Underway to Vanuatu

We pulled out of Fiji yesterday around midday and cleared the final reef an hour or so before sunset. Overnight the wind rose from really light to perfect. We're making 7 knots in gentle one meter seas just aft of the beam, 15 knots of wind and lightly overcast skies. Blissful. And it's forecast to remain this way for the entire 500+ mile voyage.

Passages always seem like a time for introspection and taking stock. And this passage—the one that puts us within striking range of the finish line--seems especially meaningful. Over the next few months we'll be moored in Australia—trying to decide what and where next. Earning money. Getting re-united with Charlie the cat. Catching up on a world that seems to whirl-by without you when you busy doing other things. There is so much to think about and so much to plan.

But there is also a remarkable island nation between us and then. And I don't want to short change myself by jumping too many steps ahead. So I'll be pulling out the guidebooks and the travel stories and reading up on big and little nambas and I'll push Australia away for just a little longer.

Position:
17 51 South
175 51 E
443 miles to Port Vila

* If you're interested in my day job I have a profile of a Tahitian Ukulele maker in October's Islands magazine.

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