We had an early start leaving the anchorage, we needed to leave at a high-ish tide so that we could get over the coral at the entrance to the little bay. We left Alia Vita behind who are normally up long before us! They followed shortly. We have booked into a dance ceremony on Ambrym island. It was only about 25 miles away but with no wind it took a good part of the day. Aldabra and Rala joined us, they had gone to a different spot to see dugongs, and although they saw them from the boat, they never managed to swim with them, so we were extremely lucky yesterday.
We had a very slow sail across to Ambryn. The wind got over 10 knots for a little while, but we just enjoyed a quiet slow sail. We got to our anchorage around 3pm, it was a black volcanic beach surrounded by dense bush. We all got anchored, but about an hour later, tide and wind got up, we all felt very unsettled with an onshore wind. It was not the conditions predicted and we were all rolling about like crazy, so we all moved about 5 miles down the coast. It was definitely more sheltered but was a deep anchorage with bommies everywhere, one guide advising not to anchor here under any circumstances! We all got anchored and have everything crossed that our anchor chain does not wrap around a bommie. With the black sand and the depth it is not easy to see where our anchors are.
We all gathered for a cup of tea on Alia Vita, having watched Aldabra spend about an hour trying to anchor. It is a bigger village with lots of kids about, some visiting us on their canoes, just curious!
Leaving our anchorage at high tide to avoid the coral
Coral reefs everywhere
We had a visitor, he couldn’t see me through the sun blind so I could get really close. He hung on for a while, poor thing, his one wing looks a little wonky, but he flew off no problem when we put the sails up
We discovered more bird nesting material in the boom…..will it ever end. To think of the amount of effort to collect so much grass and twigs
Everyone sailing to the anchorage
Black volcanic beaches
Calm waters change with the turn in tide and wind
Made it to Craig’s cove with calm water before sunset
Kids visiting
Gorgeous sunset reflections
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