July 14th,2008
5:00 P.M. local time
Monday, July 14th
Position:
S 19 degrees 31.6 minutes
E 169 degrees 29.7 minutes
Hooray. We just arrived in Port Resolution on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu.Our passage from Fiji took exactly 2 days and 8 hours. We had expected that it would take 3 days and 3 nights. It was a record breaking sail for us in terms of speed – we had two days where we made 200 miles each day. This was the first time we have ever made 200 miles in a day. This speed got us into Vanuatu well before sunset and saved us that 3rd night at sea. Conditions were far windier than we had expected – with winds of 30-40 knots pretty much the whole way – and large seas – up to 6 meters at times. It was not a comfortable passage – but at least I can say that it was not our worst either. We left Fiji with Vera and were within 7 miles of her the entire 465 nm passage.
We had mistakenly written in our last blog that we were sailing east-southeast, but just to clear the record we were sailing west-southwest. Just wanted to keep you all on your toes.
We are really tired. There is a huge volcano here and it looks gorgeous from here. Time for sleep!
L.