May 21, 2009

Anchor Down in Port Vila
We arrived in the Port Vila quarantine anchoring area at about 11:45 local time, evidently close enough to lunch time for the customs and immigration officials. No reply yet to our VHF radio calls, so we'll wait until after 1:00 to start calling again. Wind shifted to dead behind us late last night, and about dawn increased in strength to about 18 knots, when I reduced sail to hold our speed under 7 knots and keep things relaxed. As soon as we had worked our way around the island to the west side, the sea swells went flat, and wind dropped to about 10 knots, We had to tack up the large bay that Port Vila is located in, but it was easy sailing in flat water. It looks like a bustling, pleasant town from the anchorage. Quite a few resort type establishments along the shoreline, and para-sailing and sportfishing boats out on the water. The vegetation is a darker, richer green here than it was on the atolls. Lots of elevation changes on this island. On the way in we passed a big terrace with a dozen large wind turbines on it, slowly spinning, generating electricity. I know that about 5 years ago Vanuatu started running all government diesel vehicles on coconut oil. This may be a very interesting place for one of my persuasion on energy supplies. Ted

PS; Just got a radio call from Joe, on Mundakka, a radio acquaintance who tells us this is a holiday, Ascension Day, so we may not get cleared in today. No problem, we can wait. 20 days at sea.