We continue to enjoy exploring the islands here in Vava'u. The main activities are school and a few boat chores then snorkeling or sailing to a new spot in the afternoon. The water has gotten colder and Mary the boys are sporting a collection of hand-me-down wetsuits. We are relying on spear fishing more and more for lunches and dinners so that seems to be my main chore after boat tasks. The fish are getting smarter and smaller, but we have managed to vary our diet of beans and taro roots. We need to maximize our time in the water, as we move farther south it will soon be too cold to swim.

Mary is busy making plans for her stay in New Zealand, and my Dad and I will be sailing together for the passage. It will be first time in long time that we have sailed together and I am looking forward to it. Mary is just so relieved and excited not to be facing the passage to New Zealand that she is on cloud 9.

As nice as it is here in Vava'u we are planning on checking out with Customs early next week and sailing to the Ha'api group about 80 miles south. We are getting a bit itchy and Ha'api is reported to be beautiful and far less visited. Until then, we are just lazing around and enjoying the easy cruising.

We had another tsunami warning following a recent earthquake in Vanuatu, but fortunately there was no effect here. Nerves are stretched and everyone was on their boats anxiously listening to the emergency service updates, but the warning was canceled after several hours.