Port Vila - Vanuatu

What a fun town. Go anywhere by bus for 100 vatu per person – first on first off unless of course your destination is along the way, in which case you ask the driver to stop and he does. 80% of vehicles on the road are vans of some sort with a “B” for bus on the number plate.

Great duty free shopping for wines and spirits, perfumes, diesel. Great shopping along the only strip for clothes, music, DVD’s.

A place well set-up for yachties, providing respite from the self sufficiency the lifestyle demands. Jill’s café has hamburgers and chips! Waterfront Bar and Grill and Yachting World are near the dinghy jetty for beer, music, camaraderie and laundry. Even a free shower at the Bar and Grill.

To stock up to travel to the northern islands Port Vila is ideal. The market is openb 24 hours - stall holders just sleep on the ground under their stalls. Beautiful organic fruits and vegies , flowers, lap lap lunches, much taro, kava roots provide a diverse and colorful display.

Vanuatu beef – export quality? Just walk up the hill to the boucherie and you can order it in a varierty of cuts, packaged and frozen for the long months up north. Also veal and chicken. If you want, they provide export packs with the necessary paperwork.

The handcraft market sells carvings, baskets, cloth, jewellery, bows and arrows, model canoes. Great fun on a cruise ship day to watch families buying souvenirs and the girls having their hair braided.

The French influence still abounds although English is commonly spoken – but the patisseries are very nice.

Tanna- Vanuatu

Clearing into Tanna Island was recommended by yachties and is a must do. We arrived before dawn having tried to slow down during the night – stronger winds than we expected – and had to hover around waiting for light to break before tackling the entrance. Imagine our surprise to find 3 other yachts converging on Port Resolution at the same time!

Once settled we all introduced ourselves and had a ball for a week – sharing sundowners around the boats each night,

Tanna is completely different to our New Caledonia experience. We were literally guests of the 3 villages around the bay.

Tanna Highlights:
The “yacht club” on the point operated by the main village – Chief Ronnie is the proud commodore. The village prepared a feast and we paid a donation to assist one of the girls to go to secondary school.
The day long trip in the back of 3 pickup trucks, over the mountains, past the Mt Yasur volcano, to the small town of Lenakel to clear customs and immigration – in 3 different offices spread all over the town.
Mt Yasur volcano – active, smoking, belching out molten rock – standing on the edge of the crater as night fell and the eruptions became silhouetted against the black night sky.
David falling over the back of the dinghy into the bay one night after successfully untangling the prop from a fishing net – the laughter from our dinghy was so great that Robyn was powerless to assist him back in.
The third birthday party of the chief’s granddaughter in village number 3. Fabulous feast food and company, followed by a game of Aussie rules footie with the local boys.
A visit to village 2 – complete with a whole village welcome and demonstrations of fire walking, pandanus weaving, bow and arrow shooting and magic carrying leaves.

And to top it off, we caught a metre long Spanish mackeral (our first serious fish) on the overnight sail from Tanna to Port Vila, with the help of local Tanna lad Stephen (our guest on board) who wanted to get to Vila to visit his mum.

New Caledonia

What an introduction to cruising! Over 8 weeks we explored most of the sounthern and central east lagoon, as well as Lifou in the Loyalty Islands. Noumea was our base – very French, rather expensive, but fun and somewhat laid back compared to the city lifestyle we had left behind.. In the process we learnt much more about sailing the boat (and sailing her 2 handed), about the provisioning required for long term cruising and the daily procedures necessary to make life easy and safe. We also gradually let go of the pre-departure tension and learnt to relax, enjoy island time and realise that if something breaks there is always a fix – as long as you are not pressed for time.

Highlights?
Lagoon sailing under full sail on flat water; doing 8 knots upwind in only 10 knots of breeze. Even the dinghy skipped along without drag.
Being escorted by groups of dolphins as we worked our way through the navigation challenges of lagoon sailing and reef dodging.
Our first experience of working our way through reefs and into uncharted waters to visit Vao on the Isle des Pins.
The turtles at Baie Kuto
The fish and produce market on the waterfront at Noumea
Meeting many yachties from all over who had assembled in Noumea on the first leg of their 2006 cruising experience.
The whale breaching nearby as we headed across the ocean between southern lagoon entrances.
Anchoring overnight on the edge of the lagoon in a narrow channel between reefs and having the deserted island to ourselves.
The oysters at the top of Baie de Pronie – giant and succulent – pick them up in the shallows. (By the way, that photo is of the oysters!!!!)
The safe and calm bay anchorages overnight with often a resident dugong.

Coffs Harbour to Noumea

Our second off shore passge in Maajhi-Re was over 6 and a half days, leaving Coffs on May 13 and arriving on May 20th 2006.

We had to work the angles all the way across in an effort to keep from heading too far north and missing the lagoon entrance altogether. It was a bit of a slog but Maajhi-Re handled it beautifully (better than her sometimes sea sick owners.)

On board were Duncan and Eve Mackenzie who shared watches and the galley, along with a few running repairs that were required.

Weather was kind – wind strength rarely above 30 knots and then only briefly. Unfortunately we had lumpy and wet seas for most of the trip which made life rather uncomfortable for all.

Our two problems related to battens in the mainsail (we kept losing them !) and leaks in the forward area caused by the constant punding into seas coming across the bow and rushing up the deck.

Duncan and Eve had to shift into the bunks in the saloon as their bed was saturated. Then the mast boot started leaking in there as well. Oh well – plenty to do after arriving in New Caledonia……….

