Goodbye Fiji, Hello Vanuatu

Two weeks since our last blog entry. Time seems to slip past all too quickly.

On our way to Vuda marina from Navadra we threw the fishing line out of the back, with not too much expectation of catching anything. We seem to catch fish rarely, but when we do it’s at the most inconvenient times. Sure enough, about one hour out from the marina, we hooked a decent size wahoo, which then had to be cleaned and filleted before we went in. Never mind, that night we bought chips and salad from the marina restaurant, which we ate with the grilled fresh Wahoo – delicious!

We had only 24 hours in the marina and so, as soon as we were tied up, we set to work cleaning the boat, ditching the rubbish, doing the laundry and filling up with fuel and water. The next morning we had a lot of hanging around waiting for customs to clear us out of Fiji, but eventually they arrived and we slipped lines just after midday, to the sound of the marina staff who sang us a farewell song as we left.

A Farewell Serenade from our Fijian Friends

How not to fillet a wahoo

Provisions everywhere

We had a two hour motor to the outer reef and, once clear of this, we unfurled the headsail and set off downwind. The wind and waves gradually built to a force 7, which was more than forecast and so the headsail area was reduced and off we went doing 7 knots with the occasional wave breaking over the boat.  Not the most comfortable of rides. At one point a wave broke into the cockpit causing our inflatable danbuoy to automatically inflate. Unfortunately, it was still in the bag and we had to cut the bag to get it out and re-arm it.

The Fijian courtesy flag is lowered as we depart

The wind is getting up

Leanne enjoying the ride just before she made friends with the ship's bucket

Trying to wrestle the inflated danbuoy out of it's bag

Overnight, we had a steady force 7 wind and Leanne developed a very close relationship with the ship’s bucket. Fortunately, the wind eased as the passage progressed and the last two days were lovely. The passage was a total of 537 nm and it took us just under four days to complete. We had a fantastic encounter with a large pod of dolphins on the last day. They stayed with us for about two hours. We never tire of watching them duck and dive around the boat.

Dolphin escort

Dolphin photos courtesy of Gwyn

They just love the bow wave

We arrived into Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu in the early morning on the 30^th of July and anchored in the quarantine area all ready to be cleared when the customs office opened at 8am. We duly radioed them but got no answer. We tried both them and the local marina numerous times but no reply. Then it became obvious why. The 30^th July is Vanuatu Independence day and everything was shut! So we were confined to the boat listening to, but not partaking in, all the celebrations ashore.  Fortunately we had the means to have our own celebrations on board.

Raising the Vanuatan courtesy flag and the quarantine flag on arrival at Port Vila

Debi doing her favourite job on the boat

Celebrating our arrival and Independence Day

The next day we cleared customs and picked up a mooring at Yacht World, the local marina. Unfortunately, when we inflated the dinghy we discovered yet another puncture. This was a real pain as we are reliant on the dinghy to get in and out from the mooring and so had to carry the pump with us for a few days until we had an opportunity to fix it. Dinghy glue seems to be a rare commodity in the South Pacific and having failed to find any in either Fiji or Vanuatu we resorted to superglue. It worked! Pat now has his eye on a new dinghy!

The Customs boarding party in Port Vila

There are a disconcerting number of wrecks along the shore in Port Vila

The team aboard the leaky dinghy

Debi and Gwyn managed to arrange to go diving the next day and Leanne went off snorkelling. This resulted in Gwyn and Debi getting the diving bug, with Gwyn succumbing again the following day whilst Debi, Pat and Leanne headed off for a bus tour of the island of Efate, which turned out to be a very average tour.

Prepare to dive!

A very disappointing turtle sanctuary which we visited during our bus tour

After three nights on the mooring, after some recreational shore time and some re-provisioning, we set off north to Port Havannah. We stopped on the way at a small reef, known as Paul’s Reef, where Gwyn and Debi went for an amazing snorkel with the resident turtles.  The reef is in the middle of some very deep water about a mile offshore so Pat and Leanne had to circle around in X-Pat while they explored as it was too deep to drop anchor.

A friendly green turtle at Paul's reef

The frequently encountered Moorish Idol

Beautiful reef

Our anchorage that night at Ai Creek was a bit crowded and very windy, so the next day we moved on to Matapu Bay, which turned out to be much more sheltered. Having hauled anchor, Debi decided she didn’t like the sound of the engine. A quick check revealed that there was insufficient seawater coming in to cool the engine. So we had to drop anchor again and investigate. It turned out to be a clump of leaves blocking the intake pipe. Thank goodness for Debi’s good hearing. It’s amazing how tuned in one becomes to the sounds of the boat.

We have been at Matapu Bay for four nights now.  On the first day Pat, Debi and Gwyn did two dives with Tranquility Diving on Moso Island. The first was at Owen’s Reef and the second at Bottle Fish Reef. Both were nice dives but not spectacular. Leanne snorkelled close-by and probably saw as much as the divers did.  The dive shop kindly picked us up and dropped us back at our anchorage which saved us what would have been an impossible trip in our dinghy.

A 5m safety stop at the end of our dive

Beautiful coral photos courtesy of Leanne

Orange Striped Triggerfish (we think!)

On our second day here we all went ashore for a walk. This area was an American base during the second world war and there are a number of ruins along the shore line from the base including a pool where they used to collect freshwater. It doesn’t look so fresh any more. Gwyn and Pat went for a snorkel where there was allegedly the wreck of an American plane, but all they found were a load of iron girders that looked more like the remains of a building.  Leanne and Debi snorkelled the reef a bit closer to where we are anchored and were very impressed with the health and extent of it.

Yesterday Gwyn departed for home. Pat took him ashore and whilst waiting for a bus to come along a group of guys in a ute full of grapefruit stopped and offered him a lift. Everyone is so friendly here.  We are waiting to hear if he has been retained as a grapefruit picker somewhere or if he has made it safely back to Wales.

Leanne left this morning, on a bus, not a ute, and so we are back down to just the two of us for what feels like the final phase of our trip. We have been doing a few boat jobs today and tomorrow will continue our journey north investigating the islands.