Position           16:30.91 S 167:38.93 E

Date                1640 Tuesday 11 August 2015 and Wednesday 12 August 2015

Distance run    >From Lutes 14nm over the ground, 13.2nm through the water

Originally we had hope to do two days in Akhamb followed by two days in Uliveo.  Once again it was the weather ‘what did it guv’.  Firstly the wind was not suitable on Sunday for anchoring at Akhamb and Thursday was the only day out of a 10 day spread when the wind was fair for Port Vila, or at least not completely bloody.  Latest departure time for the tide at Lutes was 140 and we left at 1420 so somewhat of a close run thing but not a problem as the wind and waves were a lot less than our last exit with winds of 30 knots blowing across the channel.

The busy morning saw Elizabeth at the surgery, visiting the Kindy at Peskarus to put an intra-articular joint injection into the knee of Annie the teacher – how to win friends and influence people.  It also allowed her to hear the children sing to keep up with the Skipper.  Then it was back to the surgery to deliver cleaning equipment as a final gift.

I meanwhile was off to Pellonk with Bob Dall to construct an example of how to fix guttering for our Kindy Water Project.  When back in Port Vila we will be purchasing four water tanks for the three kindies on Uliveo and the one kindy on Avokh.  The local communities are going to erect shelters to catch rain and I wished to provide a worked example of how to create and fix guttering made from split bamboo.  The aim is to produce so far as possible a system that uses local materials which makes it easier to maintain in the long run.  The tanks obviously have to be provided, the steel sheeting is coming from local stock and the bamboocomes from the forest.  Creating an example was made slightly easier by the fact that the kindy at Pellonk already had a suitable roof.

A worked example – just copy this

This system at the kindy on Akhamb is a perfect example of what is envisaged although it uses plastic guttering the idea is the same.  The roof is of an adequate size to fill the 500 litre tank.  It isn’t rocket science but it is very effective.

The trip downwind was uneventful and we fetched up off the beach at Akhamb well before dusk, which has got to be a result.

Caduceus anchored off Akhamb