The Lau Group of Islands
Sea Topaz
Duncan Briggs
Wed 8 Sep 2010 01:25
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----- Original Message -----
From: Duncan
Briggs
To: blog
Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2010 6:04 PM
Subject: The Lau Group of Islands 17.10.654 S 179.01.098 W
We did manage to get the anchor up without
difficulty and set sail for the Lau Group. We had 24 hrs of not very pleasant
sailing into wind. We were basically going back in the direction of Tonga. We
arrived in Vanua Belavu in the afternoon four nights ago in the pouring rain and
poor visibility. We found our way to Dalconi Village, where we dropped anchor.
We stayed there two nights, Duncan was not feeling great so we postponed going
into the village to pay our respect until the Monday. We did our Sevusevu
ceremony with the elders of the village as the chief was away, we presented our
kava. We were very well looked after by Israeli and Elenoa, as well as Joelli,
the yacht liaison officer. We gave them gifts of rice, noodles, nails, t-shirts,
tins of tuna and some money.
Joeli and Bill came on board and guided us to the
Bay of Islands. This is a fantastic, beautiful spot, blue water and lots of
small islands rising up out of it. These islands are raised coral reefs. We have
been here for 24 hrs now and intend to stay a few more days, before moving on to
two other amazing bays on this island. We have been snorkeling and exploring in
the dinghy in all these little bays and islands all around us. We have this bay
all to ourselves, there is not other boat here!!
We feel very privileged to have got a permit to
sail the Lau Group, only about 20 boats have been so far this year and it
looks as if we are the last one.
 
Elenoa and
Israeli in Dalconi village
View from Sea Topaz
Exploring the smaller bays
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