Leaving New Zealand

We wanted to sail up to Opua to see Bertrand and Pascale one last time before we each headed in different directions. But with the wind hurling down the coast from the north, that wasn’t going to happen. Instead, we anchored at Urquarts Bay for the evening before heading into Marsden Cove Marina for clearance – the same place we cleared into New Zealand almost six months ago.

On 23rd May, cleared out and fuelled up, we weaved our way out of Marsden Cove Marina bound for Vanuatu. A lifetime of memories behind and over 1000 miles of open ocean ahead.

Comfort eating

Poled out genoa

Tanna

We didn’t intend to stop here, but the wind was howling when we got close to Vanuatu, and it was forecast to strengthen. So we asked the authorities if we could clear in at Port Resolution instead. As you can see from the photograph below, that was no problem. The folks from Customs, Immigration and Biosecurity met us and the crew of another boat, Trinity, at the Port Resolution Yacht Club the next day.

Officials and the crew of Trinity

Now that we were officially in the country, we took a stroll around the village, where we bumped into this lovely lady with an umbrella. Roslyn, who teaches at the local school, offered to lend it to us while we walked around the village. She was so kind.

Roslyn and her giant umbrella

Village

Maria and a local historian

The man in the above photograph knows much more about colonial British history than I do. After pushing his machete in the grass, he talked to us about the naming of Port Resolution, the dates explorers arrived, and the events after that.

The beach where you park your dinghy

Jamala at anchor

Beach restaurant – we couldn’t find it though

Local fishing boats.

One of Tanna’s attractions, perhaps the most famous, is Mount Yasur one of the world’s most accessible active volcanoes. All the time we were there, the volcano was at level 2, which translates as ‘give it a wide berth’. So we did. Besides, we had watched the documentary about White Island, so there was no way Maria was going near it.

Some people went. Some said it was awesome, and others said they didn’t feel safe at all. But if you want to recreate the experience of going to Mount Yassur, find it on YouTube, turn the heat up, and get someone to lob hot potatoes at your head from a great height. That’ll do it.

We left for Port Vila.