September 3, 2024
After striking out at the two locations in Luganville for the Millennium cave tour, yesterday afternoon I decided to give it one more go and tried calling. A number of rings later I had a booked tour. Carl and I were on the road a few minutes early and unlike yesterday the 4×4 truck arrived on time and we were…
September 2, 2024
Weeks since our last provisioning, it was time. Yesterday we flagged down a taxi driver and scheduled an 10am pickup. About twenty minutes early Roxy and I arrived at the spot and began waiting. A few taxis and a mini-bus stopped to ask if we needed a ride. We explained we had scheduled a pickup and were asked if we…
September 1, 2024
Dugongs spotted! As we enjoyed our morning coffee on the bow, I spotted a dugong twice as it surfaced for a breath. A bit far to swim to it so just a spotting. But they are around. Late morning we piled into the dinghy with our snorkeling gear. Families were enjoying the Sunday day on the beach as we laced…
August 31, 2024
Lots of discussions on plans the last couple days, with an eye on what the weather would let us explore. After downloading the files it was clear that going to Rano, where SV Nimrod had an incredible traditional dance presented by the Smol Nabas in 2016, was not in the cards. A huge bummer as it was the highlight of…
August 29, 2024
We had read that a “Spirit Cave” was at the next stop. Wanting to squeeze it in today we made an early start for the 30sih mile passage. Soon enough the anchor was set and an outrigger was headed our way. A short conversation led us to realize; this was the chief’s son, he gifted us two pamplemousse, and there…
August 29, 2024
Did the tagline get you to click? Well before I get into that I want to start with an awesome morning. What made it awesome? Around 10am I noticed an outrigger with four ladies and a boy paddling towards us. Upon their arrival, they presented a bag to us with bananas and coconuts in it as a gift. How incredible…
August 28, 2024
With plans to snorkel a reef that had excellent reviews we made an early move eleven-ish miles north. As soon as we were comfortable with the anchor we paddled into shore. It took a bit of searching but we found a very direct route with a steep up and a steep down into the village in the next bay. A…
August 27, 2024
A rainy start to the day lowered our expectations for getting off the boat. Around lunch time there was a break in the clouds which enabled Roxy to get us moving. We hopped in the dinghy to the village at the point of land we rounded coming into the bay. A plan was hatched for me to hustle in an…
August 26, 2024
The start to the passage would be exposed to the tradewinds and seas. In an attempt to be as comfortable as possible we got underway just after 5am, which was before before sunrise. It worked as planned and it was a comfortable start with the full main and jib coming out after sunrise and off when the engine. While the…
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…