Vanuatuan greetings to everyone!
I’m in Luganville, the 2nd largest city in Vanuatu on the island of Espiritu Santo. We’ve been in Vanuatu for about a week now and have visited 3 islands. I spent my time in Port Vila (the capitol) at the doctor because I got this crazy skin thing, possibly bactirial? as we were leaving Fiji. So after breaking out with blisters that turned into hideous red scaby things all over my face and arms/hands and chest (okay, it wasn’t quite that bad, I had about 15 spots on me, mostly on my face), I decided a visit to a doctor was in order. After more antibiotics than a person should really take in their lifetime (at least thats how it seemed), I’m pretty much back to normal. I visited the hospital with a marvelous view of the bay today in Luganville to get another course just in case they reappear. Drugs are marvelously cheap here. I spent 3000vatu ($30) to see the doctor and they gave me the antibiotics for free, or as part of my fee or whatever. I suspect I was ripped off because I am white, I’m pretty sure she added a 0 to me fee over what the locals can pay, but it was cheaper then Port Vila and way cheaper than I would pay at home, so I’m okay with that. We leave Vanuatu today to head to the Soloman Islands – have to get out of the hurricane zone before the season begins in the next week, so north we go. I hope that doesn’t mean hotter, because its pretty darn hot as it is.
We had a crazy sail to Vanuatu but then a leisurally sail from Efate to Ambrym and then up here to Santo. Ambrym was pretty much untouched by westerners, which was pretty neat. The trainees had some unique experiences there which we are looking to repeat in the Solomans as they are even more untouched in some of the remote islands.

Some addresses to reach me at for the next little bit. I was trying for photos, but it is taking insane amounts of time and I have to meet Katie in 5 minutes at the grocery store. We leave Fiji today for the Yasawa group of Fijian Islands, back on Thursday to check out of Fiji then it is off to Vanuatu. I’ll try again for photos on Thursday.

Papua New Guinea: send by November 1
Gillian Hoyer, Pacific Grace
C/O D&S Seko Ltd.
PO Box 993
Madang
Papua New Guinea

China: send by December 9
Gillian Hoyer, Pacific Grace
C/O Penavico Shanghai Pudong Co., Ltd.
5/F.,No.175 (Wang Jiao Plaza), Yan An Road
Shanghai 200002
P.R. China

Japan: Send by February 19
Gillian Hoyer, Pacific Grace
C/O Waldron Norton Lilly Intl
Osaka (Branch) Heisei Shipping Angencies Ltd.
Wakasugi Grand Bldg 3F
5-25 Tenjinbanshi 2-Chrome
Japan

Hawaii: send by April 22
Gillian Hoyer, Pacific Grace
C/O Waldron Norton Lilly Intl
521 Ala Moana Blvd. ]
Suite 255
Honolulu, Hawaii
96825
USA

