Goodbye Vanuatu: Numbaone!

We enjoyed a lovely sail (as opposed to the bash we would have had the prior day) up to Peterson Bay, where we anchored in the outer lagoon, waiting for high tide to enter the very shallow winding reef entrance into inner Oyster Lagoon. With waypoints entered on our GPS, Calder and I on bow watch with a walkie talkie back to Chris steering, and Cora monitoring satellite images, we made our way slowly in. At high tide we had a low of 8.9 feet and it felt tight.

We had a few overcast rainy days that corresponded to sickness, as we can’t escape viruses sometimes when we go into cities. Rainy days meant school, paperwork for the upcoming Solomon Islands, baking cookies, and doing Continued Medical Education.

We did rally and dinghied up jungle-lined Matava River to a stunning Blue Hole.

We also took the opportunity to “extend our food supply” by going out to dinner at Turtle Bay Lodge where we did try the famous free-range organic Santo beef. Moments of miscommunication crack us up at times, such as when I indicated a nearby table and asked the waitress, “What did those two have for dinner?”  to which she responded, “Live music.”  Sound great; I’ll order that! And we did indeed have some live music that night.

Calder had two great wingfoiling days, where he worked on jumps, hit his new max speed record, and sped by turtles and a dugong.

We were about to head north when another cruising boat hit the reef on the way into the lagoon and cracked their rudder, which is no small injury to a boat. Loss of a rudder is terrifying, one reason that people end of abandoning their ships and needing rescue. Chris stuck around to help drill holes in the rudder, place bolts, and do some underwater epoxy work; all good skills to learn, made more of a challenge underwater. It’s a rule of cruising – we’re a community out here and we always help when we can.

The next day, thankful we had a good track from our entry, we left the inner lagoon at high tide, this time seeing only 6.6 feet depth. Yikes, this is indeed a tight entrance. A few days later another boat we know nudged onto the reef, but was able to back off.

A bit north to anchor off the much-touted Champagne Beach, which is indeed a beautiful beach.

We anchored in clear turquoise waters, but these waters were a bit too swelly for our liking and, after one night, we pointed our bow north to Port Olry on Calder’s 17^th birthday!

Here we walked the beach, walked through the jungle to find a lake, had a beachfire with other cruisers, swam, and did our “tropics haircuts = buzzcut.”

And we also analyzed and re-analyzed then analyzed weather some more. We are a bit behind schedule, but still had hoped to go to one more small volcanic island north of us then check out of Sola, Vanuatu, which also broke up the trip to the Solomons into a few day passages. However, there is a tropical low that has formed with an upcoming front. There’s also the SPCZ (South Pacific Convergence Zone) to deal with that typically brings thunderstorms, dynamically coming and going. And finally, we’re in a Super El Nino year which is playing a role in producing some wacky weather (a tropical low is trying to develop around 5 degrees South, which is the wrong time of year!). Add to that general hot Earth and hot oceans. As Meterologist Bob said, “Cauldron boil (sea temps rising) and Cauldron bubble (cyclones).” So, back to our decision…We either need to get moving all the way to the Solomons or stay here for at least 10 more days for the system to move by and then have an uncertain weather window. But if we don’t get up to Sola to check-out, then we need to backtrack to Luganville.

Instead, we found a taxi that can take our family to Luganville for check-out and reprovisioning, then depart that same evening. In preparation for this, Calder and Chris scrubbed the bottom of the boat, not wanting to save this task for the salt-water croc infested waters of the Solomons. Chris is working on our boat security system, as well as contemplating how to create a “path to ground” system for our mast in case we get struck by lightening. Much to think about.

A wonderful cab driver, Steven, spent the day with us, driving us the 1.5 hours to Luganville, then back to Port Olry. Our goal was to check out, reprovision, and top up our diesel (in containers). It didn’t all go according to plan… First stop, Immigration, where there was a very long line so we popped over to the Port to pay our fees (about $100 USD for staying here for 6 weeks). Stopping at Customs, they sent us back to Immigration to do that first. There was a separate shorter line for what we needed at Immigration and it was done easily. Back to Customs, where we stood in line for a bit, but then were informed that they are not allowing people to taxi down for check-out and we’d have to bring our boat all the way back to Luganville to check-out there. Well, dang; this wasn’t a option, as we needed to get underway STAT to avoid a nasty weather system. After some discussion, Customs made an exception if we paid for their agent to drive up to Port Olry and physically see our boats, giving us our final Clearance Letter there. Yes, we’d pay for that, not much of a better option and we were happy the agreed to work with us. I agree with another cruiser who stated that it felt a bit like the Amazing Race, as we ran around from office to office, then getting food and hardware store items. Our time taking to Steven for 3 hours as we drove along was a highlight of understanding Vanuatu, as we openly conversed about everything from the school system to copra farming, from the cattle industry to New Caledonia’s struggle for independence from France. He was originally from a remote village on a different island, went to university and traveled, ultimately returning to Santo Vanuatu, which he feels is the safest and kindest place he has ever lived.

Goodbye Vanutu – it has truly been Numbaone! Vanuatu has been a raw, authentic, sensory experience. The land is very much alive, a living and breathing presence where the natural and spiritual world are closely intertwined with daily life. We watched magma being ejected from an active volcano and felt the ground beneath us shake. We swam down sacred jungle-lined river canyons. We swam surrounded by dugongs. Thank you Vanuatu!

Anchor up at 4pm. Off we go to the Lata, Solomon Islands, hoping to arrive Wednesday mid-day before the volatility of the system arrives. I admit to having a bit of trepidation, contemplating crocs, malaria risk, increased theft/crime risk, and thunderstorms. I feel as if we’re heading out on a new phase of this expedition. Please dip your hand in the ocean and send us good vibes through the waters.