Aore Island to Champagne Beach
We left Aore on Saturday June 3rd. There was no wind so we motored nearly all the way to Champagne Beach, which is in "Hog Harbour". By the way, henceforth, Paul will become "Charlie" in these blogs. We all call him that, so it's easiest. (He walks the same funny way as Charlie Chaplin). Water temp is currently 27.4. Air temp during the day a hot 33degC. Humidity 88% in the mornings and 75% in the evenings. Champagne Beach is supposed to be Vanuatu's best beach and is certainly extremely picturesque. No surf, but proper white sand & fantastic visibility in the water- also cattle drinking at the end of the beach. Will and Charlie, our explorers, have established that there is a spring or stream full of fresh water there. The cruise ships bring their people here, fortunately not today as that would increase our local population by 3,000. Charlie plans to say Mass on the beach later. He came with a cruise ship years ago and has fond memories of this place. A film crew is filming here for "The Great Outdoors" and they were admiring "Pastime of Sydney" from a distance. We believe we are probably in the film! The snorkelling was reasonable and the water exceptionally clear. It was an exceptionally good anchorage. The lack of wind continued, so today (Monday) we have motored to a small island just off the Eastern tip of Santo and hope there is wind in the morning to take us to Santa Maria. We should not have complained about too much wind as there has been virtually none for five days while we sit in a high pressure system. Perversely, there is not much sun either. We are finding that Vanuatu (at least at the moment) is the land of clouds, with almost no sunny days so far. We are about a week behind our "best efforts" schedule set before we left home, so that's not too bad. The wind will come again one of these days and we expect the Trade Winds to return overnight. Regards, THE CREW
