Spent a day in the Northern most village in the Yasawa chain and had a wonderful time visiting with the villagers and learning more about the Yasawan culture. While Fijian thru and thru there is a distinct cultural isolation way out here and they are very proud of it. The village does suffer from far to little rain and hence fresh water but there is a well or bore water as they call it however the government installed solar panels and batteries and inverter to run the 240 V pump to fill the tanks and feed the village lacks someone with a good understanding of how to maintain it all and as such it has failed as with many such installations we have seen. A good thought but lacking in follow up. These sorts of things bring good and bad. Good in the sense there can be a reliable source of good fresh water but bad in that sufficient support has not been provided so they become dependant upon new world things that are beyond their scope to maintain and then they suffer when these things let them down. It is sad to see since they can survive quite nicely on their own as is evidenced by the fact they are still out here thriving. They do live a simple life with very crude dwellings and accoutrement but they are always happy and always glad you dropped in. We brought many items of use, school supplies, frisbies, food items, kitchen items etc and they will all be well used and appreciated. Speaking of school, if you google Yasawa Island you will clearly see a track running the length of the ridge. School kids walk 2.5 kms each way to the next village for school every day. They are always barefoot and they have wide, thick strong feet and are very lean. The setting they live in is about as beautiful as it gets and they say "welcome to heaven" after you have presented your Sevusevu and participated in the cerimony. You are then always free to enjoy the village as your own, take drinking coconuts and visit with anyone and enjoy the fishing in the lagoon and swimming etc.... These are some of the friendliest and giving people there are anywhere. So we try to give back and help out when ever we can. David is still cruising with us and it was his first village visit which left him wide eyed and thinking about spending more time in these islands and among these people. Cant blame him, we find it tough to leave ourselves. So on that topic, we are probably headed for NZ but still looking at New Cal for a short vist along the way, a sort of big SW corner of the Pacific arc if you will weather pending. David claims we should just comtinue on to Auz and see what that brings so more to consider. The problem is and of course there could be worse problems, is that we have way too many options making decision making nearly imposible. There is no where near enough time to see everything out here even in three lifetimes so we will have to be satisfied with a little cherry picking and see how we do. The weather here has finally come right and it has been really nice. The water out here on the wild west side is literally gin clear. I have panicked seeing bottom perfectly clear in 80 ft as we sail along making tense moments when you just know there are all kinds of coral heads and bombies waiting to ruin your day none of which are charted. We have passed by many a coral head or reef or shoal with good light and just thank someone that we actually saw them. It is really pucker cruising out here but we have covered that one already. Ok a few new photos are posted and a few more to go but heck with fishing and swimming and bbq and happy hour and sundowners and of course chores and going ashore and movies and popcorn there is little time it seems to work on the blog but I will catch up,,,unless we rip out to New Cal and Auz where there will be new things to do and places to explore and local people to meet and all that stuff that burns up the days oh so quickly,,,,way out here!