Just a week later than expected, we managed to get to Luganville (our original target in Vanuatu) and all is well. We spent a good week in Port Vila, moving after a couple of rolly nights, from the quarantine anchorage to a mooring at the Yachting World Marina. The marina is in a very sheltered area between the town and Iririki Island and it was a good place to leave Tregoning for a day while we rented a car and drove around Efaté Island. Along that drive, we stopped to snorkel at the marine sanctuary at Hideaway Island Resort. The coral and water clarity were not particularly impressive but the diversity of fish was amazing. I recorded 110 species (with a few unknowns) quite a few of which were new to us.

We had a speedy, overnight, mostly downwind run from Efaté Island to Espiritu Santo and are now anchored with a dozen or so other boats just west of Luganville, off the lovely Beachfront Resort. The managers of this resort have worked-out the perfect way to cope with cruisers anchored off their beach. There is a welcoming sign that invites us walk through their facility (on a path that is discreetly hidden from the cabins by vegetation) to gain access to town if we will simply come and register (fill-out a simple form) at their office where we will receive a free town map and information guide. There are services we can buy (laundry, garbage disposal, hot-showers, etc.) or we can use their attractive pool, WiFi, etc., if we purchase drinks or a meal. And everyone is really friendly. If only this was how all resorts welcomed cruisers.

The weather has been rather unsettled with a series of troughs of low pressure passing over us but we had a fairly sunny day to explore Luganville and go snorkeling at Million Dollar Point. Luganville was a massive staging site for the US military during WWII and Randall’s Uncle Bill was stationed here as a naval signalman. We chatted with staff at the development office for a South Pacific WWII Museum that is planned for the town, and they were very excited that we had a specific connection to the area.

Million Dollar Point was where tons of equipment was dumped into the sea at the end of the war after the local government did not want to buy it (more on that story later). We had an excellent snorkel there seeing plenty of fish species making their homes amongst the recognizable jeeps, tanks, small ships, and Quonset hut remains, amongst other wreckage. The unexpected highlight of the snorkel was seeing a dugong resting on the sand bottom. At first we both thought that it was a huge dead fish as the tail is shaped like that of a fish (actually horizontal, more like a whale’s) but as soon as we got close enough to see the manatee-like head and once it decided to swim away, it was obvious that it was our first sighting of a dugong. So very exciting!

The following day was cloudier but that actually helped us to stay cool as we went on a full-day expedition to Millennium Cave. More details and photos later but the spectacular trip was exhausting and not for the weak or injured as it involved: hours in a suspension-less van on a very potholed road; hours of walking on trails slick with clay/mud; visiting two remote villages, one with no roads to it at all; climbing down many ladders leaning at various angles; walking through a stream to the cave entrance; wading through the cave for about 30 minutes, mostly in knee-deep water; scrambling down the river in a narrow canyon after leaving the cave including climbing over massive boulders using ropes, chains, and rebar hand-holds; floating down the river in a very narrow gorge; climbing back to the village up a very steep canyon wall using many ladders and then walking through agricultural fields. Somehow this brief description does not remotely express the rigor of the trip but it has taken a couple of days of recovery for Randall to be able to walk and stretch his thigh muscles again without wincing!

Although there is plenty more that we could do here, we are keen to get to Tanna Island at the south end of Vanuatu where we look forward to taking a tour to the rim of the active volcano there. So we are leaving Luganville soon to make our way southward while the southeast trade-winds are not too strong. These whirlwind visits to Fiji, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia are not doing justice to these diverse nations but we are trying to make the most of our experiences here. Of course, along with spending time on uploading my fish-surveys (which I hope will become quicker as I get more practiced at listing the fish I see and entering the data) this means that I have not been spending enough time to write all the details and upload enough photos to the blog...but by now you probably realize, ’twas ever thus.