After departing Tanna, we sailed 35 miles south to the island of Aneityum
(or Anatom as some charts name it). This is a good anchorage when the winds
come out of the Northeast, which were the conditions we had.


On one side of the anchorage is a large village and on the other is a small island
now called "Mystery Island", which is deserted except when cruise ships come in.
This is how it looks when there is no one around. We were also here when a cruise ship
from Sydney came it and disgorged 1500 crazy Australians.


Here are a couple of workers building a new traditional-style building on Mystery Island.


As soon as we dropped anchor in the bay, we were approached by Joseph whose job
it is to record the names of all boats that anchor in the bay. This is Joseph and his daughter.


Apparently, quite some time ago, Europeans settled this bay and built a church.
Numerous hurricanes had something to say about that!


Besides selling handicrafts to the cruise ship patrons,
the villagers here grow pine trees and make lumber that they ship to Port Vila.

Almost without fail, in every anchorage we've been to in Vanuatu,
we've been approached by youngsters (called "pikininees" in the local Bislamic language)
in their dugout canoes. For the most part, they don't want anything other than to
look at your boat and to say hello.


A local mother and her child.


While at Aneityum, we met Latham, the Peace Corps. worker
who was teaching at the village school. We had alot of fun with Latham
and his dad (who was visiting from the States). Latham insisted that we try kava
prepared in the traditional way (chewed before mixed with water).
This is Latham peeling the kava root.


This is Latham and his "host brother" adding water to the chewed kava.


Another one of The Skipper's impromptu "drum clinics" - this time at the village high school.


The Skipper always coaxes a few students up to try their hand at drumming.
Vanuatans are very shy and it took quite a bit of coaxing to get this kid up there.


After the drum clinic, the students reciprocated by giving us a demonstration
of their local dancing. Here, the girls are showing one style of singing and dancing.


And then the boys did THEIR funky thang.


One day, while we were anchored at Aneityum, a cruise ship showed up.
So we wandered over to Mystery Island at watched the local "string bands" perform.
THIS band featured a guy who played a bamboo sort of xylophone with his flip-flop.


And this is the "old codgers" band. Their sign said that some of these
ancient musicians were over 40 YEARS OLD!!!


And these are the same students who had performed for us at the high school.
They had come over to Mystery Island to give a demonstration of dancing for the tourists.


Sorry folks, another sunset. This time at Aneityum.


As we prepared to leave Aneityum to sail back to Tanna,
we were approached by Joseph and asked if we would be willing to deliver
him and two other Vanuatans to Tanna, as they either had missed the cargo ship
or couldn't afford passage. Of course we agreed and here is the First Mate explaining
to mystery of the compass to one of the crew.


There was a pretty good swell running on our passage to Tanna and we were worried that our crew members, who had never travelled on a small sailboat before, might get seasick. So we gave them some anti-seasickness medicine which put them right to sleep!