We had great time with the two sailors from Denmark for almost a month. The Hindu Tempel in Nadi had to be seen and get an Indian snack after woods was good. Shopping at the fruit and vegetable market and also fish market was great.
Blue Lagoon Yasawa group: Snorkelling on reef and having an enjoyable evening at the resort
Manta Ray Yasawa group: Snorkelling
Lautoka, Viti Levu: Provisioning
Outside Vuda, Viti Levu and Vuda marina: Clear out Fiji with custom and meeting and having lunch with Sangui and Dominique from SYVIVA. So happy to met them there.
Momi Bay waiting for a passage window. Beautiful bay were we got time to relax before the crossing.
22-26/7 Crossing to Vanuatu
Kirsten and Bjarne got an early swim and I made tea and coffee. We sailed out of the reef at 8:30, on a coarse to Port Villa Vanuatu, for motor because there were no wind. At 16 hour we pas a chines fishing boat 5 NM south of us.
First night we had 20 knots and powerful swells on my watch 24-03 so when Lars came up we took the main down and sailed with jib alone 03-06. On Kirsten and Bjarnes watch, 06-09, Lars helped setting staysail instead of jib. On Maria’s watch
09-12 all are up and we sat main with one reef. It was cloudy, 16 knots of wind and we sail 6.2 knots. (24 hour 145 NM). I got an hours sleep and Kirsten cut pineapple for us. For dinner we had the tuna Kirsten caught with Kirsten’s home made cucumber salad and rise.
Second night Maria on watch 03-06. 16-19 knots sail 5.7-6.4 knots, clouded with a few stars, water temperature 25.2°C. Made coffee and run the generator 40 minutes when freezer alarm. It is cold so long trousers and fleece sweatshirt. Time for gymnastic in the cockpit. At 06 twilight and red sky at 6:30 when Lars get a wake up call. Make two bred dough rye and wheat, toilet and rest. Fishing boat from Fiji with a boy after came very close by and Lars talk to them on VHF. They say that we can passe by and there is no problem. Also a fishing-boat from Vanuatu passes by and I can see the boy close to Alexandra. Kirsten navigate 20 degrees to BB. The bred was good and I get sum lunch before my watch 12-15. the other three sailors are asleep at 14 hour. We have nice left over dinner, lam, sausages and noodles. Kirsten makes risotto.
Third night Maria watch 21-24 the Dutch boat Sponky came closer from behind and at the same time we meet a fishing boat without AIS. Lars took over at 24 hour the third night. I wake up at 04 on K &B watch because of the freezer alarm. I sta
rt the gen-set and run it for one hour. Stop it and sleep again. At 6:30 sunrise with Bjarne is not so fine because it is cloudy. Later on sunshine and nice blue sky. We sail good no with less powerful swells. At 15 hour nice papaya. Water temperature 24.9.
Sailing Vanuatu
26-28/7 Port Villa the capital of Vanuatu situated on the island Efate. Lars cleared in with custom and we all cleared in with immigration and biosecurity at an office in town. The latter had been recently moved so we had to have help from locals to find it. The atmosphere in town was nice and friendly. We find digicel and net and then on to the large fruit and vegetable market.
29/7 Havana Bay reef snorkelling also on huge mussels, visit amazing sand stone cave and passing the guides village close by in his “banana boat”.
30/7 We sailed early in the morning to Port Villa so we could take part in the National Day celebration at the stadium in Port Villa. A happy day for the locals with live music constantly, except for when there were speeches from some of the people sitting in the celebrity tent. Also a lot of shops with home made food to by.
31/7 Taxi tour to Blue lagoon, Turtle sanctuary also with small reef sharks. Here we got quite alright local food for lunch. Afterwords we came to a National park with a beautiful waterfall were we bathed in the sweet water. Kirsten jumped into the water with a rope swing.
1/8 Taxi and shuttle ferry to Hideaway Island.There all of us were snorkeling on beautiful reef and Lars dived down to the underwater mailbox and posted a postcard to our grandchild Oskar. We find our self in deck chair on the stony beach enjoying the sun. years wedding day. We were then invited for lunch by Kirsten and Bjarne to celebrate their 30 years wedding-day.
