September 18

We raised the anchor this morning just before 6am and made our way out of the inner harbor at Lolowai. Following the leads and the course we tracked on the way in (which we recorded on the computer chart) we had no trouble and passed over the reef/bar with a least depth of about 8ft at mid tide. Our destination is the town of Luganville on the island of Espirito Santo about 50 miles to the West. Santo was first "discovered" by de Quiros, the famous Spanish explorer, in the late 1500s and was at first thought by him to be the long sought after great Southern Continent. Clearly he was too lazy to attempt to find its Southern extent or he would have easily discovered the island is only about 65 miles long and 32 miles wide which does make it Vanuatu's largest island.

The sky is mostly clear with a few light clouds over the islands of Ambae and Maewo which we can still see in the distance. The wind is from the SE and varies between 10 and 22k owing to the effects of the mountainous terrain of the island. We are sailing along the North coast of Ambae and it is playing tricks on the wind which will end once we clear its Western end in about 2 ½ hours (app. 17nm). The seas are flat calm again owing to the protection afforded by the island to our South though I do not expect rough seas once we pass beyond it. The wind has been calm for 5 days and seas will not have had time to build much even if it is blowing a steady 20k out there. Once we do clear the end of Ambae we have about 25nm remaining to reach the Segond Channel which leads into Luganville. We expect to arrive sometime between 2 and 3pm this afternoon.

Due to a problem with our genoa (which I will fix in Santo where parts from New Zealand should be waiting for us) we are motorsailing with just the mainsail and staysail and making between 6-7.5k over ground on a course of app. 255M which will change app. 235M in about 30 minutes once we pass Miranda Reef, an offshore reef about a half mile off the coast. We are currently maintain a distance of about 1.5 miles off the coast and will slowly increase that range which may cause us to gain a more regular wind sooner. Right now, as I write this, the wind has dropped to 3k due to the effects of the island blocking the wind. A few minutes later the wind is back in the 15k range and we are speeding along.

Shortly after writing the above the wind again died and then a few minutes later came around and gave us a 4-5k head wind. At 8:45am we are motor sailing at 6.7k with a 4k head wind from the SW and flat calm seas. The engine is running at about 1900rpm and we are burning a good amount of fuel for sure. We have about 29nm to go to reach the entrance to the Segond Channel and another 5 miles after that to reach the Aore Resort where we hope to pick up a mooring, if one is available.

At about 9:45am the wind finally filled in as we cleared the Western tip of Ambae island. We have 15-20k from the SE and are still motorsailing due to the lack of a jib. We have the mizzen up as well and the wind is right on the beam. If we had the jib working we would be screaming along. As it is we are screaming along at 8-8.5k although with the help of the engine. Without the engine the weather helm is so great the autopilot is struggling to keep us on course.

It is now 11:45am and we are about 6.5nm from the entrance to the channel. The wind has calmed down a bit to 10-15k and we continue to motor sail at about 7.5k. We anticipate arrival at Aore Island at about 1:15pm. The weather remains fine and clear.