For you technically minded out there, here is a shot of our new electrical panel. I hope there were plenty of oohs and ahs, it is quite beautiful. The panel also drops down now, a huge improvement because you can work on it without squeezing yourself into an impossibly small space that is shared by the vented loops from the head! Barry wanted to take a picture of the back as well but we have put a hard plastic shield over it to protect from any moisture that may accumulate in said space. The Link 10 on the bottom left is the only not new thing on the panel, it tells us the health of our batteries and is working fine (touch wood). One very nice feature of the new panel is that it lights up with a greenish light so you can read what you are switching on at night. It is great because switches have been moved around, whereas before I knew that the bilge pump was the third from the top on the second row, and could turn it on by feel, I have not become familiar with this panel yet. This on the other hand is our new hydraulic auto pilot. The gizmo in the middle is the rudder post so the auto pilot can push and pull the rudder hydraulically from this location, which is at the aft or rear of the boat under a cockpit seat. The hydraulic pump is partially hidden under the boards It is run by a computer which is attached to a control head which is mounted at the other end of the cockpit under the dodger. The last control box was located right in front of the wheel mounted on a stainless steel grab post, it was a little more convenient because it was closer to the wheel but Barry is able to reach over with his long arms and use the control head. I hope the sighs of gee I wish I could have one of those were not too loud. It, of course is also controlled by our new electrical panel. With the auto pilot you can steer the boat mechanically while under sail or motor, it of course takes power so when there is wind we prefer to use our wind vane. It will be very helpful for putting up and taking in sails, single handed as well as steering under motor and when I want help raising the lowering the spinnaker, Barry can just put on Otto, I hope he and Wendy get along!
This particular item was a HUGE bone of contention between Barry and I. I wanted to install it in Fiji but he refused saying we could not afford it and now all of a sudden he thought we could. This has been good for many well thought out and reasoned arguments!!!

We have been busy fixing up the boat, I have got 5 coats of varnish on the teak but need more, I don't think I will shoot for the 9 I did in NZ, but a few more are needed, the UV is so hard on things. Other than that we have been doing little else, it seems. We went to visit the botanical gardens and have been walking back and forth to an industrial area to find (what else) boat parts. We are planning to leave either on Thursday or Saturday for points south, the weather is probably the best on Friday but sailors never leave a port on a Friday.

I went for a walk yesterday because I have been looking across the harbour at the hill opposite for almost a month and have not gotten around to walking over there. I had a lovely walk, I splashed my feet in the water as I strolled along the beach. There was a class of school kids doing various activities, some were surfing, some swimming, some playing games, some making designs in the sand, some just walking. I couldn't see any how the teacher was controlling them or even aware if someone was missing but hopefully they counted when they left school and when they went back, it all looked like terrific fun.
There were a couple of older gents fishing in the surf. They had big long poles and I went up to one to ask about how he was doing and got a poor reception so I did not bother the second guy. They had (dare I say man purses!) made out of canvas with their gear in, hanging off their hips and were standing in the surf in their shorts, fishing away; Australians seems to be fishing mad, they fish off the pier, off the breakwater, off the boardwalk, off rocky promontories, off big boat, off little boats, in rivers, streams, oceans and I imagine in lakes and ponds but I haven't seen that, but I digress. There was a older woman (over 75) walking along the beach in a turquoise hat and matching jacket, she looked so nice I gave her a complement.

When I got to the end of the beach I clamored the bank and walked along the other side of the harbour that ended in a huge breakwater. I was intrigued with a flock of gulls that was looked like they were attending a convention that was taking place in the parking lot beside the boat launch, there was no food in sight, they were all standing facing into the wind almost in rows, why??? At one time there was a railroad on the breakwater , the only part that was left were the cross members.
I hiked up the hill and enjoyed watching the surfers on the next beach over. This part of the coast consists of endless beautiful sandy beaches. We are looking forward to seeing more of it.

