Arrived home at Opua this morning at 0800 nzdt.

Thankful for a safe passage.

Thank you Patricia and David for your watch.

via relay from Freycinet. Hopefully the Wild Sweet radio installation will be worked on over summer! ref the yit library and scroll down to the discussion paper on what to look for.

Good progress

pretty good radio signal from Kerry today

radio conditions really poor today so that is all we could get

Wet and windy in Noumea harbour waiting for a weather window to head home.

Anchored in Bay Uie just off the Canal Woodin.

Really gusty in here, water is green and really murky. Quite different from the last 4 days we have been in the southern lagoon at Mato then Ua watching turtles on the bottom in 10 metres just by looking over the side.

We've had dolphins in the anchorage, black tip sharks, turtles, sea snakes and the most amazing snorkelling ever at Ua.

Having run out of fresh provisions, wine, cheese and chocolate we are heading backwards to Noumea to go shopping again.

Anchored behind the reef in Ilot Mato. Saw a HUGE turtle on the way in past the reef, it's a bit breezy and weird only having a reef in front of us and the island behind. Off for a snorkel now, the fish finder is alive with fishes. To look at, not to catch.

On a mooring by Ilot Casy again after a brief sojourn out to port Koube on Isle Ouen.

Tried to get into Anse Majic to walk up to the lighthouse at Ndua but the ICA are in town so it's full up. Hopefully we can get in there in the next few days.

Meanwhile the water is so clear we are watching the parrotfish swimming around in the coral under the boat in 5-6 m water from the deck!

On a mooring on the north side of Ilot Casy.

Walked around the island this morning and swam back to the boat afterwards.

Met Moose the resident dog and saw some amazing landscapes and cool plants 😊

Anchored in Kuto Bay, Isle Des Pins. Beautiful.

Bit of a lumpy passage driving into the southerly swells but at least there wasn't much wind on the nose. We got rained on and it's still pretty grey.

Hopefully the sun will come out tomorrow and we can have a snorkel around

On a mooring in Anse Majic, Rade de l'est, Baie de Prony.

Eating baguette with emmental yum yum.

It's so tranquil in here, looking forward to our trip to Isle de Pines tomorrow.

At Port Moselle marina in Noumea, trying not to spend all our pocket money in Carrefour. Hired a car for the day yesterday to explore and go on a stocking up trip only to find that they don't sell alcohol on Wednesdays!

Had a good trip over from Vanuatu - sailed all the way for a nice change and got in with the tide through the Havannah passage.

Will be off to the southern lagoon area tomorrow.

Anchored in Port Resolution, Tanna, Vanuatu.

Have made lots of friends due to our ability to charge phones, tablets and laptops.

Hopefully the cloud will lift tomorrow or the next day and we can get up the volcano.

Will be in Tanna for a few days before moving on to New Cal

Arrived Anelghowhat Bay, Anatom, Vanuatu at 0830 nzdt. Found the trough at 3pm yesterday, wind not over 18kn generally 10-15 from NE then SW then S then SE. Seas understandably horrible till we got in here.

Rescued a small wading bird that isn't doing too well now :(

Found a flying fish on the deck, have filleted it for later.

Got followed by a 'fishing vessel' for about 2 hours the other day. Was quite creepy.

Hopefully the weather will clear after tomorrow and we can explore this place a bit.

'Out of the Bag', 'Plastic Plankton', Isebella' and 'Roundabout II' all anchored here.

The Sun Princess cruise ship arrived when we did but didn't stop as it was too windy! pussies!

Relay from Pilgrim as they are really hard to hear. The position does not look correct but what is correct is the 170nm left to go to Aneityum

340n to Aneityum. Thanks to Frecinet 2 for relay.

Bye bye Fiji.

Just cleared the reef at Malolo passage.

Vanuatu here we come.

450m to Anatom approx

ETA Thursday ish

Still sweltering in Vuda marina, very little breeze coming through the boat.

We have decided to make a break for it on Monday to Vanuatu. All provisioned up ready to go. Had a good night at the sunset bar at the Boatshed for our 33rd Anniversary. Will go over there agin later for the 2nd Bledisloe match, theres a few Aussies in here so it should be entertaining.

In Vuda Marina to provision, fill up with water, fuel, etc for our trip to Vanuatu, hopefully leaving tomorrow as soon as we can clear out from here in the morning. We'll be checking into the GHR

ssb net in the mornings. hopefully Patricia will be updating this for us while we are out of mobile phone coverage.

Had a good time with Kirsty, Colin Lyn and Pete in Momi and we had a good time in Musket apart from the blowy bit, spent some time with Ryan and Ellie and we're now looking forward to being at sea again.

Still on our mooring at Musket Cove.

Had an exciting night as the wind and swell woke us up at about 0030. Peaked in intensity between 0200 and 0300 with sustained 25 knots Northerlies gusting 30 w/rain and 1m swells rolling through the anchorage. Lots of lightning off to the South East. At least one boat had to re anchor during the worst of it but our mooring held strong.

Have very noisy neighbours on a cat with brazillian flag loud music and running genset last evening now at 0700 have started their engines again.

So tired! :/

On the last available mooring at Musket Cove.

A lot more room here now all the ICA fleet have taken off for Vanuatu.

Had a snorkel on the adjacent reef with Ryan and Ellie, spot of lunch then dropped them off on the beach near their resort.

Fixed the hole in the bottom of the dinghy 😳

Anchored north of Malolo Lalai island

Anchored in Nadi Bay, Viti Levu. Hanging around this part as we have family visiting us before we head off to Vanuatu later this month. Its been pleasant but chilly at night - have had to dig out a blanket!

Had a horrible passage across Bligh Water yesterday to Yasawa Island from Yadua, Followed a Cat called Misto on their way around with the ARC round the world rally. clean up day today, have lost a couple of books due to a deck leak into our book locker, most upset about the brand new RYA weather one which I was looking forward to reading :(

Since our last check in we have been from Savusavu to Koro, Makogai, Levuka on Ovalau, Naigani and Yadua tuning in to GHR when we can for the weather and updates on boats we know. we had some great snorkelling, met some interesting people and seen a few different places. now looking forward to exploring over this side. Its going really well for our first trip to the islands.

Arrived safely yesterday morning. It was a lifesaver having davids forecasts, to know why we were experiencing the weather we were and knowing what was coming next was amazing. Thank you so much to all of you for being there for us. We will be in touch late August when we leave to Vanuatu.

hove to last night in the trough but after a good sleep are enjoying the light sailing conditions

have a bit of a problem with fuel filters which need replacing. The sloppy conditions have stirred up the goorah in the tanks!

Have been sailing since 5.30pm last night so that must be good in such light conditions. Peaceful. On their passage to Savusavu

good signal. Radio conditions have been bad the last few days. Will nt likely stop at Minerva

Cleared Customs, Last coffee and sausage roll from the General Store, said good bye to the old shop and our friends inside.

Will be a whole new store when we come back. now heading back to the boat to cast off .

A bit nervous but looking forward to it all.

Waiting for the weather window we hope will spin us North to Savusavu. Currently living aboard in the marina in Opua, ducking back to the house when we need a shower or laundry... at least we have a house and car in walking distance from the boat. At the moment the favourable window will be on Saturday 27 May.