Heaven on Earth

Aug 17 Saturday
We left Ambae for a perfect sail north to the north end of Maewo, a seldom visited island. Our 2002 cruising guide book says that Maewo (My woe) is heavily forested and sparsely populated. That was then and this is now. About half the forest has been cleared for coconut palm plantations on this west coast. The fast sail was ideal - small following seas, broad reach, 15 knots of wind, bright and sunny. This anchorage has about 1 square inch of suitable bottom for dropping the anchor. It took 2 tries but we found it. Then we had shy visitors, about 4 teenagers in their aotrigas. At first they ran to get their kanus launched and they deftly paddled a quarter of the way to Sunrise before being overcome with shyness and returning to shore. Then they would come a third of the way, then half way until, after an hour or so, they came alongside. They gave us drinking coconuts and we gave them rope. Sweet.

It is hard to describe how thankful we are to be in such beautiful place having such a heavenly time! Last night we had total darkness on shore, moon shining on puffy clouds, stars, cooling breezes. This morning we were entertained by a pod of about 20 spinner dolphin searching for breakfast near Sunrise for a few hours. The Spinner Dolphin eat squid, fish and crustaceans. They are about the size of a human and are found in warm waters around the world. We spent a long time watching their entertaining antics and their feeding system of encircling the prey (fish we pressure). The locals say they are here every day. Speaking of entertaining, if you have a need to be the center of attention, this is the place for you. We are surrounded from dawn to dusk by aotrigas built and paddled by boys about 8 to 14 years old. More drinking coconuts were delivered and we gave banana bread and almonds. Toktok with Christian, Kevin and Jimson, the coconut delivery boys. We have reached our limit of coconuts - 18!

As usual we went for a morning dinghy ride around the scenic bay and we could see coral gardens and critters from the boat. It is a very good thing to be doing all these things out here in nowhere with someone you really really like! Because this is our last fling on Sunrise, we are happy we chose Vanuatu to visit.

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