This is one of the kangaroos with her joey that we spotted in the park. On the way up to Inverell we stopped at a small museum. It was a former Chinese store in a mining town. There was a boom in the area when tin was discovered in the late 1800's. The store was established back then and provided just about everything you could ask for, dry goods, clothing, mining tools and groceries. The building expanded as the need grew and was run by the Chinese family that started it until about the 1990's. At that time the proprietor died and it was turned into a museum. They just left everything as it was. There was a display of old hats and I just had to try one on. This particular hat was said to have been made for the Melbourne
Cup, the premier horse racing event in Australia. The race actually took place the day after we arrived so we traipsed off to the local yacht club to watch it on TV.
We had a good trip back from Inverell. We stopped in at Yamba to have a look at the spot Trish has chosen for her wedding. It is a great spot where we can moor for next to nothing, Graeme's parents and my brother can camp, and there is lots of accommodations for the rest of the guests. There will be a passel of young children there and the resort is set up for family entertainment so everyone should be happy. There are great beaches on the ocean perfect for surfing, kite skiing and swimming. It should be great.
A bunch more boats have shown up from Noumea. There was a good weather window and about 20 boats left within a couple of days. We are planning a get together at the yacht club on Friday so everyone can swap stories. Our new sail is being made, the electrician is here to replace our old worn out panel and the fellow that is making a new bracket to hold the boom on to the mast showed up today and Barry (against my wishes) ordered a new electric auto pilot (our old one died in New Zealand) all is good.

We are up in Inverell visiting Graeme’s parents, Ian and Jackie. They have a lovely home on 6 acres of land and there are wonderful birds all over the property. I have been getting an education on galahs, eastern rosella, crimson rosella, musk lorakeet and rainbow lorakeet as well as cocatoos and I have yet to see a king parrot, they are all big colorful birds.
Yesterday we drove over 300 km up through the mountains on the coast to this flat pastureland. There were numerous national parks on the road which was named Waterfall Way. I convinced Barry that we should stop in a few parks and were rewarded with stunning views of the Great Dividing Range. They parks were all well maintained with boardwalks along the sides of the waterfalls and gorges. Today Ian and Jackie drove us to a state park where there was a large damn that was built to supply water to the area as well as the cotton plantations which have been established here. We were thrilled to see our first wild kangaroos, they would be lying about and when we drove slowly by they would stir and stare at the car to make sure there was no threat and then they would go back to lolling about in the shade.
We spent some time this morning exclaiming over pictures of our soon to be son-in-law, and daughter-in-law in their formative years. The kids having grown up in separate continents experienced the same world conditions, but surf boards figure prominently in Graeme’s childhood, while skiing and other snow sports were a main stay in Trish’s life.
Tomorrow we are off to Yamba, where their wedding will take place and then we have to reluctantly return the rental car. It does not make sense to purchase a vehicle like we did in NZ because we don’t plan to stay in one place that long. I could do with a bicycle though, I may see if I can rustle one up for the remainder of our stay in Coffs Harbour.

I have put some new videos on U-Tube. Check out the side bar on the blog and at the bottom there is a link section. Just click on the links and they will take you to the new Volcano Video from Tanna in Vanuatu and the Whitewater Rafting trip. I must change our position on the Yotreps site because at the moment it looks like we are 40 miles inland. I must have hit a wrong digit when I last reported.

I decided to go on the whitewater rafting trip. We traveled for 2 days down the Nymboida River about a 2 hour drive inland from Coffs Harbour. It was quite remote and we only saw one other set of paddlers on the river. The river was very high due to the big rainfall we had last week, while we were driving to the site we set off from, one of the rivers we had to cross was within 6 inches of flooding a bridge. This made for some exciting times on the river.

