Oct 20-30, 2015 Oyster Bay - Ambrym - Tranquility Island

On October 20, my Canadian friend JD (John Douglas) flew into Luganville to join us. We spent 2 more days in Oyster Bay so he could have a chance to see some stunning snorkeling and so we could visit the RiriRiri Blue Hole with its intensely blue water. 

 The first morning JD was on the boat we were on deck enjoying our coffee when all of a sudden the entire boat began to shake. It sounded like someone had turned the engine on and it was running extremely poorly. There was a nasty grumbling emanating from the boat. We looked around and saw that the land was swaying around us and the cows were running. We were experiencing a 7.3 earthquake through the water. The other boats in the anchorage were equally shocked.

When we left the inner anchorage, we were a little nervous about the pass as we only had 2 inches to spare on our way in, well on our way out we had 0 inches. We touched bottom, but fortunately just briefly. On our sail to Ambrym, JD caught a mahimahi, so yummy eating for a few days.

The locals had this boat loaded down.

Gigi in the school in Ranon, Ambrym. We gave them some books and reading glasses, but as you can see they need a lot more help to have a better learning environment.

Ambrym is the home to the active volcano Mt. Marum. To visit this volcano there is a long hike and you camp on the mountain for the night. It took a couple of days to organize a guide, during which time Nirvana was spinning at anchor from the random winds. The anchor chain wrapped itself around the anchor and lifted it off the bottom. We found ourselves about a mile out to sea before realizing the issue. So that meant that one of us must stay with the boat while the others visited the volcano, so I volunteered and enjoyed a peaceful day and night by myself. Since I didn't go to the volcano, the kids have both written about their experience, and that will be the next post.

We knew that the sail from Ambrym to Port Vila would be upwind, but we tried to pick a time when it wasn't too bad. The wind was fairly light, mostly 10-15 knots although sometimes over 20 knots, but of course upwind. As we passed the Maskelyne Islands we experienced some rough seas from the strong currents, and took a few big waves over the bow. We had forgotten to turn the dorades around, so water gushed down below and soaked our bed and all my belongings beside it. JD took a big wave through the center hatch and was rudely awakened. We didn't get all the way to Port Vila because as we approached Devil's Point the wind started howling above 30 knots and the seas got quite confused, so at 1 am we anchored in Havana Harbor. The next day we moved out to Tranquility Island where the snorkeling is fantastic.

After a very lumpy trip around Devil's Point, we are now in Port Vila, planning to do a few boat projects, provision, and then head off for New Caledonia.

Cheers,

Julie