BBQ tonight at the round house

Hello All,
I took a walking tour of the Island this morning. There is a track that goes all the way around and it was a beautiful walk. Liapari is very close to the main Island of Vella Lavella. In fact there is a broken down old bridge that connects the two. The Japanese built it in the war and know one has kept up with the decay so to cross you now have to walk on coconut logs. There is a beautiful lagoon between the 2 Islands. I got some good pictures and when this northern wind comes down I will take the dingy through to explore. I also took some good pictures of Noels operation here. He is working on an old landing craft putting a new steel bottom in and is refitting an old San Diego ferry boat to be a Mega Yacht. I had a really good chat with him last night, just the 2 of us. He is an old motor head so we hit it off really well. And he is a big Catapillar engine fan.

Today an Australian yacht showed up from Gizo. I met him last week and he is a real character. He had mates help him get the boat here for the passage and now he is touring around on his own. He brought a bunch of chicken and meat with him so we will have a BBQ at the round house tonight, that's what everyone calls the grass hut Noel built for a meeting place. Everyone is bringing a little something and I will bring my last 2 cans of Alaska Red salmon and crackers. There are only 4 boats here so we will be a nice tight little group.

Tomorrow night, Christmas eve, Noel is having his 60th birthday party at the round house. He and his workers have constructed a massive rotisserie to cook a whole pig over a fire. It looks like it is going to be a Christmas eve to remember and I will fill you in on all of the festivities.

Good news on the Freestyle, I have 2 people showing up on the 10th and 11th of Jan to help me get the boat to Japan. There is a guy from New Zealand that will go as far as Guam and the other guy is from Denmark and he will help me get up to Japan. What an awesome Christmas present for me. Seems like all of the planets lined up for me on these passages. This is water not very heavily traveled for cruising boats so I feel blessed.
Well I need to get ready to go so I will talk to you later.

PEACE

P.S. I never talk about the weather much so I will fill you in. Sunny day, wind 15 to 20 knots out of the North and 95 degrees. Water temp is 94 degrees.

You need to remember Rick is 20 hours ahead of Alaska, so he is already into Christmas Eve.