There were class 5 rapids that we ran, that had huge standing waves and at least a meter and a half drop in one spot. There were 5 paddlers and a guide in our raft. The paddlers consisted of 2 young German fellows and a young couple that had just finished university, the girl was from New Zealand and the guy was an Aussie. We had to work as a team and paddle in sync in order to drive the boat at speed in the entries of the rapids. We also got very good and "getting down and holding on" as we were bounced around the boat. It was amazing the skill of the guide to thread through the rapids and dance around the rocks. We portaged over several sections that were not safe with the increased water flow, but apparently we had a much easier time on other sections of the river that would have been more difficult at low water. We got thoroughly wet a number of times. My body is telling me that I haven't been kind to it. The food provided was excellent, the highlight being chicken cooked over an open fire with mango chutney, yum!!
It was great to have a chance to get off Cat's Paw IV and participate in a totally different kind of water activity. The added bonus was been driven 2 hours into the country side and back on a different route. I enjoyed the bird sightings along the route, we also saw a lizard and a possum that was interested in our food. I was not so thrilled with the reports of snakes at one campsite and the continual sightings of spiders, I know they can be poisonous here. It was interesting getting to know a group of very nice young people and share some of our experiences with them. Barry enjoyed a quiet weekend without me and is waiting to get his next scuba dive in.

We have been enjoying exploring the town of Coffs Harbour. It is a city of about 100,000 and it has a beautiful setting. There are lovely beaches and hills. The town has kept the shoreline relatively free from development so it is quite natural as you stroll along the beaches. The island that is just seaward of the marina is a bird sanctuary, with a wonderful walk up the hill and across the highland. At all times of the day you can see people walking, strolling and running along the breakwater and up and over the hill. I have been doing it every morning and it is a good workout. Today Barry and I took a walk out to the end of the Jetty, it's very sturdy and was used in the past for ships getting timber from the area to load supplies on and fishermen used to tie up and offload their catch there before the breakwater was built.

I thought since I was in Aus. I should attempt to learn to surf, Barry didn't think his ankle would stand up to it so he did not attempt it. I quite enjoyed the lesson, the fellow was a very good teacher. I did manage to get up on the board several times so I was quite pleased with myself. It was a 3 hour session in the water and by the end of 2 and 1/2 hours I was done, my eyes were sore and my legs were cramping and my back was starting to hurt, ah the pleasures of age! There are so many things to think about but I did get the concept and I think found the sweet spot of the board a couple of times. The fellow also offers white water rafting trips and said he would give me a deal so I decided to go. It will be a 2 day trip down a pretty spectacular river, leave Saturday morning and come back Sunday night. Barry has decided that he would rather spend his entertainment dollars on diving so has booked himself on a 2 tank dive next week. He is determined to catch up or surpass me in the number of dives he has!!

I called Graeme's (Trish's partner) parents because we are having a boat part shipped to them and they very kindly have invited us to stay overnight when we drive up. That will give us a chance to get to know each other and I am really looking forward to that. We are looking into having a sail made here as well as upgrading the rest of our rigging, it seems a pleasant place to stay and I am in no hurry to go further south until it warms up a bit more. I have plenty of boat projects that I would like to accomplish as well such as varnishing and polishing (what fun).Baie D'Opheliant in Noumea before we left

I am so confused!! For many of you that know me well, you will remember that I have a difficult time with left and right, difficult may be putting it mildly. I just can't seem to get it straight in my brain. For example when we were diving on the Coolidge, Barry asked me to check if his air tank was wide open and I twisted it a few times to make sure it was open. Well, we almost lost Barry, I had twisted it partially shut and he had a very hard time breathing when he went under water. He rather looked like a fish as he gasped for more air! Honestly, I did not do it on purpose, he even admitted last night he had some trepidation about me doing it but did not remind me righty, tighty, lefty losey.
So, we had been in New Zealand, Fiji, and Vanuatu for almost 6 month, they all drive on the opposite side from North America, I am truly not sure if it is on the right or left, but then we get to New Caledonia. They are French, they drive on the same side as we normal Canadians. All is good.
NOW, we are in Aus, and they drive on the wrong side, I am so confused, I do not know which side of the road to look for cars coming. I don't know which side of the sidewalk to walk on and in the supermarket I am constantly causing traffic jams in the aisles. Does anyone out there have a solution to my problem? Am I alone or is there a syndrome that I can identify with and a self help group that I can attend. I believe that I have even passed on this affliction to one of my daughters. I think she may have managed to partially overcome it but you would have to ask her partner for sure. What is a person to do.

