[radioactiv]
[position] 19 54.804s 170 06.330e
[status] LAND HO!!! At 7am this morning we had completed another 195 Nautical Miles in the past 24 hours, which we were pretty stoked with considering we slowed down to 4-6knots over night to be a little more comfortable. Still have two reefs in, and only a sliver of headsail out. This morning when Sasha woke at 6:30am, she hopped out into the cockpit and saw land!! Mike exclaimed âReally?â as he had been on watch for the past few hours. We both soon figured out that our SUP surf boards had hidden that beautiful thing called land from him, as he sat inside the saloon for the morning watch. Fortuna Island looks like your typical flat top mountain island, and it is currently sitting to our starboard. Coming up on our port forward side is one of Vanuatuâs most Southern Islands (it probably is the most southern island within Vanuatu). I canât determine on the chart what the islands name is, but we will past its northern bays in a few hours time, Anlaghen Point on the eastern side, and Anewamet Bay, and Itchepthav Bay on its northern side. We both relayed to each other how comforting it was to see land⦠even if itâs not our destination country. Last night Sasha went off to sleep around 7-8pm ish, and Mike did first watch, Sasha was up around 11pm for her watch, and Mike headed off to our port aft berth for a well earned sleep. At 3am, Mike got up, boiled the kettle and noted that Sasha was fast asleep on the saloon couch, even the whistle of the kettle didnât wake her. She was keeping watch though, she was putting her iphone timer on for 12 mins, having a sleep and then getting up and looking for any lights on the horizon. As soon as her head touched the pillow after each check, she was out like a light again. Sasha would like to point out here how much she loves Auto Pilot, if Auto (as we call him for short) will do her the honor she will marry him, thatâs how much she loves Auto, that wedding would surely make the papers eh?
Chicken is pretty much thawed, and will go in the oven in a few hours time, with some kumala â we reckon it will be like having a Christmas lunch, except rather a lot less fancy.
A shout out to everyone enjoying our updates, we think there must be a backlog of emails sitting on our sat phone, as it keeps telling us there is a heap to download, which we will do once we get to a place with internet, as downloading all that will zap our sat phone minutes, although we do seem to be receiving short emails, and Mappy we did get your email saying bon voyage.
All well on board.
[speed] 8.8
[heading] 234M
[weather]. 18-20 knots â consistent South East wind direction. 10% cloud cover. Baro: 1019. Swell is 2 metres, calmer than the past few days but still sloppy.
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