We finally left Asanvari this morning and we are underway now bound for Luganville, Espirito Santo. We woke before the alarm went off at 5:30, it was daylight already and the sky was mostly clear with misty clouds hanging over Maewo and the neighboring island of Ambae. We tidied up a few things on deck and raised the anchor at 6:15 and by 6:30 we were on our way motoring out of the little bay.

It is now 7:30am and the sun is shining brightly. There are light clouds over the islands still, especially Maewo and Pentacost which are shrouded in deep, misty clouds. Everywhere else is beautiful. The seas are very calm, the barrier provided by Pentacost and Maewo is almost complete and only a slight swell is present. A light wind chop from the 15-18k wind we have is hardly noticeable. We are making 6.5k over ground on a course of 240M and have 48nm remaining to Santo (Luganville) and I expect us to arrive there at about 3:30 in the afternoon.

As we have not cleared in, we must first attempt to complete those formalities, but we expect that by the time we arrived and launch our dinghy it will be closing time at the Customs and Immigration offices, so we will most likely wait and visit those offices tomorrow morning.

At 8am the wind died to 10k and shifted around to the ENE. Our speed dropped to about 4.5k and we began motor sailing to keep our speed up. E have 39 miles to go to reach Santo. At 5k it would take almost 8 more hours which would have us in at about 4:30pm, which would be ok. We are motor sailing now at 6.2k and so hope to arrive a bit earlier. Of course, I am still very anxious about using the transmission so much and am constantly hearing new noises and such which make me think things are just about to fall apart. We will see. If we can make 5.5k under sail we will shut down the motor and sail, reserving out motoring capability till its really needed, entering the harbor.

It is now 10am and we have 27.5 miles to go before we reach Santo. We have been motor sailing since 8am in a light, following wind. Having rounded the Southernmost point of Ambae we have changed course. Our new heading is 256M which has brought the wind almost dead astern. We have 11k of true wind, according to the instruments, and only 4.5k apparent wind (the wind actually hitting the sails when boat speed is taken into account) so I do not expect we are getting much help there. Since we are making 6.8-7k over ground and only turning at 1700rpm, there must be a current assisting us of at least 1k and perhaps 1.5k. In another 5 or 6 miles we will clear the Western tip of the island (we are only about a mile and a half offshore and running parallel to the Southern coast). Then I expect things to change, the current at least and hopefully the wind as well will come down more from the Southeast then Northeast as it is now.

We arrived at Luganville at about 3pm and anchored in the quarantine area just off the town where the Immigration office is. In the morning we will go in and complete the formalities, then move across the channel to the moorings at the Aore Resort where there are about 8 boats we can see from this side. We also had a visit from Ed and Rachel from "Horai" - we met them in New Zealand last year. They are from Boston and we seem to get along well with them.