Fiji to Vanuatu

We had a great few days in Fiji..... after spending nearly all Friday messing about with Customs...not so much on our arrival papers, but on getting a cruising permit to go to Molololailai, Musket Cove and Castaway Island for two nights. We have never had to get a permit for these islands in the Mamamuthas, but not only did we need this permit this year, but it also cost a bit of “koha”..so much for President Barniarama and his clean up Fiji theory!! We have never had to pay back-handers before in many years of visiting Fiji...

Anyway...it was all fine and on Sunday we bade Brian, Phil and Judy goodbye and left on Monday morning for Tanna Island in Vanuatu.

By the time we competed filling the diesel tanks at Denerau, cleared Customs at Lautoka it was early afternoon by the time we were motoring down to the reef passage which we passed through at 1600 hours...and Mike Lanigan, Anna and I were on our way to meet the family at Tanna.

The trip was pretty quiet..sailing, most of the time, at 10 to 12 knots..at times better...wind 20 to 25 ESE which was great..until it went more into the North so we ended up getting below the rhumb line..in the end..we missed making the entrance to Port Resolution in daylight...by 2 hours..arriving about 1930 on the Monday evening 20 May. So Tuesday morning, knowing the family were flying to Lenekell early afternoon, and Lenekell being on the other side of Tanna several hours drive away, we entered the bay, quickly anchored, rushed ashore and were very lucky to immediately find that there was already a truck taking some French cruisers to Lenekell on the other side of the island to clear Vanuatu Customs...so we jumped on that and were off. Wow! What a ride, what a road...actually, you could hardly call most of it a road, more like a water course of ditches and holes..amazing driver.

So we arrived at Lenekell just before the family...being my Mum Betty, Nick and his new fiancé, Kate Williams, Michael and his lady, Jacqueline Hosking and of course, Anna and Geoff. We said “goodbye” to Mike who flew that afternoon from Lenekell to Vila and then on home to NZ. We had a great time with Mike and if it had not been for the arrival of the family would have missed him, his precision, organising and humour on board.