The anchorage was absolutely airless and invaded by flies, so we got going before the second cup of tea! We decided to go to the Reef islands about 30 miles away. Rowan had heard an engine alarm go off when we were anchoring when we arrived, but it cleared itself. Sadly as we started up the alarm went off again on the one engine, we definitely have a fault. We set off anyway, we got the sails up in the calm of the channel, thinking we were going to get some good wind. Sadly the wind did not cooperate so we motored most of the way with the one engine. There are two anchorages, one you have to really wiggle through the reef, not many cruisers come over here as it is off the beaten path, so we did not want to risk that with a faulty engine, so we opted to anchor outside of the village, we had to anchor in 20ms of water to avoid coral, we were very pleased we arrived in good sunlight.
We got settled and headed straight over to the chief’s house on a gorgeous little island. Two girls in a canoe were out to meet us before we even got the anchor down. Home for the weekend from boarding school. These little islands have no secondary schools so they all have to board. Hilda from our last anchorage has two teenagers boarding and only gets them home once a year! These girls were very sweet and directed us to Chief Thompson’s house. We had no idea the village was so big and that there would be so many people living on these islands. There are at least 5 villages. We handed over a bag of goodies to the chief, who handed out the books and pens to the kids, and was very chuffed with his bits and pieces. I was very taken with his amazing parrot which is from the Solomon’s but islands far away. He went to the cage and we were amazed he let it out the cage, it flew off, but came back shortly. He has two parrots, the other one we never saw as it was out, he has had them 7 years. Very sweet mimics, it obviously likes the chief.
We returned to PolePole as Rowan wanted to try and sort out the engine, of course it was a Sunday so not many people he could contact. He tried a few things but no luck, which is very frustrating. We thought it was the same fault as last time, but it seems to be a different electronic fault. The saga will continue tomorrow. In the meantime we are loving the stunning scenery, with loads of kids and people coming by in their canoes and boats to have a look at us! We feel rather like caged animals.
The stars at night were amazing, and the bugs too, I can’t remember the last time we had so many bugs, so many beautiful moths.
Arriving at the Reef islands
Loads of fishing boats around
Lovely white beaches
Our anchorage
Chief Thompson’s pet parrot
He was copying me whistling! Apologies for my videoing skills
He let the parrot out the cage, it took off for a few minutes but came back to sit near him
The chief’s home and family, the kids with the books and pens we gave them
The chief’s verandah over the water
Surprised to see loads of plastic canoes here, just a couple of wooden ones, but no outriggers like the Vanuatuans
People crossing a sand spit to the next island
Our visitors
The boarding school girls
Big clouds everywhere
Lovely calm evening
Just enough breeze to cool us down
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