Today is Friday 6th June and Cathy’s birthday, so she was woken up to the gentle strains of a gift CD of a local string band and told to show-a-leg as we had to upanchor and reanchor off the Origin Energy HQ. We made it to Origin Energy for the agreed 7.30 am start and John, their senior mechanic came aboard. It took all the morning but he finally left pronouncing the stove 100% fixed, now Jim is reassembling it while Pam types this blog.
Let’s back track to Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. We went to sleep in the calm waters of our anchorage in Havannah Bay intending to rise early (or at least fairly early) for a long sail back to Port Vila. Let me explain, the prevailing winds at this time of year are the SE trades and Port Vila was, loosely speaking, SE from our anchorage – so we were expecting a bumpy ride punching into the wind. During that night the wind rose, rigging started to creak and slap (Pam uses the English term “frap”). In the middle of the night Jim went up forward to fix a snubber to the anchor chain, making a bit of noise in the process. Cathy woke up in morning complaining that she had heard pirates and/or ghosts of rattling chains.
In the morning the wind was still blowing hard from the SSE, but Jim suggested that we set sail anyway as he could not really assess the situation until he got out of Havannah Harbour into clear water. When we reached the clear water the wind was still SSE, not at all good news for a reaching Port Vila that day. We had up the staysail and the mainsail with a couple of reefs. The crew was still enjoying themselves, so we pushed on and showing great skill Jim got us back into Port Vila by late afternoon. Jim’s effort was all the more commendable as the water pump to the engine failed halfway so we had to do it under sail alone.
The next day Jim spent a hot morning fixing the water pump while Pam and Cathy took shore leave and headed back to the waterfall (cascades) – highly recommended by all of us to anyone visiting Port Vila.
While on the subject of repairs I think we mentioned some time ago that Jim has ordered parts to repair the automatic flush on the head (dunny), well they have not yet arrived but it is turning out to be only a very minor inconvenience. We are not likely to run out of buckets of sea water to chuck down the head. Sorry if any of you find this a bit “off”, cruising is not for the prudish.
As soon as Jim has got the stove back together and Pam has checked it out with a celebratory cup of tea we are off ashore to join Cathy and help her celebrate her birthday. She has booked us all into a Japanese restuarant with a great harbour view for dinner.
So long for now.
Love,
Jim, Cathie, & Pam