We set off before breakfast so that we had plenty of time to navigate our next anchorage which is in a tricky location. We passed by the wreck of the Coolidge and then Million Dollar Point. So named by the price tag that the Americans put on the vehicles of their task force, that they tried and failed to sell to the French, the English and finally the locals at the end of the war in 1945. Too costly to take back to the States they bulldozed the whole lot into the ocean here at the bottom of the island Espiritu Santo. It is a famous dive site but Rowan was not that keen to do it. We could have snorkelled it but the sea was too choppy.
We then hugged the coast of Espiritu Santo heading north, a lovely sail with a gentle wind, we headed between the land and the chain of islands for a bit of protection from the choppy waters, it was a lovely slow sail up. We passed a bay that had 8 catamarans, and one monohull. The guy in the monohull is part of the rally we are on with over 250 boats, with about 20 in Vanuatu. He put on the WhatsApp group a very derogatory comment about an invasion of ghastly catamarans, well the whole group took to social media and gave him hell. He responded in a really unfriendly manner, what an idiot! He thought he was being clever, but the power of social media turned on him.
We finally got to our spot where we had to anchor off an idyllic white beach island and wait for high tide as we had to cross a very shallow coral spit between two islands. Rowan went and swam around to check depths, we got JeldiJeldi out and practised the route in. We had been given waypoints to follow in, skirting around a couple of large coral patches. For a moment we nearly chickened out, but finally at 2:30 pm just half an hour before high tide we went for it. We crawled along and stuck doggedly to the waypoints and made it through successfully, the lowest point was 1.7m. Once in we headed to a big bay. Very sadly there was a big abandoned resort, a washed up wreck of a sailing boat, and a couple of big fishing boats. The charts are not that accurate here, we decided to get away from the boats and crawled our way as afar as possible from them. It was a lovely spot with some gorgeous little islands in front of us and thick bush on the other side.
What a relief to get in safely, the German trimaran had told us we were crazy to come in! Happily we had a wonderful sunset, and some good kiwi lamb chops on the BBQ.
Passing over the wreck of SS Coolidge
Sailing over Million Dollar point
Tucking in behind the islands for calmer waters
The fleet of catamarans the monohull guy was so upset with (all of them Aussies we believe)
You can just see the breaking wave on the coral that we had to wait for high tide, before we could cross over
Anchored waiting for the tide to rise
A lovely anchorage, we were nearly tempted to stay here
Red line showing our path over the shallow patch between the islands
Rowan checking the coral depths before we set off
Our final anchorage, next to dense bush and trees full of noisy birds
Looking the other way from our anchorage towards the tiny islands
A river entrance to a blue hole we will explore tomorrow
Spectacular sunset
It is going to be a calm night
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