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Lady Kay - Port Vila



Hi all
We had another rough night sail to Port Vila, with no winds for 3 hours, then stong winds and big seas for the rest of the way. It was great to come into the large, sheltered harbour of Port Vila. We arrived in morning with plenty of time to get showered etc. for the ARC luncheon and prizegiving. The food was good and we were able to enjoy it with good NZ wine. We were suprised and pleased to win first prize for multihull section in the last leg, especially so as it was a bottle of wine rather than another plaque!
Port Vila is the main town on the island of Efate. It is actually a proper town with shops (a good French supermarket, Duty free shops etc.), cars, roads and hotels. It is a beautiful setting based on an inner harbour on one side and a lagoon on the other side - our first taste of civilisation for some time. It reminds me a little of Grenada when we first went there, except that the development here is more or less confined to this one town, with the rest of the island and its villages undeveloped. There is a developing tourist trade here, which is supplied through the international airport. There are also quite a few people from Aus or NZ who have settled here. It is starting to build a few holiday homes as well. We found a great little internet cafe on the front where you can get proper coffee and nice snacks while catching up on email etc. It is called Nambawan (number one). The language spoken on Vanuatu is a version of pidgin English with some French influence. It is fun to try and work out what things mean. On the bank notes, their motto is " Long God yumi stanap" I would imagine it means something like 'long may God stay with us'. Luckily nearly everyone in the town speaks English and often a bit of French as well.
We are off to cruise around some of the small islands around Efate tomorrow for about ten day. Then we will return here to check out and sail down to New Caledonia, saying goodbye to the Arc. We shall greatly miss all the friendship and support we have enjoyed since January, but hope to keep in touch with at least some of the fleet. When we return in Sept, we shall be able to meet up with Harmonie, Southern Princess and Storyteller, and we plan to all sail down to NZ together mid to late October so will shall have our own mini-arc. We also hope to meet up with Val and Hugh from Blue Flyer when they come to visit New Zealand in December. We shall be letting you know our new blog address in the next day or two.
By the way, it is quite cold here, despite being on the same latitude as Fiji and other islands we have visited. The sea is noticeably cooler and you need a fleece at night. I even had cold feet the other evening. Not sure I like the cooler climes.
Picture today is not of Port Vila - haven't downloaded the 'photos yet, but is a rather organic entwining of men from a Kastom Village and their sacred Banyan tree.



men in Kastam village

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