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 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…
August 22, 2024
After the big adventure day yesterday, we were up for a lower paced day. A few boat projects were checked off the list and around 10:30am Roxy was feeling it was our best chance to snorkel the reef and look for dugongs (similar to manatees). It had been raining off and on all morning and so we all suited up…
August 21, 2024
During morning coffee, we noticed one of the boats hauling their anchor and then realized that at supply ship on a mooring (that we thought looked sketchy) was dragging towards them. Huh. A bit later we noticed the dragging was continuing. Coming back from the village SV Blue Beryl stopped by the supply ship to make sure they were aware.…
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 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 5, 2024
Roxy and I started the day with a forty-five minute cab ride to the GCC currency exchange in Nadi. There is always some challenge, today it was finding the shop. Google was no help, their Facebook page no help, hell even their website was no help. Luckily, I dialed the phone and someone answered who could give the driver directions.…
August 4, 2024
One night’s slip is included with the checkout fees at Vuda Marina. Wanting to make the most of it, we moved onto a slip as soon as we could. Then it was go time, cleaning the boat, storing the paddle boards and dinghy, along with blue water preparing the boat. Oh plus a pain in the butt job of tightening…
August 3, 2024
The weather gods smiled on us, instead of the normal SE trades (the direction we were headed), we had a north wind. With provisioning to get done it was still a motorsail giving us a very nice 7.5 knot average. The anchor was no more than set before Roxy and I headed to the dinghy dock to grab a cab…
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…