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American Spirit II - Day 186; Sailing to and Arrival at Port Vila, Efate, Vanuatu; Thursday, July 10, 2014



At 12:15 AM I rolled up the mainsail because the wind was on the nose and the sail was flapping.

Joel was on watch from 12:30 AM to 3:00 AM. During his watch he saw one boat, which was the only vessel we'd see the entire 18 hour passage. And while passing by the island of Erromango to our east during his shift, we encountered a 2 knot head current which reduced our boat speed to 5.5 knots.

Chet came on watch from 3:00 AM to 6:00 AM.

I relieved Chet early at 5:45 AM. The sky was overcast, again. The boat was rocking 20 degrees left and right due to the waves. The island of Erromango was still visible off the starboard, aft quarter. Very mountainous. The seas were 3-4 feet; the wind was 13/14 knots and our boat speed 7.8 knots. It looked like rain was a good possibility.

At 6:23 AM a sharp, horizontal band of sunshine broke thru a cloud layer on the horizon. Then it was gone again as quickly as it'd come. I was overdressed. Last night was cool, but this morning was warmer. One long sleeved shirt was enough.

At 7:05 AM I rolled the main out to the second reef to keep the boat from rocking back and forth so much. A cloud line to the east indicated that the clouds may blow away to the west, giving us a sunny day. Yeah! A sunny day increases crew morale more so than a cloudy day, even if the wave and wind are the same.

Angie got up at 8:30 AM and right away started reading her Kindle in the cockpit. She's turned into quite a good sailor; under some difficult conditions.

At 9:00 AM everyone was up and I cooked 1 freeze dried dinners for breakfast: Beef Stew followed by chilled pear halves.

At 9:40 AM Joel and I put 10 gallons of diesel (2 jerry cans worth) into our main fuel tank. The wind speed was 15/18 knots and our boat speed 7.3 knots, even after throttling down to 1,600 RPM's from 2,200 RPM's.

At 10:39 AM Joel called out 'Land Ho.' Efate was visible on the starboard bow.

While taking a trip to the foredeck, Angela noticed that we had picked up some volcanic ash from Mount Vasur as we sailed past it last night after leaving Port Resolution Bay in Tanna.

Our noon position was 17 degrees, 57 minutes South; 168 degrees, 20 minutes East.

At 12:45 PM I send out 3 logs via our SSB radio. The receiving station for the emails was Darawank NSW in Australia; 1,198 miles away at a heading of 221 degrees True. I wasn't able to send out any logs in Tanna because the mountains surrounding our anchorage were blocking the radio waves from getting out. The logs I sent out took only 2 minutes to send; but the emails I received took 41 minutes to receive because the radio speed was 200 - as slow as it gets. 3,600 is the fastest speed that we can send and receive emails.

We med moored at the Yachting World Marina at 2:15 PM. A motor boat and three marina workers helped us do so. We tied a rope to a mooring ball off our bow; and two stern lines to the concrete dock. Once we were secured, a 12 inch wide wooden plank was extended to our transom so we could walk on and off the boat. Walking the plank. We then plugged in to shore power, so our batteries could be charged.

Once ashore Joel and I tried to use 2 ATM's to get cash, but neither one worked. So we exchanged Fiji and US dollars for Vatu dollars. About 100 Vatu dollars equals 1 US dollar. We then bought SIM cards to put in the cell phones that we'd bought in Fiji. Angela got us a dinner reservation at Port Vila's premier restaurant - Elan. I then called The Edge, the company that conducts the waterfall rappelling tours; and Troy was able to juggle things around so the four of us could go Friday morning before Angela and Chet boarded their 4:00 PM flight. Angie insisted that we do this before leaving Vanuatu. The World Cruising Club had set up abseiling for the crews for next Tuesday, so we got a discount (8,000 Vatu dollars instead of 8,800).

We made it to the Elan restaurant at 7:00 PM. The restaurant overlooked the ocean to the west, and the furnishings and food were excellent. Good choice of picking a restaurant, Angie! The dinner was expensive but worth the price.

We were back at the boat at 9:30 PM. We used the same driver, Wesley, for both trips to and from the restaurant. Like we did in Port Denarau, Fiji, I will use the same taxi driver all week. We get better service and a better price that way; and the reliability of having such a driver is great.

Once back on board Angie and Chet packed all their luggage. In this luggage were awards, including an aluminum beer bucket that we got in Panama, that I'd received from the World Cruising Club for my logs; a Tongan war club; a Tanna tomahawk; pottery from the Lawai Pottery village; and some items from Lauren and Laurie on Nexus; and Tracey on Folie a Deux - to mail in the US.

Lights out around midnight.

Brian Fox



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