Not really doing much cruising here, just making my way north. Left Wednesday morning, at first there was decent winds, then the wind disappeared for a while, but just when I was motoring to an anchorage the wind came back, and I decided to keep going. Was sailing between some islands and headed for Ambrym. There is an active volcano on that island, but I never saw any sign of activity (it was very hazing during the day, but I don’t think that was because of the volcano), not even at night. Kept on going with light winds most of the time, but every so often a few hours of a steady breeze. That made for a few moments of good sailing, no swell, no waves, just some nice wind. Especially this morning coming between some islands onto Luganville was quite nice, though ended up having to motor the last 6 miles when the wind was on the nose and there was a strong head current. Checked in with customs, and I am going to stay here for the weekend. Luganville is the 2nd biggest city in Vanuatu, but really it feels like a small town. There is one more sail boat here, now I am definitely of the beaten track.
Well, never even made it to the music festival, unbelievable, but, guess I was just hanging out with the wrong people. It wasn’t as close as I thought it would be, that never helps (aren’t we all lazy by nature).
Had a scare Friday night. Came back from a pretty wild night, had all dressed up (yes, really, including shaving, wearing long jeans, socks and proper shoes, that is a cruisers three piece suit) to go to the Hemisphere’s club, a trendy place at the top floor of Sebel hotel. During happy hour the drinks were actually quite affordable. But mostly sort of an exclusive place. After that we went to the Waterfront, where they have a good band (though they do play evergreens only). Things were becoming good fun, which was extended to the Voodoo bar, a late night kind of place. There the lights went out for me, and at three I decided it was time to get back to the boat. Walked to where I had tied up my dinghy, and, NO DINGHY. Could not believe this, anywhere on the Pacific theft never seems to be a problem. And still, even in theft prone places, you can tie you dinghy up and not worry about it. Well, gone is gone, now how to get to my boat. Walked to the dock nearest to my boat, so I could get a ride if it show up (completely unlikely, there are about 5 boats anchored in that corner). Anyway, after 5 in the morning someone wakes me up, turns out it is a security guy, wondering what I was doing there. Well, told him my dinghy was stolen, there wasn’t much he could do. I suggested he could give me a ride in one of the dinghies tied up. But, that was beyond him. Well, got frustrated with all this, it was at least daylight, so jumped in the water and swam to the boat and went to bed. Got up at 10 in a real grumpy mood. Just could not see why anyone would ever steal my dinghy. For money? There is no market for that in Port Vila, there is about 20 boats less. For own use? Really, such a small dinghy with such an old engine. Well, could not see who or why anyone would steel my dinghy and stepped in the kayak to simply go around the harbor and have a look around. First thing I did was go by the place where I had tied it up. And, to my suprise, IT WAS THERE. Turned out that someone had “borrowed” it. It was tied up backwards, the engine was tipped up, the paddle was put together (so whoever borrowed it did not manage to keep the engine, no surprise, and old engine takes special experience skills to operate), my crocks (new one) and the fuel jug (full) were missing. But, I was so happy to have it back. Just don’t think I would be able to find any good replacement, not even to think about how much at which incredible cost.
So, that was Saturday’s story. Took it easy the rest of the weekend.
Yesterday I tried to find some parts in town, found the “marine” store. But their supplies were very limited indeed.
This morning I did a diesel run, or actually, two runs with the dinghy to the dock near the fuel station. $150 worth of diesel. I have those becalmed days, and the forecast only has more of that. Vanuatu has not had regular trade winds for about a month now. Then I went to customs to get the clearance papers for Luganville (Espirito Santu) and beyond. Then I went to the supermarket, shopping is pretty good here, but more expensive than Fiji (well, too late to come to that realization). Did a pretty serious shopping run, three small boxes of groceries, they were very good at the store, packing it nicely in boxes and one guy helped me carry it to the dinghy (which was not far). Unfortunately not muesli or granola, so breakfast will eventually become some improvisation. Still thinking if the $10 American parmesan cheese is worth it or not.
Will do some more internet tomorrow morning early, then, I am off for some island hopping on the way to Luganville. Could take a couple of weeks, no wind in the forecast (and fuel is not cheap).
Open invite: feel free to comment, sometimes I not sure if I am just typing for my own sake.
If you don’t want to read all the tech talk, just go here and have a look.
It has taken me months to get this to work, but I finally got to it. After I left Panama, and had plenty of energy due to Peter’s (Sayonara) generous donation of solar panels, I have been working on a database to keep my track logs in.
For the nerds amongst you, the database is in MySQL, including the use of the geometry features of MySQL. Everything is programmed in PHP.
I already had a reasonable working version on my own computer in Atuona, Marquesas. But, with the cost of internet, and the limited connection speeds, I was never able to upload the database (which includes a crude coast line of the world) until Neiafu, Tonga.
Then it turned out there were some differences between MySQL on my computer (unfortunately Windows) and my web host (Linux). It took me a long time to find out where the web servers scripting errors were going to, so for a while I was debugging a black box.
Here in Vanuatu I bought a week of wireless internet. The connection speed is acceptable, and today I finally got to debugging the PHP scripts.
There are still some bugs to be fixed, but, since it is mostly working, I might as well let people have a look at it. One bug I am aware of is that it only shows the tracks on side of the datum line. Then, if you zoom out too far, the projections will be imperfect, and it will start to get very slow, since it has to process so much coast line data (the coast line data is only contained in one resolution).
You can access it from here. Hope that it makes sense to most people (I am definitely not going to write a manual, I am on vacation).
Next feature I like to implement is a way so one can export a track to Google Earth. It should not be too hard, just have not started on that. Of course any feedback is welcome. Either email me or leave a comment.
For the past week I have been having a good time in Vanuata. Lots of ozzies on vacation here, and there was always good reason to have a good time.
Jacky, Ian, Sarah (showing us the bird) and me (in the Japanese picture pose).
Damien, Ian and me.
Okay, plans change all the time. First of all, by the time I was through the Panama canal, and left for the Galapagos, two years around the world was not within reasonable reach (other than turning into a race around the world). So, it became a three year around the year plan. 2008 was used mostly to cross the Pacific. Now before December 1st I need to be in the Solomon Islands, since that is when the cyclone season starts. Northern and western part of the Solomons are outside the cyclone region.
Original plan was to go to the Philippines next. Then I met Ayako in Fiji, and that made me consider diverting myself to Japan. First thought was Philippines and then Japan. Closer study of pilot charts showed me that is not the best in distance, and even a worse plan when thinking about prevailing winds. So, it is now quite possible that I will leave the Solomon Islands and head straight for Japan (Fukuoka prefecture, Kyushu). Challenges to face are: crossing the equatorial doldrums (but that is included in any travel north from the Solomons), the last 600 miles have a lot of head winds, and it will happen in winter (leaving late December, arriving late January) so it is going to become cold (average daily maximum in Fukuoka in January 9 Celcius, average minimum 2 Celcius).
Realizing that the seas around of Japan have a lot of ship traffic, and that there is a high risk of fog, I am thinking about buying a radar (I have had that in consideration for a while, since my AIS is broken). Of course it comes with the challenge of ordering one and then shipping it to a place where I will be. Also the boat needs its yearly bottom paint job. There are facilities in the Solomon Islands, but I don’t know if they will have a selection of anti-fouling paint.
So, those are the current considerations.
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