Judith and I flew into Port Vila on August 9 to spend two weeks on Elyse.
Provisioning in Vial, expensive as usual, and then off to Mele Island for the night. A rolly anchorage at the best of times, definitely not recommended.
Next day round Devils Point with a following sea, 15 knots on the port quarter and lots of sail, we sailed into Port Havannah in no time at all.
Remember Phocea ?
Well, there's a big blue yacht anchored here...the 50m Benetti ketch Blue Gold, which was seized by the Vanuatu government for unpaid taxes in 2012 and since released, had expired registration on board which was signed at exactly the same time on the same date as Phocea’s registration. Blue Gold remains under investigation, and a significant amount of money is owed to the yacht’s crew.
Its specs are here : http://www.superyachttimes.com/yachts/details/3849
We were invited on board for a look by the local caretakers....its a mess...rusted pipes and valves in the engine room, varnish peeled off everywhere...looks like the skipper just left....apparently its owned now by a Dutchman and its been sitting in Port Havannah for 6 months.
It was for sale in 2011 for USD3.95m....but it probably needs $1m spent on it to get it going again.
THE OUTBOARD
The local chap who calls himself the skipper came over in his inflatable to ask if I knew anything about motors....his outboard runs only at idle and won't accelerate. I say, sure, I'll have a look.
Well, this is a 20 yr old Yamaha 2 stroke with a broken throttle cable and a completely seized throttle vale linkage. I get it all apart and with Inox and pliers manage to get the throttle butterfly to move so the engine will rev up. Great !..off they go, zooming around for about 2 hours ... and then it stopped....and it never went again !!
THE CRAB
Kenneth paddles over on a pirogue..those Melanesian outrigger canoes...with a crab in a the bilge...we buy it for 1200 vatu ($14)...it's huge ! We boil him up in a big pot and have him for dinner...quite tasty but devilishly hard to get into.
Otherwise, we lazed about, swam, went for walks on the beach...met a couple of other yachts with tales to tell of where they'd been and where they were going.
Back to Port Vila on Wednesday 21st, motored all the way, no breeze, no swell...never seen it before around Devils Point.
A couple of days in Vila, packing away the boat and flew out on Friday.
So no more until October.
New Picture pages of the last two weeks will be up shortly.
Cheers
Provisioning in Vial, expensive as usual, and then off to Mele Island for the night. A rolly anchorage at the best of times, definitely not recommended.
Next day round Devils Point with a following sea, 15 knots on the port quarter and lots of sail, we sailed into Port Havannah in no time at all.
Remember Phocea ?
Well, there's a big blue yacht anchored here...the 50m Benetti ketch Blue Gold, which was seized by the Vanuatu government for unpaid taxes in 2012 and since released, had expired registration on board which was signed at exactly the same time on the same date as Phocea’s registration. Blue Gold remains under investigation, and a significant amount of money is owed to the yacht’s crew.
Its specs are here : http://www.superyachttimes.com/yachts/details/3849
We were invited on board for a look by the local caretakers....its a mess...rusted pipes and valves in the engine room, varnish peeled off everywhere...looks like the skipper just left....apparently its owned now by a Dutchman and its been sitting in Port Havannah for 6 months.
It was for sale in 2011 for USD3.95m....but it probably needs $1m spent on it to get it going again.
THE OUTBOARD
The local chap who calls himself the skipper came over in his inflatable to ask if I knew anything about motors....his outboard runs only at idle and won't accelerate. I say, sure, I'll have a look.
Well, this is a 20 yr old Yamaha 2 stroke with a broken throttle cable and a completely seized throttle vale linkage. I get it all apart and with Inox and pliers manage to get the throttle butterfly to move so the engine will rev up. Great !..off they go, zooming around for about 2 hours ... and then it stopped....and it never went again !!
THE CRAB
Kenneth paddles over on a pirogue..those Melanesian outrigger canoes...with a crab in a the bilge...we buy it for 1200 vatu ($14)...it's huge ! We boil him up in a big pot and have him for dinner...quite tasty but devilishly hard to get into.
Otherwise, we lazed about, swam, went for walks on the beach...met a couple of other yachts with tales to tell of where they'd been and where they were going.
Back to Port Vila on Wednesday 21st, motored all the way, no breeze, no swell...never seen it before around Devils Point.
A couple of days in Vila, packing away the boat and flew out on Friday.
So no more until October.
New Picture pages of the last two weeks will be up shortly.
Cheers