Saturday 26^th September 2015

A couple of hours after arriving, there was still no sign of the local Policeman, so feeling refreshed from our sleep we lowered the dinghy and ventured ashore to find him.  On the beach we met a young man called Davis who kindly walked us to the Police Station.  It was very much closed up, and he suggested we come back on Monday.  When we said we would like to have a walk through the village, Davis kindly accompanied us and showed us around.  There seemed few people about and it was very quiet.  Davis boards at the secondary school here in Aneityum during term time and goes home to his family in a village on the north of the island during the school holidays.  His English was basic but good enough to understand and answer most of what we asked him.

It was a fair distance across the reef to the beach.                                            The Police Station was all locked up.

We wandered through the village, strung out along the shore.                   Most of the people are Presbyterian.

The remains of an old stone church.                                                                        An enormous tree in the middle of the village.

We saw very few people in the village.  We asked Davis about the church service tomorrow – perhaps we will get a chance to meet some of the villagers then.

We went back to the boat and had a tidy up and washed down the cockpit.  It is always very salty after a passage and this needs washing away so that we don’t pick it up on our clothes and then carry it down below.  Jobs done, we were relaxing in the cockpit and enjoying the scenery when a longboat marked ‘Police’ came alongside.  The chap on board introduced himself as Jesse and welcomed us to Vanuatu.  We asked about checking in – come on Tuesday afternoon, he said.  But that’s three days away - can we go ashore in the meantime?  Of course, no problem, he said.  Ok then.