MV Dirona travel digest for Vanuatu 2013

Looking north to the village of Analgawhat. The village population is about 300, with a total island population of around 900.

9/5/2013: Mystery Island

We'd moved the boat closer to Mystery Island for better wave protection--that predicted storm definately had arrived.

9/5/2013: Fuel filter

We have two off-engine fuel filters that we can switch between with a valve when the engine is running, and today we changed the filter the one we were using. The filter had 6 PSI of pressure and we usually change it when the pressure reaches around 5-7 PSI. We found the filter very black, so we may have some fuel contamination. The filter ran for 424 hours so, if there is an issue, it's not yet a big problem.

9/5/2013: Hydraulics pump

We've been seeing higher-than-normal temperatures and lower-than-normal water flow in the hydraulics cooling system. On investigating, we found the water pump impeller had all blades in place, but each one was 80% detatched. Then we found the pump was leaking slightly and the seal retainer had partly rusted away. The impeller clearly needed replacing. But since the pump is a mission-critical part, we decided to change it, and keep the old one for emergencies.

9/5/2013: Sunset

Our first Vanuatu sunset.

9/6/2013: Atovaquone/Proguanil

Vanuatu has a low-to-moderate malaria risk, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The risk is lower in the south where we are though. We'll of course try to avoid a mosquito bite in the first place, but are taking an antimalarial just in case.

9/6/2013: Transmission pressure sensor

The main engine transmission pressure sensor has been faulting once every 9 to 12 months since installed. We replaced it with Setra product instead.

9/6/2013: Dinghy

Replacing the dinghy trim tab gas struts. The dinghy was not getting up on plane quickly because both struts had failed due to water ingress damaging the strut seals.

9/6/2013: Gas tank repair

We resealed the valve-to-container and hose-to-valve fittings in both boat-deck gasoline storage tanks. Gasoline, or some gasoline additives, appear to break down the Teflon tape used as sealant.

9/6/2013: Floating rocks

Floating volcanic rocks that washed up onto the swim platform.

9/6/2013: Village path

We landed ashore to walk around a bit. Several villages are strung along shore, connected by a foot path.

9/6/2013: Traditional dwelling

Some more modern construction techniques were in use. But many of the buildings, particularly the homes, were in the traditional style. As in French Polynesia, all the yards and pathways were well-kept, and many with nice gardens.

9/6/2013: Oven

Each village had what looked like a community area--this one had a stone oven.

9/6/2013: Baby goat

One of two baby goats with mama. We saw a lot of chickens and dogs too.

9/6/2013: Church ruins

Runis of the 1000-person church that Presbyterian missionary Rev. John Geddie built in the mid-1800s. Before European diseases decimated the population, 3,500 people lived on the island.

9/6/2013: Sunset

9/7/2013: Jetty

Position: -20°14.65'S, 169°46.08'E

Tied off to the jetty at Mystery Island, with Aneityum Island visible in the background. The water is a wonderful shade of torquoise. The jetty is for cruise ships that regularly arrive and bring hundreds of tourists to Mystery Island for the day.

9/7/2013: Buoys

Position: -20°14.65'S, 169°46.08'E

When the cruise ship comes in, the locals install temporary navigation buoys to mark the safe path to the jetty. The buoys aren't permanently placed because storms would take them out.

9/7/2013: Mystery Island

Several informational signs had been installed around the island for the cruise ship passengers.

9/7/2013: Cannibal Soup

Who's for dinner? :) Cannibalism was common in Vanuatu until relatively recently--the last officially recorded incident was in 1969. And to quote Marten Troost from Getting Stoned with Savages, "It seemed to me that if people were still officially gnawing at human limbs in 1969, it was more than possible that, since then, there had been some off-the-books cannibalism going on in Vanuatu".

9/7/2013: Market Place

The Mystery Island Market Place is huge, with room for several dozen vendors. When the cruise ship comes in, locals fill these stall to ply their wares to the passengers.

9/7/2013: Mystery Island Airport

A small grass runway on the island servers Aneityum. A plane had arrived shortly after we landed.

9/7/2013: "Local" products

Weaved goods arriving by plane. We'd heard that much of the "local product" sold at the Market Place was imported from China. :)

9/7/2013: Trails

Well-tended walking trails circled and crossed the island. Overall, the cruise-ship infrastructure was quite tastefully done.

9/7/2013: Marine protected area

Mystery Island is a marine protected area--no fishing or removal of any sea life is allowed.

9/7/2013: South reef

Position: -20°14.65'S, 169°46.08'E

Looking out across the southern reef.

