LTY UPDATE: Sunday, September 16th, 2012
Luganville, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu LTY time: 18:15 (Vanuatu time = UTC +11)
Location: Luganville, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu
Position: 15 31.426 S, 167 09.759 E (you can cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
Wind: none
Seas/Swell: flat as a mill pond
Weather: Raining
Air temp: 84 F 29C
Sea temp: 90.5 F 32.5 C
Barometer: 1015mm FRUIT BAT SYMPHONY
The thousands of bats I described in last night’s update that were living in the jungle growing on top of the cliffs in Vanihe Bay continued to amaze me. After sundown they all became much more active and the air in the Bay was filled with the noise of all their cries. Not sure if this is part of their Sonar navigation system or not but it was truly amazing and continued all night long and was still going strong when I awoke just before first light this morning. Having this symphony to accompany the view I have of the stars through my bedroom hatch as I went to sleep and as I woke up was a very special treat indeed. It was a bit longer sail to Luganville today (58nm) so I wanted to get an early start as I wasn’t sure what the winds and currents would be like and wanted to be sure to arrive in Luganville with lots of good light. So I had the anchor up and was underway just before sunup at 05:30 this morning. It was quite a sight looking back at those cliffs that were growing out of the darkness as the sun approached the horizon and to see all the bats flying up above as their sounds slowly faded into the soft sensuous sounds of Learnativity’s hull carving through the sea. The weather was looking promising with just some high overcast and haze to the north and increasingly blue sky to the south as the sun began to rise but unfortunately there was hardly a breath of wind and so it was a day of motoring rather than sailing. I had the main up both as a hopeful signal that wind was most welcome as well as to help with the slight rolling from the following seas, although with the conditions being so calm there was very little swell and it was a most peaceful ride down the NW coast of Ambae island and then over to the big island of Espiritu Santo where Luganville sits at the SE corner. Unfortunately the clouds began to form more and more in front of me as we approached Santo and by the time I was making my way through the deep straights into Luganville Bay it was raining quite hard and visibility was cut down considerably. Fortunately though the channel is deep and wide with almost no obstructions and I had satellite photos of the straights and the bay to add to my electronic charts and so it wasn’t too difficult at all to make my way in and I found a good sandy bottom in about 25 feet of water and we were home for the night. I do have an internet connection now thanks to my Digicel cellular modem as Luganville is the second largest city in Vanuatu and so it seems somewhat fitting that it is raining now as I have lots of online work to do and that’s just as well done in the rain as the sun. I’ve already been taking advantage of this good connection to get all the Email backlog for the past few weeks in my Gmail account and I was able to finally book my complicated series of flights for my upcoming trips back to the US and Canada in November and December so it has been a very productive and happy Sunday afternoon. (remember I’m on the other side of the dateline than most of you) Tomorrow the sun will hopefully be back and rain or shine I’ll be heading in to check out the big city (purely relatively speaking) of Luganville. I should be able to replenish my galley stores with fresh veggies, fruit, bread, cheese and the like, make a stop at the hospital to check out the dog bite and look into getting duty free diesel here once I’m ready to check out of Vanuatu. Duty free fuel is the same as any other duty free items, they are only available to those who are leaving a country and so you have to do the formal county departure procedures, get them to stamp a form, go fuel up the boat at duty free rates and then return to the officials for final clearance and then leave. I’ll head out of Luganville as soon as I get those chores done and go find more spectacular and secluded little bays and anchorages for the next two weeks or so and then come back to do this checking out of the country and refueling and head out on the big passage up north of the equator to the Marshall Islands. Well, that’s all for tonight from rainy Luganville. Hope the sun is shining on you wherever you are and I’ll be back with more in the next few days. Wayne
Luganville, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu LTY time: 18:15 (Vanuatu time = UTC +11)
Location: Luganville, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu
Position: 15 31.426 S, 167 09.759 E (you can cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
Wind: none
Seas/Swell: flat as a mill pond
Weather: Raining
Air temp: 84 F 29C
Sea temp: 90.5 F 32.5 C
Barometer: 1015mm FRUIT BAT SYMPHONY
The thousands of bats I described in last night’s update that were living in the jungle growing on top of the cliffs in Vanihe Bay continued to amaze me. After sundown they all became much more active and the air in the Bay was filled with the noise of all their cries. Not sure if this is part of their Sonar navigation system or not but it was truly amazing and continued all night long and was still going strong when I awoke just before first light this morning. Having this symphony to accompany the view I have of the stars through my bedroom hatch as I went to sleep and as I woke up was a very special treat indeed. It was a bit longer sail to Luganville today (58nm) so I wanted to get an early start as I wasn’t sure what the winds and currents would be like and wanted to be sure to arrive in Luganville with lots of good light. So I had the anchor up and was underway just before sunup at 05:30 this morning. It was quite a sight looking back at those cliffs that were growing out of the darkness as the sun approached the horizon and to see all the bats flying up above as their sounds slowly faded into the soft sensuous sounds of Learnativity’s hull carving through the sea. The weather was looking promising with just some high overcast and haze to the north and increasingly blue sky to the south as the sun began to rise but unfortunately there was hardly a breath of wind and so it was a day of motoring rather than sailing. I had the main up both as a hopeful signal that wind was most welcome as well as to help with the slight rolling from the following seas, although with the conditions being so calm there was very little swell and it was a most peaceful ride down the NW coast of Ambae island and then over to the big island of Espiritu Santo where Luganville sits at the SE corner. Unfortunately the clouds began to form more and more in front of me as we approached Santo and by the time I was making my way through the deep straights into Luganville Bay it was raining quite hard and visibility was cut down considerably. Fortunately though the channel is deep and wide with almost no obstructions and I had satellite photos of the straights and the bay to add to my electronic charts and so it wasn’t too difficult at all to make my way in and I found a good sandy bottom in about 25 feet of water and we were home for the night. I do have an internet connection now thanks to my Digicel cellular modem as Luganville is the second largest city in Vanuatu and so it seems somewhat fitting that it is raining now as I have lots of online work to do and that’s just as well done in the rain as the sun. I’ve already been taking advantage of this good connection to get all the Email backlog for the past few weeks in my Gmail account and I was able to finally book my complicated series of flights for my upcoming trips back to the US and Canada in November and December so it has been a very productive and happy Sunday afternoon. (remember I’m on the other side of the dateline than most of you) Tomorrow the sun will hopefully be back and rain or shine I’ll be heading in to check out the big city (purely relatively speaking) of Luganville. I should be able to replenish my galley stores with fresh veggies, fruit, bread, cheese and the like, make a stop at the hospital to check out the dog bite and look into getting duty free diesel here once I’m ready to check out of Vanuatu. Duty free fuel is the same as any other duty free items, they are only available to those who are leaving a country and so you have to do the formal county departure procedures, get them to stamp a form, go fuel up the boat at duty free rates and then return to the officials for final clearance and then leave. I’ll head out of Luganville as soon as I get those chores done and go find more spectacular and secluded little bays and anchorages for the next two weeks or so and then come back to do this checking out of the country and refueling and head out on the big passage up north of the equator to the Marshall Islands. Well, that’s all for tonight from rainy Luganville. Hope the sun is shining on you wherever you are and I’ll be back with more in the next few days. Wayne
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