We left Somosomo mid morning. The winds were quite strong where we were so we put a reef into the mainsail. Even then we headed off with the head sail out only. We soon encountered very variable winds which ended up down to nothing, all due to the effects of the heights of Tavenuni.
With a combination of sailing, motor sailing and plain motoring we made it to Dakuniba in about 3 hours.
We anchored near to where we knew the village to be even though it was out of sight. We rested for an hour or so before heading ashore in the dinghy. It was just before low tide so we anchored the dinghy in the mud of low tide and walked into the village. We brought cava so we could perform sevusevu. It turned out all the elders had gone elsewhere but the younger men along with their counterparts from a nearby village were all there. One of them accepted our gift of cava, performed the sevusevu ceremony and welcomed us into the village.
This was all done in a hall where the younger men of the two villages had gathered to listen to a few play guitar and to drink cava. We were invited to join in. We spent about an hour there. Sam played about 6 songs for them on one of their guitars which they all appreciated. (The women were all outside cooking)
Worrying that the incoming tide might take our dinghy away we bade our farewells and headed back to the boat. We had no worries as the dinghy was sitting out in the mud and we had to haul into the water.
Once on the boat we just chilled the rest of the day. The cava we’d drunk had mellowed us out, the weather was fine and so were we.
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