Photo # 1 – The current crew at the Melanesian Hotel for Sunday night show and banquet before leaving Port Vila.
#2 – Jim, Nicky & Pam. Scrubbing each others back at the wash & laundry place in Havannah Bay.

Today we went back to the village to give the Pastor a CD of the photos we’d taken at the Church service. We’re concerned that they have little access to a computer, although the Pastor assured us he is getting a computer soon. He works at a private school in Vila teaching English as a foreign language. We’re also wondering at their ability to afford to make prints of the photos. We were so blessed by them we’d love to bless them back and have an address to send hard copies of photos to on our return home. This has truly been a special part of our visit to Vanuatu so far.
We all had a wash in the cool stream pond and then washed clothes supervised by Gloria who arrived at the conclusion that we must have had washing machines in Australia as our technique was so inefficient. Pam had a later wash and gave the family some gifts including a toy car for the two year old that proved a huge hit. Pam promised to return to give Donna, a beautiful 17 year old, nail polish which she did with Nicky and Lee and once again the gracious and kind regard of the Ni Vans was shown when we were brought a bench seat so we could sit and chat with the family under their shady mango tree.

Pam: Two days ago the winds were still northerly, so we had a boat maintenance day. Nicky demonstrated skill at the fiddly task of replacing the flywire on all the portholes. We know that if we ever reach islands further north that there are malaria carrying mosquitoes and we want to be able to keep them out of the cabin. Mid morning there was a deluge and we all managed to wash and condition our hair on deck – great fun. There was still enough rainwater after that for Lee and Jim to fill our fresh water tanks.
Yesterday the winds were still northerly, so we decided to go to Port Vila by road. We are anchored just a few metres from the main road round Efate, but there is almost no traffic. Jim resorted to standing in the middle of the road and very assertively flagging down any passing traffic. We all made it into Vila and visited the internet cafe, had lunch at the market and Nicky had her hair rebraided.
Nicky: Today is Sunday and so we (Nicky, Lee and Jim) decided to take care of our spiritual needs and headed for the village in search of a Church service to attend. The Assemblies of God seemed attractive and proved to be a wise choice. As with everything here time is of no particular significance and so it had been difficult to ascertain the time services began. We arrived at 9 am for a 10 o’clock service! Immediately we were warmly welcomed and invited to a late breakfast of very sweet tea and peanut butter on crackers. Jim was given a printed cerise shirt to wear as it was Father’s Day and Nicky and Lee were taken aside by a beautiful lady, Jenny. Jenny spirited us away to her home where she gave us a selection of Mother Hubbard dresses to choose from and when we put them on we had to do the ‘see through’ test at the doorway, which we both failed. It was then suggested we put our own sarongs underneath, presumably to ensure our respectability at Church!! The service began with the children singing a number of choruses – some with interesting actions. The ladies sang a chorus in Bislama which Nicky had fun joining in. After the service we were treated to lunch which was a magnificent feast made by the ladies of the village. The children’s smiles were huge in photos taken by Nicky and they were delighted to see the digital images.
After lunch the men of the village were called up one at a time to be thanked by their children. This was a very emotional moment that often ended in tears and hugs. They were given presents and dusted with talc by children and grandchildren. Jim being a “Papa” also received his gifts: a sarong, two shirts, woven mat and a carved island pipe that resembled a small didgeridoo. As visitors, Nicky and Lee were then presented with sarongs. We walked down to the bay to see the small girls of the village washing the dishes and playing french skipping with a vine rope. We then left the village, wearing our island dresses which Jenny insisted we keep as a gift. We promised to return with a disc of the photos taken that day.
Pam: This morning it was a dead calm and we hoped that it preceded a switch back to the SE trade winds – but no such luck. This evening the northerlies are howling yet again. I decided to opt out of walking to the village for church and enjoyed a day on my own on Intention. As someone who lives on her own I really valued having the space all to myself for a few hours. I pottered around making cornbread and pinto bean stew. Late morning I went ashore to do some laundry in the fresh water stream. Yet again the NiVan’s overwhelming helpfulness was evident. A mama watched my desperate efforts to get the dirty marks off Cathy’s towel. She saw that I was failing miserably so she insisted on taking over and she scrubbed away energetically. Sorry Cathy – the towel is still stained.
