Pam: Sunday. We rose early at Banam Bay as Jim decided it was a fair wind for a passage to Port Stanley. The Norsup airport is at Port Stanley and Nicky and Lee need to get a flight on Wednesday so that they are back in Australia ready for the new school semester starting next Monday. By 7.30 am we had the mainsail hoisted and were just about to raise the anchor when Shamus, a decky from the brigantine, rowed across with a gift of fresh baked hot donuts. After thanking him profusely and deciding that he looked a super strong young man Jim asked him if he could crank our engine. He readily agreed and gave it a few mighty cranks. Unfortunately rather than starting the engine he bust the chain on the sprocket of the hand starter. Shamus then headed off with the broken chain to see if the brigantine had any similar, they hadn’t but instead the captain silver soldered our broken chain. Many thanks.
Jim then faced a difficult decision. It was 10.30 am and rather late to leave for Port Stanley but the forecast was for adverse winds for the next few days. He said “let’s go” and we sailed off north up the Malacula coast. At first we had a good sailing breeze but then it dropped and a northerly came in. We finally made Port Stanley on dusk. It was too late to reach a protected anchorage, so we spent the night rocking and rolling. Pretty uncomfortable and none of us slept well, but Lee and Nicky seem to have got their sea legs and no-one was queasy.
Pam: Monday: We sailed out of our rough anchorage hoping to anchor near Lakaturo, which is the small town close to the airport. The wind shifted again and it looked as if it wouldn’t be a good anchorage so Jim made for the lee of (Uri?) island in the Port Stanley area. We could see the airport around 3 km away on the mainland.
We all jumped off the side of Intention and went snorkelling. The consensus was that both the hard and soft coral and the fish were the best we have seen. A little later Nicky went over the side again and came back up the ladder extremely fast. She reckoned that she had seen 5 sharks circling her. Lee poo-pooed this suggestion and reckoned that they were spanish mackeral. However when she went down to have a look she also bolted back up the ladder. Nicky consulted our Vanuatu fish book and decided that they were white tipped reef sharks. The book says that they are inquisitive rather than dangerous so I went down and took some snaps of them on Nicky’s new underwater camera.
Later, while we were having a spot of lunch. some NiVan lads in an aluminium tinny paddled out to us using very inadequate makeshift paddles. They claimed to have run out of fuel to get home which was about a couple of kilometres away on a neigbouring island. Jim gave them enough fuel to get home and they invited us to come back with them to their village. We agreed, but in our dinghy. I should have mentioned that after we handed over the fuel Leon,a rather sheepish New Zealand schoolboy, materialised. He was holidaying on the neighbouring island and was with the NiVan lads. We met Chief John and thinking we were just making polite conversation mentioned helping the lads. It turns out that Leon was staying with Chief John and he was not impressed. I am not sure if his concern was their heading out without enough fuel or bludging fuel off yachties. Either way we fear that they were all going to have a serious dressing down.
Nicky: Tuesday: Lee and I had a bit of an adventure. We decided to go for a walk on this island where we are moored. We thought there was a village at the other end of the island that we could walk to. However, after a trek through the jungle and getting thoroughly lost we heard voices (shouts and squeals) which I thought might be cannibals and Lee thought were the local boys playing soccer. As it was they were a group of men, young men and boys chopping down coconuts to sell the coconut oil. We were very pleased to see them and they said the younger boys thought we were ghosts when they heard us in the bush. They all then guided us back to the beach where the yacht was moored. We were both very relieved. We took some photos and said goodbye. However, they were fascinated when we took off our sarongs and stripped down to swimmers to swim back out to the boat!!
Pam: Wednesday: We were up at dawn intending to sail Intention over to Lakaturo on the mainland so that Lee and Nicky could get to the airport by noon. While we were drinking our early morning cuppa (this crew doesn’t function until it is fueled with tea) the wind suddenly came up and up and up. What to do? Finally there was a brief lull and Jim decided to take Lee and Nicky and their gear across in the dinghy. I stayed aboard to lighten the load in the dinghy. It is now midday and Jim has just returned reporting that they all arrived safely but absolutely drenched. The Vanair office said that the plane was on time so we have to assume that Lee and Nicky are on their way back to Port Vila. Intention seems very quiet and empty without them. We will miss them.
The wind is still howling and Jim and I will stay put until the wind is favourable for a passage to Santo. With good winds We should make Luganville in a day. I reckon we should also stay put while Jim’s back is so painful. He says he hasn’t had a bad back like this for years.