After a great nights sleep we up’d anchor and left Epi around 9 o’clock. The island of Malekula was only about 25 miles away so would only take 4-5 hours at most. The sun was shinning and there was a good breeze, the seas were still slightly choppy but it wouldn’t take us long.

We arrived towards Malekula and it was another very green and lush island with lots of coconut and banana plantations. The anchorage was at Port Sandwich, named after the Earl of Sandwich for some reason. It was a beautiful place, only a small jetty and no real sign of life.

A few people started to turn up and were filling the jetty up with goods, we later found out that a boat was coming in later that night on its way to another island. There were thatching roof panels, fruit and vegtables, disgruntalled pigs in boxes, chickens, you name it it was stacked high on the jetty.

We went for a walk into the town on the dirt road and yet again met loads of friendly people, even though everybody seem to be carrying a machete !! Even the youngest kids were chopping up a coconut or breaking into something using this weapon. We walked past loads of houses and everybody yelled out ‘Hello’ or ‘Hi’ as they saw us.

We saw one man who was cooking something above a large oven, we went over to him and asked what he was doing. He was drying out and cooking coco nuts. He would take the nuts out of the plant and leave them to dry for 9 days and then cook them for 3 days above the home made oven. They then got shipped out to one of the bigger islands where they were no doubt transported to somewhere else. I don’t suppose he saw much of the money for his work.

After walking for sometime we came to the end of the road where the local school was just letting out., a lot of the school kids followed us down the path back to the boat all happy and jokey. Not sure how many boats came into this anchorage but we did seem like a bit of a novalty !!

We left Efate and heading to the Island of Epi, about 100 miles north from us. As we couldn’t complete it during one day it was going to have to be an overnight trip.

We headed out mid afternoon on Sunday 9th June, weather was good, bright and sunny with a fair breeze to help us along. After we got out of the shelter of the island the seas picked up and so did the wind. I had the 5-9 shift and was glad it was over, or so i thought. It wasn’t so much the weather worsened but the seas were all over the place, very unconfortable, sometimes from behind, sometimes from the sides, sometimes banging into the waves, a really roly poly night was had.

We arrived in our anchorage at about 10 o’clock in the morning, a good time to arrive, everybody was tired and didn’t particularly want to do anything other than try and get a couple of hours sleep.

Around midday we got the dingy out and went ashore, not too much there but a few houses and up the road the Epi High School. The kids were on their lunch break, what a fabulous place to be when you are on the shores of what seems like a desert island to you and me. We had a wander around and talked to some of the locals who were as friendly as ever.

The guide books talked about going to see the dugongs, some odd sea creature that comes in to the bay to feed on sea grass. Apparantly there is one that has got so use to people it will turn over and you can rub its belly !! As i write this i still have no idea at all what they look like. An afternoon of relaxation was had on the boat as everybody still seemed tired from the night before. Dinner was had and washing up was done, it was very dark but still only 6.30 pm !!

More reading beckons

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