World ARC

We saw the Lizard!
It is easy to get distracted when you are working hard and playing hard. But we realised that if we stayed much longer in Cairns, we would take root. So, and bearing in mind we are one of the slow-coaches, we left Cairns slightly ahead of the pack. To get back into the swing of it, so to speak, we had a short first day, spending the night at the little town of Port Douglas. It is a charming place, mainly given over to the tourist trade, but it is not until you leave it that you realise it's the most northerly real town on the East Coast of Queensland; after that you are on your own.

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".

Start day here at Musket Cove almost looked like it was going to be a light airs motor-sail across the line heading towards Vanuatu. Skippers came to check out and get any last paper work sorted before their departure in shorts and t-shirt expecting a sunny windless day when what appeared to be a dark squall arose from the North.

Located in the Pacific Ocean Suwarrow is a low coral atoll in the Cook Islands. It is about 830 kilometers northwest of Rarotonga.

Maamalni - Suwarrow - #1 Land ho! Or Suwarrow Tomorrow?

Just over half the size of Viti Levu (The Big Island) Vanu Levu is Fiji’s second largest island. Again volcanic in origin it is apparently home to nearly 140,000 people although so far we have seen just one, Fred Fisher. A big draw for us is diving and the 32km Rainbow Reef here on the south west coast of Vanu Levu is apparently one of “the” places to dive. Approaching Asolare this morning in his aluminium dory, Fred Fisher, son of Ned Fisher the authority on these waters quoted in our trusted pilot “A Yachtsman’s Fiji” by Michael Calder, was about to shape our day.