Back log.


I’ve been out of the habit for the last little while with this log. Let me fill in some details between my last entry and now. Below are a few details of the last six months for David and his little boat.











- Kal and I left Noumea for the Loyalty islands on 22 September. A French chap Erwan joined me for the sail to Lifou. We stopped in the Baie du Santal at Duoulou, then up to Chepenehe where Erwan jumped off. The sail from Chepenehe to Djocking around the corner saw the mysterious death of my computer, the catalyst for my neglect of this log.

- Djocking was a fascinating anchorage. I had to drop the hook in 80’ of water to avoid the coral, yet even at that depth I could see the anchor clearly. It’s disconcerting to be seeing such deep readings on the sounder when it looks for all the world like the keel was about to touch. Swimming around the anchorage I came face to face with the most enormous shark I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet.

- From Lifou I sailed to Tanna in Vanuatu. This was a pleasant passage of two days, from memory. I anchored in Port Resolution on the Eastern side of the island, and was guided in by the plumes of smoke from Yasur, Tanna’s local volcano.

-Tanna is a land full of wonders. Schools of mullet jump right into dinghies. Food can be cooked and clothes washed in the boiling hot springs. Folk would paddle dug out canoes out to Kal and have me charge their mobile phones. The Kava there is the strongest in the world.

- From Tanna to Aniwa. I spent my most enjoyable time of the trip at Aniwa. It’s way off the trodden tourist path, even for yachts, though I recommend anyone passing that way to stop in.

- Aniwa to Erromango

- Erromango to Efate and Port Vila.

- I spent over a month in Vila in the end. It was nice to stop in the one place for a while and settle into its routine. For all its big city ills, I liked Vila very much. My parents popped over for a visit while I was there, the three of us enjoying a cruise up around the north of the island.

- A broken auto-pilot and a dis-inclination to keep travelling north with the approaching cyclone season kept me in Vila a little while longer. Once the pilot was fixed (and a note to anyone setting up their boat: try not to become too reliant on these things as they are designed to send you mad) I left Vila to return to Australia.

- Stopped first at Huon reef. It was mating and laying season for the green turtles there. What a spectacular thing to see.

- Chesterfield reef next. Also beautiful. The sail from Huon to Chesterfield was so perfect, wind 15 knots just behind the beam, no sea, screaming along under main and kite. With so little to do to tend to the boat I spent a whole day down below building cupboards.

-From Chesterfield I headed to Brisbane, where the adventure for the moment has ended.

-December saw me back at work in North Queensland.

- Christmas with my whole family in Brisbane, what a wonderful thing to get them all in the same place!

-This year I’ve been studying for my coxswain’s certificate as well as working here and there: boat repairs at Moreton Island, bar work at a strip club.

-For a bit of a sea change, I’m now out in the desert in the middle of the Northern Territory teaching at a high school in an Aboriginal community called Lajamanu. I plan to be back in Brisbane and on board by the end of June.