Lat 17.44S, Long 168.18E. Vanuatu is made up of 83 islands over an area of 450,000 square kilometers. Like Fiji, some of the islands are volcanic and some are raised coral islands. Like Tonga, Vanuatu lies on the squarely on the Pacific Ring of Fire. There are nine active volcanoes and earthquakes are commonplace.

The vast majority of the population are native Vanuatu (called ni-vans), and most live in traditional rural villages that are much the same as they were before the arrival of Europeans. Both culture and language vary greatly from village to village. Vanuatu has the highest concentration in the world of different local languages per head of population. There are 106 local languages spoken.

“New Hebrides” was “discovered” in the 1600’s by Spanish explorers. In the early 1800’s the population of Vanuatu/New Hebrides was close to a million people. Like the Marquesans and Fijians, the locals were cannibals. The introduction of European weapons and European disease created a huge death toll. Many ni-vans were kidnapped and taken to other countries as forced laborers (called blackbirding). The total population is currently estimated at 175,000.

In 1906 the French and English agreed to jointly rule New Hebrides. The dual administration was called “The Pandemonium” by critics. There was continual fighting over administration policies that produced a bizarre duplication of systems. There were two education systems, two police forces, two currencies, etc. In the 1960’s, an independence movement began. In 1979 the English and French allowed an election and the first President of the Republic was elected. They became an independent nation in 1980. After becoming independent, they changed the name from New Hebrides to Vanuatu, meaning “Land Eternal”. The official language is called Bislama, which is a pidgin English.

Port Vila was the seat of government for the English and French, and is still the seat of government today. Port Vila has a total population of 38,000. Port Villa is located on the island of Efate, which is about halfway through the chain of islands. Efate’s total population, including Vila, is about 45,000.

We approached Mele Bay at about 2300 (11:00 pm), about the same time as the moon rose. The moon was ¾ full and bright. The chart had indicated there was a navigation light, but there is no light there. Fortunately, there is no pass into Mele Bay. Port Vila bay is located within Mele Bay. There is a narrow pass into Port Vila Bay. Once again the chart had indicated there were two leading navigation lights that take you through the center of the pass when they line up, but there were no lights. Fortunately, there were red and green channel marker lights, which we used to navigate in, along with the radar and depth gauge.

We dropped anchor in the quarantine area around 01:00. There were a few scattered lights on the shores around us. The smell of fire in the air was strong. We were ready for a good night of sleep. The last 18 hours of the passage has been relatively nice, but not nice enough to make up for the very rough first three days at sea.