Our next stop was Dillon’s Bay who’s dubious claim to fame was the murder and cannibalism of a missionary in the 1800s. They’ve come a long way since then. The village we visited was neat and tidy and the people quite friendly. We had heard that this particular island was hit quite badly by cyclone Pam last March and so, many of the boats in our fleet had brought goods we thought might be useful to the people here. But these are proud people and do not readily take handouts. Instead, one of the community leaders came up with a brilliant solution and invited us to a trade celebration at the community hall the next morning. When we got there, we were greeted with flowers at the door and just about everyone in the village seemed to be in attendance. There was a big table in the middle heaped with garden produce and an assortment of prepared foods. We were treated to several songs from the school children and speeches from various officials. The basic message was that we could help ourselves to anything on the table and if we brought anything to trade, just leave it under the table. After a pleasant couple of hours eating a visiting with the villagers, we yachties wandered off to tour the village and the trading commenced. It turns out there was a woman in charge of keeping tabs on which villager contributed what to the table and what the yachties took in exchange. Those people then got priority pick to the goods we left under the table. From the all the noise coming out of the community hall, it sounded like they were having a ball.

During our tour we were shown the half completed Dillon’s Bay Yacht Club which looks quite nice and has potential once they get to the point of selling cold beer. We also learned that as a result of cyclone Pam and the aid coming into the island, the villagers discovered several new vegetables that grow well here including carrots, tomatoes and lettuce. So their gardens are now producing even more variety than they did before the cyclone. In all this was a pleasant stop but on the second afternoon we raised anchor for an overnight sail up to the capital city of Port Vila on Efate Island.