9/7/2013: Sunset

Another beautiful Analgawhat sunset.

9/8/2013: Pacific Dawn

P&O Lines cruise ship Pacific Dawn arriving this morning.

9/8/2013: When 450 yards of swing room seems snug

Position: -20°14.66'S, 169°46.08'E

Pacific Dawn anchored about 450 yards away. That's a lot of swing room, but the 800-foot ship will consume much of it.

9/8/2013: Strong winds and abrasion

The remains of our snubber after it parted. (A snubber is a line between the anchor chain and the boat, to take strain off the windlass, give the rode some elasticity, and isolate the boat somewhat from the noise of chain scraping across rock on the bottom.) With the big winds we've been having, the snubber was under enourmous loads. In addition, we think because the boat was moving around a lot, the loose loop of the chain was chafing against the snubber line for days in a row. Our spare is now in use, with longer anti-chafe in place where the snubber line might rub against the chain.

9/8/2013: Dinghy chock shims

The forward removable chocks that support the dinghy on the boat deck were slightly loose, and creaked in heavy seas. So we created 1/2" wide by 5" long aluminum shims to snug them up.

9/8/2013: Spotlight failure

The bow spotlight failed--apparently you can only take saltwater pounding into a spotlight for 3-4 years. We found rust in the circuit-board and the relay that turns the light on had so much resistance the light barely glowed. James wired in a workaround for an off-circuit-board relay and it's back to working perfectly.

9/8/2013: Returning home

Villagers returning home from Mystery Island after the cruise ship departed. The nav marker is one of the several temporary ones put out for the cruise ship.

9/8/2013: Sunset

9/9/2013: Nav system rewire

Most autopilots have NAV mode, which essentially asks the pilot to steer to a plotted route rather than just in a specific direction. It's particularly useful in cross-currents and strong winds, or when travelling longer distances. NAV mode has not worked on our system since day one, and we finally got it working today. In the picture, you can see the jumper cables while we were testing a temporary fix that we've since wired in permanently.

9/10/2013: Carnival Spirit

The second cruise cruise ship this week, Carnival Spirit, arrived this morning. Like the Pacific Dawn, they sent one boat ashore with just crew first. But intead of running passengers ashore after, they left. Perhaps the weather was too rough? The Pacific Pearl arrived the next day, making that three cruise ships in one week.

9/11/2013: Fishing float

Position: -20°11.60'S, 169°42.78'E

A flagged float offshore as we headed north to Tanna Island. We'd enjoyed the five nights anchored at Analgawhat--we'd been busy in preparing to leave Fiji, and will be busy again before running to New Zealand near the end of September. It was nice not to have anything pressing to do, and to just take our time catching up on work and boat projects, and relaxing.

9/11/2013: 2,500 generator hours

Position: -20°8.33'S, 169°42.11'E

We just crossed 2,500 hours on the generator. And earlier this month we crossed 3,500 hours on the main engine.

9/11/2013: Yasur Volcano

Position: -19°37.56'S, 169°33.55'E

Smoke visible from Yasur Volcano as we approach Tanna Island.

9/11/2013: Approaching Port Resolution

Position: -19°30.69'S, 169°30.66'E

Nearing the entrance to the anchorage at Port Resolution.

9/11/2013: Rock formations

Position: -19°31.30'S, 169°29.81'E

Complex weather-carved rock formations off the east shore of the anchorage mouth.

9/11/2013: Charts

The charts for Analgawhat were reasonable, but for Port Resolution aren't confidence-inspiring. That green area our red route line crosses is charted as reef, but actually is hazard-free. We've been using the Rocket Guide for Cruising Vanuatu--which includes satellite imagery and waypoints--and have found it most helpful, and accurate.

9/11/2013: Ashore

Our micro-tender beached with the locals' outrigger canoes.

9/11/2013: Port Resolution Yacht Club

The village at Port Resolution maintains quite a nice facility for visitors, including cabins and a clubhouse with seating for a couple of dozen. Jennifer is wearing jeans for the first time we think since leaving San Francisco. We'll be visiting Yasur Volcano this afternoon/evening and it can get cold up the mountain at night.

9/11/2013: Port Resolution anchorage

View to anchorage from the yacht club grounds--Dirona is anchored left of the other boats in the middle distance. Two other boats were there when we arrived, and six others were anchored by the time we left Port Resolution. The anchorage has plenty of room for at least a dozen boats though--much more space than we expected.

9/11/2013: Primary school

We had some time before our truck left for the volcano, so we walked to the village. This is the village primary school--several dozen kids were playing soccer in the field behind.

