Saturday, September 19, 2009

Do Not Disturb ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Howzit all
As it turned out there were no lights, no village lights, no leading lights, nada. We slowly came in through a wide pass, eyes glued to the sounder and straining to make out any kind of shape in the gloom around us. We crept into the lee of a head land, and when the sounder said 10 meters, Chantal said "thats good enough". Now the pick is down and we are all going to pass out big time. Only tiny problem is that its 5am, and Indie wakes up in an hour! Oh well, you make your bed, you lie in it!
Later the same day:
I serviced the starboard engine, changed all filters and bled the fuel line, its running fine again. Chantal did a load of laundry and aired out the boat. I took the kids to the beach for a run around. The wind is blowing hard, around 20 - 25 knots out of the southeast and a stormy sea is smashing into the outer reef. We are stoked to be in a good anchorage and out of the weather. New Caledonia is 200 miles away. If we wish to do this as a one night sail, then we have to leave at the crack of dawn in order to arrive before sunset the next day. So now we just wait for things to calm down a bit, and the glorious prospect of ONE WHOLE NIGHT'S SLEEP. The grib files show that the wind will ease, and we may leave in the morning. So our unplanned blitz tour of Vanuatu may be over before it even started.
ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
G