Sunday 22 to Wednesday 25 June – wet Port Vila

We headed off to Port Vila early Sunday morning to beat the weather that was due. Typically the heavens opened about a mile before we got in. There are no marina staff on a Sunday so we were very grateful to Ian on Rala who came out on his dinghy in the pouring rain to help us get onto the mooring ball. We all got drenched. We thanked Ian by taking him out for dinner, everywhere was closed on a Sunday night except for the marina restaurant. We had heard the food wasn’t that great, but the location is lovely on the water’s edge, plus they had an amazing female singer with a really powerful voice, it certainly was an enjoyable evening, good to get off the boat. Poor Laura, Ian’s wife, is back in the UK attending her brother’s funeral.

Monday it rained quite a bit again, there is a very strange weather system hanging about, the equivalent of the Fijian Bogi Walu. We ducked showers all day long. Rowan had to get his parcel from DHL and pay the taxes. I wondered through town looking for suitable gifts to give to the people we will meet in the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. Our plans are getting a little clearer. We think we will leave Vanuatu towards the end of July and head for the Solomon islands. We will most probably spend 6 weeks there and in September head to Papua New Guinea making our way along the small islands north of the main land. The main land is not that safe, so we plan to stick to the outer islands, we will definitely be travelling the less travelled route. This means arriving in Indonesia late October, the winds get tricky if we leave it much later. Christmas in Raja Ampat where we are hoping some of the kids will join us!

Monday evening we took a German couple on a boat called Trinity (Trimaran) out for dinner, they had brought a whole lot of bits and pieces for us from NZ. Most places in Port Vila were closed on a Monday night so we landed up getting a bus to a restaurant the other side of the island. I’m so in love with the busses here, they are always so jolly and chatty, even with 50litres of UHT milk squeezed in amongst everyone, they just help out and nothing is a problem. We went to a Mexican restaurant called the 3 Pigs run by Canadians, it came recommended by a NZ lady I met running a shop in town. Thank goodness I had booked as there was not a single table spare. Because it was so full and rain was causing havoc, plus staff off sick, the service was appalling. It took an hour to get our drinks and about 2 hours before we got our rather delicious Mexican dishes. The Canadian owner was beside himself with embarresment and gave us extra strong Margaritas as compensation, which definitely helped jolly the evening along. It sounds like Trinity has pretty much decided to call it a day sailing. They have been sailing for 5 years on their new boat, I think the maintenance is proving a little too much. They are sitting in Port Vila waiting to sort out another issue. Poor things are next to a very annoying boat that has two rather aggressive Rottweilers on board, that bark at every passing boat. The owners of the dogs seem thoroughly unpleasant, and have got into shouting matches with the Trinity guys and others.

Tuesday we did our heavy lifting provisioning shop, mainly UHT milk and a few essentials like olives! In the evening we invited a NZ boat called La Reeve over for a Korean chicken take away. They are also planning to do our route, we are looking out for a buddy boat. They have a big problem in that their windlass (anchor winch) has blown up. They have been in the marina for 4 weeks and will have to wait for many more weeks to get it sorted. They had a kiwi friend staying with them who had come for a week’s holiday and they have been stuck in the town tmarina he whole time. She was a bit too vocal about things, obviously very frustrated at not being able to explore the islands. Her pet hate is the trend in NZ for kids who identify as furries, schools are accommodating them by providing sauces of milk and litter trays for kids who identify as cats! It was all a bit mind boggling, I’ve never heard of it, apparently it is a thing in the UK too. The kiwi guy had just discovered that morning that he is not the oldest child in his family! Both parents have died a while ago, an uncle has confirmed it, all found out by DNA family testing. His wife turned out to be English but has lived in NZ for nearly 20 years. We invited Ian to join us, he came really late as he dropped his phone overboard. He managed to mark the spot, got his diving gear out to look for it and discovered his tank was fizzing. He abandoned that and appealed on the VHF for any local divers. The marina finally found a diver but two hours later, by then it was pitch dark and the phone can only last 30 minutes under water. Poor Ian was very cheerful even though he had such a very fraught evening. We also invited a couple who live on a big 70 foot long schooner built in 1944, on a permanent mooring ball just along from us. We were put in touch with them by a NZ family who lived in Vanuatu for a while. Viktor who owns the schooner is Dutch and has a very sweet younger Filipino wife. It was rather a strange combination of people, we had some good stories, some of us enjoyed the fiery Korean chicken a lot more than others!

Wednesday it became evident that our old Stinky (Starlink satellite) needs a new dedicated router, which we cannot source here. Luckily our new mini Starlink is working well, it doesn’t look nearly as robust, but it chews a lot less electricity and the contract is a quarter of the price. Rowan looked at all sorts of back up options, including tracking down the only Starlink mini in port Vila, of course for 4 times the price! When we looked at waiting weeks for deliveries and shipping costs, we opted to get a second mini. Fingers crossed it works well.

We spent the rest of the day doing chores, drawing cash, as atms are non existent on the islands, and everywhere has huge charges for credit card usage. We went to the fresh produce market for our veg and fruit, plus some more gorgeous flowers. Then to the big French supermarket where luckily Rowan spotted the eggs being delivered, yesterday they had none. They were all gone within the hour. We stocked up with school writing books and pens for the kids, tools for the men. We were a little stuck what to get the ladies so asked a local lady what a good present would be, she suggested knives and tongs, which was a good buy there, especially as the knives were not made in China but from Brazil and look great quality. That was another great bus journey with all our shopping bags back to the dinghy dock.

In the evening Ian had invited us to go around to his boat for supper. He had cooked up the most delicious belly of pork, chorizo, bean dish with roast potatoes and broccoli, what a treat. I made a fruit salad. It was a good evening full of stories from Ian who has lived a very adventurous life, 28 years in the army serving in loads of different countries. Then his life as a delivery skipper and various relationships along the way. Very entertaining.

Back on our same mooring ball in rainy Port Vila marina, with the Chinese fishing boat still tied up to land.

Loved this Pikinini Bar (child bar), supporting local farmers growing organic fruit. I had a delicious Pawpaw and granadilla juice there

My flowers from the market next to our wood carving from Ambryn Island

Some great Bislama (language of Vanuatu)… Thank you too much, see you back again

Rowan had to take a photo of this Bislama too, you can see us reflected in the window, this translates to – I got special medicine for children and everyone

My name is Jenny translates to Name belong me Jenny