9/11/2013: Rush hour

Locals walking along the road towards the village.

9/11/2013: Giant Banyan

Tanna Island is known for its giant banyan trees (nabangas). We saw some much larger than this one.

9/11/2013: On the road

Riding in the back of a pickup truck with the people from the other two anchored boats for the half-hour ride up to the volcano.

9/11/2013: Exciting ride

The ride to the volcano was an adventure in itself. The road was narrow, bumpy and steep, with sections nearly washed away in places.

9/11/2013: At the volcano

At the path leading up Yasur Volcano, with smoke belching from the volcano in the background. As we approached, we also could see debris frequently tossed high in the air.

9/11/2013: Crater's edge

Standing at the edge of Yasur Volcano, above the northern of its two calderas. Both calderas erupted often as we were there, tossing up large globules of bright orange molten lava. Yasur is the world's most accessible active volcano--its hard to imagine being much closer to one and living to tell about it. Its amazing standing on the edge of a caldera of molten lava that every minute or so explodes and shoots lava hundreds of feet over your head. We thought seeing the lava flows close-up on the Big Island in Hawaii was impressive, but this completely topped it.

9/11/2013: Fireworks

As night fell, the erupting volcano became an incredible fireworks display. We'll post more pictures and video when we get better connectivity.

9/12/2013: Flopper-stopper repair

One of the four chains supporting the flopper-stopper plate parted. We replaced it with a length cut from the old dinghy anchor chain and it's working great now. We're anchored in about eleven feet, and think the plate might have hit bottom and possibly snagged. As a temporary measure, we installed anti-chafe at the half-way point on the line and and doubled the long flopper line. We'll get a shorter one made to use when annchored in under twenty feet of water. The longer line is easier to launch and recover, but won't work as well in shallow anchorages, so we'll use both.

9/13/2013: Sunrise

Position: -19°31.64'S, 169°29.62'E

Sunrise as we depart Port Resolution. It's about a seven-hour run to our next anchorage, so we wanted to get an early start.

9/13/2013: Mount Yasur

Position: -19°31.64'S, 169°29.62'E

Smoke belching from Mount Yasur as we travel along the east side of Tanna Island.

9/13/2013: Dillon's Bay

The more typical anchorage at Dillon's Bay is slightly farther north off the village at the Williams River mouth, but we found a more appealing spot off a small sand beach with steep cliffs and interesting rock formations. The winds were light the entire time we were there--conditions were so calm we didn't even consider the flopper-stopper.

9/13/2013: Visitors

Soon after we'd anchored, a skiff arrived from the village. Several groups stopped by to say hello and chat the few days we were anchored--everyone was extremely friendly and welcoming.

9/13/2013: Starter replacement

We replaced the starter on the wing engine this afternoon. The wing wouldn't start as we came into the anchorage--we use it to help power our hydraulic anchor winch. Generating hydraulic pressure and positioning the boat on just the main engine was slightly more difficult, but generally it went fine. The old starter was seriously overheated to the point of filling the engine room with smoke in the summer of 2011 when the engine hydro-locked up in Prince William Sound. We're happy it lasted as long as it did. We've since configured the Wavenet engine control and monitoring system to not continue trying to start if the engine won't turn, which protects the starter from overheating.

9/14/2013: Reefs

Touring around shore near our anchorage. The visibility here is excellent--we can clearly see the reefs 45 feet below our anchored boat.

9/14/2013: Diving

After checking out possible dive sites, near where we were anchored seemed among the best. So we dove right off the boat. The topography was quite interesting, with lots of healthy coral.

9/14/2013: Gap

One of several swim-through gaps we encountered. Overall it was an excellent dive.

9/15/2013: Williams River

At high tide we could run the dinghy over the river bar and into the Williams River (the bar depth at low tide was less than three feet). The village is strung out along the shore.

9/15/2013: Swimmers

Today was a Sunday and a number of the village children were out swimming in the river.

9/15/2013: Village girls

These two girls followed us along the shore, sprinting where shrubbery blocked their view and walking casually past when out in the open.

9/15/2013: End of the road

We got about a half kilometer up the river. With our kayaks or the micro-tender, we could have portaged up to the next level, but wouldn't have been able to get far until the next set of rapids.

9/15/2013: Fresh fruit

One of the villagers paddled out to the boat with a load of fresh produce. Among our purchases was delicious papaya and lemons.

9/15/2013: Margaritas

Margaritas at sunset.