We are here, that is a big YAHOOO!!! The passage was super, only one thing broke, I kept waiting for something else to go, great sailing, all down wind and only one very small yelling match. (it was about the pole, that would be the spinnaker pole) which comes in very handy when you are going down wind. Barry though we would get beat up on the passage like the voyages to and from New Zealand but it was not to be. We picked a great weather window, Barry is getting to be quite the weather reader, he gets it right 3 out of 5 flips of the coin. His usual gambit is to wait about until everyone else says it good and then we depart in a panic. This time he actually went out on a limb and said "Oh man, it really looks good" and we left!!!

All the rest of our buddies stayed in New Cal and are stuck there as the lows are marching across Oz AND cyclone season here has commenced as announced by the South Pacific weather guru Bob McDavitt!!!!!! We ourselves are now SOUTH of the dreaded cyclone belt.
Aus is not what we expected, it has hills. We were sure it would be flat, there are lovely rocky hills and surfing beaches. It is first world, we went in and bought a cell phone today and had to make VERY TOUGH DECISIONS about minutes and plans and which one of the (#*&$) phones to pick, it was a wake up call after 5 months of grass huts, palm trees and sandy beaches!Our phone number is 043865531 and you have to figure out the Aus prefix because we are too tired to, but don't call now the network was down when I tried to activate the phone so we are still not connected, BUT WATCH OUT TOMORROW, the scrouge of the airwaves will strike.
We have been told how expensive things are in Aus but they are compatible with Yellowknife prices, except the bus it is a travesty, it was $3.80 each, ONE WAY, unbelievable. I only slept about 4 hours last night, we had to dodge at least 6 freighters, good thing I read that book How to Av0id Large Ships At Sea, thank you Paul and Lorraine. P.S. Barry says the secret is to yell really loud!!!

We are over half way now. It has been a decent passage so far. The winds up until yesterday afternoon were from behind us. It was a bit rolly but as we were going with the wind there was no bashing into waves. Yesterday it rained from about midnight until 10:00 A.M. then the wind died off and we motored for about an hour. Then the wind came up from the south. We are still able to make our heading but now we are bashing into waves and the ride is bouncy and we are on a 20 degree angle which makes cooking hard. At the moment we are scheduled to arrive in Coffs Harbour on Monday morning but lots can change before then, all is well on board.

We have left for Australia. It should be about a 7 to 8 day passage. We had 850nm to go when we exited the pass out of New Caledonia at 1600 hours today Monday, Oct. 25. I don't think I have any Halloween treats on board, there is some chocolate but I am sure it will be long gone by then. At the moment we are screaming along at 7 knots with a triple reefed main and our staysail, wind is on the beam so we are flying. Occasionally a rogue wave comes along and smacks us and I have changed my clothes so I am now dry and I hope to stay that way. The weather looks decent for the passage so wish us fair winds.

