[password] nftpw4ps
[position] 01 24.06S 144 11.56E
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[status] We had our best visit to a village since we have been cruising. We had good weather and decided to go over to the other atoll via dinghy. We figured they did not get a lot of visitors as there is no pass into the lagoon. We let a couple of folks here know we were going so they alerted the village. When we arrived we were greeted by the entire school on the beach singing us a welcome song and providing hats with flowers along with a table of refreshments. The children did some dancing while we had some food (this is 8am in the morning). After the songs we were asked to talk to the school about where we were from so we did a presentation. Afterwards, we were provided a tour of the entire island, meeting each clan. The clans provided food at each stop as we spent lots of time talking and getting to know the villagers. We were the first yachties to ever visit the island, and they were very excited to have us. They pride themselves in being a friendly village, and wanted us to encourage others to visit their atoll. This reinforces our desire to find those spots that are rarely if ever visited by yachts. It was our best village visit in six years living aboard Field Trip.

After a long day of socializing and making new friends, we left around 4pm. While we had our dinghy anchored, the family that lived on the beach cleaned the bottom of our dinghy. We were shocked at their generosity and NEVER have had our dinghy cleaned while ashore. Heck, I don't even clean the bottom of the dinghy very often (grin). We did not have anything to give them for appreciation so we will go back with something to say 'Thank You'. All well and looking forward to another day.
[weather]30% cloud, 28C, 1007.6 baro, 0-5kts ESE wind.

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