Port Vila, Efate Island, Vanuatu
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Sat 26 Jul 2008 03:39
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17:44.930S 168:18.558E
We arrived in Port Vila, the capital city of
Vanuatu in the morning on Saturday, July 12 and stayed five nights on a mooring
near many of the other rally boats. Port Vila is at least a two
road town, larger than the town of Neiafu in Tonga, but not as industrious as
Lautoka in Fiji. Port Vila felt like civilization to us, but of course it
was nothing like Papeete in Tahiti. There was an excellent grocery store
though - the most stock and choices we've seen since Tahiti - and no
cockroaches. Very good.
We started the process of saying good-bye to some
of the rally boats that were planning to sail straight to Australia from Port
Vila instead of going further north in Vanuatu first. These included
Andante - whom we are partial to, especially since they were the first crew we
met and had dinner with at the first official World ARC party back in St.
Lucia. At least they were sailing off with a working watermaker - Don has
been helping them struggle with it ever since the Marquesas. We watched
from our mooring as Andante motored past - the oldest crew in the rally
all waving vigorously.
A day later our breakfast was interrupted when we
heard someone yelling 'Harmonie!'. We dashed into the cockpit to find
OneLife, the Italian Amel Super Maramu (same make and model as our boat) yelling
'Chow!' as they motored past us and out of the Port Vila mooring field.
OneLife is also dropping out of the rally and will be meandering around the
South Pacific after the crew spends time at home in Italy. With OneLife
gone, we'll have no more perfectly cooked pasta dishes on deserted coral atoll
islands.
We also said our good-byes to Into the Blue,
including their full-time professional crew Sam, who kept us entertained and
somewhat sane when we were moored next to him in our very own Ecuadorian
oil slick. And Graptolite, with captain geologist Martyn, famous for his
half-naked appearance in Bora Bora and brave sail to Aruba after losing all
power and instruments on the first rally leg in the Caribbean. And
Maamalni, the only American boat left in the rally - although they are from
Seattle, does that still count as American? And Kealoha 8, the 72 foot
Oyster with four professional crew on board and an owner - all of whom couldn't
be nicer or more helpful to the rest of the fleet. Kealoha hosted the
first cocktail party in St. Lucia - and didn't throw us all off when the
red wine spilled, or rather gushed, all over their cockpit. Kealoha also
acted as a leading light in Port Resolution Bay for the rest of the fleet
as we arrived in Vanuatu after the bumpy sail from Fiji. We
all steered a course directly toward Kealoha as we entered the bay to avoid the
reefs on either side, and then per Kealoha's request, avoided
hitting them once we had safely entered the bay.
These are some of the people we will
miss. And the good-byes in Port Vila were just the beginning. There
were lots more to come as we made our way north to Luganville on the island of
Espiritu Santo where the last of the rally boats would leave us for
Australia.
The remainder of our time in Port Vila was a blur
as we said some good-byes, attended the last official World ARC luncheon,
rediscovered the internet at the Nambawan Cafe, stocked up the boat and
extended our visas for a longer stay in Vanuatu. Once all of that was
done, we headed out on the 17th to a nice spot just around the corner from Port
Vila on the west side of Efate Island.
Anne
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