We have been busy making the cultural rounds in Noumea. We have been to visit the cultural museum, the city museum, the aquarium and the zoological park. I enjoyed the city museum the best because it explained the history of New Caledonia and the city of Noumea. It also had a big section on the participation of New Caledonia in the first and second world wars. New Caledonia was the French equivalent of Australia, it was the penal colony for France. Once the convicts were here and had served their penitentiary sentences, they were not allowed to leave but had to take up residence here. There are some beautiful old stone buildings including the Catholic Cathedral that were built with prison labour.
The indigenous people here the Kanaks were treated very poorly by the French, not even being classified as people until 1946. They had their land taken from them and made to live in certain areas where the land was much poorer. At one point they weren’t allowed to leave their homes after 8:00 P.M. I was appalled about how they were treated until I started thinking about how we treated the aboriginal people in Canada and I am not sure we did any better. There are quite a few homeless people in the main parks here, it reminds me of Yellowknife. There seems to be a big difference between the have and the have nots here. Friday night we were out walking around trying to find some place that was open for dinner before 7:00 P.M. and there were quite a few drunks having a good time.
The restaurants and shops operate on European time, the shops close for lunch for an hour or two and restaurants serve lunch until about 3:00 and then close until 7:00 or 8:00 for dinner. It takes a bit of getting used to. The shops seems very stylish after the Mother Hubbard dresses that are worn all over Vanuatu. The women of French descent have style, and all the women cruisers are eyeing their high heels and their stylish clothing and makeup and feeling a bit inadequate. I would love to buy a pair of heels, but can’t imagine myself tottering around in them, my feet would kill me and I would probably catch them on the toe rail as I tried to get off the boat and go headfirst into the water. I can’t imagine walking down the dock with them on.
The aquarium was great, we really enjoyed it the great variety of fish and informative exhibits. Fortunately the signage was in French, English and Japanese so we were able to learn about the aquatic life. They had a great display on mangroves and their ecosystem. The zoological gardens had lots of beautiful birds and as much as I hate seeing caged animals I know I would never have seen these birds if I did not see them in this setting. The park was huge and we could have walked around for hours. Getting a cultural fix has been a nice change from beaches and snorkeling.
I would like to leave this anchorage and visit some of the outer anchorages but I am not sure I can convince Barry that we should do that. He is really focused on watching the weather and being ready to leave for Australia when a good window becomes apparent. It should be an 8-10 day passage to Coffs Harbour our intended point of entry into Australia. I cleaned the hull yesterday so I hope we don’t stay here too much longer, I don’t want to do it again.
We are socializing with new and old friends, boats tend to go several ways from here. We have buddies that are going back to New Zealand and Fiji as well as on to Australia. We also made contact with a fellow that we met in Apia, Samoa over 2 years ago that lives here. He invited us to his home for dinner and served us venison, it was delicious. He speaks very little English so Barry and I practiced our French on him until his wife showed up. Her English was better than my French so we got along very nicely although we did continue to try and speak French to include Marcos.

I just posted a bunch more pictures in my Memories of Vanuatu story so check back to see them. We are off to the aquarium this afternoon. The sail repair should be done tomorrow, Toketie arrived today and our other friends Cop Out should arrive this evening, so we should have a good Canadian contingent in town.

Ann sent this a few days ago - I apologize for the delay in posting it

We are safe and sound in Noumea, New Caledonia. New Caledonia was colonized by the French and although there was talk of independence in the later 90's I don't think they have that status yet. There is a lot of nickel on the island so there is money and the French are very good at building infrastructure so Noumea is a first world city. It has lots of new cars and three lane roadways where the French drivers roar around as is they are on a Grand Priz course. The shops are full of first world goods and there is French fashion and underwear as well as a hairdresser on every corner. I walked by a Puegot bike shop and lusted after an expensive mountain bike. The shores are full of big condo complexes and the marinas are full of lovely yachts, there is no room for us lowly cruisers. The main marina has a waiting list while all the off shore cruisers have congregated here, waiting to leave for Australia, New Zealand or Fiji for the cyclone season.
We are at anchor in a mooring field which is not a lot of fun. Mooring are usually laid out in a specified manner leaving swinging room for yachts the bigger the yachts the further the moorings are apart. Moorings have a short scope and mostly a huge weight at the bottom that secures the boat. When you are at anchor you have to let out chain, and you are supposed to maintain a scope of 5 - 1 or at the least 3-1, so for a 10 meter depth the minimum amount of chain would be 30 meters, therefore if the wind shifts and you swing when you have anchored in a mooring field you may or may not hit the boats that are around you depending on how precise you were at dropping your anchor and how much scope you have out. At the moment when the wind really blows from one direction we are about 1 boat length away from a moored trimaran and the wind has been really blowing since we got here 2 1/2 days ago. There was a huge high off of Australia and it has generated 30 knot winds, everyone is hunkered down on their boats because when you go anywhere on your dinghy you just get soaked and you daren't leave your boat because you might swing and hit someone or someone's mooring might give way and their boat might blow through the field and bash you, fun and games.
We have been doing some maintenance, Barry has checked all the hose clamps. That is why the engine wouldn't start while we tried to get into Lifou because a hose clamp had rusted out and not enough water was getting to the engine. Then he figured he may have found a small leak we had in the engine coolant system. We still have to get the sail repaired, we are waiting for the winds to abate before we try to remove it. I want to work on some hairline cracks we are have in our deck, so we have lots to do before we set off for Australia. Barry wants to leave as soon as there is a weather window, hopefully we won't be ready to leave when the first window arrives and we will have a little more time to spend exploring New Caledonia.

