Day 146, Year 2: A Little of This, A Little of That
Date: Monday, September 17, 2007
Weather: Liquid Sunshine Throughout the Day
Location: Port Vila, Efate
Today was not an eventful day, but it was a good one. We are getting up earlier and earlier since by 6 AM the sun is shining brightly. We had banana bread and cream cheese for first breakfast, and then had bacon, eggs, tomatoes, and whole meal rolls for second breakfast. Between breakfast one and two, Scot Free II came by for a short visit, Mark went to shore to get water, and I did one more mini-laundry. Our sheets are king-sized, and since our laundry tub is a five gallon bucket, you can’t
do a lot at one time. When Mark went in to get on the internet, I stayed on the boat. It looked like rain, and yesterday’s laundry was still not dry. I wanted to leave it out, but be here to take it in if the skies opened up. Well, the skies didn’t “open up” but they drizzled all morning while the sun was shining. I took laundry in and put it back out, and took it in again and put it out again. It was that kind of day.
I am going through closets, drawers, and other hiding places looking for things that we will take home. We are both hoping to be able to come home, but Mark’s online searches have still not found decent prices for the trip from Australia. He will keep trying. He did make reservations at the Bundaberg Port Marina this morning, so now we know that is where Windbird will be for the Australian summer and our winter. We had been toying with taking Windbird to Brisbane, but the prices in Bundaberg
turned out to be cheaper. Mark came back from shore around 1 PM and we had a quick lunch and headed back to shore. Mark had not been successful in contacting Adrian at Vila Refrigeration this morning and he wanted to try and catch him at 1:30 which is the end of lunch time. Our freezer is still not running quite right, so we wanted Adrian to come back for a second check. We called, but Adrian was not in. We left a message asking him to call us at the internet cafe and then we asked the young
woman there to take a message for us. We went into town to do some shopping and when we returned, we found Adrian waiting for us on the dinghy dock. He had called us back and left the message that he would be here at 3:00, but we were in town and didn’t get the message. In any event, he came out with us and once again tried to balance our system. Mark is still not sure things are quite right, but we will have to wait until about noon tomorrow before we can make that final determination.
We have decided to check-out of Vanuatu on Wednesday and we have a reservation to fill-up with duty-free fuel on Thursday morning at 8 AM. It still looks like Friday is the best day to head to New Caledonia, but we will be ready to leave on Thursday afternoon if the weather should change in our favor.
I am fighting a cold or a sinus infection, but not sure which yet. I don’t feel terrible, but I’m not up to my usual energy level. So I’m muddling along. I told Mark that I think I am just having snorkeling withdrawal. When I can get back in the water, I think I’ll be fine. Tomorrow morning we plan to meet Ranger and Scott Free II at the internet cafe and Mark will do some weather research with them while I try to make another call to our daughter Heather. Our connection was not good on Saturday,
so we are hoping tomorrow will be better and we’ll really get to see Sam in action. After that we are going to the Mele-Maat Cascades. The water evidently tumbles and twists as you drive towards Klem’s Hill. There, according to the Lonely Planet, we will find “pool after pool of stunningly clear, aquamarine water” with a 35 metre waterfall in the middle of a rainforest. Sounds beautiful. In the afternoon we hope to visit the Michotouchine & Pilioko Foundation Art Gallery. We have visited their
downtown shop but are anxious to see the gallery.
I’m secretly hoping that we can go to Mele Island, also known as Hideaway Island, on Thursday after we get our fuel. We could spend the night there and leave for New Caledonia on Friday. But then, you are never supposed to start a crossing on a Friday, so maybe we will just have to leave on Thursday. We’ll have to keep you posted on this one.
