Banks Islands, Gaua, Pwetewut Bay
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Pos 14:18.82S 167:25:92E
Pwetewut Bay
Monday 30/9
We leave Hog harbour in the morning for a 55 Nm sail north to Gaua or Santa
Maria as it used to be called. We had a nice reach with a freshening breeze it
reached 30 knots when we closed Gaua.
We anchored in Pwetewut Bay and where soon visited by several dugout
canoes. We had caught a nice Mahi Mahi on the way over. We cut out 2 nice
fillets and gave the rest of the fish Christopher that was the first to visit
us.
 
Nice Mahi
Mahi.
Cristopher and son
Christopher asked if we wanted lobsters and everybody called out
YES!!. Diego asked if he could come with them for the lobster hunt.
Mark cooked us a lovely fish dinner wich everybody enjoyed except Alice
that don’t think you should eat fish.
At about 19.30 when it was fully dark the lobster fishers took off to the
reef with their snorkeling gear. A couple of hours later we had four lobsters
delivered. I put them in our biggest buckets to keep them alive until the
morning, when they where going to be cooked.
  Tuesday 1/10
The morning started with lobster cooking in our biggest pot. We then went
ashore to visit the village and the school. Alice will now tell us about
this:
Once the lobsters were ready, we all went to visit this new island and three new villages : Pwetewut, Tolau & Ontar. One more time what a wonderful day ! We first arrived at Pwetewut where no more than 27 people were living there. We were welcomed very warmly again by Susan, the beard lady, :D and her family.
Susan and husband, the chief new member of the family. We spent some time to introduce ourselves and to get to know each other. Tiphaine starts joggling and the kids tried to do the same, funny moment ! We left a kind note and a nice drawing in their visitors book which made them very happy, before we continued our journey to the school. The pathway to the school was amazing ! Everyday the kids first cross a black sand beach with volcanic rocks and a river crossing the beach to fall into the sea. Walking this beach, Sanna, Tiphaine and myself played with the kids to throw away some rock the farest away possible, good moment too ! Then we crossed a magnifcient forrest to reach an other beach with white sand this time with a lots of nice shells and corals sceletons. Some of us had a quick swim to be refreshed before to continue the walk. We finally crossed a nice river were the kids were swimming, the boys from one side and the girls on the other, of course J
local art from Tolau
When I arrived at school, the Dawnbreaker crew was already there. Shan, a friend of Lars, gave him some books, pen and calculators and we were able to distribute them to different schools. So a BIG THANKS to you Shan, you made everyone very happy in this school and in the others !! We met Bob, the school head master to who we gave the books and he explained us the shcool, the life of his students and his two kids. I also met Shirely, a great young teacher who invited me to her class. I felt very priviledged to be able to help her during this afternoon. We started to teach the kids the sea animals and then I explained to them the different colours in french and in english. It was so much fun and the kids seemed very happy I was involved in the class too. To remember the colours I asked them to draw a rainbow with the colours they preferred and one of the boy draw a rainbow like if it was my hair. It was a very beautiful drawing that made me very happy. After the class, we all went together for a clean up around the school, our group were responsible of the area between the pink tree and the mango tree. At the end of the day, everyone thankt each other, the students and the teachers for the day spent together. Here they do that everyday. We walked back to the village with the kids and screamed all together a big « Couiiiiiiiiiiii » so that the Dawnbreaker crew can pick me up.
Back on board, a swim and then a late lunch.
The day ended with Lobster and Banana flambe’.
  Another good day.
Lars and Alice
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