We’ve arrived in Fiji! It is hard to believe that the end of this leg is only a week or so away. Crazy. For those of you reading in North America/Europe, greetings from tomorrow because we passed the International Date Line somewhere between Samoa and Tonga. Its been a great/chaotic/cooler/fun-filled last few weeks since Rarotonga, where I think I wrote last. We spent 3 incredible days on Palmerston Island, a remote island of 62 people where they welcomed us into their homes to stay and we made firm friends there. It was quite moving, the extent of their hospitality and the amount they cared for us. On Aitutaki, also Cook Islands, we saw the Survivor Islands (for those of you who care… aka: Dad). From there it was on to Independent Samoa where I saw fire dancers and then the Kingdom of Tonga where I tried Kava on Niuatoputapu (thats an Island). I think I am less attached to Samoa and Tonga than I was the Cooks or Societies, but they were beautiful as well. Katie and I have spent most of our time grocery shopping it seems. We had a hilarious time in Tonga where we bought out 2 stores and made 3 or 4 trips to the market for fresh stuff. They had some of the best selection we’ve seen since Papeete, Tahiti. Now we’re in Fiji until the 13th or 14th of October so hopefully I’ll be able to get some pictures up. This leg has flown by so much faster than the others and has presented some challenges relationship-wise which have left me at times frustrated but at other times it has been good for the boat community to work things out. The Sunday Service we had last week was good for that – we re-told the story of the Prodigal Son from Luke 15(? I think) with Antony presenting the younger son’s perspective, Karen was the Father and I was the older son. After that, Skipper led us in the “Forgiveness Rock” where we each took a rock then sat somewhere on the boat thought about some one we may need to forgive or a situation that was somewhat controlling and then were invited to pitch our rock overboard if we felt we could let go of it now. After that, I felt like the mood on the boat was much better and I feel like people have been getting along better since then. We finished off that day with some reef snorkeling in Vavau, Tonga. Tonight, I’m making dinner and Chase, Scott, Tav and I teryaki marinated up the 2 huge dorado we caught yesterday so I’ll cook up some baked french fries and fish and chips it will be. Maybe a huge coleslaw on the side. Tonight it is off to Lautoka, Vitu Levu, Fiji where we will be for the next week and a bit – 2 weeks. Dad arrives on Monday which I am also looking forward to! Cheers… 🙂

So here we are in the Cook Islands, the island of Rarotonga to be precise. Since I left you, we have departed Tahiti, sailed to Moorea, Huahine, Tahaa, Raiatea, Bora Bora (all in the Society Islands, the same group as Tahiti is in), braved the craziest storm ever (like 30ft waves and I was cooking…) and arrived here in Rarotonga, the main island in the Cook Islands. If you’ve been following our travels on the salts website, you’ll know more details than I feel like sharing.
Highlights for me would have to be:
…A crazy hike on Moorea up a huge ridge overlooking 2 bays (Cooks bay and the one beside it which is where the boat was anchored). The view was amazing, the lagoon gorgeous. We had a great time. I thought I was going to die at points because it was fairly steep, it was stinking hot, and I had a sore throat that day. Oh, and Tav almost slid into me from behind several times on the way down which was fairly nerve-wracking.
…Amazing day on Huahine where we went to church in the morning followed by a hike followed by three glorious hours of volleyball. Church in French Polynesia is like nothing else. The singing is entirely acappella and amazing (emphasis on the amazing) harmonies. It starts with one person beginning a song, then everyone joins in. I had goosebumps. After church, a bunch of us wandered around the island to see where we could get to – in the end, we went up this dirt track to the top of a cliff where we had a spectacular view. It started to downpour a few minutes after we got there, so we dove for cover under the half constructed house at the top and proceeded to eat our lunches there. Then a car drove up and we freaked out (trespassing…?!?) and jumped over the wall on the opposite side from the driveway to head back down the track to the main road. That was followed by a spontaneous game of soccer with some of the local kids. Chase and I were pretty much the only two from the boat playing by the end, but it was fun. My team was annihilated, but I got over it. Then it was on to volleyball… there were some amazing players and at one point in our big Kings Court-style games, Elske and I ended up on a team with 4 really talented Islanders and we dominated for about 45 minutes (Kings Court is when you stay on the court until you loose, so if you keep winning, you play forever. Games were up to 11, so they went pretty quickly.) . I got some sweet kill shots in and it was all around a fantastic way to spend three hours. On the way back to the boat, one of the ladies gave me a beautiful hand-painted pareo (sarong) on very tight weave, soft cotton.
…Tahaa and the motu on the lagoon we snorkeled around. Did I mention that I have now pet a reef shark?!? Pretty much the most amazing thing ever. Chase has an underwater camera so we took pictures of each other touching it. And of Caelan hanging onto its tail, but that is another story. There were far too many moray eels there too, which were slightly freaky, especially the one that kept flexing its jaw. And I saw a couple lion fish which are pretty darn cool looking.
…Bora Bora. What more can I say? A day of snorkeling with different kinds of sting rays and seeing the spectacular lagoon. Bora Bora deserves its reputation as the most beautiful of the Societies.
…The storm on the passage to the Cooks was crazy. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when Carolyn split a third of a can of chick peas (100oz can, so huge) on the galley floor in a particularly large swell and then proceeded to body slam me as she rolled across the galley. All in all, we had a fun day though. It brought back some unpleasant memories of leg one, what with the pot cupboard exploding 5 times and all… After I was done cooking for the day, I hung out on deck with Port watch until they finished watch at 8pm (in full foulies for the first time since the passage to Hawaii) and watched the crazy swells. We were even having huge waves break over the cap rail in the stern.
And now we are in Raro. I am sure it is a lovely place, but I haven’t seen much of it. We have discovered a few bed bugs on the boat… probably got them leg one when everyone was sleeping off the boat in Hawaii, and now they’ve emerged in about 4 bunks. Drat. So today we got up at 6am and emptied EVERYTHING below on to the deck, sent all clothing and bedding away to be washed, inspected every inch of bags etc and now we can’t get back on the boat until 4pm because they are spraying it. Katie and I just spent $300NZ on pizza for dinner because we can’t get down to make anything. And we still have to put everything back on the boat tonight. It should be interesting. I’m cooking in the morning, so we’ll see what happens. Needless to say, I am less than enthused about the prospects of bedbugs over the next year, so hopefully we have caught them in time and our weekly spot sprays from here on in will eradicate them all. Katie and I are nervous about them coming in our cabin because we are in the hold and also the ones who bunk dive under all the bunks and potentially come into contact with them the most.
On a happy note, it is a beautiful sunshiny day, and I’m going to go look at gift shops to see all the tacky tourist stuff.
I think this is possibly my most epic update to-date. I have to figure out how to use my new camera (did I mention that my camera when wacky in Papeete, so I had to quickly find and buy a new one before I left, spending far too much money, but I wasn’t about to not have a camera for this passage. It is a Nikon and remarkably good. I’m missing some of the features of my Canon, but it is a bit smaller and a full 5 megapixles more than my old one) before I can give more photos, but be prepared for turquoise lagoons, crazy beaches, pearl and vanilla farms, mountains, boats… its all there folks!