Jim: Today was one of those very special days where people’s love, sharing of community and family was so impactful upon me. After being acknowledged as a father (papa as they say in their language of Bislama) by this loving community I stood with tears streaming down my face trying to somehow thank them for their loving open hearts and giving ways.
Jake told me his house was just a tin one but he had everything he needed. I told him he was a very rich man with a roof over his head in a warm climate, plenty of food to eat, surrounded by a very loving community of friends and family. He agreed as we stood up to have second helpings of any of the many dishes some of which consisted of pork, fish, chicken, taro, breadfruit, cassava, sweet potato, green spinach, coconut milk, including fresh fruit and cake for desert at the feast. How could anyone not be blessed with such love and abundance.
Jim, Nicky, Lee, & Pam

Pam: The last entry had Jim making the anchorage at Ai Creek in Havannah Harbour under sail with no wind – a great feat. Unfortunately the dead calm preceded a change of wind to veering between north and west and rapidly increasing. So yesterday morning, with the engine at least partially fixed, we motored further up Havannah Harbour to an anchorage with good protection from northerlies. This anchorage turns out to be the same spot that we anchored at some weeks ago and those of you who read the earlier blog may remember the kindness of Augustine and his family when our stove was kaput – they boiled water for our essential tea and cooked our crab. Well this same family have welcomed us back and again shown great courtesy and generosity. Augustine’s daughter offered to buy us bread this morning, a project that required waiting at the main road for the passing baker’s van. Unfortunately the van failed to show up, but Mary-Lou and her toddler son rowed over to us in half a gale to apologise for failing to get us bread and give us some bananas.
While on the topic of tea some of you may be surprised to hear that Jim – previously an avowed non-tea and coffee drinker has suddenly taken to drinking tea with his crew. He had two cups for breakfast yesterday and today even more, two cups for breakfast and one for lunch. He still refuses coffee but he may yet succumb ….
This morning the wind was still a howling northerly and after swabbing the decks we decided to go ashore and visit the local primary school which was around a kilometer down the road. For some reason I cannot fathom all 3 of the outboard engines for the inflatable dinghy were neatly hanging off the stern of Intention and not in the dinghy. So it ended up with me having a fairly tough row ashore against wind and tide. Maybe I will return to Australia with some stomach muscles.
I will leave the teachers Nicky and Lee to report on our visit to the local primary school. I will finish by saying that it is has been raining heavily most of the day and we won’t be setting sail to islands north of here until the SE trade winds reestablish themselves. Jim will download the weather fax soon and see if it predicts more favourable winds soon.
Nicky: This morning, like Pam said, we headed off with the intention (no pun intended!)of visiting Tanoliu Primary School. We took with us a gift of exercise books kindly donated by former crew member, Cathy. On the way we talked to some villagers who told us the School Master was called Mr Henry. We felt happy to have a name to ask for when we arrived. The school has two classes. The junior class has 32 students who are in their first three years of schooling and is taught by a lovely NiVan lady, Lydia, whom we met on the road yesterday. She was returning with her husband, from their garden, with bok choy and tomatoes and kindly gave us some. Mr Henry has a class of 34 students in Grades 4, 5 and 6. When we arrived we were invited to sit in on the drama that was being enacted by a visiting group on ‘global warming’. As it progressed we realized this group were the Wan Smol Bag Theater Group who tour around Vanuatu encouraging Waste Management, Environmental Health, Safe Sex, Awareness of Pollution and Global Warming Issues. We felt so blessed and fully delighted to have visited at such an opportune time. Pam gave a heartfelt thanks from the crew of ‘Intention’ for the valuable work this group do. When the group left Mr. Hendry introduced us to his class and then handed them to me for a ‘chat’. The students understood a little English and were most delightful. I congratulated them on their wonderful manners (no calling out!), asked them questions and told them a little about school in Australia. Then they sang us their school song. As we left we were given the opportunity to write in the school’s visitor’s book. What a privilege we felt to share in the local kids school day! On the way back to the boat we slipped into the stream for a quick ‘wash’ and then went back to ‘Intention’ for a lazy afternoon.
