A month! Well, we have just spent nearly a month in Port Vila. It was not intended. Our intention was to arrive, spend a few days, buy groceries, and hit the road continuing north. But things happen. First, we had to register the boat. While most countries allow their yachts a permanent registration, the good old US requires that we FAX in a form and get a new hard copy USCG registration mailed to us. The do not allow an email exchange – not for the form we send, nor for the “document”. That would be far too logical and convenient for those of us who are traveling off the beaten path. No, we must first FAX the request form that says there is “no change” in our status. Lots of FAX machines in the jungle. Then, the US sends a hard copy – once again no logical email or electronic copy of the USCG registration “document” is allowed. So, in our planning, we must factor a stop in a relatively modern place where we can get a FedEx with this...document. So, we did that, Port Vila and the nice people at Yachting World Vanuatu graciously provide that service for no extra charge. This took a week.

Then I got sick. A bad cold was going around, and everyone we know got it. I was hard down for two or three days then felt better. BUT, we are a team, and of course Elisabeth caught it shortly after I was done. Then she got it really bad along with a sinus infection which after ten days, I took her to the doctor, got antibiotics. Three days later, she was well.

Then Jenny was getting close by now, and if we waited a few more days, they would be here. Well, we wanted to see them, of course, so we waited. It was good to see them again. They had been to the islands up north – where we are going and they had lots of good reports about what to do, where to go etc.

Then the weather. Remember the rainy photo? We have only seen a few sunny days since we have been here, and many have been just too miserable to want to travel.

So then, what did we do in the rain? Walking for groceries in the rain was a nice past time. Taking the dinghy over to the propane plant (in the rain) for refilling was nice. And we met a lot of really nice people who shared our same situation. The Waterfront Bar where we park our dinghys (and get free showers) has a nightly happy hour from 4 to 6 PM. We met there for visiting and frolic with a number of interesting and nice people.

There was Steve. Traveling alone from Australia. He is a former bush pilot and does electrical work for yachties. He caught the cold too. He is on a 36 ft. boat, and is intending to get a bigger one this year. His dinghy has a perpetual leak, and the hangs it from the boat so it doesn’t sink during the night.

There was George from Switzerland. He bought his beautiful aluminium boat in Thailand 12 years ago and has been on a loose circumnavigation since then. George is married and his wife is in Germany until next week. They will go to New Caladonia when she arrives. Next year, they intend to go north to the Philippines like we are doing this year. George is a fit and healthy 60 year old,, runs every day, and scolds us if he sees us eating a bowl of chips (French fries) at happy hour. George caught the cold too.

Bob and Lee are two Aussies in a big Fontaine Pojol catamaran. We met them in Fiji. They are our “cowboys”. Irrascible gents with a great humor. We believe they are married, but just don’t want the wives along, nor do the wives want to be along for this sailing. Lee is quite the good cook.

Ib is originally Danish and his wife is from a country in Eastern Europe that we never got clear on. Their dinghy outboard died a while back, and they row everywhere. While in Luganville, one night, rowing home with his wife and another woman, a shark must have heard the splashing of the oars and thought the dinghy was an injured fish. This shark promptly took a bite out of one of the pontoons. The floor and the remaining pontoon were still inflated, and they safely made it back to the boat. All the while, the girls were urging “Row Ib, row! Faster!”. This in a dinghy, sitting lopsided in the water with only one pontoon inflated.

The list goes on, and we really did have lots of fun hiding from the rain under the grass roof of the bar. But, after a while, it is time to move on. So finally today, we paid our mooring bill, and untied the boat. We have only moved around the corner, just outside the bay, but the process has begun. The season is pressing on, the storms start in December, so we move accordingly.

We are now anchored at Mele Island. There is a resort here known as Hideaway Island. It is another (and the last) of the places we visited five years ago with the Alaska Eagle. We are very close to where the Eagle had anchored and the memories of that time are strong.

There are many islands in Vanuatu. From here we begin working our way north and will meet Jenny later in September in Vanua Lava where, we will jump off to the Solomons.

For now, the sun is shining. It is beautiful here, and we send our best to you all. The photo is of a kid we saw yesterday who had climbed the coconut tree and was throwing coconuts down to his buddies for a nice drink. He threw one for us too! Thanks kid. That was special.

Rod and Elisabeth