Most boats in Batavu Harbor have moved on so we decided that 'Buena Vista' was ready for a change as well. We lifted anchor and motored out into the northern lagoon heading west, thinking we'd make it around to the village of Loma Loma where there is a little store and maybe even a tiny bakery. I'm nearly out of butter and Evan will know what that means :) Keeping a close eye out for surface reefs, only some of which are marked by posts, we continued around the north end of the island. As we got closer to the northwest point, the south-easterly winds hit us and made us change our mind about going any further. This area of the Northern Lau is not yet well charted, or at least I don't have the chart that shows many of the reefs that are here. You have to have calmer sunnier weather to go anywhere on the inside of these lagoons or you will be sorry. Even if it was sunny, strong winds disturb the surface and even with someone on the bow looking straight down, you'd be lucky if you saw every obstacle. So, quick change of plans, we turned into Little Bay. The reef cut into Little Bay is little too, lucky it was coming up on low water so the reef on each side of the boat was clearly visible. Very clearly visible, scary visible. I've got waypoints on the GPS that I follow, but not blindly. You have to use every bit on information you have to figure it out and then in the end you line yourself up, hold your breath, and just go for it! Don's on the bow watching and pointing if necessary and I'm at the helm steering us in. Total team effort. Sometimes, if I'm a bit nervous before (or after) going through something like that, I drink a nice cold Fiji Bitter to 'take the edge off'. We laugh because many of our friends would 'never drink on a passage'. Not so, 'Buena Vista!' Sometimes not being fraught with nerves is a good thing! Ok, now we're inside Little Bay and it's really nice in here. Surrounded mostly by mangroves (scary in itself because sometimes mangroves are filled with midgees or no-seeums) one side has a very pretty sandy beachy area that exposes itself at low tide, and in the back is an opening which leads you to a large lagoon. The entrance is too shallow for the big boat but looks perfect for exploring by dinghy or kayak. The lagoon is said to be large enough that in World War II, the allies seaplanes would land in there to hide. We've heard that at one time six sailboats anchored here in Little Bay, four too many in my mind! The strong winds on the outside sometimes shoot through the lagoon entranceway, but we were anchored slightly off to the side so had some protection. We'd read that Little Bay is in the 'vanua' of the village of Mavana which is around the point on the outside. Instead of taking the big boat around to do sevu sevu, Don got the dinghy ready so we could use it instead. Once our sevu sevu was done, we would have the local chief's permission to stay here. I put a few things in our little backpack. Our yaqona (kava) for sevu sevu; both of our sulus in case we needed to be more formally dressed when doing our sevu sevu; a few little gift items like tea, cookies, fish hooks, soaps; an apple and an orange and a granola bar for us; a few bottles of water; hats, sunglasses, etc. All into the dinghy and we're off, back out the reef pass and out into the outer lagoon to go around the corner and take care of business. Well, as soon as we got close to the point, the weather was so crappy we knew we wouldn't get around the point, even in the dinghy. Luckily the swell there was not too bad and we were able to land on the wide sandy beach with no problem. There's a little ranchette there. They call it a 'cow and pig' farm but we didn't see any cows and only a few pigs after snooping around for awhile. The buildings looked pretty good, definitely inhabited and there were two large wire racks set off the ground with big black birds hanging around so we guessed they harvested copra in the area and these were the drying racks. We found a well-worn path behind the shed leading off into the bush and took off walking, hoping it would eventually lead us to the village of Mavana. I love this part, taking off down a path into the Fijian bush, not knowing what you will find around each bend. Just one hundred years ago (maybe more, not sure), you could have been cannibalized right here and I think to myself just how safe are we really, all alone in the jungle? Then you spot a small fire over there, and when you get closer you yell out 'Bula' and out walks a young man with a very sharp machete..., another very friendly, kindly local whose job it is to harvest coconuts and start fires. His name is Billy and he works for his brother Soschi who is the caretaker of the 'farm'. We tell him we are on a yacht in Little Bay and would like to do sevu sevu in Mavana. He says in pretty good english that Soschi can accept our sevu sevu and take it to the chief for us. We ask where we can find Soshi and Billy uses his machete to point up the path. We ask how far the village is and Billy says 'four miles'. So we thank Billy and off we go again following the jungle path to Mavana. It is beautiful here, very tropical and viney. But unlike the nicely manicured plantation at Bavatu Harbor, the coconut palms are covered by thick bush and weedy viney scrub. Harvesting these coconuts must be very hard work. No evidence of humans for quite a while except for the path we are walking on and every now and then a pile of horse poo on the path. Sure enough, about half an hour later we see a few horses tied up ahead. A bit further we spot several small fires out in the bush and yelling out 'Bula' someone answers. It's Soschi. We have a chat with him and ask him how much further the village is and he answers that we are about half way. Don decides that we're done walking and asks if Soschi can take our sevu sevu to the chief for us. He says yes and I hand him our kava, bowing my head as I do (I don't know why I do that, it just comes naturally). He says we can stay as long as we like and to enjoy Little Bay. We ask about the horses. He says he uses them to carry the coconuts back to the farm. We thank him and start walking back. The walk back was very enjoyable, filled with picture taking and butterflies everywhere. We pass Billy on the way; he is on horseback. He asks if we found Soschi...like I said, the Fijian people are very kind. We get back to the dinghy, launch it easily, and as we are headed offshore I look back and see Sochi ride in on a horse with another following behind him. We continue out into deeper water then around and through the little reef into Little Bay where 'Buena Vista' is waiting for us.