🇸🇧️ The western province

That visit to the vulcanic Savo island and its vulcano was great! One more thing on our list is to see the leatherback seaturtles coming out of the sea at night to lay and bury their eggs on the beach. One of the places where they come on shore is Baniata and this will be another “first time” anchorage…

After we anchored many kids in dugout canoes came to take a look at us. Also Chief Manuka of Baniata came by and invited us to meet him on shore to discuss a night visit to the turtles. Chief Manuka gave us permission to walk the beach and see the village. During our walk we met guide Johnson and a 75 year old lady who was on here way to her garden. What a beautiful and strong woman, we spend a long time talking to her.

On our way back through the village to the dinghy a man approached us, he demanded money. He said he was from a different tribe and that chief Manuko was not the chief of Baniata. The conversation became heated and unpleasant. So I decided to pull up anchor and leave Baniata. This is the very first time after 9 years, visiting 26 countries and almost 50.000nm of sailing that I felt I needed to do that!