Position           16:32.07 S 167:48.15 E

Date                1630 (UTC+11) Saturday 6 June 2015

Distance run    73.4nm over the ground, 75.3nm through the water

This should have been in an earlier posting so before we go any further here is a chart showing our route from New Zealand to Vanuatu; Australia is on the left and the main island of Fiji is north of New Zealand.

The weather forecast gave a definite indication of where to go with the wind very much in the north east rather than the south east trade winds that blow most of the time at this time of year.  This meant that the Maskelyne Islands were the obvious destination but they were 75 miles away so we chose Awei as the destination, an anchorage that we knew and that we would be able to get into safely in the dark.

Our track from Havannah Harbour, Efate to Awei in the Maskelyne Islands

What a storming sail; once out of Havannah Harbour, the first 5nm, and with the apparent wind between 60 and 80 degrees on the starboard side blowing between 20 and 30 knots we pounded along with 2 reefs in everything.

The end result was that we covered the 75 miles in 9^3/4 hours, mostly at over 8 knots, and we arrived with an hour of daylight to spare.

The following morning.  A pre-dawn view from the anchorage at Awei.  There are benefits from early morning bathroom visits

A similar view in the daylight before the trade winds started up