Where to begin with this month's update…? We've had exclusive wildlife encounters, sailed faster than ever before and witnessed some of the finest performances of music and dance from across the entire Pacific. No wonder we feel exhausted.

Fruit bat The cutest member of the bat family?

We started this month still in the Ha'apai, wending our way through the northern-most islands of the group. The island of Ha'anoa is famed for it's easily accessible colony of flying foxes (aka fruit bats). The trees on one headland are heavy with bats, who are surprisingly active even in the mid-day sun. There is a constant buzz of activity as the bats bicker over their preferred roosting spot - squeaking and shrieking as they poke and shoulder each other until one bat gives up and flaps off to another tree. Somehow they reminded me of kids fighting in the back seat of a car.

By chance we arrived on Ha'anoa at a very low tide, and for the first time we saw a healthy coral reef jutting up above the sea (see photo on the front page of the web site). The rock pools created amongst the coral were crystal clear, and home to a fascinating array of creatures - including a 2 inch long octopus and a highly poisonous black and white banded sea snake. Luckily the sea snake is so small, it can not open it's mouth wide enough to bite a human, but even so, we gave it a wide berth!

The sail from the Ha'apai north to the Vava'u group of islands is usually done as an overnight trip, as it is too far to cover in the available 12 hours of daylight. Well, that's the theory anyway…. Fresh winds, coupled with a favourable current and our re-tuned rig meant that no matter how small our sails were, we couldn't slow down enough. Sailing back and fore for several hours enabled us to arrive at Vava'u at daybreak, ready to tackle the maze of reefs and islands which make up this compact island group.

Tongan dancers Not only Tongan rugby players are large...

In contrast to Nuku'alofa and the Ha'apai islands, Vava'u has discovered tourism - or rather the European and American settlers on the island have recognised the revenue which can be generated by tourists visiting the islands. There are café's selling shepherds pies, restaurants offering fresh lobster pasta, a bakery producing baguettes and sour dough loaves, and even a Mexican restaurant featuring a transvestite show every week. Not what we sailed to Tonga for… Strong winds trapped us in Vava'u for a couple of weeks, but we escaped from the "bright lights" out to the more remote islands. The islands in this group are mainly steep sided, allowing you to cut close inshore - close enough to hear the flying foxes squabbling in the lush forest.

Finally a weather window opened and we headed out towards American Samoa - only 350 miles from Tonga, but to windward. A lumpy sea made for an extremely unpleasant motion, so out came the Scopalamine discs and the seasickness pills - yes, even after sailing half way around the world, we can still feel seasick. As the wind picked up, we reduced sail, and Do It took off like a rocket - her 17 tons punching through the confused seas. It was a wet and wild ride - but at least the water exploding over the decks was warm and the fast speeds enabled us to make landfall after only two nights at sea. During one 24 hour period, we ticked off 178 miles - an average of 7.4k - a new Do It record.

Papua New Guinea art One of a series of portraits on sale

We made landfall in the harbour of Pago Pago - described by one cruising guide as "noisy, dirty and smelly and offering little appeal". Another says it "reeks of fish canneries; noise from the electric generating plant is pervasive; roads are full of potholes; water and seabed are both heavily polluted". On the plus side, American Samoa was hosting the 10th Pacific Arts Festival - an event we couldn't miss, even if it did mean putting up with the son et lumiere of the tuna processing plants.

The harbour of Pago Pago is in a collapsed volcanic crater, so once your gaze rises above the fishing harbour and factories you are treated to a spectacular view of precipitous mountains clad in lush greenery. The wind has blown so strongly on most days that the sounds from the yachts' wind generators have drowned out the electric power generator on shore. The fishy smells? Well, on the plus side they're not continuous, but when the lids of the pressure cookers are released, boy do you get a super strong whiff of fish for the next half an hour. Not good to wake up to….

Having breezed through the supposedly bureaucratic check in process in about an hour, we set out to enjoy the festival to the full. Representatives from 28 Pacific island nations had gathered to celebrate their arts - from music and dance, to traditional handicrafts, culinary arts and fashion shows.

