Day 2 - July 31

Good morning. It is 4:30 in the morning and I'm thrilled to advise that we are having a relaxing and easy crossing. We have motored the whole way, and the seas are fairly calm, with no breeze at all. I also haven't been seasick this time, so very happy about that. If we continue with our speed, we are expecting to make landfall about 2:00 this afternoon. We will be arriving in the Loyalty Islands in New Caledonia. We probably won't have internet for about a week - until we get to Noumea, which is the capital. Until then....enjoy the long weekend.

The big city of Port Villa, Vanautu

We spent just one night at gorgeous Dillon Bay, because we had a good weather window to make it to our next destination of Port Villa.

  

Sunset at Dillon

Our crossing to Port Villa was uneventful (thankfully).  We left at midnight and pulled in around 3:00 p.m. the next afternoon. 

The only thing that happened, was caused by the really rough seas.  I was “off-watch” and sleeping in the cock-pit when a huge wave hit the back of the boat and dumped me right on the floor.  I’ve been sporting an impressive bruise on my hip and elbow!

Coming around the bend

 First stop in town…the local market

The best part of our time this past week in Port Villa is that we literally ran in to good cruising friends of ours that we haven’t seen since two seasons ago.  Ara and Marios from Bubas.  (Don &and Martha you’ll remember them from when we went out for dinner on Mana Island in Fiji).  It was great to see them, and we have spent most of the week together.

Our first night we had dinner and drinks at the Waterfront Bar, which is where the dinghy dock is, so a quick hop back to the boat afterwards.  What a great reunion.  The following evening we were invited to Bubas for the most amazing meal ever!  (Ara owns a very successful restaurant in Australia). 

Enroute we had to tow a local whose engine gave out on him

Another beautiful backdrop for us

  Dinner onboard Bubas with Ara and Marios

 

Peter decided that for our “reciprocal” dinner we would buy them dinner rather than make it.  What a chicken!  I’m sure they would have loved Peter’s cooking, especially since he has developed a real interest in cooking and creating meals in the last few years. (But you know how intimidating it is to cook for gourmet chefs....think Guy and Lisa George)

 Our second dinner at the Waterfront Bar and Restaurant 

Ara and Di

 

We also went twice with them to a decadent bakery/coffee shop
 (just so you don’t think we only go to bars!

Our final night was spent at Justin’s boatyard for a Barbeque, with new friends Justin, Claire, their kids, Earl (who is crewing on Bubas to New Caledonia) and also Marios and Ara.  Of course, I forgot the camera.  It was a nice farewell to Port Villa.

Waving our goodbyes to Bubas left this morning as were are going to different landfalls in New Caledonia.  We will meet up with them again along the way.

Cruise ships come to Port Villa about 3 times a week, which is a great boost to the economy. Market row – set up for the cruise passengers

 

P & O – from Sydney

 

  

All of us spent part of our last few days getting ready to leave Vanuatu – the regular stocking up, refueling, getting all our safety equipment on the deck, loading up the dinghy, Di making the meals for the crossing, and checking out at customs and immigration.  The final item, we just checked off our list….

The lowering of the Vanuatu flag

 

 We will be leaving at 3:00 a.m. this morning and hope to only have two nights out at sea.  I will try to do a blog posting if I am not too seasick and if we are able to connect. I'm looking forward to a great experience for this - my final crossing.

I saw this and thought of my sister Dorothy, who is understandably a Wizard of Oz nutcase.  I'm going to be using this as my mantra for the crossing.

 

Next stop…..Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia (a French country)

 

Farewell to Fiji

Since we left Fiji over three weeks ago, we have been out of internet range.  I was able to post the weekly blog from our Ham Radio, but this does not allow any photos.  Now that we are in Port Vila (the major centre of Vanuatu, I'm able to post the photos that go along with the Ham Radio commentary for the first two weeks.  These are the photos from our first week and then our second week follows - the commentary for both weeks follows the photos.

Our final night at the Sunset Bar at Vuda Point Marina - saying goodbye to our friends

Doing the official check out at customs

Sadly....taking down the Fiji flag as we head out to sea

Hooray....landfall in Vanuatu

 Our anchorage for the next week

Raising the Vanuatu flag (and the quarantine flag which we kept up until the customs officer 

came aboard and cleared us in)

Our first evening at anchor in Vanuatu

The local village

A local family dressed for winter (it was about 23 degrees c/75 degrees f)

The elementary school

Unit on turtles

The kids loved the supplies and games we brought them. Flashcards were the big hit! Di in the background

Highschool - we gave them crosswords, suduko and other puzzles.
Most of the students had never seen these before

Other forms of housing in the village

  
Ancient site from the first missionaries

Buying stamps in the village (the only store except for a bank without an ATM)

There is a supply boat that comes once a month.  It arrived when we were there.  It took two days to unload it, as there is only the one boat that does the transfer of supplies.

Although Vanautu is generally a safe destination there was a murder during the week that we were there.  We didn't learn about it until after we left, as the locals were quite ashamed of it and kept it quiet.  A woman was killed by her boyfriend and he dumped her in this river.  He cut out her heart and apparently ate it, which is a sign of black magic.  The murderer is still hiding out in the woods.

 
The beach

Dug-out canoe

Adorable kids

 They caught a little fish and were delighting in playing with it

Missing the little grandkids

Our anchorage

The view from QuickStar

Our parking spot on the island

A short dinghy ride away is the beautiful island called Mystery Island.  It is completely surrounded by a white sand beach.  The island is deserted as the locals believe that it is haunted.  You can have the island all to yourself most days - except for when a cruise ship is at anchor and the island comes alive with markets and tourists.

Walking path

Trees blowing in the breeze

A cool shelter

Outhouses on the island

Playing tourist

Coffee break

Market open during cruise ship visits

 

Just two views  of this great 360 degree beach

 

 

Pretty big spiders

 

Island trees

We had a great first week in Vanautu.  Our next stop was Port Resolution on the island of Tanna.
 Photos and commentary below.

Until Friday....don't take yourself too seriously.

My memory isn’t so good anymore, so I changed my password to “incorrect”.  That way when I log in with the wrong password, the computer will tell me “You’re password is incorrect”.