We left Vunda Pt. this morning at about 10:30am after first stopping at the fuel dock to top off our diesel tanks. We anchored at 2:45 at the island of Kuatu just South of Wayasawa (aka Waya Lailai or Little Waya). We are staying here for the rest of the day and leaving in the morning for Vanuatu.

We stopped primarily to perform certain maintenance chores which could not (easily or healthily) be done at the marina. First, I need to scrape the prop to remove the accumulated marine growth of the last 4 months. Having been in marinas the whole time tied up with repairs we have not had opportunity to clean the prop. I am sure it will be heavily encrusted based on the performance of the boat under power today. A foul prop can reduce efficiency of the prop by 50% easily with very little growth. While I am down there I will clean the growth from the speed log wheel which is essential for getting True Vs. Apparent wind speed data from the instruments.

Finally, we need to purge the watermaker of the preservative chemical used to "pickle" the unit which is done whenever it will not be used for a period of time longer then about a week. This simply involves letting it run with certain valves open for an hour or so. No big deal. Tomorrow morning we will be all set to go and on our way!