Busy days at Ureparapara

Ureparapara is in the Banks Islands in the north of Vanuatu. It is probably as far north as we will go in Vanuatu as I don't think we will head out to the Torres Islands which are the only ones further north. Its a pretty remote spot and I don't think they don't get many visitors but everyone seems to have arrived at the same time! We arrived yesterday from Vanua Lava at the same time as another yacht, 'Giselle', and a local trading boat. The trading boat normally only calls to pick up copra and resupply the island 2-3 times a year and this visit was the first for a year. Unfortunately, the boat does the rounds of the islands and has already run out of flour and rice (and I wonder what will be left by the time it reaches the Torres group?). On the way in, 'Giselle' had caught a huge sailfish but it was way too big for them to deal with. Luckily, the tender to the trader came and took it off their hands, saving them from having to cut the lure. It seemed almost a shame it was such an impressive fish with a big sail-like fin which gives it the name, but it was very tasty on the barbeque that night! There was enough fish for the 3 yachts in the anchorage to get some and the trading boat and the village.

The trading boat left early this morning but in its place two game fishing launches arrived and then the small superyacht 'Kaori'. I suspect this is the busiest the island has been for quite a while! Unusually, the wind is from the NW and apparently it is quite choppy outside today but it is nice and calm here in Lorup Bay, which is open to the predominant SE and usually subject to a bit of swell. The bay was formed when a volcano blew out so has very steep sides and quite dramatic scenery.

When we left Espiritu Santo, we had planned to sail overnight straight to Ureparapara and then work our way slowly south. However, we had a fast and uncomfortable sail on the first day so decided not to continue as we could make an anchorage on Gaua just on dusk. We stopped overnight there and then sailed to the next island, Vanua Lava and anchored at Waterfall Bay. We spent an enjoyable few days here, were welcomed ashore by the Chief and his family, went diving and did our laundry in the stream that flows from the waterfall. Or I should say, waterfalls, as there are two falls parallel to each other about 40m high. We went for several swims/showers under the falls.

Our luck fishing has improved and recently we have caught a mahimahi and two tuna, including our first yellowfin. Unfortunately, we caught both tuna on the same day so the village at Waterfall benefited as we don't have a freezer to keep extra fish. We will spend a few more days here and then hopefully head out to the Reef Islands if the weather settles.

Hello from Santo

Hopefully anyone who is interested has been able to at least follow our progress from the position reports (click on 'Where is Elenya') as we have been a bit remiss in our updates lately. You may also have noticed a couple of dubious positions! The position reports are not automatic and are as accurate as the person typing them in....

Anyway, here we are in Luganville in Espiritu Santo. From Epi we hopped up the coast of Malekula Island over three days. Our first stop was in Port Sandwich in a lovely glassy calm anchorage (which makes a change) marred only by reports of sharks which made swimming there unwise! Another two days of light wind sailing (originally we were hoping to make it in just one day but that would've meant quite a bit of motoring) saw us anchored off a resort just out of the township of Luganville. Our main aims in Luganville were to renew our visas and do some diving. We sorted our visas but the diving operator we wanted to go with (the cheapest) was fully booked for the next week so we decided to head away for a few days and do the diving on our return. Normally we dive by ourselves (out of both preference and budget) but you can't dive on the wreck of the Coolidge without a guide and we don't feel we can be in Vanuatu and not dive the Coolidge.

We sailed to an island near Luganville and from there we did some diving of our own including at Million Dollar Point. Million Dollar Point is the site where the US military dumped any equipment they couldn't be bothered taking back with them after WWII. Apparently they chucked everything from coca cola bottles to trucks. There is certainly a tangle of rusty metal down there! We could make out jeeps, bulldozers, cranes and lots of building material. Once the US had dumped some stuff they then drove on top of that lot to dump more so there must be an incredible amount there. The presence of the US forces is still noticeable around Santo with Quonset Huts still in use etc.

We then sailed up the coast to Petersen Point and anchored in a lovely if a bit joggly spot. There is a very narrow shallow pass that leads into a very sheltered lagoon and there were a lot of yachts anchored in there but we decided that we were quite ok in the outer anchorage. The highlight was a dinghy trip up to one of the 'Blue Holes' which are fresh water pools of a very intense blue due to a spring containing dissolved minerals. The spring itself is very cloudy but the surrounding pools are clear and an intense blue in the sunlight.

We had a good windward sail to get back to Luganville and we are now back in the same spot. Today is quite windy and we contemplated going over the other side to anchor off Aore Island but have decided to stay over this side as we will do one more dive on the Coolidge. We had planned to do a max of 3 dives but tomorrow will be our 4th. We did 2 dives yesterday. On the first, we swam part way down the hull and dropped down into one of the cargo holds before exiting the wreck and swimming under the bow. The bow had lots of fans and soft coral growing on it. We were shown a few relics like rifles, helmets and shells (the ones that go bang as opposed to ones containing molluscs). The second dive we explored cargo holds one and two which contain such things as jeeps. Our guide led us through a maze of gaps and passages and we eventually came out via the chain locker. The Coolrige is a luxury liner that was converted into a troop ship in WWII and on her maiden voyage in this capacity hit (friendly) mines on entering Luganville Harbour. She was driven on the beach and then slipped over a coral ledge so that her bow is in about 25m and her stern at about 60+m. It was very eerie and quite surreal inside the wreck with beautiful blue light coming through gaps and port holes in the hull. At one point the guide got us to turn off our torches and we could see dancing pinpricks of light which are flashlight fish.

On our dive this morning we went through the lobby and into the dining room where a very famous frescoe known as "the lady and the unicorn" is now found (it used to be further down in the smoking room but has been moved). After viewing 'The Lady' we dropped down to look at some chandeliers and then we made our way back through passages where we could see crockery- plates and jugs etc. We enjoyed our dives enough to go back for another one but rather than do one this afternoon, we will go back tomorrow so we can do a deeper dive.

Our plan from here is to sail to the Banks Islands and we are currently thinking of then returning to Vila to clear out, stopping at the islands we missed on our way up, on our way back to Vila but time will tell. The future is very fluid at the moment.