August 19, 2024
With a sixty plus mile day ahead of us the plan was to have the anchor up at 5am. All was going smoothly, everyone was ready, in position, and the chain was nicely falling into the locker. With about 20 meters to go there was a clunk, clunk, and the chain stopped. We were snagged on something. I should mention…
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 16, 2024
Time to move further north, we released the mooring lines and motored our way out of the bay. We needed water, so the start of the passage continued under motor and a few hours later off when the motors and we began to enjoy a pleasant sail. The wind angle wasn’t ideal but we kept from gybing and once around…
August 15, 2024
The last couple of days were mostly work days. Prepping the boat and provisioning. The grocery store was really well stocked, and other than not finding any pork products, we were able to get everything we wanted. In the local market we had beautiful produce and vegetables to choose from and jumped from stall to stall finding the freshest items…
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 8, 2024
After settling a bit around 1:15am the seas kicked up and made for a rough few hours. Coming on watch at 5am Roxy filled me in on the lower winds but ongoing wave action. A low-key morning all around with acceptance that we truly would be arriving much sooner than we expected on departure. Always good news, well it would…
August 7, 2024
Waking up for my watch Roxy pointed out that SV Beluga (a boat we met just before checking out (also headed for Port Resolution, Vanautu) was down to 15nm miles in front of us. Exciting to see them on AIS, even if not visually yet. The wind speed was variable from highs in the twenties down to fifteen+ knots. Good…