the beast, ginger fishfingers, green curry, marlin steaks, marlin salad, marlin sandwich. Our marlin steaks will become a great way to bargain for fruits and vegetables.
Due to lack of wind, we stop on our way in Hog Harbour (next to Champagne Beach which is the beach of the Vanuatu but which we find rather disappointing) and in Port Olry which was totally destroyed with a cyclone in 1998. The people are delightful, We meet the Antonin which promise some real Parisian baguette for the next day! We even get invited to a wedding but have to leave the very same day to move on.

The Banks and Torres Islands
We arrive in Vanua Lava in Waterfall bay where we are greeted by chief Kelleny and his family who is happy to share with us lots of details and information about their traditions and customs. We of course go for a long swim in the double waterfall and the older girls very kindly look after the boys, hence giving us some space to enjoy the scenery. The surroundings are beautiful with red cliffs and caves falling in the sea. The water is very clear, the coral is somewhat disappointing. We are visited by a number of canoes almost queuing to visit the boat and we start to feel how remote some of these places are. Villagers go to Sola once a week and it takes a full day walk through the mountain to reach the main town of the island. Anything they wish to bring back (such as rice) they need to carry on their back. The arrival of Chasse Spleen is an opportunity of the islanders to get some clothes, hooks. It is also a lot of fun to try to find what they might need and a good way to have some contacts with the locals.
We also have dinner in the so called yacht club and can finally try the fresh water prawns which a famous delicacy in most of the Vanuatu. Marc and Mathieu go crayfish fishing at night with locals and come back with a good size crayfish and crab for dinner. This is always a nice treat.

We agree with Chief Kenelly for Marc to spend a day in his company to go to the garden and visit the villages, but unfortunately the weather turns and the anchorage becomes unsecured for us to stay much longer.
We head for Ureparapara under torrential rain and with little wind. Ureparapara is a special place, one anchors in the middle of an old crater. The trouble as we arrive is that we see absolutely nothing, we can barely distinguish the coastline not to mention any reef. We are greeted by three canoes who come all the way under the rain to meet us and indicate where to drop the anchor. We have not choice but trust them. As we awake the next morning, Marc jumps in the water to check the anchor, the stern of Chasse Spleen is about 2 meters away for the reef. We better re-anchor fast.
Lorup is a very pretty village but at that time is pretty hectic as it is welcoming the Anglican Church meeting regrouping representatives from all the Banks and Torres islands. The bishop even comes from the Solomon Islands. This occurs every two years and means that about 100 guests are staying in the village for two weeks. We can hear the celebration and singing from the boat. As ever as we arrive the boys are straight welcomed by hords of children and we can wander at peace in the village. We meet Nicholson and Evelyn with whom we will be lucky to spend a bit of time. The ordination of the new priest coming from Ureparara concludes the festivities with all the celebrations that come along, dancing, singing, speeches.

We leave in good weather for the Reefs Islands which remind us somewhat of French Polynesia as we anchor outside the lagoon, behind the reef with all shades of blue in front of us. We also enjoy taking the dinghy to race with rays (manta, eagle and stingrays) in the shallow lagoon. Alexis has his first encounter with a manta ray underwater and I can see a radiant face under his mask. We try to adapt our routine to the weather, exploring in the morning and school in the afternoon as it usually started to rain. Marc took the smart decision to implement a rainwater collection system . This has changed our perception of the rain, it is not such a bad thing after all.
The next step of our journey is Sola, the administrative " town" for the region Torba (Tores.Banks) where Mathieu leaves us, heading back slowly to find another boat in Port Vila heading south to New Zealand. Marc finalises our clearing out of the country and off we go to the Solomon Islands with a stop in the Torres Islands.
Hayther Bay is a stunning place, well protected anchorage in Tegua island. We are the only boat and the first village is a 3 hour walk. There are some pretty settlements on the beach but no one staying there. The only Ni-Vatus we will see is a taxi boat taking the local doctor from Loh Island to Hui Islands and stopping on the way to try to repair their engine. They will very kindly bring us back some fresh goodies the next day as they return back home. The beach facing us is easily accessible with the dinghy and water is very warm, 29 degrees. The boys love it and so do we. A fresh coconut water drink as one sits in the water what else do we need. The snorkeling in the area is interesting but the spear fishing even more so. Marc resume his spear fishing campaign as there is little ciguatera in the region and brings us back some trevalis (carangues) for dinner. He also intends to bring back a nice tuna which he spears but the grey reef shark nearby is faster to grab the fish than him and decides that there is no way this fish will reach the dinghy. Marc can only watch the show and hope to recover his spear gun when the snack is over.

It is time to move up north of the 10 degrees south in safer ground for the beginning of the cyclone season. We reach the Solomon Islands in the Santa Cruz archipelago in the island of Nende on November 4th.