We arrived in Espiritu Santo, locally known just as Santo Island, on Sunday afternoon. After a blustery couple of days sailing we were looking forward to dropping anchor in a calm sheltered bay. We poked our nose into the channel towards Luganville Bay, saw the wind funneling through the channel and yachts hobby-horsing around in the chop. Decided instead to opt for Palikulo Bay. Well sheltered from the waves and swell, we still had the wind howling through the bay and shrieking through the rigging, but at least we were out of the roll and pitch we had put up with for two days. Monday was town day, a day on land to do some essentials. First, we needed to find Immigration to extend our visas before we became overstayers. By 8.30am we were on shore and walking the 12km towards town. About an hour later we got picked up by a passing ute and had a ride in the tray of the ute the rest of the way. Luckily the driver knew where the Immigration building was. All we knew was it was a blue bui lding, somewhere on the main road. When the ute stopped outside we could see it was a blue building, but there were absolutely no identifying signs on the structure at all! Nothing on the door either, but when we sent inside we saw a fellow wearing an Immigration Officer uniform, so guessed we had come to the right place. After checking all of our forms and photos and passports about three times over, we were then advised that they could not accept our money at this office becasue they had no cashier. We were given a payment slip and instructed to walk 15 minutes down the road to the Government Cashier office to pay the fee (6000 vatu each, approx NZ$90 each), then we would need to get a receipt from the cashier and bring it back to the immigration office as proof of payment. At that time, Immigration would then issue our visa extension. OK, we asked, where exactly is this building and is it signposted? We were told, it is on the main road, about 2 blocks before you get to the supermarket. Very helpful as we had no idea where the supermarket was, but presumably if we got the to supermarket we would know we had gone too far! Thankfully we found said building, paid our fee and returned to Immigration just after 11am. If we hadn't made it before 11.30 we would have had to wait until 1.30pm as they close for lunch for 2 hours. Upon return a second Immigration officer completed yet more paperwork and then asked us why we wanted to stay longer, he said he needed a valid reason why we had to be in Vanuatu for a longer time! Incredulous, Heather replied: "because you have 83 islands and we have only seen 14 of them so far". That seemed to do the trick and our passports were duly returned, allowing us to stay until we fly out in August. At the Immigration office we also met fellow sailors from Dreamtime, who we had met in Gulf Harbour and seen briefly in Port Vila a month ago.
Next it was off into town to complete various errands, including a visit to the produce market. The market in Port Vila had been swimming in bok choy and not much else, due to many crops being destroyed by cyclone Pam. What little fruit they had was extremely expensive and usually wind damaged. Here in Santo, they were not hammered by the cyclone and the produce market had everything you would expect, at reasonable prices. Paw paw for 20 vatu each (about NZ 30 cents), bunches of bananas, bags of tomatoes - it was a pleasure to stock up! By the time we had completed our errands and loaded up our backpacks with fresh fruit and veges, plus some local beef from the butcher and some essentials from the supermarket, we were glad to hop into a taxi and be driven back to Palikulo Bay. The road was built by the Americans who had based themselves in this area during WWII and looks like it has had no maintenance since that time, so it is a little bumpy. Vehicles swerve from one side of the road to the other to drive around the potholes, so it is a little hair raising with oncoming traffic on the wrong side of the road, but still faster than walking! By the time we got back to the boat at 4pm we were bushed! Today we listened to the weather forecast, which was for more wind and more wind. These conditions are no good for diving the areas we are keen to dive here and we were growing tired of hearing the wind in the rigging, so decided to explore other anchorages. First stop was Aese Island, much more sheltered than Palikulo and with a pretty bay. A walk over the island to the other side revealed many relics of WWII rusting and overgrown, left abandoned. The island would be a botanists paradise, with so many different trees, grasses, vines and bushes. Wild lemon trees, brambles and many tiny flowering plants producing minute bursts of yellow, pink and purple. Swallows, bats and various other jungle birds swirled around us as we walked. A white sandy beach on the seaward side held some rugged rock pools at low tide. We watched an eel hunting for tiny fish, darting in and out the miniature caves formed in the volcanic rocks. We found plenty of life, but no sign of human habitation on this is land. After a yummy lunch that included paw paw and fresh coconut, we snorkled the bay and discovered a vast coral garden, teeming with fish in a multitude of intense colours. Beautiful! This anchorage, we decided, was much better than Palikulo Bay and we would come back here if our next stop was not suitable. Our next stop was Surundu Bay, with an entrance through a gap in the reef and a wriggle through some shallow patches. Fortunately, once we were through the gap in the reef, the water was calm and clear, so we could clearly see the patches to avoid. We dropped anchor in 5m of water, and looked around us. Flat, calm serenity! No sign of wind here at all and just one other boat in the bay! After a walk through the village and a few donations of seeds and fishing hooks, we returned to Aradonna and invited the French couple from the other yacht over for drinks. It turns out we were in Wallis Island together with them last year! They have recently spent a lot of time in New Caledonia and shared some of their favourite spots with us which will be very helpful for our visit to New Caledonia later this year.
Another wonderful day in paradise. And, at some stage, when the wind stops blowing outside, we will venture out again and do some more diving.