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Questions you didn’t think to ask; an occasional post

Since you might be wondering but haven’t plucked up the courage to ask, we’ll do some occasional posts on what gear we use for various things, pros and cons for us, and what our dream replacements would be.

Obviously these are our personal opinions; what works for us won’t necessarily be the same for you.

So to kick it all off: yacht, since it’s an obvious item required to be doing this cruising thing 🙂

YACHT: 

Waimanu is a 32foot Townson Twilight, her shell (hull, decks, keel etc) were built by Atkinson’s in their Browns Bay boat yard. After trucking up to Algies Bay, Jack Algie spent his evenings completing her insides, and finishing the outside, then she was launched in the bay in April 1974.

She’s the typical Townson build of double diagonal kauri planking, pretty as a dream and sails beautifully. For what is now considered to be an old design style she sails surprisingly fast. Maybe because we’ve kept things fairly simple.

We appear to be a minority in the cruising community: yes we have electricity and an engine, but we don’t have the frills. No fridge, freezer, shower, watermaker, bbq, nuclear fall-out shelter, wine cellar or recording studio. (Just kidding: I haven’t met any cruisers with the last three either.) We do have LED lights, a solar panel, tiller-pilot and wind-vane self-steering gear – but more on those another time. 

When day dreaming about bigger, fancier yachts Captain Relentless once commented: 

Waimanu is the best boat for us, because she’s the boat we have. Everything else is a dream, this is the reality.

Can’t get more to the point than that, can you?

So what boat do you have? Have you stopped dreaming of something you don’t have so that you can make the most of what you do have?

Waimanu II
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Quiet Before the Storm (of photos)

It’s going to get a little quiet around here on the blog as our blog poster extraordinaire is coming up to see us. She will be here for eight days and I’m sure there will be lots of stories and photos she brings home.

See you in a week!

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Luganville Harbour Hangouts

Our cooking skills using what we have (long term foods and bursts of fresh produce that is locally grown so often rather different from “normal” in NZ) are greatly improving. Phil makes good Aloo Methi especially for not having chili and using dried parsley instead of fresh.

After our turbulent crossing, we anchored inside Tutuba Island at the entrance of Luganville Harbour for a flat, calm and peaceful night. Then we were off to Beachfront Resort which is across from Sarakata River from town.

It was Vanuatu’s Independence Day on the 30th July so it made town quite an interesting place to be. At times quiet and other times very busy but not quite as predictable as normal.

The next couple of days we anchored off Beachfront Resort and two out of three days we made the 3km return walk into Luganville itself to catch up on things. It was good to stock up on groceries and have a bit of lunch at a local cafe to also check in on the world in general. We also topped up the fuel and water tanks and started a few loads of laundry. We also spent a good bit of time chatting to a young fella in his 20s. He was a BK (boat kid) and had grown up cruising on a yacht, now continuing the lifestyle himself.

Motoring back to Tutubua Island, we enjoyed the small sandy bay at the western end and anchored just on dark. One thing we have enjoyed doing is visiting the various resorts in the area for a drink at their bar. It’s a good place to catch up on news and enjoy something a bit different.

Days are warm up here and you will often find Jenny sitting in the cabin before 9am, alternating between reading her book and watching the thermometer steadily passing 27°C.

After finishing up a few more errands back in Luganville, we headed up the coast and anchored on the eastern side of Palikulo Bay, northeast of Luganville. There are old rusty remnants of a ship here along with the decaying structure of a fish factory it’s wharf with some very inviting photos. We spent the day doing some jobs on the boat with Phil sanding and applying Sikkens.

Temperature Gage – our normal

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A Very Windy Calm

It looked so calm and still for our next leg travelling from Ambae to Luganville, Espiritu Santo (locally known as just Santo and the largest island in Vanuatu) that we left the big sun awning up all night. The next morning we motored away with it still up. But as we neared the end of the island we could see the effects of wind, plenty of wind. So down awning and up sails it was for a beam reach across. 

It was a bit choppy at first then regulating to a more even ocean swell. Between islands here it is open ocean, sometimes exacerbated by strong currents so the seas can be big and steep. We were clipping along at 8-9 knots, with a top speed of 11.8 knots. The wind kept increasing to a steady 25 gusting up to 38 knots.

Jenny was sitting on stern seat and trying to stay dry while Phil was hand steering (instead of using the self steering gear) and trying to keep her dry. Of course the inevitable happened and we caught a huge wave side on which resulted in both of us soaked to the skin. These waves were as big as Phil had seen since leaving NZ! While he wasn’t very popular with Jenny he was forgiven. It helps that the water up here is so warm.

We reefed down as we were now in a steady 30-35kts although Waimanu handles so well! We altered course for safer option and came in under the lee of an island at the entrance of the channel to Luganville Harbour.

Anchoring just before lunch we had covered 33 nautical miles in just over 4 hours.

We live under the sun awning!Espiritu Santo
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Onwards and Across

We bought fresh mandarins at the market which consisted of a bunch of ladies under the big mango tree at the hospital entrance. There was a barge that had unloaded goods the night before when it arrived at 2100 and left in the morning at 0700 so it was good to stock on fresh things. As we had run out of work, by Friday lunchtime we set off on our next adventure armed with our fresh fruit. It was exactly a week after dropping anchor in Lolowai. Early on Saturday morning, we slipped down the coast on the full tide. In the wind shadow of the mountain we motored on flat water.

Fresh fruit!

Discovering a secluded little inlet down the coast in the later that morning after only a passing mention from some yachtie a long time ago we thought to check if out. Think Rangitoto coastline with a little dent. We anchored in Dixon Bay (15°19’29.58S, 167°48’17.16E) to the delighted audience of giggling kids watching from the rocky bluff. A local fishing boat came in to assure us anchoring there was safe although there wasn’t any wind anyway. We were the first boat to stop so far this year and they only get 3 or 4 in an annum.

 

Dixon Bay village kids

There was a cut away in the rock and a concrete ramp smaller than a driveway. This we lifted Zoe onto. (Zoe is the zodiac and our little runabout dinghy) We had rowed in rather than getting the outboard set up which made things a little easier.

The young local chief met us and showed us around the very small village. Phil asked if they had any elderly and was introduced to one man. We asked for fresh fruit and the kids disappeared while we did a sight test with him. He needed strong reading glasses. The kids returned with a load of island sweet grapefruit. We shared some out and traded some to take home to Waimanu. Back at the boat ramp the kids started swimming and Phil joined them. The water is over 27°C! Phil and the kids all jumped in from a high rocky outcrop. It takes some pluck, that’s for sure.

Anchored in rocky Dixon Bay

Wanting to shorten the voyage to Santo as much as we could, we carried on along the North West coast of Ambae. We found an anchorage of sorts off a steep boulder beach named Loone Lakua (15°21’37.02S, 167°45’42.72E) and with the dinghy anchor astern, we pointed to the slight swell and enjoyed a quiet night, watching some more of Colditz, a 1970s BBC TV series about the POW camp that we are now halfway through.