Yalobi Bay, Wayalailai
Jackamy
Paul & Derry Harper
Mon 19 Jul 2010 11:10
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17:19.404S 177:07.915E
Monday 19th July
Another day in paradise!
The Blue Lagoon was lovely, it's a shame we
couldn't stay another night. We briefly met a father and son who are taking
6 months out of New Zealand for the season, the son is something like the New
Zealand free diving champion or it might even be world champion. Anyway, they
can dive up to 40 metres holding their breath - how crazy is that!
We left the anchorage early this morning to
start navigating our way through the reefs. It was a very pleasant 30 mile sail
to Wayalailai where we are now.
 Approaching Wayalailai with
Yaqeta in the background
  The reef on the entrance into
Yalobi Bay and some of the scenery
 We caught a tuna on the
way down but it was only small so we threw it back
 We had a spot of lunch and then
headed over to shore to Namara Village to conduct the 'Sevu sevu' kava ceremony.
Linda preferred the 'Cava' we had with our lunch!
 
 We were greeted by a group of
young boys who insisted on helping pull the dinghy out of the water for
us
 They then sat around it having
a discussion
 Paul and Paul were led away
through the houses to meet the chief for the ceremony
 Lucky for them he only wanted a
sit down and a chat - they didn't have to drink anymore
kava...........................I think it was wash day today!
  Lola and Mary invited us to see
their school - what a view! 84 children attend the school and some come from 3
other villages and stay in the dorms
 Rugby is almost a religion here
so we watched the villagers playing a quick game
  The dormitories with a
view!
 The children loved talking
to us and having their picture taken and taking pictures
 We had brought some goodies
over for the children, they were all scrambling over one another to try and
reach Paul's bag..............The girls play with a skipping rope.
 A Fijian sledge
 The ladies spread out their
crafts for us to look at, it was hard to resist!
 We came across a little girl
with a sticker on her face, it was off one of the packs we had just given to her
sisters
 
 What a lucky chap, that's his
outlook day in day out............Jackamy at rest
It was a superb experience, we're
all really glad we made the effort and went ashore. The thought of having to do
the kava ceremony again was a bit off putting but it was worth the trip. It's
extremely heart warming to see how these people live and to see how happy they
are. They don't know any better and to be fair it's not a bad life. They live on
a beautiful island in a small village as one large family, no one is starving
and they are all happy genuine people. It's lovely!
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