Becalmed in Port Vila

Leaving Fiji in sunshine with a 10 knot SE breeze was good, but did not last long. The trade wind caught up with us, and with 20 knots over the left shoulder we powered on getting Aeolus up to 8 knots with boiling water off the stern. With a reduced Genoa and a trysail in the main we settled down around 7 knots making the Monitor happy. During the crossing from Waya Island, Fiji to Vanuatu we made a record 150 Nm during one 24 hour period. We did the 543 Nm crossing in 4 days. Arriving early morning off Port Vila we stayed out to enter the bay at dawn. The chart plotter was inaccurate showing reefs where there was none and no reefs where there were many. Eventually we figured out the markers and found our way in to the yellow quarantine buoy off the main town.

Port Vila is a nice place, not large and busy with pangas crossing from the town to islands. We quickly got cleared by “bio security” that inspected the boat and we were asked to see Migration and Custom & Revenue (with “revenue” highlighted!) for visa and custom clearance. It took two days to locate the offices although it was a fairly simple process (no computers!!). We then found a nice anchorage off the island resort Tirikii with full view of the harbour and all its activities. Every morning we were visited by a family of two sea cows (Gdongs) with a calf quickly named Fred, Wilma & Pebbles!

The time ahead will be used for maintenance of the boat before taking a trip to the northern islands with our friend and new crew Heather from Port Lincoln.