We're anchored securely in beautiful Malua Bay on the west coast of Malakula. The wind is blowing 25 knots plus, whistling through the rigging and tossing the coconut palms which surround the bay. Seems like a good time to lie low and reflect on the lovely times we've shared with our families over the last few weeks. We entered Vanuatu via Port Resolution (named after Cook's "HMS Resolution") on the east coast of Tanna. It's an idyllic looking bay, with a fringing white beach, jungle behind, and thatched huts looking down from the headland. If you look carefully on the opposite shore you can see steam venting through the vegetation. As at most anchorages in Vanuatu, as soon as you have dropped the anchor, the outrigger canoes arrive with the welcoming parties on board. We met the chief on the beach at 7 am next morning and he arranged our transport across the island to Lenakel to complete our entry requirements. It was a day long expedition, sitting for hours on wooden benches in the back of a ute, lurching along a pot-holed track, also used by children walking to school, villagers with long knives or machetes en route to their vegetable gardens, dogs, chooks, pigs and cows. We passed through jungle with coconut palms side by side with giant ferns, woodlands with Banyan trees large enough to house "Swiss Family Robinson" type bungalows, the ash fields of the active volcano Mt Yasur, we forded a river and we crossed a mountain range. And after we'd visited customs, immigration and quarantine, paying a fee at each, we got to do the journey again in reverse!

My brother Michael flew into Tanna the next day and got to experience the truck ride too, though only one way. He arrived in time to join us on the beach with seven boatloads of yachties to partake of a pig spit roast. Then in the evening it was back in the truck for the journey to Mt Yasur. As the trucks were climbing the flanks of the volcano, steam was venting from the sides and the middle of the road. We climbed by foot to the rim of the volcano and at the first explosion we all jumped, screamed and hung onto each other. Thereafter we relaxed to watch an exciting, natural "son et lumiere," before experiencing the return truck ride, this time in the dark. The next night there was yet another truck ride to visit a Jon Frum Cargo Cult village where they sing and dance on a Friday night from 6pm to 6am. We couldn't match their staying power!

Our next stop was on the less visited east coast of Erromango, the "Land of Mangoes" as named by Cook. Port Narvin has no vehicles, roads or mobile phones, a good location for David to do his first clinic, and for me to make my late career move to dental nursing! We precariously transported a dinghy load of gear to the beach, from where a team of children ferried it to the schoolroom, and David proceeded to operate under the watchful gaze of a couple of dozen onlookers stationed at every available window and doorway.

At Port Vila we miraculously raced through our chores in just 24 hours, extending our visas, checking in with customs, submitting our credentials to the Ministry of Health for David's registration as a volunteer Dentist, finding our missing parcel of Raymarine parts, refueling, filling water tanks and gas bottles, and provisioning for our next guests. We said Goodbye to Michael and welcomed David's brother Ross and family on board. During the next week we traveled north to the islands of Emae, Epi, and the Maskelynes. We visited several villages and watched Kastom dancing where the men only wear a penis sheath - fortunately the one costume malfunction was quickly rectified! We took advantage of a perfect day to visit Cook Reef, a remote reef which is challenging to negotiate, ensuring that the coral within is absoloutely pristine. We left Ross and family at a remote airstrip on Ambryn where they waited with Ni-Vanuatans, and pigs and chooks in sacs, for a plane that ran 5 hours late. That's Vanuatu time!

Culinary Corner: We've landed two big fish, an 85 cm Yellowfin Tuna and a 1m long Mahi Mahi, which flashed gold, iridescent blue and green, much like an opal, as we pulled him in. So much fish meant sushi for entrée and visiting yachties on board to share in our good fortune. Fresh fruit and vegetables are plentiful here and are often the gifts of villagers. We eat banana and papaya every morning on our muesli and have a glut of pamplemousse (grapefruit), yam, water taro and island cabbage. Variations on a theme have included papaya sponge pudding, banana walnut and Lindt chocolate oatbran muffins (well at least the oatbran is cholesterol free), yam and chickpea patties and, our favourite, breadfruit chips. Pre-dinner drinks usually incorporate coconut milk. My "newest best friend," Anna Maria, has been sailing on-and-off for 9 years with her husband Ernst on "Galatea" and has even rounded the Horn. She has a wealth of information on provisioning and is a wonderful cook. She grinds her own seeds for bread and preserves and pickles, and I'm eager to learn as much as I can from her.

David has been kept extremely busy pulling teeth, printing photos for the village and school, soldering the chief's torch, fixing the village water pipe, and looking after Courtesan of course.