… to arrive 7 sailing hours later at the next island Erromango, being North of Tanna. The day after early morning we met the Chief of the Village by Dillon’s Bay, Jason, who kindly had organised morning tours guided with David who runs the Yacht Club. 

  

  

So David took us on a dinghy tour to visit the cave of skulls. Before entering the cave, David told us that in order to get the permission to enter the cave he “talks” to his dead ancestors and asks for permission to enter the cave.

  

Indeed once entering the cave, we saw skulls and skeletons, belonging to David’s and the other villager’s ancestors. 

 

The next visit was another cave, less easily accessible but fully climable, where David showed some more bones.

  

  

  

 

We left this beautiful bay being only a few 300 meters North of the village and went back to Dillon’s Bay to take part of the “pot luck”: a lunch where we all brought our own dish. We had done a Janssons Frestelse (typical Swedish dish), the other boats brought other dishes and the villager’s bringing their dishes. 

 

At first the Chief of the Village welcomed us and then...

… Bob from Lexington talked for all of us thanking for letting us vist their village and that we could take part of their daily life and generosity. 

 

Then came a proof of their extreme generosity, friendliness and how you truly treat your guests. The tradition is that the guests get to eat first. We tried to tell them that we can all share the dishes at the same time, but that was not heard of. So while we were serving ourselves, the adults and especially all the children kindly sat for more two hours (!) waiting for their tour. And all the kids sat down without moving for two hours!! Something to bring back home...

  

In the meantime they kept bringing on more and more dishes!

  

  

Finally when they really made sure that we all had eaten and even served ourselves twice, they served themselves and the children.

After lunch.

  

The music teacher of the village. And we left with more gifts: fruits and vegetables! So friendly and generous. We felt actually quite bad as we had given away everything to Port Resolution during the Giving Ceremony. If we had know we would have kept a few things to this village too. 

 

The Village at Dillon’s Bay.

  

David showing his Yacht Cub in a very very proud way. He had build the whole house himself to make sure it stood up for the hurricanes which it did even after the hurri'cane Pam in 2015.

  

The last years' yachts, the Finnish Mearra Nieida, flag hanging at the Yacht Club! As well as the Spanish Aliena with the Swedish crew Johan. So fun!

  

Good bye all the lovely kids of the village.

  

At night by 19h we got a visit from two of the village’s kids. William showed to be the grandson of David so we gave him a flag to give to David at the Yacht Club. He really want to collect more flags… and William wanted to leave a footprint for the kids and made a drawing that we still have hanging in the saloon!