We had a wild romp of a sail to Port Villa. After all the passages where we could barely eek out five knots of speed per hour, this one was the opposite. We spent the whole night reining in our eager filly. It seemed like the more we shortened sail, the faster we would go. By four am we were down to just a triple reefed Genoa and smack in the middle of the fleet. We made the decision to ease out between the boats and make a big arc towards Port Villa. We had been told not to arrive before 08:00 so we just went for a few extra miles sailing until 07:30 when we came into the big bay at Port Villa. The staff at Yachting world marina are amazing! Lemaura and her crew greeted us, escorted us by boat to a place on the wall, put a very nimble Willie on board with us to take care of the bowlines, which are attached to a mooring ball in front of the boat, and had two more helpers ready to take our stern lines. A very pleasant docking situation indeed! We were tucked in next to Rubicon and not too much later Alora came in on our other side. All three boats were in one accord, scrubbing off salt, and when the chores were done, Captain and I enjoyed a second breakfast then took a lovely nap. In the afternoon we explored the village and found the supermarket. We had a good workout paddling the kayaks around Iriki island, marvelling at the nine wrecked boats along the shore, then returned home at sundown for a delicious lasagne dinner, a bottle of red wine, a very early turn in and a good night’s sleep.
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