Port Resolution,Tanna, Vanuatu, but not without hairy moments!

GPS: 19 31.503S 169 29.706E

Run: 125.2nm (226.6km)
Avg: 5.4knts
24hr: 128.7nm

We are unofficially in Vanuatu. Before we left Fiji we emailed Vanuatu customs of our arrival date and they confirmed they will be waiting. Three hours before arriving we emailed them to say we would arrive at 2pm and again they confirmed they would be waiting. It’s now 5.30 pm and we are still waiting.

It’s been an eventful day. It started with a series of squalls overnight and into the morning. Daybreak revealed several kamikaze flying fish lying on the foredeck. As we approached Port Resolution (about 800m off the narrow entrance) under motor, the motor died. Quickly we put out the headsail, no time to put up the main. Sue and Marion now with a bit of sail power turned away from the entrance, while Andrew figured out what has happened to the motor.

No fuel getting to the motor! One of the two fuel filters dirty? No time to replace filters. Turning the valves over and reroute from the tank to the secondary filters (back up system). Oh, no fuel getting through. Check the main tank valves, yes they are turned on. Okay blocked fuel line from tank. No time to do anything about it while bouncing around in these waves. Grab the jerry can with diesel, into the engine room and put the filler hose into it. The filler hose is connected to a pump leading to the backup system. Turn the pump on. Fuel now running through the back up system, turn on the engine. With a few coughs and splutters it fired up.

We furled the sail away and motored into the bay. Finding a place to anchor was easy, not too many boats in the bay. Dropping the anchor, well that wasn’t quite as easy. With all the bouncing around going through the squalls, the manual handle and mechanism on the winch had jammed. The anchor only went down 1m. By this time the wind had caught the boat and pulled the bow around pointing towards the rocks. Sue being on the helm knew to put it back in gear and with full revs do a 360 to bring it back into position. By the time the boat was back in position Andrew had sorted the anchor and we were set.

Marion is cooking dinner tonight. As she is French it must be something good. Ooh la la!

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