Pittwater to Coffs Harbour

Pittwater to Coffs Harbour

After two nights at RPAYC in Pittwater to refuel and take on water, plus make Maajhi-Re shipshape after the 5 day passage from Melbourne, we motored back down Pittwater to Stokes Point and picked up Adam and Tuula Hudson for a day up the Hawkesbury. Beautiful weather for a day up in Refuge and America’s Bay. We picked up a mooring and had a most pleasant and relaxed lunch.

On return we took advantage of an empty mooring belonging to one of the Hudson’s neighbours and spent the next 4 days catching up on some maintenance and enjoying the shore at night after a long steep climb up the garden path to Adam and Tuula’s.

Pittwater is magnificent as we recall from spending a week there on a Halvorsen when Chris and Laura were 1 and 2 years old.

Friends from RBYC, Martin and Sue, were in the vicinity so we made contact and they dropped by the next morning to raft up and show us over their Perry 43 catamaran. They are sailing back to Melbourne and have taken 6 weeks to enjoy the experience. Both were impressed by David’s hot cross bun making that was in progress at the time. Chris and Erica had left a little package with the ingredients weighed out and instructions for making them – a delightful Easter present.

On Friday Chris arrived and we prepared to depart for the trip to Coffs Harbour. The weather looked good but in hindsight (always a wonderful thing) we underestimated the effect of the swells. Leaving at dusk, we sailed out of Pittwater and past Barrenjoey Heads into a magnificent sunset. The wind picked up to 20-30 knot southerly but the SE swells added significantly to sea conditions and it was a very “rolly” night. Chris succumbed to mal de mer and we all felt rather dodgy. When morning came conditions started to improve but Chris has decided to cross ocean racing off his list from now on!

Sunday morning saw clear skies, light winds from the west and a pod of dolphins playing under our bow for an hour or so. Arrival in Coffs Harbour in time for a beautiful sunset on Sunday.

What a delightful place is Coffs Harbour: friendly people, small enough to walk around (if you have the time and energy), good services for sailboat needs and generally a very pleasant experience. We stocked up on some extra swimmers, wetsuits and rashies, and spent the time finetuning our sailmail weather report capacities and finishing any number of jobs around the boat that will make life more pleasant as we look towards our next destination - New Caledonia. Expected departure Saturday May 13.

Setting Sail!

Finally! After spending a number of months working fulltime on preparation we left our pen at Royal Brighton Yacht Club on the evening of Sunday April 9th 2006.

Friends and family were there to wave us goodbye and wish us well and we headed out still tying down the last of the cruising gear we had brought up from Paul’s garage in Elwood the day before.

First stop was for fuel so we pulled into Sandringham Yacht Club around 1830. Oh dear – a very large motor cruiser was at the dock refuelling so we waited some time for her to finish before tying up to the fuel dock. Refuelling was slower than anticipated so there went our plans to catch the 2330 tide at Port Phillip Heads that evening.

No problems, we had a meal, a couple of hours sleep and at midnight were up once more to head off to catch the early morning tide. And then discovered a fuel leak …
So far, departure had been somewhat of an anti-climax………

Two hours later, after David and friend Duncan had solved the problem we decided to head off anyway as the weather was fairly benign. As I had a couple of extra hours sleep under my belt I did the first watch to Queenscliffe and woke the guys at dawn as we left Queenscliffe to starboard and prepared to go through the heads.

Bass Strait had been blowing a gale (storm in the east) the previous week and we had delayed our departure. Now we had smooth seas and little breeze. The passage to Gabo Island required some motor sailing but a little 35 knot blow on Tuesday evening from the south west sent us scurrying along at a rapid rate.

A slow trip up the coast against light northerlies and north easterlies (not to mention the 1-2 knot eastern current against us) was a little tedious but there were magnificent moonlit evenings to make up for it and a very special sighting of a pod of humpback whales playing at dusk just to the North of Batemans Bay. We felt very privileged to be the only boat out there to see the show as they breached, spouted and waved their flukes at us. We are not sure of the numbers but guess at least 10.

Friday evening (April 14th) saw us approaching Sydney heads and making little way into a nasty northerly chop. Rather than plow on against the chop and current we decided to head into Sydney and the Cruising Yacht Club at Rushcutters Bay overnight. What a magnificent sight to come through the heads after 5 days at sea at 2300 hours and see the lights of Sydney and the harbour. Most spectacular!

We dropped into a vacant pen at CYC and noted that at 45 feet we looked very small against the 70 foot New Zealand maxi nearby and the Volvo 60’s around us. Brindabella was just across the arm from us as well.

First light on Saturday we put Duncan ashore to catch his flight home and slipped out of the pen and through the heads to our first destination, Pittwater.

About Maajhi-Re

Maajhi-Re is a Norseman 447, designed by Robert Perry and built by the Ta Shing Shipyards in Taiwan in 1985.

Designed as a passage maker, she has done some extensive cruising, including a 3 year trip from San Francisco to New Zealand between 2001 and 2004.

We bought her in May 2005 and sailed her back across the Tasman from Whangarei in New Zealand to our home port of Melbourne, Australia, for servicing and maintenance in preparation for extended cruising.

What an experience! Stand-out memories are frantic provisioning of food, cooking utensils and other galley necessaries during a far too short week in Whangarei - a very quick onceover and some standard system preparations before departure, and then off into the Tasman with everything crossed and enormous faith in the ability of ourselves and (very experienced) crew to get us safely to Melbourne via Eden.

The Tasman threw some of it's worst at us over a 48 day period in the midst of the 12 day journey to Eden and Maajhi-Re handled it beautifully - much better than the frazzled new owners!

And so to our arrival in Melbourne at Royal Brighton Yacht Club in May 2005 and the start of a lengthy preparation time before departing for the long-term cruising life.

Our scheduled departure is the end of March 2006.