Jim: As you can tell this is a great crew and we are getting along very harmoniously. They are a hoot as we have much fun teasing and kidding around while exploring and having adventures. Pam has a wonderful way of organizing, Lee is a wonderful cook and great cleaning person and Nicky adds a bubbly effervescent quality to each activity. Having them aboard is a pleasure.
There is a Blue Moon, 2 full moons in one month, in two days on the 30th. Enjoy the moon and know that we share that same moon.
So log for now.
Jim, Nicky, Lee, Pam

Pam: Yesterday we yet again set sail out of Port Vila heading round Devil’s Point and back up the west coast of Efate. The charts show rough water off Devil’s Point and for a couple of hours there was a fair swell. At least there was a bit too much for the new crew who started to look a strange colour and lose all interest in tuna sandwiches for lunch. However they recovered fast once we turned into the calm waters of Havannah Harbour and polished off their lunch by mid afternoon.
While we were off Devil’s Point we bowled along with full sail, the mainsail, staysail and jib plus the engine just to charge the batteries. Suddenly the engine overheated and Jim reckoned that the water pump had gone again so we had to continue under sail alone. This turned out to be a real test of Jim’s sailing skills as the wind dropped in the late afternoon and we had to beat up the harbour. Jim passed with flying colours and managed to get us to his planned destination at Ai Creek (Lelepa Landing) just on dusk in a virtual dead calm.
Today Jim set to work on the engine thinking it would take him several hours to replace the water pump. Fortunately it turned out to just be a blockage which he was able to fix reasonably easily so instead he spent hours doing a major overhaul of the engine’s electrical systems – looked pretty complicated to me but it is now early evening and Jim is relaxing with a beer and seems pretty pleased with himself. He says that various engine instruments are now working again.
While Jim had the engine in bits and the cabin strewn with tools he suggested that the crew could make itself scarce for a few hours. We had a great snorkel over stunning hard corals and a great variety of tropical fish – we wrote about this coral in an earlier blog.
This afternoon Nicky decided that her sunglasses needed repair and asked Jim if he had any superglue. Ever obliging he produced superglue but as the tube was nearly empty it needed cutting to enable Nicky to squeeze out the last drop, so Jim produced the Ship’s Scissors (her only pair). Nicky read the instructions carefully and took great care not to glue her fingers together while fixing her glasses but never gave a second thought to the glue left on the scissors. Yes, you guessed it, the scissors are now successfully superglued – shut.
Nicky:Later in the evening whilst Lee and Nicky cooked up a tasty concoction of stir fried vegies with a lime curry sauce Pam was busy at the ship’s computer keyboard writing the day’s journal entry. A sharp cry was heard from Pam as she wondered at Jim’s reaction to the latest mishap from his Byron crew. In her hand Pam held the ‘B’ key from the computer keyboard! How it had loosened itself was a mystery but it had definitely been attached for ‘a bit too much’ but had come away by ‘Havannah Harbour’! The crew were to see another example of the patient nature of their Skipper. When he shared his personal supply of dark chocolate and dried blueberries we knew we were not to be sent home!
Pam: Unfortunately the SE trade winds have been replaced by northerlies – which are no good for the next leg of our journey. So we will stay in this beautiful anchorage until the SE trade winds reestablish themselves.
Bye from all, Jim, Pam, Nicky, Lee.

Hello everyone.
For the last 3 days Jim and I (Pam) have been totally caught up in the 2007 Vanuatu Ocean Swim. The swim itself takes place on the Saturday morning but is preceded by welcome cocktails, swim clinics and a carbo loading dinner and followed by a post swim breakfast with local entertainment and a formal awards dinner. I enjoyed catching up with 6 of my Byron Bay mates who had flown over specially for the event. I reckon that around 90% of the 200 competitors were Aussies. All this socialising almost overshadows the event itself – The Ocean swim which takes place at high tide early on the Saturday morning.
