Our journey on the sailboat Good as Gold

It is difficult to stop in Port Resolution as it is not a regular Port of Entry, so one must organise and pay transport for Customs and Immigration for checking into the country. In addition, there are no banks or ATMs in Port Resolution. Many cruisers found it difficult to obtain Vanuatu currency (vatu) in Fiji, so most of us arrived with no local currency. Stanley, from the "Yacht Club", helped many of us by convincing transport drivers and others to accept USD.  We decided to travel to the capital of Tanna Island, Lenakel, on the West side of the island to exchange our USD, or take money out of an ATM. The trip involved crossing the ashfields on the downwind side of the volcano. Due to some confusion about whether a bank was open in Lenakel (it was a provincial holiday) or if a large hotel would change money for us, we ended up crossing the island and the ashfields 4 times! Most of them were while riding in the back of a pick-up truck. Local girls we met while wait

We had a lovely sail for the first 48 hours from Fiji to Vanuatu. On the third day, we hoisted the gennaker and maintain about 5 knots per hour. On the fourth day, we had to furl the sails and motor. That afternoon we anchored in Port Resolution, in the southern Vanuatu island chain, next to the smoke spewing volcano, Mt. Yasur. Approaching Tanna Island, with Mt Yasur spewing ash It was so exhilarating to land in Vanuatu. Aside from the active volcano and the steam vents at the anchorage, the mountains were covered in trees and jungle plants and the beaches, both black sand and white, were unspoiled. Active steam vent at the anchorage in Port Resolution We awoke the next day to learn it was a holiday in Vanuatu so there was no Customs or Immigration service. Stanley, the caretaker at the Port Resolution “Yacht Club”, assured us we were allowed to go ashore to see the volcano. That afternoon, we piled into trucks with SV Dream Catcher, SV Rehua and SV Second Wind and we

The three boats, Good as Gold, Free Spirit and Roxanne, left Mana Island and went north towards Naviti Island, the place known for Manta Rays. We all decided to anchor part way to Naviti Island, at a little gap between Waya and Wayasewa islands. We chose this place because it was supposed to have good snorkelling and it was close enough to we could make a day trip to Naviti Island the next day. At low tide, Waya and Wayasewa are connected by a sand bar and at high tide the locals drive their boats though the gap. We did some snorkelling and the reputation was well deserved. Unfortunately, the bay seems to have been invaded by Crown of Thorns, an invasive species of starfish that eats coral at an incredible rate and is killing reefs around the world. Instead of taking all three boats to Naviti for the day, everyone got onto Roxanne for the trip. Once there, we saw several tour boats from the local resorts. The coral and fish here were plentiful, like lots of places in Fiji, but the Ma