Australia - half way now!

Arrived in Mackay in the early hours of Friday morning and had a cold sea fret to greet us. It is so COLD here!! As soon as the sun goes down arpound 6pm the temperature drops sharply and we have been wearing jeans and fleece tops!! The customs and quarantine procedure was pretty straightforward and I just had to hand over some tomatoes that we had left on board and some cooked meat (kept in case we had to have lunch on the quarantine dock). So by 10am we were all checked in and cleared to move to a berth in the Marina which is large and spacious with good facilities.Even found a good hairdresser in the marina complex called Jospehine who was Toni & Guy trained and did a very good job on my shaggy hair as it had not been done since we left Tahiti!! Friday night we were guests of Mackay Yacht Club at a BBQ and got the chance to chat to the many crews we had not spoken to since leaving Vanuatu. The passage across from Vanuatu was not the easiest with a couple of uncomfy days when the boat motion was making both of us a little queasy but neither of us was actually ill. Saturday I went into the main shopping centre with Marie from Dreamcatcher and we browsed around the shops and got some groceries mainly fresh stuff as we had to empty our fridge and freezer of all meat fish eggs and dairy and all fresh fruit and veg to enter Australia so the cupboards were bare! That night we had some bubbly on Dreamcatcher then we all went to dinner at a nice Italian restaurant called Angelos just next to the Marina office. Just as I was leaving the boat to go for drinks on Dreamcatcher I was serenaded by the Russians with a Russian song that the crews of Piligrim and Royal Leopard sang for me whilst Eugene played his guitar. Unfortunately Peter was not on the boat at the time and it all happened to quickly I never got a photo of this! I also received a lovely cook book from Dmitry and Natalia (Piligrim) and a bottle of wine from Mikhail(Royal Leopard). Sunday was the official rally prizegiving and lunchime BBQ hosted by Mackay Tourism at the Clarion Hotel here in the Marina complex. That evening we were invited onto Wind Dancer for drinks then we all went to dinner at a Thai restaurant. Yesterday (Monday) we went on a bus tour of the region and visited Greenmount Homestead which was an old fashioned house from the late 19th century. Then we went onto Eungella national park where there was a fantastic waterfall and we saw Kookaburras in the trees and Platypus and turtles in the water. That evening we had an invite to the VMR Mackays monthly meeting. This is a voluntary search and rescue organisation so we told them a little about us and the rally and left a donation for their funds in return for a Sausage BBQ. So today we finally have a chance to get our breath back since arriving and Peter is sorting out boat spares and we are waiting for our new Parasailor to come up from Sydney where it is waiting to be cleared by customs.We received our spare generator part so Peter fitted that Friday and all is in perfect working order now.