There are two swims, a 3.2 km swim right round Iririki Island and a 1.5 km swim from Iririki across the harbour, through the anchored yachts to the craft market and back. The conditions were perfect, warm, calm, clear water only slightly spoiled by sea lice. The previous crew Cathie and the next crew Nicky and Lee would certainly have entered the 3.2 km swim but the 1.5 km swim was all I could manage. Jim’s infected coral cut has not healed so he is having to keep his leg dry, thus foiling his dream of attempting the 1.5 km swim – but he has certainly made the most of the social program. There are two ways of expressing my result. One way is to say I came in last but the other is to say that I was incredibly chuffed to receive a splendid medal for coming in 3rd in the 60 – 69 year women (the only other entrant in that category wore fins and knew she would be disqualified). It was fun to swim along leisuredly (which is all I ever do even if notionally racing) with a couple of Francophone Nivans in a kayak accompanying me shouting “courage” (pronounced the French way).
There are some wonderful moments when out on the water. Yesterday late afternoon we were sitting in the cockpit with a couple of the visiting swimmers and suddenly a whole school of sizeable fish jumped out of the water only a few metres away from us, it was just magic. We waited and waited to see them jump again but they didn’t until early this morning when I was swabbing the deck down and lo and behold it happened again.
This morning Jim has gone off in the inflatable with a klaxon to start an informal catamaran race between some of the swimmers he met at the social events. It is meant to be informal but I wonder – most of the swimmers here are seriously competitive.
We are still keeping up maintenance tasks aboard. Today we have the anchor chain snaked around the deck while we check that the coloured markers at every 25 ft are all in place. I knew that the white one was missing. It is important when we anchor to put out the correct length of chain (scope) for the depth and conditions. So when we anchor Jim will tell me “let out the chain to the blue marker”. I am getting better at anchoring but it is not at all easy to see these little markers as the chain is running out fast.
The latest report on the bottom cleaning issue is that Jim hopes to find out tomorrow, Monday, whether or not he can get the job done later in Santo. If so that will be much more convenient than having it done here.
The latest on the parcel of boat gear from the USA is that it has arrived in Vanuatu. Jim reckons it will be in his hands tomorrow but I am not so optimistic and reckon Tuesday. We will just have to wait and see who is right.
Well, I think Pam has summed up the last few days of activities quite nicely. It’s been great fun meeting and making new friends with all the Byronites, other Auzzies and New Zealanders in preparation for having friends already in place when I and INTENTION get to their respective places of abode.
Jim & Pam

Hello everyone
Not all our readers are yachties – so “a bottom job” needs explanation. It has nothing to do with the state of Jim’s backside but everything to do with the state of Intention’s bottom. A “bottom job” is shorthand for taking Intention to a boat yard and having her hauled out of the water, scrubbed and the bottom repainted – so she ends up with a sparkling clean bottom. Costs serious money. As far as I can see Intention’s bottom looks pretty good, but not good enough for Australian customs. Australia requires arriving yachts to have documentation showing that they have had a “bottom job” within the previous 6 months. As Jim points out pretty silly since freighters are arriving daily in Australian ports with dirty bottoms.
So at present Jim is trying to make the decision:
* have a “bottom job” Port Vila in Vanuatu and sail on to Australia or
* abandon the idea of sailing to Australia this year or
* have the bottom job done later in Luganville Vanuatu
Jim tells me (Pam) that he intends to mull the question over a bit longer before making a decision.
In the meantime Jim and I are anchored off the Craft Market in Port Vila and having a relaxing time in between various maintenance tasks. Hopefully an airparcel of necessary bits and pieces should arrive shortly including dinghy wheels which fit to the transom. They will make pulling the inflatable up a coral beach a lighter task. We are also starting to turn our minds to the arrival of Lee and Nicky on the 22nd June. They are more swimming friends of mine. I hope Jim will be able to cope with having 3 Aussie shielas aboard.
