October 6

We are still here in Petersen Bay . The weather turned when we wanted to leave and go north – the wind naturally was coming out of the north because that’s where we wanted to go. The last several days have been a bit boring but we had “Green Nomad” and “Wind Runner” to keep us company. “Green Nomad” had us all over for a traditional Brazilian dinner and it was yummy! I really enjoyed it as I am very fond of black beans. We snorkeled and went up to the blue a couple of more times. It was really nice on a hot day to float in ice cold fresh water.

Yesterday we went to the old US Airfield from WWII because we heard there were wild lemon trees everywhere. It was boiling hot but we found the area and walked until we found the trees and filled our backpack with delicious lemons. The inside of the lemons are orange here but taste just like regular lemons. The trees have huge long thorns (ouch!) and big nasty spiders in them so it wasn’t exactly easy. There was much squealing and yelping from all involved but the glass of homemade lemonade on our return made us feel very proud. A side note is that there are many WWII planes in the water around where we are because the planes would often run out of gas coming back from the Solomon’s and crash into the lagoon here just short of the airport. Two days ago we went snorkeling on one of them.

We are leaving by the north pass so we have done a couple of test runs in the dingy at different times of day. Should be good. I will have to stay calm though as it looks crazier than it is. We are going out on a very high tide so we should be okay on clearance. I think “Green Nomad” should go first as they are steel but I think we could go first and get it over with.

We are sailing directly to the main town in the Banks which is Sola on Vanua Lava. It will be an overnight with arrival in the early morning.  We are going to clear out and then hopefully go to Waterfall Bay and the Reef Islands and then depart for Kirabati.

The first couple of days here there were kid boats but they all left and I am hoping to hook up with them one last time but it might not work out. Jonah had about 3 weeks of lots of socialization and he is missing it a bit but is adjusting back. There is supposed to be another boat with two little boys going to the Marshall ’s and we are hoping to hook up with them in Kirabati.

We have enjoyed our stay here albeit a little longer than ideally desired. We are anxious to move north. It has been very  very hot here and Jordan warns me it will be getting hotter as we move towards the equator! Yikes. I am excited though.

Cute Jonah things:

He was having a tough time with some stuff at school. He told us who needs Math or Science in the real world anyhow. What is it – is this stuff genetically encoded or what! Other than that he just passed his first second grade reading test with flying colors.

Our future inventor (his latest thing to be when he grows up) took our small cockpit flashlight and disassembled in it in the vberth. Jordan found it and asked Jonah what the heck he was thinking. Jonah told him he could partially fix it but couldn’t get it working exactly as before. Dad gave him the very mean Dad stare and Jonah muttered “I am sorry.” KIDS!