Vanuatu

Arrived this morning in Port Vila on the island of Efate having spent a night in Dillons Bay on Erramango Island after leaving Tanna Port Resolution. This is the first time we have had internet access since leaving Musket Cove Fiji. The sail from Musket Cove to Tanna Vanuatu was fast and furious with big swells of 3m and 20-30 knots of wind we averaged 7 knots for most of the journey only slowing down when we approached the anchorage in Port Resolution as we did not want to arrive in the dark. We arrived at Tanna while it was still dark on Tuesday 10 July around 5am so spent an hour circling around to wait for daybreak at 6am before entering the anchorage as there are reefs to look out for each side and we wanted to see where we were going! Also it is much easier to choose a good anchoring spot when you can see clearly what other boats are around and how near they are. We dropped anchor in the head of the bay where the water was flatter and less rolly. Tanna is very primative with poor local people who really seemed to appreciate our visit. World ARC had arranged for Customs and Immigration officials to visit Port Resolution and all formalities for clearing in were done at the Port Resolution Yacht Club (not as grand as it sounds!!) which was a open sided building made of local trees and leaves. The following day we visited Mount Yasur which is a live active volcano and as we were there at dusk we could see the burning embers being spewed out of the volcano quite clearly. It was an amazing natural experience! Thursday saw us participating in a traditional gift exchange ceremony where all the boats put together any old clothes or houshold items they could spare and these were presented to the villagers in return for baskets of fruit and vegetables after a speech and songs. A very moving experience. We gave clothes,crocs,pens and crayons for the school and toffees for the children. All the boat donations were divided up by the men of the village to distribute amongst the families. In our gift basket we were given christophene, squash, papaya,limes, passion fruit, taro,sweet potatoes and giant green beans. Later that evening we had a Feast which was prepared by the local villagers for everyone to enjoy and included a roast pig, curried chicken and a beef and fish dish along with lots of local vegetables including Taro which is like potato. Friday morning we left Tanna and sailed 50 miles north to the island of Erramango and anchored in Dillons Bay. Once we had dropped the hook we were approached by a local man David who invited us all ashore to visit the village. We now have Bob an extra crew member who was on Serendipity and as they are leaving the rally at Tanna he is just sailing with us to Port Vila where he will catch a flight home to England. The following day Saturday saw a number of boat crews go ashore to do another gift exchange with the villagers there in return for more fruit! We were given Grapefruit, clementines, limes and passion fruit plus some very ripe bananas! We decided to have an early dinner that night and leave before it got dark so at 5.30pm we were lifting the anchor to do an overnight passage to Port Resolution on the island of Efate. It was a very bumpy ride with big seas again and winds to 35 Knots so it was good we had Bob to do a watch which meant Peter and I got to have a real sleep! We arrived here in Port Resolution this morning and were taken to a Mooring Buoy so we were all tied up by 8.30am in time for coffee and bacon butties! Now catching up on chores before the programme starts tomorrow.

Musket Cove

So we arrived here in Musket Cove on the small island of Malolo Lailai in the Mamanuca Group of islands on Wednesday morning and had to pick up a mooring buoy outside the Marina and wait for high tide as there is a sandbar in the entrance which is too shallow for yachts to pass over at low tide. By 3.30pm in the afternoon there was enough water for us to enter the Marina and we dropped our anchor and reversed back onto the dock and tied up with stern lines. There is water and electricity on the dock which means no need to run our generator which saves diesel and it is quiet! The water was much needed to give the boat a good hose down as it was covered in salt from the sailing we had done. Musket Cove is actually a small resort and marina and everything is close at hand. There are even DIY barbeques available on the beach! We were told about the BBQs by Charles and Marie (Dreamcatcher) who came over to introduce themselves to us whilst we waited on the Mooring Buoy. Dreamcatcher is another Hallberg Rassy but 48 feet so bigger than Trompeta and it took part in the last World ARC but had to leave in Fiji as their boat suffered damage in the Tsunami that affected the Galapagos islands. They have spent the last 2 years in New Zealand having work done to the boat and cruising around. So we ordered our BBQ pack from the shop and met up with Charles and Marie at the island bar to do our own BBQ.A very enjoyable night. The following day the majority of World ARC boats arrived and we had the formal rally welcome drinks and a BBQ. It was a good opportunity to catch up with the other boat crews we had not seen for a while. Yesterday (Thursday) there was a Sports afternoon and Trompeta, Piligrim and Royal Leopard joined forces to participate in Volleyball, Tug of War and a water game. Overall we did well winning the Volleyball, Joint 1st place in the Tug of War and 3rd in the water game. The water game was not easy as it involved filling plastic drinking cups with water from a bucket and passing them over your head to the person behind who then took the cup and passed it between him legs to the person behind and so on. The last person in the line emptied the cup into an empty bucket and after a set time the water in the bucket was measured. Anyway it was all a bit of fun. That evening there was a Fijian Feast with a spit roasted pig and local veggies and salad. Peter and I sat with the two Russian boats Piligrim and Royal Leopard and had an entertaining evening. Today we are doing last minute preparations before leaving tomorrow morning for the passage to Vanuatu. Peter has already seen customs and immigration for the clearing out formalities. There is a briefing for the Skippers at 5pm tonight and we will do another DIY BBQ afterwards.