We expect to remain in Port Vila a while longer (I am being intentionally vague). The 3 days of events surrounding the Vanuatu Ocean Swim start tomorrow. However tonight we can claim a free cocktail if we swim into the Watermark Restuarant at Iririki Island. I intend to swim in (at least for a few metres after I jump out of the inflatable). Jim is hoping that by wearing his swim trunks he will also qualify for a freeby – he cannot swim today as he still has an infected coral cut on his shin. He hopes the cut will have completely healed by Saturday so he can take part in the shorter 1.5 km race. I will also give that a go. Neither of us are up to the 3.2 km swim right round Iririki Island.
Jim – The 3.5 HP outboard stopped working so I just got the 4 stroke 5 HP outboard working, with the help of a local mechanic, and mounted on the inflatable dingy. That engine has not been working for almost a year so it is satisfiying. Even yesterday was a beautiful warm sunny day, last night was a little cooler requiring a doubled sheet over me.
Bye for now, Jim & Pam

Cathie is all packed and ready to desert the ship. Its been a leisurely morning after my real birthday dinner last night at the only Japanese in town. The 3 musketeers went ashore with a little difficulty in landing the dinghy. We found ourselves at the maritime police dock and were greeted by a most accommodating security officer who offered to watch over the dinghy until our return. A pleasant night ensued seated at a table with million dollar views over the harbor, delicious food and 2 bottles of top notch Napa Valley chardonnay from Jim’s supplies mainly consumed by Jim and Cathie. Pam maintains she was forced to drink her quota and is paying the price today. Jim’s a bit slow and I feel fine. I was so fine last night that I jumped in the restaurant pool for a few laps of butterfly much to the amusement of other diners and applause from my mates. A further bit of amusement ended the evening when I took the opportunity to try my first taste of lip numbing kava supplied by the security officer who as good as his word had set up camp beside our dinghy.
So here we after our customary papaya fruit salad muesli tea coffee etc ready to up anchor and move to a more accessible spot whereby I will regretfully take my leave from this most interesting,entertaining and informative adventure with appetite whetted for further yachting experiences. Thank you Jim and Pam hope the next 2 girls will replace me happily.
Signing off an older and wiser
Cathie

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

Yesterday Pam woke up early and tiptoed around her slumbering fellow crew to make her customary early morning cuppa. She put the kettle on and returned a few minutes later and to her horror found the water stone cold. The second thermacouple had gone caput – no cuppa tea.
We decided no use abandoning our plans for the day so we sailed to the top of Havannah Harbour and then took to the dinghy for the final shallow section. The grass is not always greener on the other side, the coral was far better at Ai Anchorage where we spent the previous night. Ah well, one doesn’t know until one takes a look.
So we sailed back part of the way down Havannah Anchorage and picked another anchorage recommended in Tusker’s Cruising Guide to Vanuatu, this time near Sevisi Village. We all went ashore to see village life, Cathy and Jim took a lengthy and rather hot hike up the road to the main village where they found a small shop and several kava bars. They declined the kava (or so they say) and returned to find Pam near where the dinghy was pulled up on the shore. While they were away Pam had got chatting to Augustine who lived nearby and told him about our stove crisis and our desire to buy fish. By the time Jim and Cathy returned Augustine had lit a campfire and almost had the kettle boiled. Pam had rowed out and collected the thermos flasks so that we could make the much delayed cuppa tea. To cap it all Augustine had somehow conjured up some sardines for our dinner.
Back aboard Cathy took on the task of creating a one pot dinner in the oven with 30 sardines, sweet potato and egg plant. Quite a challenge. Unfortunately Jim and Cathy couldn’t handle the quantity of small bones in the sardine bake.
Early the next morning the previous night’s fishermen returned in a dugout canoe offering us a nice sized crab and some slightly larger fish. We purchased them on the basis that the fishermen arranged for Augustine to cook them. We had no way of boiling a crab or frying fish – by this time we were sure that the only way to eat these small bony fish was fried. The arrangement worked like a dream, after snorkeling we went ashore and found the fish already fried and the crab boiled. After a pleasant chat we returned to Intention for a truly gourmet lunch.
Then we set the reacher drifter jib with Cathy at the helm for a gentle early afternoon sail back to Ai Anchorage. Although it would have been easy for Jim to turn the auto pilot on Cathy enjoyed the opportunity to gain more experience.
