We headed across the waters to Malekula island as we hope to do a walk up a cascading river to a lovely waterfall. It was about 50 miles so we set off early. It was grey clouds and rain everywhere, so actually a good time to be sailing. It was a nice mid teen wind getting us out of the lee of Epi island. Then the wind picked up and we had a great sail with wind in the low 20’s, we were going at a great pace very comfortably. It was wonderful for a few hours and then the wind slowly died. The last couple of hours we had to motor.
Only two other boats on the chart, they had been in the Maskelyn islands. We landed up following them as they were headed in the same direction. With the lack of speed, we had not got as far as we hoped and the light was fading, so we turned into the bay we had come to with Alia Vita near Port Stanley. We came around the corner and Rowan was dismayed to find the boats in front had taken our exact marked spot from anchoring last time. Plenty of bommies around and with the light going we were struggling. We had 3 fraught attempts, before we finally got the anchor into a nice sandy spot just as it got dark. Always stressful under pressure.
Rain falling in front of Lopevi volcano
The volcano permanently covered in cloud
Rowan’s chart showing the wind dying down to nothing
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