September 16, 2024
We have been watching the weather forecast and it was looking like we would leave in two or three days so that made today a big prep day to get the boat ready for a blue water passage. We didn’t kill ourselves but we did spend most of the day working. I also finished up the bottom cleaning, and was…
September 15, 2024
Provisions running a bit low I decided to head to Luganville to pick up a few things to hold us over until full provisioning the day before departure. I got very lucky and five minutes after hitting the road had a ride in the back of a pickup. It was a nice ride, waving to everyone as we bumbled along.…
September 14, 2024
The forecast was spot on with not much wind and mellow seas. After preparing for an all day bash, since we would be going into the prevailing wind/waves, it was a wonderful bit of luck. We were able to make water and relax for the 40-mile motor south, back to Palikulo bay. No real excitement to share. Around 2pm we…
September 13, 2024
More rain overnight and into the morning slowed things down but around 10am there was a break in the rain which I used to sneak off to the island. With no real plan I took my time, stopping in multiple spots to just stare out into the ocean and watch the plentiful hermit crabs scurry around. I poked around the…
September 12, 2024
There was heavy rain off and on throughout the night and we woke to a very humid, damp space. I got to cleaning the windows and solar panels. Carl dried off the inside of the windows and we settled in to wait for hopefully clearing skies. By ten it was looking pretty good, so I grabbed a paddle board and…
September 11, 2024
We had two other monohulls in the anchorage with us. We wanted to say hi but first, off to explore the sandspit on the island we anchored behind. It was a pretty spot that gave us a good view of the ocean on the other side – all of us glad we were not out today in big rolling seas…
September 10, 2024
We heard this town had a store, not really needing anything we decided to check it out anyway. Landing the paddleboards we realized that we were in someone’s backyard so Carl headed to seek permission. Thankfully they were okay with our intrusion and soon enough we walked across their property to the road. Three cute little girls probably five years…
September 9, 2024
We watched the stick in the shore to find high tide (along with help from the tide charts) and just before 8am started our slow march out of Oyster Bay. While not overly concerned there was still some anxiety crossing the pass. Thankfully our route was good and we saw a low of 0.7 meters beneath the keel. Turning north,…
September 8, 2024
Another rainy morning but the forecast was for clearing by 11am, making our planned trip to the Riri blue hole a possibility. We would get patches of sun and then it would fill right back in to complete cloud cover. I held out hope and around 11 we saw some blue sky and decided we were going no matter what.…
September 7, 2024
Hopes were high to dinghy up to the Maleluvu blue hole today and with fingers crossed we had our coffee and breakfast. Around 8am the call was made, we were going for it. It was a bit of a bash heading to the mouth of the river with the wind still kicking up chop between islands. Around the shallow sandy…
September 6, 2024
A couple of low keys days due to weather, the biggest excitement was our move up to Oyster Bay, leaving the soon to be crowded Palikulo bay (14 boats ended up waiting out the wind there). It was just a nine mile hop but it did have one tricky entrance over the reef where we saw only 1.1 meters below…
September 4, 2024
Carl was hit with a possible minor cold so plans where changed, delaying our move to Oyster bay. I spent a good chunk of the afternoon paddleboarding to shore and then walking the beach. A number of groups were hanging out, some fishing, some listening to music, and some just lounging around. I reached a spot where the beach disappeared,…