Our days followed a fairly standard pattern - a late start (recovering from the night before), then the short walk from the harbour around to Utulei. The morning could be spent relaxing with a film or watching the preparation of "umus" - the traditional underground ovens. At noon, performers from around eight countries took to the stage on Utulei beach, against a stunning mountainous backdrop, and provided three hours of non-stop entertainment. A late lunch followed by a wander around each country's handicraft stall, then it was time to choose whether to attend another four hours of music and dance, or perhaps a fashion show. It felt like we were burning the candle at both ends - and in the middle.

Rapanui dancers The "Chippendales" of the Pacific??

It is impossible to describe all the performances, but some deserve special mention. Rapanui (the island previously known as Easter Island) put on a show which elicited mixed reactions from the crowds. The girls sported very cute feather bikinis, whilst the chaps were dressed in small thongs, long feathers and broad smiles. The raunchy dancing featured much pelvic thrusting and suggestive stroking of large wooden sticks. There was some tutt tutt-ing, and one mother covered her children's eyes with a blanket, however the majority of the crowd was ecstatic. I may have given the odd cheer of encouragement too.

Many of the islands with a strong missionary influence featured ladies costumes which reached from neck to ankles, and dances which only permitted small movements of the arms and feet. Not so the Cook Islands which included Angus' favourite dancers - slim lovelies sporting coconut bikinis, oyster shell necklaces, short leaf skirts and bionic hips. Jealous? Me? Suffice to say that I've included a photo of the Rapanui boys, not the Cook Island girls!

Many of the Polynesian performances were familiar from our trip through the Pacific last year, but it was a real treat to see the contrasting displays from Melanesia. The performers from Papua New Guinea highlighted the wide variety of cultures within the single country - however each area seemed to produce similar handicrafts for sale, predominantly crocheted handbags….

Solomon Island ladies The little ladies from the Solomons

The Solomon Islanders produced some of the most memorable music of the festival - pan pipes - something I had always associated with South America. The largest bamboo pipes were set upright and the tubes struck with what looked like slippers. The remainder of the band danced whilst playing their pipes - they were seriously fit. The Solomon Island lady dancers were bare breasted, prompting the American Samoan lady sitting next to me to enquire ""Why don't they wear bras???". Would have been an interesting contrast to their traditional shell necklaces and grass skirts.

The fashion shows were a great combination of music, dance, and strutting handsome men (and a few pretty girls). The clothes showcased ranged from Maori "urban militia", to Australian possum cloaks, 101 ways to tie a sarong, and Fijian tunics and long skirts - for men. You'll need to wait until next month to see which designer outfit has been purchased for Angus' birthday.

Kiribati dancers A pause before more stunning dance

Spit roast piglet How to become an instant vegetarian?

Or not? Time for a rant… We bought a piece of watermelon at the festival - a special "seedless" watermelon, imported all the way from California. Why not import the delicious watermelons grown 350 miles away in Tonga? Too many seeds? A visit to the Saturday produce market revealed a dismal collection of coconuts, bananas and breadfruit. It was the poorest produce market we have seen in the Pacific. Why? Perhaps because the supermarkets all stock an array of apples, peaches, apricots, peppers, tomatoes, cabbages, mange tout etc - chilled, presented on polystyrene trays and all imported from the US of A. No worries here obviously about food miles…

After many months of only trivial repairs, there have been a couple of biggies this month. Contaminated petrol resulted in a blocked carburettor in our new outboard, however a couple of hours of figuring out how to take the outboard to pieces, and how to get it back together again, and we were back in business. Yes, we've now bought a filter funnel.

Rather more alarming was the strange flopping our windvane steering suddenly made when we were approaching Pago Pago. Two of the four aluminium pins, which secure the windvane to the boat, had worn through. Thankfully we have spare pins, and thankfully the originals held for the first 340 miles of the trip north.

Mystery creature Any ideas what this is?

Here's a strange creature which I almost snorkelled into in Vava'u - it's about 2m long, and 15cm in diameter. Suggestions so far are that it is a jellyfish, or maybe an egg case… Any other suggestions or confirmed identifications gratefully received.

Videos

For those of you with Broadband internet, this month's video is here:

• Some samples of the Pacific Arts Festival

Another week or so to explore American Samoa, then we're off to Independent Samoa and Wallis & Futuna.