We are pleased to report that we were someplace with a fast wi-fi connection for a few days, so we were able to start working on a project that we have been wanting to do for a long time. A few months ago we added the “where we have been” page. Over the last few days, we have added coordinates to each of the locations, along with dates of the blog posts so you can easily go back and read about a certain location. We have started working on linking the coordinates to a map on Google Earth. And, last but not least, we have gone through a lot of the old postings and updated the “categories” sections, so now when you click on a category there will be lots of posts. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to complete any of the projects, but we will work on them some more when we get to another good internet connection. We would love some feedback to let us know what you think of the additions. We are pleased to announce we just recieved our 500th comment!
Author Archives: Eric
Welcome to Port Vila, Efate, Vanuatu
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 Continue reading
Some Comments on the Fijian Political Situation
Day two at sea is exactly the same as day one, which is slow, rocky and not fun. We have accepted that it is impossible to make it to Vila before sunset and have slowed the RPM’s down to 1700, which is closer to what we ideally like to cruise at. The moon is rising around 2300 (11:00 pm) right now, so we need to slow down so we have moonlight to see by as we approach the pass. If we come in too early in the evening, it will be pitch black.
We wanted to take a moment to comment on the “political turmoil” in Fiji. We were surprised to find Continue reading
Passage from Lautoka to Port Vila, Vanuatu
Much to our dismay, the customs guy contacted us yesterday afternoon to let us know he would be out of the office until 10:00. We needed to check out right at 08:00 if we were going to make it to Port Vila before dark on Monday. This really messed up our plans. Should we leave late in the afternoon and come in on Tuesday morning instead? We have a friend who was already in Port Vila waiting on us, and we hated to make him wait yet another day.
On the dock in Denaru we met another cruiser who was also going to go to Lautoka to check out at the same time we were. He said he would give us a dinghy ride in and out of customs. Without having to deal with the dinghy, we could well be on our way by 10:30. We decided Continue reading
From Waya Back to Denaru
Our walk with Tooey was on Tuesday. On Tuesday night, heavy rain began that continued through the next day. Local custom requires that you tell the chief in person when you are leaving the anchorage. It was raining really hard and we figured the chief would understand if we didn’t trek out in the rain to say goodbye.
We wanted to check out on Thursday morning, so the plan was Continue reading