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Showing posts from August, 2017

Million Dollar Point, Millennium Cave and Ansanvari

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American Forces were stationed on Espiritu Santo during WWII, and after the war they tried to sell their equipment to the French, who administered Vanuatu (or New Hebrides as it was known). The French knew it would be very expensive for the Americans to ship everything home, so they didn’t want to buy anything, hoping instead that the Americans would just leave things behind. However, the Americans didn’t like this idea, so they dumped everything into the sea. The story is that over $1 million dollars’ worth of trucks, jeeps, cranes, and other equipment was dumped off of what is now known as Million Dollar Point, just east of Luganville. Much of this equipment is in fairly shallow water so we went and snorkelled it. The wind was up, so there was a lot of silt in the water, but it was still very interesting to see the old “junk”. Upside down tank? Crane? Truck Jeep After several days, we motored back to Luganville did a very large provisioning. Fortunately, the LCM groc

Palikula Bay

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We carried on to Palikula Bay to the NE of Luganville. We spent many days in Palikula and could have stayed longer! It is a lovely bay with very friendly locals. It is also easy to catch a ride to Luganville for last minute supplies. A trio of boys canoed over to the boat to chat. They gave us information about the coral, fishing and octopuses. Dina mentioned to them that she wanted to see a live octopus (as often people bring her dead versions of the animals she expresses an interest in!). One day they came with the shell of a sea turtle.  "Octopus boys" showing us a turtle shell The next day, they arrived at the boat with a live (semi!) octopus in their canoe! They took Dina to the reef where they had found it and were all looking for octopus when the father of one of the boys, who was spear-fishing nearby, called over. He had a small, live octopus clinging to his arm! Fortunately, this octopus was too small for their dinner table. Dina petted the octopus before t

Resorts around Luganville

We had a lumpy 7-hour downwind sail north to Michener Bay on Malo Island. The bay is lovely and we explored in the dinghy, snorkelled and paddleboarded.  After two days, we left for Ratua Island and anchored next to SV Roxanne in a clear, turtle and coral-filled bay. We had planned to enjoy the spa, horseback riding and restaurant at the Ratua Resort for Dina’s birthday. Unfortunately, the Kiwi manager has a strong dislike for cruisers and was very unwelcoming when we went ashore to make reservations. His opinion is that cruisers are lowly, riff-raff, “sea gypsies,” and very unlike his wealthy, fly-in, resort guests. The local Vanuatuan staff was very kind and welcoming to cruisers; it was just our bad luck that it was the manager who met us at the dock. So, instead of going to the resort, we had a wonderful birthday dinner for Dina onboard SV Roxanne with Lynn and Tom. Next stop was a two hour motor around the island to the yacht-friendly Aore Resort. Dina and Lynn went f