Chameleons watching us playing tennis at the Port Vila Tennis Club! Notice the red court and net in the background. Okay, so our game didn't really excite them.

September 17-20, 2011

We had a great weekend first playing tennis at the courts up the hill and then at the Port Vila Tennis Center where we played a fun doubles match with Gary, an American cruiser we met here who spends the New Zealand winters in Vanuatu and the rest of the time in New Zealand, and Alex, a local pharmacist who moved here from Spain 2 years ago. Last week, at the marina and internet cafe, we posted a list of items for sale off Dream Caper. If we can sell them now then we won't have that chore when we arrive in Australia. A French woman who recently moved to Vanuatu from Australia came by the apartment and commited to buying most of our scuba gear and later phoned us agreeing to buy our Hobie (foot pedaled) kayak. We are thrilled that our beloved kayak will be staying in Vanuatu in these beautiful islands. She and her husband live on the beach and our kayak will be perfect for them. They will pick up there merchandise on Saturday when she returns from Papua New Guinea.

We continued to practice our tennis enjoying the physical exercise and visiting the boatyard daily. Instead of launching Dream Caper on Friday, September 17, our initial date, more delays occurred mostly because the weather has been too wet either to paint or for the gelcoat repairs to dry. Dream Caper's hulls look great, very smooth and nicely painted. A few chips and cracks in the gelcoat have been repaired. She will now launch on Wednesday, September 21, after being on the hard for 16 days.

We have signed up to participate in the ICA (Island Cruising Association) Rally from Vanuatu to New Caledonia. Although we normally would not join in a rally like this because we prefer sailing more independently, this group has arranged for customs, immigration and quarantine to meet them in the Loyalty Islands east of New Caledonia's big island of Grande Terre where boats normally have to go to check in at Noumea before going back to the Loyalty Islands. We have heard that the Loyalty Islands are spectacular and decided to take this opportunity to stop there on the way. Sailing back from Noumea to the Loyalty Islands is too difficult, wind and sea wise. So, we are now part of this group of 26 boats, the majority of which are cruisers from New Zealand. As it turns out, our friends Sandy (ex-cruiser) and Chuck from Marina del Rey, who joined us on Dream Caper in the San Blas Islands in Panama several years ago, are here sailing with their California friends Jim and Pat on SV Wetnose in the rally. After the ICA rally orientation meeting on Tuesday, the six of us enjoyed dinner out. As far as we know, we 6 of us are the only Americans in the rally. The timing of this rally also coincides with our desired departure times. We will leave Sunday for the 35 hour crossing to Ouvea Island in the Loyalty Islands. From Ouvea Island the rally officially heads north around Grande Terre for the following 3 weeks. We will, instead, head south to Lifuo Island, Ile de Pins (Island of Pines) and then Noumea where we will check out of New Caledonia for the crossing to Brisbane, Australia around October 15.