Alcedo of Ryme - Blog 67. Aneityum. 20 14.310 S. 169 46.65

Hopefully the last blog before we set sail for New Zealand and the last blog to go to WARC, as Tanna was our last official venue as part of WARC and we are now in Anatoma.

Saturday, 16 July, with just 3 other yachts in the bay, we manage to entertain ourselves and keep the sadness of saying goodbye to all our friends and fellow sailors by exploring some of the interior of Tanna with our driver, Johnson and guide, Stanley. Both delightful and informative and we had a lovely day.

Sunday was get ready for an unpleasant beat to windward day. Tuesday is definitely the earliest we can leave, so we thought a 50 nm sail to Anatoma would use the time and get us that little bit closer. All bilges inspected, rigging and deck gear checked, water maker run for test of the new part and thermal underwear, duvets and hot water bottles dug out in preparation for the New Zealand North Island winter temperatures. Then ashore for a last visit to the village and to give away a few more items of clothing and stores not required on voyage. We had a last cup of coffee at Sarah's and swapped some shoes and a torch for 2 lovely unripe papayas and a bunch of green bananas which we hope will provide fruit on the voyage.

Monday, 18 July. A pretty unpleasant beat almost dead to windward and taking all the time we had but we did get to the lee of the reef just as dusk fell. As a result we had a quiet night without the rolling and water slap that we experienced in Port Resolution.
As before we had forgotten how hard it is to get to windward with a rough sea and very variable wind strength. We kept the leeward engine running almost all the time to get through the seas.

This is a lovely anchorage and even though we did not go ashore (as we had already cleared out) we could see a reasonably prosperous village. Jobs included the usual pre-passage checks and all the stainless got well polished. Alcedo now looking very smart.

We have asked for routing help from metbob a New Zealand meteorologist and he has given us a couple of target way points to take advantage both winds and currents. Quite reassuring that our own planned route looks very similar!

We will keep our yellow brick tracker on so anybody can see where we are as we approach the most difficult part of the whole trip.

Alcedo