We left Fiji with s/v Heat Wave on 21 September, after spending some time together sailing to the Blue Lagoon after we cleared out. Heat Wave was heading towards New Caledonia and ourselves towards Port Vila in Vanuatu. We started with very little wind and motored for about 6 hours before the wind settled in for a very comfortable sailing on beam reach between 10 and 15 knots. We only had one night where the seas were a bit confused and we started the engine for about 4 hours. This was one of our more pleasant trips and we arrived Sunday 25 September midday in Port Vila.
We were very impressed with Vanuatu, although the country is poor there is a good feeling and the people are very friendly. Is is also a more rugged landscape. Dinis said that this reminded him of Mozambique. We only spend a few days in Port Vila, doing some provisioning, visiting the spectacular cascades and waterfalls. The water is absolutely crystal clear. We wanted to make our way north the Espiritu Santo Island, as we were meeting our friends from s/v Mamalu.
We did day sailing and anchored for the night at beautiful anchorages all the way. We dropped anchor in Espiritu Santo on October 5th and met us with our friends the next day.
We are planning to stay here a few more days, getting the boats ready for our trip for Australia. We are 3 boats planning to sail together. We will break our trip into smaller passages and stop at Atoll de Huon (about 290nm), then at Chesterfield Atoll (280nm), s/v Mamalu (Steve and his Canadian friends Wayne from Edmonton and Dean from Vancouver) and us will continue towards Bundaberg, Australia (400nm) from there and Jeff, Sue and their daughter Mandy will continue more north towards Cairns.
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