July 15

We are up on the north side of Efate in a large bay called Havannah Harbor. It was lovely the first two days. Awesome snorkeling right on the shore. Jordan did a solo dive while Jonah and I snorkeled. Nice coral - even saw some soft corals which is unusual here. We saw lobster, puffer fish and lots of variety of reef fish. Jordan was very excited about the lobster and decided to go at night and Jonah insisted on going to - so the boys went night snorkeling. I thought Jonah would be scared but he apparently was fearless. They came back ice cold though and I had to put sweats on Jonah to get him warmed up.

After two days thought the weather turned ugly and the wind howled and it rained. Yuck.

A super luxury sailing yacht (90 feet) showed up and since we saw kids we rushed over and introduced ourselves. It was a woman and her kids with crew and she nicely invited us to dinner. She flies in to where the boat is when she wants - her husband I guess is busy. She had just come from Paris and was going to spend 2 weeks cruising here and New Caledonia then back to San Fran where home is. It was funny trying to talk because we are from such different worlds. Almost the same as us and the locals who live in grass hut - well not quite but crewed luxury yachts, nannies and multiple homes around the world is pretty different. Her children were very sweet and Jonah adored playing with them. Her cook feed us an awesome meal and it was interesting seeing the inside of that type of boat.

The wind was ferocious here in the bad weather hitting almost 30 knots which is a lot in a protected anchorage. Life does suck on a boat in the rain. Grumpy crew dreaming of being other places.

Jonah's tooth is still hurting despite having finished with antibiotics. We are compelled to go back to Port Villas as the only dentist in the country is there. We will probably start a second course of antibiotics but I need him to check Jonah again.

We are considering a visit to the US - or perhaps just Jordan as his mom is ill. There are no marinas in this country and we would have to leave it on a mooring ball unattended which is not particularly comforting. A boat is not like a house where you can just turn the heat down and lock the house and know the worst might be burst pipes - at least it wont sink! In addition - there would be no power except for the solar panels. It is problem increasingly for the next year as we are traveling in such remote parts of the world.

We hope it is calm tomorrow to go back to Villa. The outside north corner of the island is called devils corner as the wind and seas are particularly vicious there.