Tribewanted: Vorovoro

Last Thursday, we experienced close encounters of a completely different kind. Nine yachts sailed past and dropped anchor just off the reef and a short while later, a gaggle of rubber ducks putted to shore bringing the yachties (mostly New Zealanders) to the beach for a look-see. It appeared that Tribewanted was something someone had seen advertised somewhere and these guys had felt it was worthy of sailing across the South Pacific to check out. We’ve had yachts drop anchor off shore before, but they generally stayed on board their boats, content to sip their wine and watch the “natives” hard at it from a distance. So we were thrilled these guys stepped ashore and gave these friendly folks a guided tour of the place. They were genuinely impressed with what they saw and heard and we had some good two way dialogue in which I gained two gems that could really help us. Firstly, I learned that one of the yachts was actually built of concrete, and the owner of that vessel suggested that we consider building two concrete tubes and fill them with empty coke bottles at floats for our currently land bound pontoon!

Secondly we discussed how to design a better solar desalination plant involving a sort of greenhouse containing lots of black alkathene pipe and a shallow tray. I’m really looking forward to having a crack at this some day. And as a byproduct, the sea salt can be used as a healthier alternative also.

Thanks for sharing some good advice with us guys!
Chuck