9/16/2013: Follow-up lever

A follow-up lever is used at the helm to request a specific rudder angle. For boats so equipped, it's easier and faster than turning the wheel. Our follow-up levers had an installation issue where they were unable to command more than 3/4 of full rudder travel, which reduces maneuverability in close quarters and docking situations. Here James is investigating the cause of the problem. We ended up solving it by modifiying the follow-up levers to swing farther to the left and right.

9/16/2013: Sunset

Spitfire enjoying the sunset.

9/17/2013: Underway

Position: -18°37.49'S, 169°0.94'E

We had an easy run to Ponomias Bay in sunny and calm weather.

9/17/2013: Ponomias Bay

Looking west from our anchorage at Ponomias Bay. A local from the village beyond the cliff paddled out to say hello shortly after we'd anchored.

9/17/2013: Chart

The chart were good at Dillon's Bay, but pretty bad here. According to the chart, we're on land.

9/17/2013: Creek

Walking the creek at the head of the anchorage. Our micro-tender is by the tree in the distance along the left bank.

9/17/2013: Hike

Dozens of trails crisscrossed the area. We followed one north of the creek that was reasonably well-trod and climbed up steeply, hoping for a view down into the anchorage. We couldn't get near our cove, or the water even, but did get some nice views across the island.

9/17/2013: Ruins

Back near the creek, we found several areas that once were enclosed with barbed-wire fences that had partly fallen down. Probably the ruins of early European loggers or missionaries.

9/17/2013: Oranges

Orange and lemon trees growing north of the creek.

9/17/2013: Grave

Grave near the other ruins. We couldn't make out the writing.

9/17/2013: Beach

Taking a break after our hike.

9/17/2013: Runnning the creek

At high tide, we were able to work the micro-tender through the creek opening and a short way inside.

9/17/2013: Down the creek

View back down the creek to the anchorage.

9/17/2013: Sunset

9/18/2013: 3600 hours

Position: -18°27.26'S, 168°53.03'E

Just hit 3,600 hours on the main engine.

9/18/2013: Pango Point

Position: -17°46.86'S, 168°14.86'E

Navigation light on Pango Point on Efate Island as we approach Port Vila. We left at 4:40 this morning for the nine-hour run so we could arrive in good light.

9/18/2013: Paray Bay

Position: -17°44.48'S, 168°18.77'E

Entering Paray Bay in Port Vila Bay. We ran through the bay to look for anchorage, but ended up liking best the first spot we saw on the way.

9/18/2013: Ships aground

Position: -17°44.77'S, 168°18.75'E

Two boats aground, one nearly sunk, on Iririki Island.

9/18/2013: Port Vila customs

Position: -17°45.42'S, 168°18.04'E

When we checked in at Aneityum, we were given a cruising permit for the southern Vanuatu islands and Efate Island. The cruising permit must be handed it to Port Vila customs when we arrive. Should we leave Efeta Island to continue cruising in Vanuatu, we would need to get a new cruising permit for the next set of islands that we would visit up to the next customs check-in point.

9/18/2013: Dinghy dock

Position: -17°44.64'S, 168°18.83'E

Our tender tied off at the Yachting World Marina dinghy dock. Busy place.

9/18/2013: Cellular data

Position: -17°44.56'S, 168°18.87'E

Buying a Digicel cellular data SIM card in Port Vila. They carried microSIMs at the store, so didn't need to use a "cutter" as in Fiji. Our Digicel account that we'd setup in Fiji worked in Vanuatu, but of course our Fiji SIM card didn't

9/18/2013: Waterfront bar and grill

Position: -17°44.60'S, 168°18.83'E

Vanuatu Tusker beer at the Waterfront Bar and Grill.

9/19/2013: Kourion

The ship Kourion in Port Vila Bay.

9/19/2013: Market

Position: -17°44.41'S, 168°18.85'E

The Port Vila market at around 6pm at night. It appears that everyone is staying the night.

9/19/2013: Crystals

Position: -17°44.53'S, 168°18.85'E

After walking around town a bit, we had a great dinner overlooking the bay at Crystals restaurant in the Grand Hotel.

9/20/2013: V7 repair

After five months out of KVH V7 territory, we're finally back. The bad news is that the V7 stopped working in the interim. We've tried swapping cables and here we're replacing the Low Noise Block (LNB) that KVH had shipped to Port Vila, but that didn't resolve the issue. The current diagnosis from KVH is that we need a new modem, an expensive part that we won't be able to have shipped to us until New Zealand.

9/21/2013: Morning

Calm morning in Port Vila Bay.

9/21/2013: Capsize