First passage and more

This will be short as internet here is pricey and slow.  April 23 we departed Opua for the island of Tanna, Vanuatu. We had a nice sail for a few days, a rough uncomfortable 24-30 hours and then sailed for a day, finished by motoring the last 30. We caught a couple of mahi, one about 4'!

 From 20 miles out we could see the glow of the volcano reflected in the clouds.  Tanna was amazing; very primitive, nice people. The first day we had lunch at Chez Leah; Chicken, veggies, fruit.  The bananas here are delicious; bigger and tastier than in the States.

Typical dugout canie for fishing.

Chez Leah. 

Don at our lunch.

Carol by a large banyan tree.

BANANAS!

Steam vent near our anchorage; the water was noticeably warmer.

The second day we took a very bumpy truck ride on the washed out road to the volcano and went to the rim. Impressive beyond belief!

The Chief came and gave permission to visit the volcano. 

Traditional dance

Your intrepid reporters at the rim!

One decent sized blast.

Looking into the fiery pit.

The locals threw us a party/dinner at the "yacht club" and we left the next day.

The Tanna yacht club.

Went to Aniwa island, did some snorkeling , then sailed overnight to Erramango island.  Don, a local man spent 3 hours showing us around the village and explaining their culture and how they function.  Took us to a Nakamal, which was their version of a guest house. Anyone could go there to rest and be fed.

Resting on a woven grass cot.

They gave us some just caught mackerel that Carol filleted and served as one of the hors d'ouevers that night as we had folks from other boats over for drinks.

Fileting the mackerel.

We also found out that in the late 1800's they had killed and eaten several missionaries in a row, but have since stopped and apologized to the first missionary's descendants! They even renamed Dillon's bay, William's bay after that first missionary.

We left Erramango at 330am so we could sail to Port Villa and arrive before dark. At dawn we put up the big symmetrical spinnaker we bought from Ian and Cindy and put the boat into overdrive!  Sailed the rest of the way making 9 knots or more! Woo-hoo!

10 knots!

Carol and I just completed our SCUBA class so now we can dive the Great Barrier reef in Australia and also Indonesia!

The open air market here every day has fruit and veggies you have to see to believe.

So now we are leaving Port Villa tomorrow and visiting some of the islands to the north and then it's on to Australia; about a 1200 mile passage.

Hopefully the next post will be a bit more in-depth.