We have been having a few issues with our gen set – it is all still working but it seems that the fuel pump is on the way out.  We have Rick Potter on the job in trying to find a replacement unit for us as Rick is coming out to meet us in Santo on the 13th September.  On Saturday morning Mark did a few more checks on the gen set but all is still pointing to the fuel pump so we hope the current one keeps going for a few more weeks or else we will have to do all our charging off the main motor which is a bit of a pain!. 

 

After a morning of jobs and stuff we wandered ashore to go for a bit of a post lunch walk.  Lolowai is very quiet on the weekends and it would appear that most of the people live over at Saratamatta – even the local shop is shut so no bread today.  On our travels we met up with Ronan and his son Samson, who had been out at the boat on Friday, and they took us to their gardens which is on the banks of the near-by lake (another extinct volcano caldera!).  We ended up with 2 paw paws, heaps of little yummy bananas and some capsicum.  You never seem to be short of fruit and veg while you are in Vanuatu!.

 

For sun downer's we were invited over to Reflections to have a chat and drinkie with Eric and Ann and also their guest John who is a whitey fellow resident in Lolowai who teaches the locals furniture making and carpentry at the trade school.  It was a nice evening and great to catch up with some other people as we haven’t had the opportunity too many times since leaving Vila.  Also received some good news from Miss Amanda who sent a message to let us know that Carlton beat Port Adelaide by 1 POINT which means they are in the finals (thanks to those drug cheats Essendon being booted out of the eight).  Would have been nice to get there under our own steam but will take it anyhow.

 

Sunday was a quiet morning on the boat although we were joined by Ronan and Samson for morning tea.  Young Samson was very keen to come and have a look at our boat and certainly checked it out from top to bottom.  We left Lolowai in the arvo to meet the tide at the entrance and headed around to Vahine Bay for the night for an early get away in the morning for the big sail to Santo. 

 

We were up bright and early on Monday and on our way by 6am as it is around 48NM to get to Santo so these days that is considered a very big day!  It is a nice sail along the North coast of Ambae and then across the passage into Santo.  The South East coast of Esperito Santo has a couple of off lying islands which give you a nice protected passage with lots of nice anchorages.  As the tides were right and the day was clear we decided to head directly to Oyster Island.  The entrance is quite tricky but these days it has marks which makes it a lot easier but still needs to be passed at a high tide and even with that one of the other boats going through the entrance with us touched coral.  We had heard the ICA (Island Cruising Association of NZ) was somewhere in these parts and we found out where as they are all meeting at the anchorage off the Oyster Island Resort.  It is a long time since we have had another 15 boats in an anchorage with us.  They even have quite a few boats from Melbourne travelling with them.  As this was the first time we have seen what could be called a proper resort, with cold beer, for quite some time we decided it was a must to go in for a drink and a meal.  We caught up with a number of the ICA guys and had a wonderful Santo steak for dinner with a nice bottle of red.

 

We had a bit of a shock when we went back to the dinghy wharf as little Sally was missing.  Luckily a few of the ICA crew were still ashore and gave us a hand to find it.  Looks like it had been let adrift by mistake and luckily had washed up on a beach not far away which we were very pleased about as it is not a good feeling when you can’t find your dinghy especially as there are no piers or wharfs to tie up to in this part of the world.

 

Wednesday morning and we catch a taxi ride with Louie into Luganvile to pick up 100lts of diesel and a bit of fuel for the outboard.  He also gave us a quick tour of Luganville and showed us the main sights so at least now we have a bit of a lay of how it is all set out.  We did the round Oyster Island walk in the afternoon and checked out some of the activities as we will no doubt be back up here once we have Rick on board.

In the evening we joined the ICA rally to watch some Water Music on the beach in front of the resort.  This is a kastom dance apparently from the Banks Group which is north of Santo and we figure it originated from fish trapping methods.  It is a bit hard to explain but these ladies stand in the water and make these amazing sounds by hitting and moving the water – we have a video which we can show you if you want to see more.

 

It is now Thursday morning and we are going to wander in and try and get an internet connection and maybe check on a few emails.  The Wi-Fi was down yesterday so we will see if we have better luck today.  We will probably check out some of the snorkelling spots around the island this arvo or maybe go up to one of the blue holes for a swim – so many choices.  I think we are heading back into the resort for a meal tonight which is a buffet accompanied by a local string band – how could we miss out on that.

 

We will be wandering down to Luganville in the next day or two and will probably pick up a mooring of the Aore Island Resort as this seems like the best place to stop and get ourselves ready for the last bit of our adventure before starting the voyage back to Australia.

 

Mustang Sally’s current position off the Oyster Bay Resort is “15:22.283S 167:11.428E”