I wake up relatively early, more tired than hung over. Thank goodness I stopped drinking when I did, although I have no idea how much wine I actually drunk because someone was always filling up my glass. I have to say that last night was the best prize-giving event that we have had so far. The Waterfront Restaurant really did well on both providing copious amounts of free, good quality wine, good food and fantastic entertainment. Both the warrior dancers and the live band were excellent. Any band who can turn out Santana on request – and do it well – get my admiration.
Anyway, once awake we do our internet stuff but although there is a good strong internet signal, the connection with Skype is not too good and our conversations with the UK are not the easiest.
Irene and Dick from Tucanon allow me to come on board and once again fill up our water bottles with drinking water – at least we don’t have to bother them with filling up our tank as we can fill up from the dock. I race into town to do a few last bits of shopping then call back on Tucanon to do some picture swapping with Moe. I go around all the boats and say our goodbyes – we are leaving one day ahead of the fleet to get to Mackay and get the generator sorted.
At 10.30 am we are waiting to leave the dock and get fuel but the dock hands are not around to let our bow lines go from the mooring balls. Eventually though they turn up and after a lot of jiggling around we are free and can go to the fuel dock. Chessie are already there. They have re-fuelled but are now filling their tanks with water. With a tank capacity of 2000 litres (four times the size of ours) this could take some time so we raft up alongside them and the dock guys pass the diesel nozzle across Chessie and over to us. It is just about long enough and Mike manages to get it all in without spilling any.
Photo: Mike poses in his Guinness tee-shirt for Linda
Photo: Rafted up with Chessie at the fuel dock
Photo: One of the countless ‘tikis’ carved out of dead palm tree stumps
Photo: Clambering across Chessie to get to Jeannius, Mike stops to say goodbye to Jutta and Jochem
Photo: World Arc boats at the waterfront, Port Vila
I find Maggie and Bob on the dock and after a hug and a kiss goodbye and more of the same from Jutta and Jochem, we untie ourselves and leave. As we go past the fleet, everyone is waving goodbye. It feels good to be off again although as usual I am apprehensive of the long (well, longish – 1280 miles) passage.
Once we are out of the channel and into the bay we put the main sail up with two reefs in and the genoa out to the starboard side. We will be going almost due west all the way to Mackay and unless the wind changes direction significantly, we should be able to keep to this tack all the way there (yep – there’s that pink flying pig!). Still, as lazy sailors, we live in hope.
Out in open sea Mike switches on the pump to empty the holding tanks and although we can hear pumping sounds, the starboard tank’s light steadfastly remains on. Either the light indicator is faulty or the pump is blocked. Shit. Literally. Mike decides to ignore the problem for now. In a heaving sea you don’t want to mess with toilet outlet pipes and we have three other toilets!
After a late lunch I go for a lie down and although it is rather bumpy and noisy in our bow cabin, I manage to sleep on and off until just gone 5 pm – I must have needed to catch up on my beauty sleep – I certainly didn’t get much last night although I got much more than the others who dragged themselves in from the casino after 3 am.
As I make dinner in the evening I start to feel a little sea sick and get Mike to put the bucket by the door as a precaution. I think I am a bit dehydrated too as I didn’t drink anything all afternoon. As I am well rested though, I tell Mike I will do the two watches tonight and at 8 pm he heads off to bed. We average 6.5 knots during this watch in winds of 15 to 20 knots and luckily the need for the bucket doesn’t arise although I leave it there, just in case! It gives me comfort!
Our position is: 17 deg 46 min S, 166 deg 59 min E
Distance so far: 9389 nautical miles
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