From Vanuatu

The four of us spent the past week in & around Luganville on Espiritu Santo. Luganville is the second largest town in Vanuatu after Port Vila, but it certainly isn't Vila! No French supermarkets, no duty free and it isn't as pretty or convenient. But, we anchored off a resort near the town for a few days to do some errands & spend some time ashore and whenever we were back at the boat, we were uploading & downloading on the free resort wifi like it was our last chance ever. We joked that anyone staying there with a seaside view could probably figure out that whenever we were at the boat, their internet service would go to pot. Then when we'd leave, it'd be fast again! We got a lot done and the open roadstead anchorage wasn't as bad as the guide made it out to be, although the trip to shore over a river entrance shoal ensured we had wet shorts every time we crossed it.

From Vanuatu

The US had a military base on this island during WWII. Some of the remnants are still visible today. One is called Million Dollar Point where the US dumped a large amount of gear & equipment at the end of the war rather than bring it back home. It has become a dive/snorkel site for what reason I don't really know. The kinds of things dumped there include bulldozers, trucks, containers, etc. We decided we had to snorkel on this to see what all the hubbub was about. None of us were overly impressed, but we did see some nice sea life among the wreckage. No matter what it looks like under water, we will ALWAYS find some redeeming life form that brings a smile.
From Vanuatu

The following day, we'd booked a scuba dive on the SS President Coolidge, a luxury liner turned troop carrier during the war that hit a friendly mine on the way into the harbor. The divemaster told us it was hit in the stern area under the engine and that the captain had moved it closer to shore to try to beach it as it was sinking so fast. It sank in something like less than 2 hours, and it now lies on it's port side right off the beach near Million Dollar Point. We did a shore dive out to it with a dive shoppe since supposedly, you can't dive it on your own anymore since there have been fatalities there. We were kind of excited to do the dive since it's a pretty popular wreck and we've never done one anywhere near this big. But in the end, it was kind of disappointing because it seemed like as soon as we got going on the dive, we were heading back up again. We all came up with over 1200PSI left even though we told the divemaster right from the get-go that we were good on air and wanted to see as much as we could. So... we got to see the bow area, anchor, 2 cargo holds with some special effects like dishes, guns, bullets, Jon saw an old boot... BORING! For a little bit, we were below 100 feet and I remember thinking that this wasn't really worth the risk given that it wasn't actually pretty! Our favorite part was the starboard hull, which lies horizontal at about 60 feet and there was some good life established on the hull. We saw this funny yellow nudibranch that looked like a little yellow car. It was while the four of us were studying this and just poking around without a care that the divemaster starting banging his tank to get our attention that it was time to go and we were all like, what???! It's gotten so we can't stand diving with a shoppe because it's always like this to some degree. So it was no surprise that
we all opted out of a second dive on the Coolidge that day. Once was enough.

We had a couple of nice lunches together in town and perused the stores for decent food. While I felt like I really scored on some frozen vegetables at one market, we all agree that we're sort of burned out for the season on the lack of excitement in the food department. It's not that we're obsessed but think of how many meals you eat a day and multiply- you get a fair amount of time spent ingesting! We say we're going to New Caledonia for a short stop to get another weather window and make the New Zealand passage shorter, but we all know it's really for another shot at some decent food to enjoy eating something good on the passage!
From Vanuatu


And the past couple of days we've been over at Ratua Island, anchored off another resort (yep, free wifi!). This is a beautiful spot and a good place to be for some unsettled weather that's been hanging around the past couple of days. We've done some pretty good snorkeling and Jon saw the first seahorse we've seen since the Atlantic. Of course the rest of us missed it since we were doing an exercise swim instead. Jon & I biked around Aore island yesterday which was great. It took us 4 ½ hours to circle the island and we saw 1 car moving the whole time. There are very few people living on it; it's mainly coconut trees & cattle with some pretty wooded areas interspersed here & there. Perfect!

This area is interesting in that there are several islands with deep water channels around them such that the current roars through the channels like something you'd see in Maine but with tropical colored water. We crossed one of these channels in the dinghy with a 5 kt current to get to an adjacent island with a blue hole. We motored up a little river through mangroves & hardwoods as the river got narrower & narrower and at the top, sneaking through a little cut, you come to a lovely spring fed blue hole! We had a little swim and enjoyed the total peace & quiet, except for all the birds singing.

And when we haven't been goofing off, we've been working on the boat. The generator continues to give us heartburn with various issues but it is running. Yesterday, we spent much of the morning trying to figure out why it wasn't pumping any water until we discovered that we'd sucked up a large, tropical leaf that didn't make it to the strainer, but was pinned up in the seacock. In 19 years of boat ownership, we'd never had that one! It seemed like this next season in NZ would be lighter in the boat project department but as usual, the list is growing. It is a never ending battle to keep a boat floating with all systems running.

We found out that we can be useful to Jon's parents by coming back to the US for a visit in November and helping them bring the car down to their winter place in Florida so we've made plans to do just that. Even though we're far away physically, family & friends are never far away in our minds and we'd like to think that we can make ourselves available to help or join in some fun at least part of the time. So, it took some planning but we have a framework for a visit home and then we'll come back to NZ at the end of January to tour around some more and start back in on some boat work. It feels a little scary though, sitting here in Vanuatu with a big passage ahead and tickets to leave in 1 month. Mark & Anne leave for Idaho 3 days after us so we all have pretty much the same deadline, which is good, since it gives a feeling like we're all in this together. Misery loves company!