August 25, 2024
On the hunt, sort of, for the dugongs. Yesterday the villagers pointed to an area where we might find them, but our real reason for the change of anchorage was to have a good launching spot for the following day’s passage. The new spot was just three miles away but involved navigating all of the reefs again. With our track…
August 24, 2024
We jumped on the paddleboards and headed into the village to speak with the chief and to explore a bit. With the shallow draft we were able to go straight over the reef making for a shorter paddle. Once on shore I walked up to a villager to ask if we could leave our paddleboards. Bill was very kind and…
August 23, 2024
For some reason the morning hours seemed to slip away and just before eight o’clock Carl was ready to lift the anchor. Heck, I had not even had breakfast yet! SV Seeka had anchored close to our anchor and we found out just how close as we raised it up, coming within 5 meters of them and needing to motor…
August 20, 2024
Arriving yesterday, it was time to check in with the chief and ask permission to stay in his anchorage and visit his village. But first I baked some bread, one of loaf went to the nice couple who gave us the fish yesterday and one yummy fresh loaf for us. Then it was time to get to shore into the…
August 18, 2024
It was a short hop across the bay to our next anchorage. We attempted to anchor at the location in the RocketGuide but it was quite deep (15 meters versus 6 meters in the guide) and there did not appear to be any sand, just coral. SV Beluga, SV Blue Beryl, and SV Cleo were nearby and we went over…
August 17, 2024
Most important thing for the day was visiting the chief and asking permission to anchor and visit their village. Unlike in Fiji there is not need to make an offering. The villagers were friendly and when asking to meet the chief we learned he was not feeling well. We asked for the head man, were told they would find someone.…
August 13, 2024
Yesterday I had chatted with a Kiwi, Greg, who owns the E-Scooter rental shop. I thought it would be fun to tour the island by motorbike and while Carl and Roxy picked a few things up from the store I made a reservation. He had a number of KTM motorcycles which led to a fun conversation talking about our shared…
August 12, 2024
Port Vila was a great stopover/provisioning spot. Plus due to the wind we had extra time for some fun. After cleaning up the boat with fresh water we relaxed a bit. Alex from SV Blue Beryl swung by as he headed to Customs. Our plan had been to skip Customs here as we had a cruising permit from Port Resolution,…
August 10, 2024
The plan was to move up to Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu, today because there was a blow coming that we wanted to stay ahead of. I had a work meeting at 10:00am, so once that was done we got moving. Some coffee, some breakfast, and a dinghy ride to explore the shoreline was in order. Carl and I…
August 9, 2024
What a great night of sleep. Only interruption was to close the hatch when some rain passed by us. Coffee and a beautiful sunrise started the day for me, while Roxy took to capturing the views in watercolor. Most of the morning was spent waiting to clear into the country, but Carl and I did dive into an AIS (system…
August 9, 2024
The coconut grapevine told us about a local villager who offered a hike up to the volcano on Tanna island here in Vanuatu. In our case, SV Beluga had heard from Alex on SV Blue Beryl who heard it from????. The normal experience is to hop in a pick-up truck for a sketchy drive up to watch the sunset at…
August 1, 2024
After a quickly breakfast everyone headed to shore separately. Adrian and I had plans to help Mon fix his solar/battery issue. After doing research overnight we both came to the conclusion that the panel wiring was exceeding the solar controller maximum voltage. In a divide and conquer, Adrian took on rewiring the panels while I cleaned up the dirty connections…