Welcome to Zenitude’s blog where you can follow us while we travel slow in our Lagoon catamaran. We update this blog frequently when we are cruising to let family and friends know where we are. Check the complete story of our adventures that started in 2006 when Zenitude became our home and cruising our way of life. Graciela and Oscar

Friday 2 August 2013

Vanuatu - Port Vila to Malakula Island

We were in Port Vila in 2010 when we crossed the Pacific. At that time we joined the Port to Port Rally (Port Vila - Port Bundaberg) and the rally organizers took care of most of our needs in Port Vila. We didn't realize then how yachty friendly Port Vila is. Quarantine came to our boat in the morning after our arrival and let us keep all our fresh produce as long as we don't remove it from the boat and use the quarantine bins for garbage disposal. After that, Moses, from World Yacht Services took us to one of their moorings. The people at World Yacht Services is really nice, the moorings are excellent, they provide water, fuel, laundry services, quarantine garbage disposal, internet (not so good, better the Cyber Internet across the street from the open market), an excellent dinghy dock (a good break after all our beach landings with the dinghy), etc. The cost is very reasonable. Immigration is just walking distance and Customs at a dinghy ride. We were also able to fill up our propane tanks, which is not possible in New Caledonia, so we have again a good supply of cooking gas.

After 3 days resting and looking at the weather forecasts we decided we could leave towards Luganville in Santo with several stops along the way in Malakula Island. This island has many nice anchorages in both the west and the east coast and we decided we would take the west coast route. But the forecasts were playing games with us, changing every day with the risk of blowing from the west. The 30 of July, Vanuatu's independence day, we arrived to South West Bay, at the south west tip of Malakula as its name indicates. The bay is magnificent, the coral formations amazing, very big fish were chasing their breakfast when we were coming in, the Tisri lagoon (a natural ocean fed, crystal clear lagoon) is beautiful and as a bonus the bay is protected from all winds but west/south west. The sounds from Independence Day celebrations in the little village of Wintua could be heard from the boat, lots of music and political speaches. We guess that it doesn't matter where you go, politicians are all the same. A wonderful day indeed. However, weather reports were confirming the arrival of westerlies and even when forecasted as light winds we decided it would be safer to be in Luganville before the winds arrival. So, we departed from South West Bay at sunset. A dugong came to say goodbye to us as we were lifting the anchor.

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1 comment:

  1. Thank you for coming this way. You visiting us again call into Mahun bungalows now opened. It is inside the Tisri lagoon.

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