{"id":3450,"date":"2018-05-10T06:44:36","date_gmt":"2018-05-10T06:44:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/svslowflight.com\/?p=3450"},"modified":"2020-02-03T19:15:35","modified_gmt":"2020-02-03T19:15:35","slug":"passage-from-new-zealand-to-vanuatu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svslowflight.com\/index.php\/2018\/05\/10\/passage-from-new-zealand-to-vanuatu\/","title":{"rendered":"Passage from New Zealand to Vanuatu"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leaving NZ was a fast and furious decision and we didn’t get a chance to conect with everyone before we left.\u00a0 Personally I didn\u2019t feel ready but the weather looked right and we just couldn\u2019t wait.\u00a0 Our time to travel through Vanuatu was already cut short due to the fact that we need to stop in New Caledonia to apply for our visas at the Indonesian consulate for the Indonesian Rally.\u00a0 But Vanuatu was on both our lists of places we wanted to see so off we go!<\/p>\n

Backstory:\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0Right before we left Opua, NZ we met Frank (captain) and Ivonne (crew) from SV Another Adventure.\u00a0 They were headed to Vanuatu the same time we were and we decided to quasi-buddy boat.\u00a0 Frank had informed me about the Gulf Harbor Radio net on the single sideband (SSB) radio so we were able to connect while underway.\u00a0 Frank has been to Vanuatu multiple times and he has been a wealth of knowledge for us.\u00a0 The fit was great and we have been sailing together throughout our time in Vanuatu.<\/p>\n

but back to the passage…<\/p>\n

Day 1 and 2\u2013<\/strong> We untied the lines around noon on Thursday May 5th<\/sup> and just made it out of the Bay of Islands as it was getting dark.\u00a0 We had light winds but sunny and partly cloudy skies.\u00a0 We set sails and pole to catch the wind from our quarter aft and headed slightly east of our rumb line.\u00a0 10-15 knots and slow sailing but it felt good to be out.\u00a0 We even saw 2 huge albatross fly by us\u2026.not sure if that is a good sign or not\u2026we have heard both.\u00a0 We were getting use to our night watch schedules again, which is never really fun, but by the 3nd<\/sup> day, we decided to turn on our motor.<\/p>\n

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Looking back at the Bay of Islands, Opua New Zealand…sunny skies and breezy a perfect way to say goodbye to this beautiful country!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Day 3 \u2013<\/strong> shit hits the fan…the eve of night 3\u00a0was when the problems began.\u00a0 First we realized one of our battens on our main sail was starting to come out of it\u2019s pocket.<\/p>\n

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I hope you can see the “stick” poking out of of main sail here….we had to drop the sail and Trevor pushed it back in and then we put sail tape (it’s like duct tape for sails) around the end to keep it from coming out again.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We also had an addition to the crew, named Skittles, who flew into our boat seeking refuge\u2026we assumed.\u00a0 We were hundreds of miles from land and there is no real good explanation why this little guy was so far out as it could not land in the water (you could tell by its feet or whatever you call them).\u00a0 He must have been caught in a big wind that blew him away and had been flying ever since.\u00a0 You could tell he was exhausted and his breathing was fast.\u00a0 He finally settled down in our cockpit and we set out water and seeds for it (have no idea what this thing eats, seeds vs. insects but either way he was having none of it).\u00a0 Unfortunately, he literally dropped dead at about 10pm from where he was perched.\u00a0 We had a small ceremony for him when we changed shifts\u2026I cried a bit, maybe not so much for the bird but just of grief of leaving awesome friends and loved ones back home.\u00a0 It was defiantly a transition for me, small as it is (small things become big things on a boat).\u00a0 Trevor memorialized Skittles by saying a few words: \u201cWhat come from the sea goes to the sea, go be a rainbow of fruit flavors for another creature.\u201d\u2026\u2026poetic I know!<\/p>\n

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This guys would land on our lifelines…then fly off and then land again…it was exhausting just watching him<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Skittles actually flew inside the boat while Trevor was napping… he eventually flew out with a little coaxing. Here he is perched in our window. I don’t think this photo does him justice but his colors were beautiful…blue and green, and tan, and black….<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Skittles finally settled down in our cockpit… Here Skittles is perched on our chartplotter (he did poop on it) and Trevor in the cockpit acting like nothing weird is going on…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Day 4 –<\/strong>\u00a0Skittles death must have been a sign because the eve of day 4 our engine started to overheat, our fridge stopped working, and my computer crashed all in about the same hour\u2026.of course it was about midnight when we realized all of this.<\/p>\n

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Oh shit! Trevor ended up changing out an alternator, changing the fuel filters all at midnight to see if that fixed the issue….no bueno!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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We had to debate whether or not to put our pershiables in the freezer…..I was so concerned about the cheese…seriously!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But during the day, we had a nice downwind sail…at least we had that going for us : )<\/p>\n

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Flying “wing on wing”, our downwind sailing confiuration<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Trevor playing Monopoly on his iPad….<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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I accidentally purchased from the Apple store a $99 stargazer app…so I decided to use it : ) I could point it in any direction and it would tell me the star and planets. We actually saw Jupiter and Venus as bright orange stars…pretty cool I thought…but not worth $99…note to self<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Day 5-<\/strong> fixing the issues \u2013 sailing again, the trade winds kicked in and we were traveling pretty fast.\u00a0 We had about 15-20 knots of wind with gusts up to 25\u2026Flo loves these conditions and she performed well going about 7-8 knots GPS speed.<\/p>\n

