What a surprise when we visited Customs at Port Denerau on Wednesday to arrange for our clearance on Thursday morning. They do not have a Q dock to use for clearance but have to pay for half a day in a marina berth. And the marina berth is not cheap either. There is no way that we would be able to afford to spend one night in this marina. After all the clearance procedures were completed, we started our slow voyage towards Vanuatu in low winds. As we got close to the Navula Passage, a big tanker overtook us. It was nice to be 'escorted' out by such a big ship.

Once outside the pass, the reality of sailing and the discomfort of the open ocean hit the crew. She had to take a seasick tablet to ease her stomach, lying down in the cockpit most of the day and night. Luckily the weather was warm and the wind too low to cause water to splash over the sides.

The wind was low, but the waves were low too, which made for a not-so-uncomfortable sail. Ntombi was however like a duck, wagging from side to side. On Friday the wind picked up slightly which made for an easier sail with less movement from side to side.
We spotted a fishing boat on the shallow (446 meters) patch of water during the second night. In the morning a big ship passed about 3 miles from us. We put our trawling line out but were not successful in landing any fish on this trip.
The wind changed to be from behind and we used the whisker pole to keep the headsail open. It worked very well when the wind was still with us. At times there were no wind and the flapping of the sail was soil destroying.
One morning, whilst busy with shaking out the reef that we normally put in overnight, the Captain identified a potential disaster and moved to the cockpit as fast as he could. He was just in time to catch the mainsheet and block when the shackle connecting it to the traveler bend open and came loose. Crew ran for the spares, and he was able to replace it in a jiffy. He also fixed the original shackle so that it could be used as a spare incase it is needed in future.
One morning at 3:30 am heavy rain caused Captain to change sails. He had a nice warm free shower in the rain as reward. As usual, the rain cause no wind and he started the motor to get some speed. When the wind came through, we sailed at a nice speed with comfortable waves. It is a real joy to sail in these conditions where the wind and waves are from the same direction.
At 100 miles from our destination, we realized that we will arrive in Port Villa at night. We decided to go as slow as possible to enter in the morning. During one of the no-wind spells, we started the watermaker and filled our tanks. On Tuesday the wind filled in and we had such a nice sail that we could continue sailing without stopping. Reality is that we cannot continue and that the weather does not always stay like this. The weather forecast is not good at all from Wednesday evening. Very strong winds with lots of clouds are forecasted. We hope that the anchorage will be well protected against any high winds. We are now back to normal sailing life and the challenges of strong winds at anchor, unlike the comfortable marina in Fiji.

We were getting close to the island and decided to continue sailing until just before sunset. The plan is to heave to, get some sleep and then continue at 4 in the morning for arrival around 10 in the morning. When you heave to, the boat drifts at .1 to .2 of a mile and it will be dead calm inside the boat even if the waves are big outside. Nothing however works to plan, and we ended up drifting too fast in the wrong direction - towards land. We took turns to sail away from land and then drift towards land, until Captain eventually gave up and started sailing slowly towards the anchorage in Port Vila. We read in some material that the leading light into the harbour is not working. To our surprise, the leading light was working. During daylight hours you can see it under the building with the blue roof. The captain demonstrated to the crew how the light works. You aim at the white light and when you venture too much to the left, the light will turn red and you need to steer towards starboard (right side) until the light is white again. The same happens when you sail too much towards the right. The light will turn green and you need to move more to the left (port side) until the light is white. We followed the leading light until we came to the yellow bouy/lateral mark indicating the quarantine area where we released our anchor.
Quite to our surprise, the officials did not come to our boat. We had to launch our dinghy and drive to the customs building at the main wharf. It was a very pleasant experience with helpful staff directing us to the various offices. We visited customs, then immigration and lastly bio-security. There is an ATM onsite where we draw money - Vatu - to pay for our visas and bio security fees. We paid the necessary fees of 4500 and 3000 vatu respectively.
Total hours of the voyage was 141
Total miles covered 532
The average speed was 3.77, but excluding the last night's heave to, the average is 4
The negative of the passage is that we motored for 56.6 hours, but the positive is that the 84.4 hours of sailing were very enjoyable.
Another positive is the fact that we were able to stay within 10 miles of Intruder for the whole trip. It was the first time that we were in such close proximity to another boat the whole time. In 2012 we were able to stay close to two other boats on our trip from Tonga to New Zealand. It was however only for 5 or 6 days of the 11-day passage.