On our way- again 19:09.9S 167:53.24E

Salsa af Stavsnas
Ellinor Ristoff Staffan Ehde
Wed 20 May 2015 10:21
This morning we left Port Vila - Vanuatu and are heading to Noumea in New Caledonia.
And as usual, Im sitting here after dark, when everybody is sleeping to report some happenings on our way.
We have been pretty busy the last days before leaving. Lot's of reports, meetings, kids school, get the boat ready etc etc.
Yesterday was a highlight as Jonathan and I had a meeting with the capten, first mate and the navigator on Rainbow Warrior. What a ship!
They told us they actually sail her a lot, latest they sailed 90% of the journey from Australia to Vanuatu.
They will work with distribution and we passed on some info for them. As they are a big ship they will work with macro distribution and not get involved in the micro part. First goal is Leneka (where we loaded LilExplorer with 4 tons of food) to offload 2 containers of rice.
The second round of boats for SeaMercy is leaving tomorrow for the Shepheard islands , hope they will find as much good assignements and that they will have a great experince helping out.
The other highlight was the fare well party for us on LilExplorer, good food and ice cream! The evening ended with some exciting UNO games, we get pretty loud when we play!
 
Now we are aiming at the southern tip of New Caledonia and want to reach the Havanah pass 4am the 22 of May, the time is critical as we have to catch a riising tide when we go through. The pilot says that if we catch the wrong tide we are in for some adventures as the current that reaches 5 knots will meet the ocean swell and create standing waves.
So we are balancing Salsas speed as good as we can. It is not easy as she is eager in this wind. We are going south and sailing with an Easterly to ESE wind, 15 nots- she loves that wind and wants to go 8 knots, we keep her down by just having half the genua and half the main out.
The kids are doing well, they talk more and more about how life will be at home- Erika sais she wants friends that last- I understand that.
 
We are all pretty tired now and it feels empty when you leave such a great group, but life has to move on, and the boat.