Picture 1 - Tracy, aka bathing beauty, taking a drug induced snooze on the back deck during our eight hour marvelous beam sail from Port Orly to Lakona Bay on Gaua Island.

 

Picture 2 - Chief Johnstar (in the center with a white cap on) and his son Cliff along with various grandkids greeting us from their canoe as soon as we arrived.

 

Picture 3 - Tracy and Billy's hiking guides Christopher (on the right) and his brother (on the left). 

 

Picture 4 - Tracy with the semi-active Mt Garet volcano behind her.  This is said to be one of the most dangerous volcanoes in Vanuatu because there is only a thin layer of rock between Lake Letas and the volcano's magma chamber.  A crack in the rock would allow water from the lake to meet the magma, and as Jimmy Buffet would say, '...the volcano blow!'.  As you might have guessed, the volcano did not blow and Tracy, Billy and their two guides made it back safely to Lakona Bay in a round trip record of only five hours. 

 

Picture 5 - Lakona Bay is a place we visited last year, but the sight of this incredibly majestic banyan tree never ceases to amaze us.  It's the first thing that greets you after beaching the dinghy on the black sand and walking up the short hill to the clearing.  That's Jackie and I to the left of the tree.  Speaking of beaching the dinghy.  As Billy mentioned above, Lakona Bay was particularly rolly and the swell that was making the boat roll also made for extremely treacherous dinghy landing.  While Tracy and Billy were hiking, Don and I and Jackie and Michael took our dinghies ashore to visit the two nearby villages.  Don and I landed our dinghy first, following the arm motions and occasional shouted directions coming from one of Chief Johnstar's sons on the beach.  Faster!  Bruce seemed to indicate to us with arms waving akimbo.  Don sped up the motor and we rode the crest of a wave toward the beach, surfing over treacherous rocks and landing abruptly just short of the water's edge.  I threw the dinghy painter (rope attached to the front of the dinghy) to Bruce and hopped out as fast as I could before another wave crashed in.  Don did the same and with Bruce's help (as well as help from various toddlers and 5 or 6 year-olds), we half dragged, half hoisted the dinghy out of reach of the incoming tide.  Phew!  We turned around to give Michael and Jackie a hand with their dinghy landing, and instead watched in horror as their dinghy turned sideways on the top of a wave, and then flipped over as the wave crested, spilling Michael, Jackie and all their stuff into the sea.  Luckily they chose to employ a water-proof bag to carry most of the stuff they cared about (Michael's really expensive camera equipment) and after we fished it out of the surf, found everything was ok.  The same was true for Michael, Jackie and their dinghy with the exception of a slightly twisted ankle and a small cut Michael picked up while trying to walk to shore on the rocky bottom through the surf.  Both Michael and Jackie were completely soaked and a little shaken up, but like most of us hardy boaters, in a matter of minutes they appeared to have put the whole nasty experience behind them.  It wasn't long at all before they were both smiling, introducing themselves to the villagers and complimenting this lovely banyan tree.

 

Picture 6 - Chief Johnstar and his wife Susan (we met Susan last year, but this was our first time meeting Chief Johnstar as he wasn't home last year during our visit) gave us a tour of their new garden, kitchen house and sleeping house.  The garden resides not two steps from the kitchen house and since most of what they eat comes from the garden, it's an incredibly convenient setup.  They were growing everything from kava and tobacco to Tracy and Billy's favorite (manioc) as well as carrots and sweet corn (which they gave us a few ears of - it wasn't half bad).

 

Picture 7 - Chief Johnstar was proud to show us the ceremonial mat Susan had woven and painted for him.  He explained that he wears it for all official functions and celebrations.  From what we could gather, Chief Johnstar is one of the highest chiefs on Gaua Island (if not the highest?).  The hierarchy of chiefs in Vanuatu is much more complicated than even the Vanuatu government structure (with its 40+ political parties).  Even more complicated than the hierarchy of the Catholic church.  We've had several chiefs try to explain it to us, but to no avail.  We decided the safest thing to do was to call everyone a chief that introduces himself to us as such, even if that means calling five different men a chief in a single bay or anchorage.  As they say, when in Rome...   Anyway, this picture was taken outside of Chief Johnstar and Susan's new sleeping house.  Starting from the left, that's Susan, Don, one of Chief Johnstar and Susan's grandchildren, Jackie, Chief Johnstar and Michael. 

 

Picture 8 - This is a close-up of four of the six women that performed the water music for us.  Performing water music requires an excess of splashing to create the various tones and sounds.  Therefore, the women usually have they heads turned and eyes nearly closed during their performances to avoid the flying water.  In this picture, Michael caught a relatively rare smiling moment.  As Billy says above, the music was incredible.  It was a real treat to see it again. 

 

Picture 9 - Like last year when we were here, all the kids gathered around the fresh water stream that flows down the black sand beach to watch the women perform the water music with us.  Michael got this particularly cool picture of all the 'ginger-hair' kids in the audience.  The ginger hair color gene must run strong throughout the few villages on the western shore of Gaua because we've seen more light hair color here than anywhere else in Vanuatu.

 

Picture 10 - This little guy with the black sand face entertained us with his antics after the water music performance was over.  His specialty was dunking his face in the fresh water stream, then dunking his face in the black sand and filling his mouth up with sand so he could then spit it all out in a gush for us and laugh like crazy all the while.

 

Picture 11 - Isn't she the cutest? (another one of Michael's pictures)

 

Picture 12 - A few more ginger-haired kids hiding out in someone's freshly carved canoe.  Note the big, white pig to the right.  Pigs are like currency in the remote villages of Vanuatu, so this one is probably worth a bundle.

 

It was difficult to only pick twelve of the 120 or so pictures we all took during our two-day stay in Lakona Bay.  This was one of our favorite stops last year and we feel the same again this year.  The villages of Lakona Bay have no roads that connect them to the rest of the island.  They have no supply ships and therefore are completely self-sufficient.  Visiting sailboats are about their only connection with the rest of the world.  We traded the children's clothing donated by a friend from Orchard Park, NY for some fruit and vegetables.  The villagers never express much emotion when making a trade, but Chief Johnstar did make a point of thanking us for the clothing when we left.  We suspect it will be put to good use.  Thanks for the donations Teri and Brian!

Anne