Back to Port Vila (20th July)

We had a wonderful week up in the Havannah Harbour and treated ourselves to lunch at The Havannah luxury resort on Sunday before heading back to the big smoke of PV on Sunday.

We were hoping to spend a day or two more out on the pick but the forecast showed increasing winds on Monday and Tuesday so opted for the sensible thing to head back a day early especially as we have to sail upwind to get back to Port Vila - very nasty stuff - have even made a note in the log to avoid this type of behaviour for the rest of the trip.

Extreme Cruising

On our arrival back we find that the Oyster Rally had arrived.  23 Oyster yachts are all over the place in PV from the anchorage to the moorings to the wharf.  They are a luxury British yacht ranging in length from 54ft to about 120ft long.  We went past the head boat which is sponsored by Red Bull and owned by Eddie Jordan of F1 fame (see picture below).  Naturally there was no room for us on the wall so we elected to stop on a mooring until a few spaces open up for us more modest type yachts!

The Oysters are in town

Ernest

To complete our Efate stop we figured we need to go on trip so booked ourselves on the Around the Island Tour run by Melanesian Tours.  What an awesome day.  We stopped at many beaches and had the chance to spend some time at a couple of the local villages.  One of the highlights was out stop at Emau village which is one of the larger villages on Efate.  We had a guided tour around the village which culminated in a sing sing by the women and kids of the village which was fantastic.  We were also privileged enough to be joined by the assistant chief, the big boss and the ex big boss of the village!  We even got to re-visit the famous WWII museum and again met up with Ernest and his collection once again before heading back to Port Vila - but not before we had the obligatory Kava stop.  Mark and I, having previously tried this brew, elected to go in for a gander ONLY however, Amanda had to give it a go needless to say she was quickly into the fridge for a  beer on arrival back at the boat!

Yum Yum

We are in the midst of a crew change.  Amanda flew back home on Thursday and not much later Leapy arrived.  She is spending today (Friday) down at Tanna the home of the volcano and will be back with us tomorrow. 

We are starting the process of leaving from PV which includes the final provisioning of food, gas, fuel and water.  We also have to obtain our inter island cruising permit from Customs and are both going to treat ourselves to a hair cut today as we may not have another one until October!