May 17 We apologize for no word for a while. We have been distracted. We arrived in Tuvalu in beautiful weather, and caught up with our friends who we met last year. Our friend Pentala, who works at the bank remembered us straight away, and promptly invited us to his cousin's wedding. We connected up with Vasa, the port captain and took her to dinner. There is another boat here, Lark (Brad and Linda), who we met in Majuro. They are lovely people, and we have been spending time with them, and meeting people they have met. This, of course, involves multiple evenings for dinner, snacks, hanging out, music playing, on our boat and theirs with our local friends, as well as other travelers we have met. Last night, we had a dinner party on Lark with Jake, from Philippines and Kristian and Larissa from Germany.

The wedding was great. It started at 3 in the afternoon, and we got back to the boat after 11 pm after we had simply gotten too tired to stay up any longer and quietly slipped out. It was quite a big affair. To give a sense of size, there were five big pigs roasted for the occasion, and the biggest buffet I have ever seen. Many relatives, friends, and special guests. We were honored to be a part of it.

We are also interested in the progress of five boats that left the Marshalls one week behind us. Two of the boats were bound for Tuvalu, but they simply didn't have the wind velocity or the direction to make it and have diverted to Vanuatu. We talk with them on the HF radio most evenings. The weather has turned bad out there and they are in it. It seems that the entire Southwest Pacific is under the influence of a series of low pressure troughs, fronts, and convergence zones right now, including gale areas. We are digging up what weather information we can and are reading it to our friends out at sea, so they can prepare to "do battle" armed with the latest information. This is what our dear friend Bob does for us when we are out on passage, and it is hard to describe how good it is to have someone looking out for you when you are out. Bob, thank you for teaching us so well!

With the weather in such a mess, we are looking for our break to make a run for Fiji. Right now, our destination area is getting 25 to 35 knots of wind gusting to 45. This means that we don't go just yet. We are in a good safe place, and we will go when the "coast is clear". So, meanwhile, we wish you all the best, and remember to be excellent to each other.

Rod and Elisabeth, "Your Rock and Roll Argonauts"