Log - Vanuatu to New Caledonia 🇳🇨

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Vanuatu 🇻🇺 to New Caledonia 🇳🇨 320 nautical miles. 2.5 days.

Day 1 - We left Port Vila in the mist and motored until sunset. Altered course north to save fuel and beat less into the wind. An arriving ship's captain radioed the local port pilot over Channel 16 every five minutes for three hours 🤯 trying to establish contact. Gotta hand it to him for persistence! I don't know where the pilot was, but the port office is a big smear down the hillside, a casualty of the last earthquake. I reeled in a baby swordfish and then five minutes later, a mahi with cookie cutter shark scars on it. Let them both go - the swordfish was too beautiful and the mahi too big. Incredible phosphorescence tonight...like ploughing through a field of stars.

Day 2 - Sleeping exceptionally well and trying to eat up all the fresh food. Every bite is one that New Caledonia customs won't take. Wind is calm and all reefs are shaken out. Yellowfin tuna are jumping tantalizingly behind the boat but no bites yet. Spotted the outer French islands at sunset on my watch and am already dreaming of wine and charcuterie. All is well!

Day 3 - Slept very little. Trying to stay alert, and thankfully the French make navigation supremely easy with their well-marked buoy system. Ben reeled in a mahi, and it turned into a fun, unofficial race with a British ship to get to port. We won, but saved half the fish for them. Docking and check-in are all effortless. It's a French city on a desert island! And the first sips of real coffee taste like heaven.

The French looooooove their cardinal buoys! 




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