Plan B - Now in Operation!
27 August 2012
Colleen
Plan B – now in operation!
This season we had planned to join the rally into Indonesia & be in Thailand or Malaysia by around Nov. 1st. We left Fiji – a month later than planned. Then we spent our time in Port Vila, Matt left & we were held up by weather. It soon became apparent we were under pressure to see everything & make it to Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea but mid August……just over 3,000 miles! We are slow cruisers & love to see everything. Vanuatu has been amazing – there’s so much to see & do. The people are a delight & so friendly. It’s been a long time since we’ve been out in the ‘’bush’’ & really cruising.
We just hit 50 days & nights since leaving Port Vila. No restaurants, no villages with electricity, no tourists, no banks, incredibly clear water for snorkeling, and inviting kids & people no matter where went.
Tiny grocery stores have only the basics – flour, salt, onions and a few other items. I make our own bread. We are now low on provisions, money & fuel. We actually ran out of propane for cooking & our friends on Reflections gave us their extra propane tank so we didn’t have to rush off to Luganville.
Any way, I’m digressing – our plan is now to end the season at Liapara near Gizo, Solomon Islands. We’ll leave the boat there for 3 months & return early in the season to get it ready for Indonesia. The Solomon Islands are out of the cyclone belt so the boat will be safe there while we are gone. Around Nov. 1st we’ll fly to Malaysia or Thailand to do some land travel & get medical stuff done. Dec. 1st we’ll fly home until around March 1st when we’ll return to the boat. So……that’s the latest on what & where we will be this season.
This will be the last posting for awhile! We leave today and head north once again. Soon, we’ll have no internet at all which I will sorely miss. We’ll of course still be available via Sailmail.
We’ve been in Luganville for about 10 days. We stayed longer than planned as Tom got a cut on his foot & it became infected. Boy, a nasty infection in the tropics is a tough one to beat. He’s been on antibiotics for a week & still has a few days yet to go. His foot swelled to twice it’s size & he couldn’t walk for a few days. Finally, he’s got this thing beat but the danger is that the staff infection could rear it’s ugly head again – so we’ll be keeping a close eye on his foot.
While here, we went on an all day hike – The Millennium Cave Tour. The tour consisted of hour and half hike on a very muddy hiking trail with spectacular views of the jungle & coast to a cave. The cave was about a quarter mile long and was cavernous. We hiked thru a river to an opening on the other end. We came out in a gorge with an area for lunch. Continuing on, we did ‘’canyoning’’ – or at least that’s what the locals call it – half hiked, half floated on intertubes down the river. Incredibly steep rock walls and bright green fauna awed everyone on the tour. Waterfalls fell from high above as we floated thru them. The beauty and stillness took my breath away. Finally, we ended our float down the river. The climb out consisted of ladders & trails up and out of the canyon. We were greeted with more incredible views & a wonderful hike back to our starting point. This is probably one of the most spectacular & best tours we’ve ever done. If you ever come to Vanuatu, you have to do this tour!
Our other highlight is diving the USS Coolidge & Million Dollar Point. The USS Coolidge was a luxury liner until WWII. It’s a big as two football fields! It hit a mine that the U.S. set for the Japanese and sunk. We only dove the first part of the wreck as it goes very, very deep. It was the best wreck dive we’ve ever done though. It’s hard to imagine how big it really is.
Million Dollar Point is a point that the U.S. dumped bulldozers, forklifts, trucks, steel, etc. after the French said they’d give us pennies on the dollar for all the equipment. The U.S. laughed in their face & dumped all the equipment. It is a mountain of surplus, now covered in a multitude of bright colored corals and countless schools of fish. At least we left a tourist attraction for Vanuatu! They were both great dives & one we won’t forget for a very long time.
Enjoy the pictures in the picture gallery! Until next time……..
Love,
Colleen & Tom