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Trevor removed these connectors from our fridge compressors….it seemed to work and the fridge was holding tempertures!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Day 6-7-<\/strong> we got in touch with SV Another Adventure and they had decided to make landfall at a southern island named Anatom due to the possible weather conditions at Tanna Island, just north of Anatom island.\u00a0 Originally we both were headed to Tanna Island where the active volcano is but the anchorage there can get rolly and uncomfortable, possibly not safe, if the winds aren\u2019t right.\u00a0 So we changed direction and reefed (reduced sails) to slow down to arrive at Anatom island by daylight.<\/p>\n

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More issues: When reefing, we noticed our reefing line has chaffed pretty bad…we just lengthened the line for now so that no strain was point on the point of chaffe.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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More dead things: We had a few flying fish “land” on Slow Flight…one night I heard a loud “bump”…I got a light and saw blood on the side of our house and deck….I am pretty sure the fish fell overboard but it must of hit us pretty hard to leave such a mess : ) hopefully it was a quick!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We heard from SV Another Adventure (they were ahead of us by about 50 miles) and they decided they would pass Anatom Island and head to our original anchorage at Tanna Island as they were approaching Anatom Island anchorage at night, something we don\u2019t do, especially if it\u2019s a new place for us.\u00a0 So we raised all the sails and started to point more east to navigate around Anatom island and make landfall in Tanna.\u00a0 We now needed to make landfall at daylight, an extra 40 miles so we were jamming 7-9 knots!\u00a0 The rig however, was squeaking and squalling and we could tell we were putting a lot of strain on her.<\/p>\n

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This was a common image when we changed course for Tanna Island…. 8.9 knots speed of ground is something Flo doesn’t see often.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Near Anatom Island there were 2 small islands we didn’t want to hit and since we would be approaching these said islands at night, we kept a constant eye on the depth. Here I saw 888 feet of water underneath us….you may think that is a lot but generally when we do these passages, you don’t like to see ANY depth registering on the chartplotter…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We finally had Tanna Island in sight…..<\/p>\n

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You can’t really see it but we could tell where the volcano was…there would be a “different cloud” in the sky…we were ready to get to there!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Problems not over yet!!!! We were close to the anchorage and we were dropping our sails when Trevor realized the steering wheel (remember back in Opua we completely changed out our steering system?) wouldn\u2019t \u201cbudge\u201d and would get stuck at about 15 degrees either port to starboard turns.\u00a0 Something was wrong!\u00a0 All we had to steer with was the autohelm to anchor with so that was the plan, hoping we had enough room in the anchorage and space, all was a mystery to us.<\/p>\n

However, as soon as we were safe around the point and into the anchorage, the steering was fine\u2026and the engine didn\u2019t overheat at a lower RPM.\u00a0 But\u2026.we realized a few of our main sail mast slides rusted out and were missing; a small tear in the sail, and our handrail on our dodger\/bimini had popped off.<\/p>\n

Originally, we were so excited to visit this country but when we arrived, we felt pretty deflated as we limped our boat into the bay on Thursday May 10th\u2026.but moments after we arrived we were greeted by the kind and friendly local fisherman and our spirits were back on high once again\u2026it\u2019s a roller coaster out here\u2026lots of lows and lots of highs\u2026.rarely do we spend time in the middle and if we do it\u2019s really on purpose.<\/p>\n

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Civilization!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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SV Another Adventure safely anchored at Port Resolution, Tanna Island. They had kindly already made communications, for them and us, for clearance into the country and we were thankful.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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When we anchored there were about 12 fishing canoes….may of them slowed down around us to check us out… they each had a net and would canoe in a circle and release the nets together. It was pretty cool to watch them work as a team. It started to rain and one guy stopped to put on his yellow rain jacket which I thought was pretty cute….no one else had rain gear so it was curious why this guy cared NOT to get wet?!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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We met Joseph and Charlie in thier canoes when they headed back to shore. We chatted it up about where we are from, what they were catching, etc. I would imagine they see lots of boats here as Tanna Island is a popular cruisers destination with the active volcano and this being the closest anchorage to it. But they still paddled around and looked inspectively at our boat but with smiles and kindness!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Pete and Pete (one Pete not shown here) canoed to us offering fruit for trade. We asked what they needed and swapped a mask and snorkel for avocados, passion fruit, limes and a strange gourd, something between a very large bean pod and a squash. Here one of the Petes is tossing up passion fruit to Trevor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So glad to be anchored…we had a great weather window and sail to Vanuatu…unfortunately we had lots of issues as well which took away from some of the enjoyment of such a great sailing passage. I don’t remember having so many issues in one passage but I guess it’s our time to have them, even after all the work we have done on the rig.\u00a0 We couldn’t of predicted these problems previously as things just “wear out” or break but all is well and it’s time to explore the this wild and untouched place…Vanuatu!<\/p>\n

No internet, remote villages, chiefs and local politics\u2026all up next\u2026oh and did we mention a VOLCANO?!<\/p>\n

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