We are safe and sound in Noumea, we are busy fixing things, our sail is being repaired, Barry did a full day of preventative maintenance of our engine. It was a hose clamp that had failed that caused our problems so he checked all other clamps and found a couple of others that needed attention. Noumea is a first world city with all the trappings, I have heard that other areas are not the same, the French have poured money into the city and there has been lots of money made from the ore that is available in New Caledonia. The indigenous peoples, the Kanaks have been treated very poorly and you see homeless people hanging about the beautiful downtown parks, it rather reminds me of Yellowknife.
We set of to the cultural museum yesterday. It was a wonderful piece of architecture. I haven't got the pictures with me but will upload some at a later date. We bought a pass so will be seeing the botanical gardens, the aquarium and the national museum in the next little while. Barry is getting anxious about the weather so we will probably be off to Oz as soon as there is a good weather window.

Memories of Vanuatu

Vanuatu was a spot where the population still lives in quite a primitive manner. Lots of people still live in thatched huts with dirt floors. The thatching varied from beautifully natural designs to dwellings that had painted thatching that emphasized the design, I preferred the natural ones. The crazy thing was that most of these folks had cell phones, but they did not have the electricity to charge them and in one anchorage we had a number of outriggers come up to us and ask us to charge their phones. One fella even told us that he thought cell phones contributed to unwanted pregnancies and crime. He spent most of the time that we had contact with him on the phone.
The locals seemed to think that because we had a big boat that they could ask us for anything and expect it in exchange for very little. For the most part we did not mind this, but at one spot we gave a fella one of our set of overalls, at first he said it was too big and refused them, but later his wife came by and said he had FORGOTTEN his coveralls and in exchange gave us 2 bananas, 1 pawpaw and another vegetable. Now we will have to buy another set of overalls if we ever want to paint the bottom again! In another spot we had a man come with his small daughter to welcome us and ask if we had anything. He said he had nothing for us but he did say that his wife was going to give birth and ask if we had any blankets, we happily gave him as spare Mexican blanket that we had, the smile on his daughter face was all the reward we wanted.
The Ni-Vans were most welcoming, they invited us to share their homes, their food and their lives. We were offered a place to live, the chief ‘s son said that his father would happily build us a home. We might have to take him up on it one of these days, it would a great spot to spend the winters and we would have a vacation get away for all our family to come and join us. We have heard that further north friends were adopted into a family and are welcomed there.
We often felt like we had stepped into a National Geographic photo shoot. The young man who took us on the tour of the hot springs by Mount Yasur in Tanna painted his face with colored mud that he dug out from around the hot steam vents. He also explained how they killed the flying foxes (or fruit bats) by throwing sticks at them while they were in the air. The primitive bows and arrows that fisherman used just emphasized the National Geographic feeling. In Erromango we watched the males of the village work together to set a huge fishing net around the entrance to an estuary, some swimming, some paddling dugout outrigger canoes. In Asunvari we woke up to a fleet of canoes being paddled in as parents brought their children to school. The fellow that was our guide to the bat caves, took his 5 year old son up and down a very steep slippery path to school every day, some days he carried him. The kustom dancing in Port Sandwich was amazing.
We are thinking of returning to Vanuatu next year to spend more time in this country that has so much to offer. There are so many places we didn’t get to experience and many other people who can show us how to happily live in a much simpler manner.

We tried to stop in at Lifou in the Loyalty Islands but I don't think it was meant to be. First of all we had no water coming out of the engine when we went to start it, it is a marina there so we needed the engine to maneuver around. Barry got that fixed and then a big squall came up so we slowed down so we would not get blown around when we got in, then we discovered a rip in our main sail so that was it, the place had three chances and it was no go, so we are continuing on to Noumea, the capital of New Caledonia. Our mainsail has been developing a number of small tears lately. I told Barry before we left New Zealand that we needed to buy a new main in Australia and he was adamant that it was just new (we bought it in 2005) and it had lots of life left in it, hmmm!!
ANYWAY, we are having a great sail at the moment, double reefed main, staysail and about half a genoa and we are comfortably doing 7 knots, whoopee. The sun just came up, Barry is sleeping and life is good.

