Two days ago, we finally left Vanuatu and sailed the 130nm to Vanikoro, one of the Santa Cruz Islands in the Temotu Province of the Solomons. I found it fitting that we departed Vanuatu from the village of Tivetewot, on the north coast of Vanua Lava in the Banks Islands, Torba province. Tivetewot is where Mark and I finally found the South Pacific that we relaxed into and let envelop us. We had heard Tivetewot was a special place and this was also where we could get permission to visit the uninhabited Reef Islands about 5 miles to the north. We arrived after a blustery upwind sail from Waterfall Bay, grateful for the calm water and the sandy bottom (good holding for the anchor). As soon as the anchor was down, a man named Brian paddled out in an outrigger canoe, to "welcome" us to Tivetewot. I could also see a woman and child on the reef, and another couple on the beach. We thanked Brian and told him we would come ashore to say hello and meet the others. After putting the boat away and getting rough bearings, we dinghied to the beach and were greeted with enormous smiles by Patricia and Marciben Levi, and Brian and Rose. They kissed us hello and placed flower necklaces around our necks (I also got a flower behind the ear) and we sat together on grass mats in the shade on the beach. Although Rose and Brian live in the next village over, they spend a lot of time in Tivetewot and often greet visiting yachts, and Rose said she and Brian would come the following afternoon so we could all share the evening meal in Tivetewot. Excellent! Meanwhile, Mark had met the young chief, David, (Brian's brother), and they made arrangements to drink kava that evening to welcome us. This we did, and we met pretty much the entire village (of 23). Brian's youngest brother, Cliff, came up to me and told me that Mark had told him that I was a lawyer. When I confirmed this, he was impressed. "You are a very big woman!" he said. Not the standard reaction in the States when you tell someone you're an attorney! We spent several days just hanging out in Tivetewot, sitting on grass mats on the beach, or on an overturned old dugout canoe in the open air eating-house, chatting, watching the kids play, swatting flies, laughing with the others. Mark was commandeered to fix a number of things, including an old hand crank Singer sewing machine, a gas generator, an underwater flashlight, and a leaking canoe. I mostly got to just hang out with the ladies and the children with the most amazing hair and eyelashes. Now I am not really a kid person, but I can't stop raving about these kids. They were pretty funny, with their big brown eyes rimmed with lashes that, honestly, probably measure (and I consulted with Mark on this) over 2 centimeters, amazing hair that mostly stuck straight up, like those toy troll dolls from the 90s, and their stick-out tummies underneath their grubby dresses. They treated each other with kindness and the older ones rowed the little ones around in the dugout canoes. It merits mentioning that the Tivetewotans were as enamored with my hair as I was with theirs. One teenager named Adelyne, who said she was a hairdresser, began to touch my hair as soon as she saw me. It was tied up on the top of my head, and when she asked me to take it down, I obliged. There was an audible ooh and aah around the room, and Adelyne continued to play with it and comb it. The two grandmas seemed to like it too, and often grabbed me and gave me big hugs. It was wonderful! There are many stories, and I could go on and on. For now, I will just say that Rose's laugh, Patricia's smile, Marciben Levi's cradling his daughter, and Cliff's bright eyes, will remain, really, forever in our hearts. A few days later we set off to visit Mota Lava and the Reef Islands. Although these were not far from Tivetewot, we did not plan to return before leaving Vanuatu. We were already illegal, having checked out in Luganville, and we felt it was time to think about heading north. If the right weather presented itself, we would be on our way. So the morning we left, I went with Patricia to their garden and she loaded me up with cabbage, beans, passion fruit, pamplemousse, oranges, spring onions, papayas, etc., and we said goodbyes in the village. One of the grandmothers proclaimed that she would be called Laurence, and that I would henceforth be Cecilia, her own name. We were also asked to name the pet parrot: we named it Alaska.

As it happens, we returned to Tivetewot in about a week's time, just for an overnight. It was so wonderful to see everyone again. When we arrived on the beach, Adelyne ran up and threw her arms around me. We had small kava with David and Cliff, again, and we shared a meal. We caught a nice wahoo on our way in which they cooked that evening. We left quite a few "things" in Tivetewot, but we keep thinking of other items we should have left with them. They have certainly given us much more than fruits and vegetables, and "things" just don't seem that important right now.

After saying goodbye, again, we pulled the hook, lashed the dinghy to the foredeck, then circled back around into the bay to hoist our double-reefed mainsail before heading out into the white-capping swells. As the sail filled and the wind pushed us on our way, Mark blew the horn in farewell. Marciben Levi and Patricia stood on the beach, waving, until we could no longer see them.