10.56.86s 152.42.34e

We moved from a busy little village anchorage yesterday, sailed to windward in quite strong 25-30 knot winds, but not too much of a sea for a couple of hours to a tiny sheltered lagoon with a small island used only by fishermen.  The sky was a clear bright blue, showing up the magical turquoise colours of the shallow sandy waters around the protective reef.  Despite having the sun right in our eyes at the midday zenith, we could make out the edge of the reef and entrance into this resplendent lagoon.  The lagoon is so small, there was not room for our friend's boat Swanky to drop anchor within it, as there was already one smaller German boat here.  They had to anchor in deeper lagoon about half a mile away. Ollie checked on our anchor to make sure it was well dug into the sand and that we had enough chain out.  He spotted some huge fish also checking to see if we had dug up any food for them!  When he threw the chicken carcass into the sea, they were very fast at snapping that up too!  OOOh, time to put the fishing line and hook out with some chicken skin maybe?  No good, it wouldn't bite!  Olly reckons they were red throated emperors, and so big, they are obviously very cunning! We had a snorkel holding onto the sides of our dinghy, drifting with the wind and tide along the edge of the inside coral reef.  The visibility was excellent, as was the quality of the coral, and plenty of fish.  David went up the mast to check what the problem was with our wind vane indicator - and found that the vane had actually broken off!  While up there, he took photos of the local dugout sailing boat just coming in through the reef pass.  It must be so scary for 6 people on such a tiny 6 meter vessel to be out at sea in such a fragile boat, not properly set up for sailing against the wind. We are most impressed with these local people.  They are incredibly fit and strong, having a subsistence living on whatever they can catch or grow on these volcanic islands. 

We shall stay in this lagoon for a couple of days before moving out of the protection of this lagoon within a lagoon to the island of Torlesse in the northern part of the chain.