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Vanuatu is an island nation in the southwest Pacific Ocean, north of New Zealand and east of Australia. Vanuatu's main boat ports are Port Vila on the island of Efate and Luganville on the island of Espiritu Santo, meaning 'Holy Spirit'. Espiritu Santo with a surface area of 3955.5 km, is the largest island in the nation of Vanuatu, which includes over 83 islands. It is in the Sanma Province of Vanuatu, and belongs to the archipelago of the New Hebrides in the Pacific region of Melanesia.

This one was rough! Big seas and 30+ knots of wind for 470-odd miles.  Early on Monday morning the skipper was woken by a loud bang and a shout from Colin in the cockpit, "Martyn, Martyn, we've lost the rudder", "We're all going to die".

Cruising the Islands of Tonga - We had a great day in a lovely anchorage, with some good snorkeling around the fringing reefs. Also got some work done - Michael gave the engines an oil and oil filter change and I did a bit of cleaning, washing and tidying. The islands have incredibly lush vegetation and as the sun went down there was a cacophony of noise from the shoreline - frogs, bats and others. I was amazed to see the size of the giant bats that slowly circled over us as evening came. It was still a very grey day.

Niue has an area of just 100 square miles, which is 2/3 the size of the Isle of Wight, the home of World Cruising Club. Niue is commonly known as the "Rock of Polynesia" or locally as "the Rock" just as the natives of the Isle of Wight refer to their own island. Thereafter, despite sharing the same Head of State Queen Elizabeth II, the similarities end.

Niue - We arrive at the top of the island before dawn and slow right down once we’re in the lee, pottering along at 2.5 knots until the sun comes up. We call Niue radio to advise them of our arrival. James on Cleone then radios and kindly tells us that as he doesn’t think there are any moorings free at the moment, we are welcome to tie alongside. We speak to Mandy at Arc control advising Tallulah Ruby just behind and after a bit of to’ing and fro’ing we all eventually get onto our own moorings.

It’s been another long motor-sail all through the night with the wind dropping all the time. The seas are calm, the sky clear and we’ve been lucky enough to have bright moonlight all week, the full moon at the weekend now on the wane. We see shooting stars all around; some you just catch out the corner of your eye, others drop as in slow motion, staying bright all the way down until…they’re gone!