Catatonic in Vila - Oct 8th

We have not written updates for the last few days. We are in "stable horse back running back to the barn" mode. We went from Lolowai on Ambae in one long day and arrived at the Segond Channel and picked up a mooring ball at the Aore Resort across the big wide channel from Luganville on Espiritu Santo Island, or Santo as everyone calls it. The mooring was nice, as was the resort. It was in the lee of Aore Island which meant a nice quite night after a long, tiring passage and it had a very nice restaurant that unfortunately was very expensive. The mooring cost $12/day and everything else was extra, including trash, but they had free spring water at the very nice dinghy dock. We left the next morning for the anchorage across the channel (the cheap seats) which was good holding but very windy and rolly at times. It is at the Beachfront Resort which has a good beach for dinghy landings but is totally exposed to the long fetch across the channel and wind. We got soaked the first time in and out.

Luganville was actually a reasonably good town to visit. Much smaller than Port Vila, it is the second largest town in Vanuatu and the secondary "capital" of the northern islands. The main drag is long and hot and 4 lanes wide. It was a big staging point for hundreds of thousands of US troops and navy during the big push to destroy the Japanese in the South Pacific, with airfields and quonset huts everywhere, many in use still today. The resort anchorage is a moderately long walk in to town which we did several times or we took a cab for $2 each way, or mixed it up. Internet was available but glacially slow. Lots of small stores and shops with three banks but we had to stand in line at the Wespac to withdraw money as they don't have an ATM there. Everyone was friendly and said hello as you walk down the sidewalks. It is a mecca for scuba divers who come to see the USS Coolidge which was a large luxury cruise ship that was converted for troop carrier duty during the war. Coming in to the channel it hit a friendly mine and sunk in about 150 feet of water and it is now a premier deep dive site where you can explore the passages underwater and see the engine room, ballrooms, etc. at about 120-140 feet (very deep for your average dive). There is also the Million Dollar Point where the US drove off hundreds and hundreds of tanks, jeeps, trucks and other equipment rather than give it to the locals after the war. The locals figured the US would just leave it anyway so they did not bid on it and the colonel or whoever got mad and threw it in to the drink. It is now an excellent dive site as well. We did not dive on any of this - a sacraledge in some divers' minds but oh well - not in the budget. I was getting over my food poisoning or whatever any way.

We stayed a few days and had to say our goodbyes to our good buddies, Bob and Dianna on White Swan. They will stay around the Santo area before departing for Australia (OZ to everyone out here) with the Bundaberg rally later in the month. We had cruised with them since Zihuatanejo off and on and rehooked up with them full time in Fiji this year. Safe Passage to them!

We had to get going to get back to Port Vila to prep for going south to NZ again. We are of mixed minds about going there and don't know if we will continue cruising, sell the boat, ship it back to the US or just keep going. We need to work to restock the cruising kitty though so will have to do something. Along the way we stopped two places on the island of Malakula, which is a large island with much to see and do. However, we were in movement mode and only stopped for overnights. The first leg was a long slog fighting adverse currents, winds and waves. It took us hours longer than planned and we got in to this tight little inlet right at sundown with reefs ahead and on both sides in shallow water. The anchor would not set well after three tries so we just left it and hoped that it would be OK. Not your best situation and I did not sleep well. The wind came up in the middle of the night and we held but I came up twice to make sure. There was a large and relatively unshy dugong there that we saw several several times that night and in the morning before we left.

We left thinking that our next leg would be short and sweet - only 20 miles. It was another bad trip with even worse winds and waves on our nose. It took us over 6 hours to go that far and we were beat by the time we got in to the beautiful, large anchorage at South West Bay. There was supposed to be a custom village festival there that was a makeup for one that did not happen a month ago but we could not stay. The holding was good and it was well protected so we had a restful night. We woke up in the morning to find White Swan about 200 yards from us anchored out. They tried to get to the little anchorage we did the night before but got there so late it was dark and did not trust it to go in so went to SW Bay which is much easier to get in to. Never fun coming in to a strange anchorage in the dark, especially when you are tired. Many a boat has been lost that way, and many brain cells have been wiped, along with stomach lining.

We left the next morning though as it looked like the weather was going to moderate and turn more easterly making it possible to do the 100 miles to Vila a cake walk - wrong!!! It was another slog, this time all day and all night. We sailed all of 20 minutes then motored the rest in hard winds, waves, big swell, rain and lightning all day and night. We obviously did not get the weather we hoped for. But all was well and we got to Efate Island just as the sun was coming up in the east. We had some small dolphins during the day and went up to the bow to watch which was a trip as it was bucking up and down like crazy. We had to hold on tight to the rails to keep in the boat. On the way back I thought of reminding Cindy to be careful but thought she would know to do that and all of a sudden I hear this big whump and Cindy has fallen backwards on to the anchor at the windlass on her tailbone. She has scrapes and bruises and a very sore tailbone as I write. Next time I will go ahead and say something.

So here we are in Vila. I had about 2 hours sleep last night and Cindy had about 4 so we are almost catatonic and sleep walking. It was good getting in though and we checked in with Customs, the internet cafe (slow), and got some fresh gas for the outboard and generator for our trip south to NZ. We have a long list of things to get - diesel, water, food, laundry, propane - and some things to fix and do. I think my starter battery is going (an Optima spiral wound which should not be going right now) but the starter is holding up. It will be a potentially rough passage of 1200nm to NZ with possible very nasty weather so we will do our best to look for a good weather window before taking off. So far that looks to be at least 10 days out which is as far as I can get forecasts so who knows. We will leave in the next two weeks in any case.

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