Monday 3 October Two islands in one day

Late last night the light wind changed direction, the swell found it's way into the bay and we rolled uncomfortably all night. As soon as the light came up we got the anchor up and motor sailed off to Lolowai on the east end of Ambae island.
Dave the Fish lived up to his new moniker and caught a dorado. How many bananas, or possibly a woven basket, can we swap this one for? We reached Lolowai in early afternoon coinciding with low water. It's a flooded volcanic crater with entrance over a shallow coral bar only possible from mid to high tide so with our 2.1m draft we anchored on the coral flats and went in by dinghy to check the depth and to pay the customary respects to the . A nurse we talked to told us it was a district hospital serving this Ambae and Maewo. Amazingly it is six years since they last had a doctor – patients are treated by the nurse practitioners.
We never did find the chief but a family on the beach would be happy to take the dorado in exchange for some bananas. We were happy to do this and know them and their children would have good food. When they came out to Jackster to collect the dorado there was a whole boat load of people come out to meet us and they generously invited us to visit their home on the other side of the island. However, we'd already decided there wasn't anything to hang around for a highly praised (in the cruising guide) bay was a mere 10 miles across the channel at the southern end of Maewo and we were off.
Darkness falls very quickly here and we arrived in Asanvari later than we would have liked for a new anchorage but following our waypoints and radar we headed in towards the other yacht and anchored behind them.

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