Wednesday 21 May – heading back south to Aneityum island

Rowan was very keen to go back and visit the island we passed on the way up. It sounds like a very sheltered anchorage, and a good place to do some tidying up and organising on the boat, without having the boat rolling about. We left NZ in such a hurry, there are plenty of boat chores that need doing, a good clean up for starters, after all the workmen (and cockroaches) have been on board.

We set off before breakfast. Alia Vita were coming but they had such a problem getting their stern anchor up, after a couple of hours they realised it was going to be too late to depart. We got the sails up straight away, and with the wind in the low teens and the angle not great, we made slow progress for the first half of the day. We still had very bouncy waves. It was overcast, with a little drizzle in the morning. Thankfully the sun and wind turned up in the afternoon, we picked up speed and made it to our anchorage by 4:30pm. It is dark by 5:30pm here at the moment, so a relief to get here before dark as there is a lot of reef about.

We were very pleased to be safely anchored, no other yachts about, we had the place to ourselves. It is a bigger town/village than Port Resolution. There is a little island in the anchorage that the Americans built a run way on during World War 2, it was so difficult to find it was called Mystery island. It has a beautiful white beach all the way around it.

We had a wonderful sunset over the sea, celebrated with a delicious cold sundowner. I think our big walk yesterday in the heat sapped our energy. We were in bed by 8pm.

Leaving Port Resolution on Tanna Island

Lovely white beach just outside the bay

The eroded cliffs at the entrance to the bay

A spectacular arch

Arriving at our new anchorage late afternoon

Mystery Island

Huge noisy waves dumping on the reef

Map showing the huge reef around Mystery island

Stunning sunset over the sea

Our well deserved ice cold sundowners

The sunset colours got better and better