Off On A Lark!

After a memorable week with the villagers on Gaua in Lakona Bay, we had a great sail to Sola on Vanua Lava last Monday. About 15 knots of wind so we were here by mid afternoon. It's good we arrived when we did because the weather went downhill within 24 hours. We've had strong gusty wind, buckets of rain and a lot of swell rolling into the anchorage for the past 6 days. When there's been a break in the rain we've gone ashore to walk and beachcomb but we've been pretty much holed up on board. That means playing card games, bananagrams and plenty of reading. We have lots of books on board and every time we finish some and pass them on to other yachties we get more in return!

In spite of the rocking and rolling we've been doing a lot of baking and also had our neighbor, a singlehander from Brittany in France over for dinner a few nights ago. He has a rat that has taken up residence on board and has borrowed a local cat in hopes it will be hungry and devour the stowaway. Bon chance Francesco! As soon as the weather clears up we plan to sail just a bit north to a village called Tiviwot and deliver a letter to a couple there from friends on a boat from Alaska that visited them last year. We'll also get permission from the village chief to visit the Reef Islands that are close by.

Hoping everyone had a nice 4th of July celebration. We had fun thinking about where we've spent each of the past five. I think making our landfall on the island of Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas after the 26 day passage from Monterey across the Pacific in 2009 tops the list.

It's been several weeks since we've had access to internet so if you've emailed we're not ignoring you!