The run into Port Vila ended up being a little quicker than we had anticipated. The breeze dropped a touch and we furled the staysail, pulling out the 140% genoa. This gave us not a lot more speed, and it was not happy at being 150 - 160 degrees off the wind, so we put it away and pulled out the staysail again, sheeting it out a bit more, and we pulled away as if on a sled (at least in 20-ton steel boat terms!) - 7 knots and comfy. All this brought us in to the Quarantine anchorage at 1445, and Lemara at Yachting World prevailed on the Quarantine officer to come down and clear us. He stayed about 3 minutes, checked nothing, took our 3,000 Vatu and left for an early end to his day.
We spent yesterday going to Customs and Immigration, then to the markets for some vegetables and fruit (including those lovely sweet and huge pamplemousse, like grapefruit but mild and very sweet). Daniel Kelton, our friend from Bondi Surf Club, has been in Vanuatu on a surfing trip and he came down to Vila to visit us - he had hired a car and was kind enough to take us over to Customs. A big P and O liner was in harbour, and the locals were out in force trying to sell "authentic"island clothes and trinkets, much of which was made in Taiwan or Indonesia. He came out to see Destiny but as he has to return tomorrow to Sydney, we couldn't take him for a sail anywhere.
We lunched with Wombat and Kukka (both of whom came in after us - what a surprise!) Shauna and Lynn found a beauty salon to have a nail job done, and we retired to Destiny for a wine, a big bowl of pasta and a good sleep.
There are some more photos from
Noumea (click here) and from
Vila (click here) so have a look.
Cheers from us.