We are currently on a mooring out the front of Aore (pronounced Alwry Island) which is about 1.5NM across the Segond Channel from Luganville which is the main town on Espiritu Santo.

Our position is 15:32.26S 167:10.76E

 

Things on the weather front are all a bit exciting up here at the moment.  We have Tropical Cyclone Liua which has formed up in the Solomon’s and is expected to intensify to a Cat 2 Cyclone later today and head south initially before shifting westerly and away from us.  While it is still a fair way from us at the moment on its projected course it will come within around 300-400NM of our current position which is still just a little too close for comfort and while we don’t believe it will be a threat we are still keeping a close eye on it. 

This is very early for the first cyclone of the season as the cyclone season does not officially start until the 1st November which is still around 5 weeks away. 

Hopefully it is not an ominous sign of the season ahead for the islands.

 

 

As planned we departed from Wonderful Wala Island on the 18th September with our next stop at Ratua Island.

This is a lovely spot for a resort and funnily enough there there is one – the Ratua!!

The buildings on the resort came from an old Javanese Village that was relocated to Ratua island and are made from 200 year old solid teak so are likely going to be around for a bit longer

We sent a few lovely days on a mooring out the front enjoying some walks and some nice snorkelling.

We also enjoyed the hospitality of the resort and had a couple of meals there including there well renowned Island Night on Friday with the Ratua String Band.

 

 

 

 

After leaving Ratua last Saturday (22nd) we travelled around to our current location.  There are some very strong currents that flow around these islands and it is quite important to get the tides correct to make sure you have a pleasant and quick trip – we got flushed into the Segond Channel at between 9 – 10kts on Saturday so pleased we weren’t heading the other way.

 

Unfortunately the weather has been a bit grey and showery since we arrived but we have still managed to fit in a couple of trips to Luganville which does not appear to have changed much since our last visit five years ago. 

 

 

We took the dinghy down to Freshwater Plantation on Sunday for their garden tour and lunch which was a fantastic day.  Their guide Brightley took us on an excellent tour through the Aore Bat Cave and around their gardens which includes their Cocoa Plantation with the Cocoa being used to make Vanuatu Chocolate so naturally we had to test out the local product.  We then had a lovely lunch and ended up spending most of the afternoon having a good old yarn to the owner Klaas (a fellow Aussie).

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday we arranged a long boat taxi with Sandy into town to pick up 75lts of diesel which means we are now full for the passage back to Bundaberg.  We also had some good tropical rainfall yesterday afternoon so we now have full water tanks so we only need to be a bit of laundry and get a bit of fresh produce and we are all set to go.

 

 

 

On Tuesday we were lucky enough to catch up with Barb and Terry from Whiskers who are also from our home club of Safety Beach SC.  It was great to catch up and hear of their adventures in the islands to date.

 

Naturally we are waiting to check out the behaviour of TC Liua but at this stage we are hoping to get on our way sometime next week all things going well.

Unfortunately our mate Leapy Lynda, who was hoping to do the trip back with us has got caught up with work and is not able to make it which is very sad but with the current state of play with the weather it is probably a good thing.