After goodness knows how many days at sea, we arrived in Tahiti this morning! We spent a couple nights in Aputaki in the Tuamotus and a week or so in the Marquises and now here we are. This leg has flown by and I’m sad it is over in a week. This group has been so much fun, and once again, I don’t want any of them to leave. My consolation is that 10 are continuing on next leg, so the fun will continue! This leg has felt more like what I expected Offshore to be like in terms of the places we visited. The connections we have made with communities is incredible and their hospitality has been overwhelming. Hopefully, I’ll get back here with my camera to upload some photos in the near future so you can see the places we’ve been. The Tuamotus are coral atolls and look like places you see photos of but don’t actually exist. Well, now I have those photos! Lots of love to everyone.

Yesterday was the first day of leg 2. I spent my days off relaxing – going to Pearl Harbour, wandering the old part of town and seeing the palaces, art gallery, Anglican Cathedral (was there for an organ recital too), the state capital building, and others. I also spent a bit of time lounging on the beach in Waikiki and managed to see Harry Potter opening night. Very sad that they didn’t include Fred and George’s swamp… but oh well.
Today we leave around noon to head down to the Marqueses and Tahiti. It sounds like it will be about a 2 week crossing to next land, so I guess you won’t hear from me for a bit, and who knows what Internet I’ll be able to find down there. The trainees all boarded yesterday and we were able so say another farewell so some of our leg one trainees. It seems like this will be another fun group and I’ve sailed with at least 2 of them before. I can’t say I’m sad to leave port. Honolulu is not Hawaii in the sense of the Hawaii we knew on some of the other islands and I’m getting tired of the endless amounts of fancy shops and tourist traps. It will be fun to get down to some of the other islands further south. We cross the equator this leg… hopefully King Neptune’s court isn’t too cruel to us.