Friday 13th of September was cruise boat day in at Luganvile.  We decided to keep well away from the town but still managed to come across some of the cruisers that chose to come out and spend their day out at Aore Island.  In the afternoon we went on a snorkelling trip, again with Santo Divers, with the promise of seeing some good coral and fish.  It still wasn’t quite up to the standards of the Great Barrier Reef but it was pretty nice and we even got to see a turtle!

Rick actually arrives from Melbourne this evening but because of the logistics he is going to spend the night in Luganville and we will head over tomorrow to meet him.  Although it might seem a bit rough to leave him over there until Saturday we figure it probably was for the best as it started to rain in Luganville just as the flight arrived. Tiger Lily (a cat from Sydney) that is also sharing the anchorage with us headed into pick up there daughter and ended up quite bedraggled once they arrived back at the boat. 

I headed into Luganville early on Saturday morning to get a something down with the hair as it is starting to look a bit of a mess.  Mark had his hair and beard clipped off the other day and now feels much better so figure it is  my turn next.  Also from all reports the hairdresser ( a gay chap from the Philippines) is quite good.  All the hairdressers in Vanuatu seem to be from the Head Hunter franchise. When we went there for hair cuts in Vila the locals seemed a bit miffed at what to do with my fine straight hair.  They did an OK job in the end but there was lots of mucking around before they would let me go.  Apparently there are 2 salons in Vila, one for ex pats and one for locals and it seems we went to the one for locals hence the lack of confidence when attacking my hair with the scissors.  Anyhow the chap from the Philippines seems pretty good and did a fine job at fixing up a few woopsy’s that had apparently occurred in Vila so the hair is back to normal again although a little darker than perhaps the last time you saw me!

 

We catch up with Rick (aka Jacques or Spare Parts Man) who was wandering around the mean streets of Luganville and head in for a spot of lunch and a good catch up before heading back on the ferry to Aore Resort.  Apart from bringing out a new regulator for the wind generator that has not quite been doing its thing since leaving Melbourne, he was giving the job of getting a few spares for the boat including a new fuel pump for the gen set.  Mark spent the afternoon installing the new pump and the gen set is again working like a dream *yay*  Rick was quickly into the water for a snorkel hence the nick name of Jacques Cousteau!

 

We booked the trip to the Millennium Caves for Sunday so we are on the early ferry and get picked up by our driver in Luganville for the drive to Vunaspef which is the village from which the tour starts.  We are not 100% sure what the trip involves but everyone we have spoken to says it is a must and we now agree.  The cave was opened up for tourists at the turn of the century hence it is called Millennium Cave.  They have done a lot of work since it opened to tourists to make it a lot safer which we were very pleased about.  The first part of the trip involves a nice walk down to the entrance of the caves.  Naturally we are given torches and a few instructions before entering the cave which has plenty of little bats and swallows as residents.  The cave runs for about 300mts and it takes us about 30 minutes to walk and kind of stumble through the cave as we are wading through water for most of the time which has a few lumps and bumps in it to manoeuvre around.  Once we are out of the cave we have a quick pit stop and then we move on to the rock climbing section.  It is really well laid out with steps carved into the rocks and lots of chains and ropes in just the right places to make you feel very secure plus the guides are fantastic and make sure you feel very comfortable.  Then the guides don some kids floaty toys (we are already wearing our PFD’s) and we all start to float down the river which is just fantastic and incredibly beautiful.  At the end of the river section it is a pretty steep climb out but they have put in some bamboo ladders which makes it all pretty easy and back to Vunaspef.  If ever you are in Santo it really is a must thing to do. 

 

After a busy day it is back to Sally for a spot of dinner and we are all in the sack pretty early after a big day.

 

Monday and it is back into Luganville to do a bit of provisioning before heading out for a spot of cruising around Santo.

It is a nice warm day so after shopping it is back to the boat and Rick decides it is time to tackle the wind generator.  From the initial review it looks like the replacement regulator has done the job however we will reserve final judgement until we get to a nice windy anchorage to see how much it produces but so far so good.  It is then into the water for another snorkel before heading into the resort for a dip in the pool.  Did we mention how tough this resort world really is!

 

Tuesday and we are on the move again.  We decide to head back up to Oyster Island as the tides are right to make an entrance at around 14:00H and once again we make a safe passage in without touching bottom.  It is a little different to our last visit when we had the ICA fleet in as we are now only sharing the anchorage with 3 other boats including Tiger Lily and Wild Honey who are both from Sydney.  We first met up with these two boats when we were in Noumea so it is nice to catch up with them again to compare notes on our cruising adventures to date.

 

Mustang Sally’s current position at Oyster Island is “15:22.29S 167:11.45E”