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American Spirit II - Day 183; At Tanna, Vanuatu and Lava Steam Vents at our Anchorage; Monday, July 7, 2014



Joel on watch 12:00 AM to 3:00 AM. Chet on watch 3:00 AM to 6:00 AM.

At 6:00 AM I was on watch until 9:00 AM. Sailboat on port, aft quarter. Called on VHF and identified our boat as American Spirit II. Boat I called was Avocet. On starboard bow was Saphir. Because AIS broken, we no longer had a means of easily identifying sailboats around us. Wind 12 knots, boat speed 7.1 knots.

At 7:00 AM the island of Futuna, Vanuatu was visible thru the rain and mist and clouds off our port beam 7.3 miles away. The top of the mountain and island was not visible. Covered in clouds. Looked like Jurassic Park.

At 7:05 AM the auto pilot cut off while I was down below looking at chars and a pilot book. No big deal. The boat did a 360 degree turn. I grabbed the wheel and got us back on course and punched the auto pilot in again to lock in the desired course.

At 8:00 PM I defrosted the freezer. I had a new procedure. I took the frozen foods from the freezer and put them in the refrigerator. That actually lowered the temperature of the refrigerator. A good thing. After pouring hot water into the freezer to defrost it, I then drained the freezer. I then emptied the ice cube trays into the ice cube collecting box, for lack of a better word.

Later in the morning we noticed that the water maker might be having problems. Not making enough water. GPH (Gallons per Hour) insufficient. Never a dull moment. One hose still leaking.

At 10:32 AM Land Ho! Chet sighted Tanna, Vanuatu island. Good job Chet! The mountains were visible above the clouds and thru the rain and mist.

At 1:00 PM we changed our time from Fiji time to local time, an hour earlier. 1:00 PM became 12:00 PM. Another time zone.

At 12:15 PM we sprayed our clothes with Permithion, a chemical that kills mosquitos upon contact. Vanuatu is a high malaria country. We're all taking a malaria provalactive to combat the disease. Doxycyline to be exact.

At 1:40 PM we anchored in Port Resolution Bay, Tanna, Vanuatu. The information on our electronic chart plotters was zero; as was the information on my British Admiralty charts. Hard to believe that in today's technical world navigation information in certain parts of the world was still non-existent.

We had to anchor twice because the fist time the anchor wouldn't old. Actually dragged. After anchoring, we noticed three lava steam vents only 3 hundred yards from our position. Seemed like we were in a the Jurassic Park era of history.

We celebrated our landfall and anchoring with a cocktail hour at 2:00 PM.


Dinner at 6:00 PM consisted of steak, rice and corn. The steak was supposed to be cooked by Joel in the cockpit propane grill. But it was too windy. so I ended up cooking the steaks in the skillet in the galley. We listened to music in the cockpit after dinner. Joel was first to bed after dinner; Angie and Chet went to bed after him. The only lights in the bay around us were the masthead lights of the anchored sailboats. Eerie. And cool.

Brian Fox




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