This is getting a bit repetitive, so you will not be at all surprised to hear that we had a late afternoon snorkel. We will spare you more descriptions of the excellent hard corals and variety of tropical fish.
One last incident deserves a mention. A visit to a nearby freshwater stream for a quick rinse down produced some ribbing when Cathie’s newly acquired knotting skills failed the dinghy securing test and had to be corrected by Jim. Even greater hilarity ensued on our return as we observed the dinghy disappearing into the sunset requiring a bit of fast swimming on Jim’s part to retrieve it.
Now it is post dinner and Pam is writing this blog while Cathy and Jim make the cabin shipshape for what Jim predicts will be a rough sail back to Vila tomorrow to see if we can get the stove fixed.
Jim – I am getting plenty of excellent swimming exercise trying to keep keep up with Cathie maintaining a safety snorkel buddy system. We’ve been extensively exploring the reef just a few 100 meters/yards north of INTENTION seeing the many different types of brain, fan, & thorn coral as well as an extraordinary variety of multi colored tropical reef fish. I’ve seen species of fish and coral I’ve not seen before so it is always a new adventure.
I’ve been enjoying the evening stars, moon and planet after the soft light of a fading sunset. The full moon has been particularly magnificent having just happened TWICE THIS last MONTH. There is no city lights were we are anchored so the Milky Way is brilliantly displayed spread across the night sky.
The crew and I getting along well even if I do have to take a terrible kidding about having to swim out and retrieve the drifting dingy. They are learning a lot and even anticipating needed actions. It is definitely very entertaining having them aboard.
Love to all
Jim, Cathie, & Pam

Hello to all,
Yesterday we anchored in the calm water of Ai Bay very close to where the American and later the Australian Survivor reality TV show was shot. The full moon rose while we were listening to a CD of Hawaiian music. Nothing but the reflections of of the moonlight on the water and the occasional fish jumping going on around us. We’re getting in lots of great snorkelling, we just dive off the boat and swim over endless beautiful coral reefs with such a variety of amazing fish and stunning corals.
In the afternoon Nelson,a Melanesian guy from a nearby village, paddled to us in a dugout canoe and sold us some bananas and chatted to us for ages. We hoped that he would bring us some fish – he mentioned red snapper – but it never showed up. We’ve been eating really well. The boat is well stocked and we bought lots of vegies and fruit from the markets in Vila. Pam cooked up a delicious curry and Jim’s spaghetti sauce was a hit the previous night.
The sailing life seems to agree with the new crew, Cathy says she has taken to it in a big way. She says that when we sailed in the open water with a 4-6 ft swell rolling around us there wasn’t anywhere else she would rather be. MAGIC STUFF!!!!!! Jim’sa very patient teacher and she is enjoying learning the ropes. She could take a lot more of this and will be sorry to leave the boat in a week’s time.
This anchorage is reputed to have some of the best fish and coral reef off Efate, so we decided to stay another day. The day started badly with the first crew mutiny. Pam announced in the morning that she hadn’t slept a wink. and that if the bells weren’t switched off pronto she was back to Vila (the bus stop was close by). The night before Jim had decided to give his crew the full nautical ambience and had turned on the bells. Traditionally 8 bells for each 4 hour watch and they ring out, far too loudly for Pam to sleep, every half hour. To cut the story short – the bells ceased pronto.
Today, Sunday passed all too quickly, a slow start with Jim’s special french toast, excellent snorkelling again and some boat chores. Cathy and Pam are getting to grips with flaking the stiff new jib and getting it into a sail bag that is (like tent bags) made a fraction too small to make it easy. During the heat of the afternoon Jim and Cathy snorkelled and walked up the beach to the Survivor base and met Gideon George, who was one of the security staff during the filming. They chatted for a while and he generously fed the hungry and cashless snorkellers steak sandwiches and lemonade. Sounds silly but the highlight of the day was in the late afternoon doing our laundry and washing our hair in a gentle fresh water stream just a few metres from where it ran into the sea.
Love to all,
Jim, Pam, & Cathie