Worrall Wind Update - Happy 4th of July

Volcano Cloud in the Background

Date: July 4, 2011
UTC/Local Times: 0500/1700

Latitude: S 19 31.522
Longitude: E 169 29.760

It is late afternoon, and we have just arrived in beautiful bay called Port Resolution on Tanna Island in the Vanuatu Islands. We spent over a week at Anatom Island and were able to go ashore due to weather (wind and rain) only 3 times, twice to the main island and once to an outer island called Mystery Island that we had all to ourselves, long white beaches, coconut palms, blue lagoons, and sea turtles.

Mystery Island - Across lagoon from Anatom

We made some new yachtie friends, Derek and Bella from Australia on the sailing vessel Pandana. They are veteran cruisers having been to Vanuatu, Papa New Guinea, Solomons, and other ports of call in Melanesia. We spent a couple of evenings with them including my birthday. They brought over beer they had brewed and some flowers from the island. It was very lovely. Last night we bid them good-bye and hope to catch up with them at another anchorage. They were generous in sharing waypoints, tracks, guidance, and charts with us.

It was difficult to get out of bed by 4:30 this morning, but we got ourselves ready and pulled up the anchor around 5:30 a.m. just so that we had enough light to follow our tracks and get a visual on the reefs on either side. Our ride over was pretty nice today. For most of the day we had blue sky with some clouds, 10-15 knots of wind, 1 -2 meter following seas and a nice broad to full run doing about 4.5-6.0 knots. It took us a little over 9 hours to make the 50 mile run. In the distance as we approached the island, we could see the volcano periodically sending up dark plumes of smoke. This will be the closest thing we get to Fourth of July Fireworks this year. The way points that we had brought us safely right into the bay. We are anchored in about 15 feet of water with a sand and mud bottom, sharing the anchorage with 3 other boats, two sail boats and one power boat.

We are glad to be here and look forward to doing some exploring and visiting the volcano. Hope all of our American family and friends have a great Fourth of July.

All is Well with the 2 Sail R's on S/V Worrall Wind.