Author: Pam
After three fun weeks in Port Vila we finally broke away and are on the move again. We left Port Vila at 0915 and motor sailed around the corner to Port Havannah, arriving at 1330. We had 9 to 19 knots of wind, unfortunately on our nose. Motoring wasn't really a bad thing after being on a mooring for three weeks, Starship's batteries needed a good drink.
We had to make four attempts at anchoring, which I must say is unusual for us. First attempt we ended up too close to Listowell Lady, second attempt the anchor did not set and we continued going backwards in reverse and the third attempt the chain got caught in the windlass. There was only one other boat in the anchorage, so there was plenty of room for our trials and errors.
Port Havannah is recommended as a good stop to make the passage to Revilou Bay on Epi Island a nice day sail. Since we were only staying one night and the village is a bit inland we decided not to deploy the dinghy. We spent the afternoon reading about the Banks and Torres Islands at the top of Vanuatu and finishing up a few chores. It was very hot and it only took Scott about 15 minutes to go for his I have arrived, the anchor is set swim. I wasn't up for a swim so I spent the afternoon trying to find the right lack of clothing, which proved to be a challenge. Of course just after I put on my bathing suit top and a pereo I looked out and there was a guy in a dugout canoe headed straight for the starboard side of Starship, where I had also hung 13 pairs of my underwear to dry on the lifelines. The people of Vanuatu are very shy and seemingly quite modest, I immediately felt under dressed as I sat on the side of the boat with no where to go, I had been seen I was sure. He approached the boat and offered me some tomatoes, not to buy, as a gift. I said one would be lovely, but he gave us four. Scott had a nice fishing hook handy, which he offered and Reuben accepted with a smile. His kanu (canoe in Bislama) was huge. It took him two months to make it out of a Milk Tree (or white tree). It had pieces of wood lashed in the center where he could put the fish he catches, which he said there are plenty. Reuben told us 30 people live in his village and 15 of them are children. We bid him goodbye and I took the opportunity to bring in my knickers (as they say in Australia and NZ), you really never know who might drop by.
The anchorage was dead calm and remained so throughout the night and once the moon came out it was beyond perfect. Starship did not move or make one sound all night and we had a blissful night's sleep.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment