September 2008: South Pacific
Sakau Island, Maskelyne Island, Vanuatu (S 16.29.916 E 167.48.344)
This place was special. The approach to get here took us thru some very scenic small islands with lots of anchorages, small villages and things to look at. Once again offshore we came across an outrigger. This time it was about 2-3 miles out with somebody in it. It blended in so well that we did not see it until it was abeam of us. I’m sure the real rules of the road applied here and he just got out of our way. Our daylight transits thru reefs and groups of small islands as well as approaches to harbors and marinas are well intentioned. Today we passed a sloop that was on the reef near our destination. We made radio contact with either the large catamaran sitting off the reef or the rescue boat that was coming. The name of the boat is the Evelyn Roberts and is being single-handed by one guy. We heard thru the guys that came up to us that he fell asleep underway. It appeared that the boat stopped on top of a shallow reef and when the tide went out the boat fell over. We listened to the radio and heard what they were doing. Since there was not much wave action there was no real damage or holing. They had lots of people in dinghy’s that were running a line from the sloop to a large fishing boat that came to help. On the first attempt the 1” line broke. But, luck was with them and the boat was freed and floated on its own to a nearby anchorage.
We were greeted by lots of people in outriggers at this anchorage and that just added to the uniqueness of the place. First to visit us was the guy in the upper left that helped with the mooring ball. Yep, a mooring ball in the middle of nowhere. This site is in one of the guides and if it’s on the map well then things are good.
We gave several items to these different boats. The other Dave even gave up the Elvis glasses.
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