We had hoped the tide had dropped sufficiently after breakfast so that we could go and explore the two Blue Holes. It maybe was too low, it was difficult to find the entrance to the holes, and when some local fishing woman pointed us in the right direction, it looked way too difficult to get to. Firstly there was nowhere to anchor JeldiJeldi while we swam in and with the swell it didn’t look easy to swim in. So we abandoned that idea and went for a drift snorkel along the edge of the reef. It was wonderful to see the coral in such good condition, loads of variety and looking so healthy. There was not an abundance of reef fish and certainly no big fish, we think it must be heavily fished. It was a very enjoyable snorkel.
Returning to PolePole we got the anchor up pretty quickly and headed up north to our next island Erromango. It was about a 5 hour sail up. Once we left the lee of the island we had a great sail, winds were pretty constant getting up to a max of 23 knts at times. We discovered Rob and Frances on Alia Vita were still in Dillon’s Bay, poor Rob had terrible diarrhoea, and they had not left last night as planned. We just caught them to have a cup of tea at 4pm, before they headed to Port Vila an hour later. They like doing overnight hops, we prefer doing them in the daytime. An Israeli boat that had been anchored in the bay with them, had caught a big tuna and gave some to Rob and Frances, who very generously gave us a couple of pieces for our supper. We will catch up with them in Port Vila.
It is a stunning lush bay with a big river running into it. Rowan took some good drone pics. While we were having a spectacular sunset David from the Yacht Club came out to us on his dug out canoe welcoming us with a basket of fruit. He came on board for a coffee, we traded some rice and bits and pieces for our fruit, which included two big pawpaws. So glad they are called pawpaws here and not papaya, made us feel at home! David is very eloquent, in his 70’s and owns the Yacht Club. We have seen a couple of places called the ‘Yacht club’, club is stretching it, but it obviously works well with the few passing yachts. We are apparently boat number 7 this season. Once Alia Vita left we were the only boat in the bay. We have booked an island tour with David tomorrow.
Our first bit of the passage was very calm in the lee of Tanna island which gave Rowan time to clean out the enormous quantity of debris from the bird’s nest in the boom. Eight huge handfuls
Cloudy mountains again
Dramatic cliffs and caves as we approached Dillon’s Bay
Lovely dense rain forest
Alia Vita about to leave
Map showing the big river
Drone shot of the river entrance
The village of Dillon’s Bay
Rowan’s drone footage of the coastline
The only two boats in the bay, Alia Vita and PolePole
PolePole at sunset
Gorgeous reflected light on the water
David the owner of the Yacht Club welcoming us with fruit
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