Monday 31 August 2015

Sights and Sounds of Vanuatu

Our first sight of Vanuatu. Efate in the early morning. A welcome sight after a coupla days sailing.

I look at this picture and I think, if I am Caleigh, "my god, my life is in these people's hands..."

CG "in the Rafters" Someone let the loose end of the lazy jacks fly and Caleigh had to run up and grab it.* We say 'someone' when it is Doug who makes the mistakes. We try to record all others with a greater degree of accuracy.


Finally, I am in the zone.
If only they had just let me organize things from the beginning. Sailing -- really, it's a piece of piss!

Queen Maureen is escorted ashore by her expert guides Eti, and Max. All had a wonderful day together exploring the the beaches of Ambrym and the worlds of it's exotic visitors. A smile is the great shared currency!

Monday 17 August 2015

CG -- And off!

It's a fun day aboard Sophrosyne! We are joined by our newest crew member. Caleigh will travel with us for the next couple of months as we make our way from Fiji, to Vanuatu, to New Caledonia, and finally on to Australia.
This morning was a very fun morning for us. We were up early to meet the plane!

We hear it fly over every morning but usually we just roll over and sleep for another hour. Today though we were excited to get to the airport to meet our newest crew member and second favorite niece : ). Caleigh Grace will sail and explore with us over the next several months as part of her 'walkabout.' We feel privileged to spend the time with her!

This morning after breakfast the three of us put both jibs onto the roller furlers and tucked away as much as possible of Caleigh's belongings. To be fair -- and in true Sophrosyne tradition -- her bag was half full of our stuff so packing away wasn't too tough.

We are off for a swim now and then we will let Caleigh rest before we head to the Boatshed for 2 for 1 pizza night. Tomorrow we are up early again to head into Lautoka and stock up at the market. If that all goes well, we will come back and untie for the afternoon to head out for a wee boatride so that we can run the engine and watermaker and send Caleigh over the side to scrub the bottom before we head out to sea on Thursday.

For those interested to watch our progress you can visit:

http://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Sophrosyne

to see our position as we move toward Vanuatu starting on Thursday (Wednesday in Canada).

Next post will come from CG!

Stand by for her wisdom, humor and grace!