We left Vanuatu this morning at 0600. There are 7 boats that left today so are able to talk to some on the VHF, that is nice. We are cruising along at over 6 knots with reefed main and staysail so we have good winds. We are not quite close hauled so it is not the most comfortable sail. At the moment I am bracing myself up with my feet and lower arms while I type so will keep this short. We will stop for a couple of days in the Loyalty Islands if we reach there before dark tomorrow, we should if the wind remains the same strength. Hope all is well with you as you plan for your Thanksgiving weekend. It has kind of snuck up on us, so we have no particular plans

We are in Port Vila again, the capital of Vanuatu. We are waiting here until the weather co-operates and we can leave for New Caledonia. We have had several great adventures since the last time I posted a blog. The first one was when we went to a blue hole upriver from an anchorage just north of Luganville on the island of Espirito Santo. The blue hole is exactly what it’s name describes, we traveled about a kilometer up the windy river, the channel kept getting narrower and narrower. At the end the channel was just wider than the dinghy and the rest of the river was covered with vine like floating vegetation. Then the river opened up into this wonderful wide circle and the bottom fell away to about 10 meters. It was crystal clear and the water was fresh. We had a great time swimming, there were quite a few young people swimming and they came over and we took pictures of all of us under the water, when we came up we laughed and laughed. We had fun experimenting with the camera as well. There was a huge tree at the edge of the water and people were swinging and diving in and having a great time. I figured they didn’t want to see a 55 year old grandma make a fool of herself so I didn’t give it a try.

ASUNVARI

We sailed off to another island, Maewo and there we headed off into the hills on a 5 hour hike to see a cave that was filled with bats. Other cruisers had told us what a great time they had there so we set off. It was a challenging hike as it had rained the day before and on the way down the ground was just goo, I would slip and slid down the hill. Our guide was excellent though and he had a hand for me whenever I needed it. The cave was huge and there were hundreds of bats flitting about inside. There were so many that their radar didn’t work in it’s usual superb manner and a few crashed into us. At the end of the cave it opened up and the sun shone in. It showed a cathedral of rock with a huge opening at the bottom. We threw rocks into the hole and they would bounce down forever, apparently there was another cave opening at the bottom. You would have needed lots of very good climbing gear to find out what was at the bottom of the cave. After we came down from the hills we had a swim in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall. (If you click on the pictures they will enlarge and you can tell that the specs on this picture are bats)
The anchorage where the village was is called Asunvari and it is gorgeous spot. There was a nice curving bay with a sandy beach on one side, where the village was located and then the waterfall at the other end. The land to the back of the village was a steep rock face which is covered with lush vegetation. They had a yacht club there and we had a meal, the fellow that had prepared it had been a chef in Luganville and he knew how to cook. We had dinner with a couple from a Spanish boat. They had been in Pago Pago in American Samoa when the tsunami hit last year so we were regaled with first hand accounts of what happened when the wave hit the harbour.
When we went ashore in Asunvari the chief of the village approached us. He needed to get to Port Vila to see a doctor and asked if we would be willing to take him. We had planned to make a number of stops on our way back to Vila, but we decided this was something that we could do so we agreed to take on a passenger on our voyage back to Port Vila. We sailed for 36 hours straight experiencing quite changeable conditions but managed to get to port before dark. Jif (chief) Nelson spoke pretty good English but we struggled to come up with conversational topics that interested all of us. At one point I asked about local legends and he came up with three stories that he shared with us. He used to work as the skipper of a commercial vessel that visited the islands around his home. He also skippered a traditional sailing canoe that was sailed from his island of Maewo to Port Vila. He told about visiting a bunch of different islands and I think other crafts joined in from the other islands and they all sailed to Vila. It was a unique experience having him onboard and we appreciated the bananas and papayas that he gave to us to compensate us for the food he ate on the trip.
We are enjoying the company of cruisers we have met up and down the island here in Port Vila, but time is running out in the season and I am anxious to get to New Caledonia. We may leave on Thursday but I am not sure if the weather will co-operate.

JIF NELSON