It's only a short hop from Lamen Bay to the Maskelyne Islands, about 20 miles. However, short trips can be as eventful as long ones. On this trip we managed to hook a long billed spear fish, an amazing looking fish with a long sharp bill. We brought it in to the boat but released it since they are quite rare and have only limited food value. The weight must have been between 30 to 40 pounds. The wind was getting up and moving around off our stern. We had an unexpected gybe and our dodgy reefing line, bought in Fiji, promptly snapped so we had to go down a reef. Also, as we approached the anchorage the genoa decided it didn't want to furl and Michael and Kerry battled in strong winds to tame the flapping sail. Then when we were replacing the reefing line a seam on the bimini roof decided to part. So a day of repairs. The weather deteriorated, rain and strong wind so we retreated to induct Kerry into the joys of Rummykub. We had just started a second round (Jackie unsurprisingly winning the first game) when the Sat Phone alarm went off with a text message. "Oh it's just an earthquake alarm" said Michael. Kerry said it would be a bit sad if it turned out to be for here and we hadn't answered it because it was Michael's turn in Rummykub. He had two jokers! Anyway Michael decided to check, came up and said Vanuatu 7.5 richters to general disbelief. However it was true, the message had the co-ordinates deep sea off Port Vila. It had happened 7 minutes earlier, so a pretty efficient warning. We warned the two other boats in the bay, and realised that the strange vibrations and then loud bang on our anchor we had noticed earlier was the earthquake. We checked the SSB, talked to Russel radio in NZ and the Vanuatu tsunami warning centre and found that there had been a small surge of 30cm, but no damage to people or property, thank goodness.

The islands themselves are gorgeous, but look better in sunshine. The local people criss cross in their dugouts followed by their dogs. They felt the earthquake quite distinctly and were also quite worried about the possibility of a tsunami. The great depth of the water at the epicentre meant that the effects were muffled.