It was just ten miles around the corner to Luganville, the second largest city in Vanuatu, sporting a whopping 18,000 people. It’s a very convenient place for cruisers, as there are basically no other supplies to be found outside of Port Vila, a day or two sail away. We anchored out front of the Beachfront Resort, which fortunately for all of us, is very cruiser friendly. They let us land on their beach, drop off garbage, and traipse across the property to get out to the road and into town. Everyone tends to eat a meal or two there, despite the mediocre food, and I suppose that is why they allow us. It’s one of those “resorts” that you scratch your head and wonder who in the world would end up here for a holiday? Do they not have access to the internet? The only guests we saw there appeared to be four Australian military members. We liked it though. A big field to kick the soccer ball around on, an easy way to get into town and supplies, and a very friendly and sweet waitress who was always happy to see all of us.

Smack dab in the middle of the anchorage is this wreck, resting at about 30′ and reaching up to just 10′ from the surface at one end.

The wreck sits right in between the yellow boats and I can only imagine how many cruisers have snagged themselves on it despite being marked on the charts.

One particularly calm night.

The market here didn’t hold a whole lot of things we were looking for. Pamplemousse, bananas, and cucumbers were about it.

Found a nearly perfect replacement U-bolt. In stainless, no less. Yes, our boom could use a paint job.

There is a tiny WWII museum in town. Google, and their own website suggested it was open until 5:00, but as we were pulling up at 4:00 we found a lady locking the door. Four families with seven kids climbed out of three taxis right in front of her. She didn’t hesitate to smile and open the doors back up. She went inside, flipped the lights on, and proceeded to tell us the story of the USS President Coolidge. Diving the Coolidge wreck was actually my main reason for wanting to come to Luganville, so it was nice to get the full story from her.

We’re only a couple of hundred miles away from the Solomon Islands and places like Guadalcanal, so Espiritu Santo was an absolutely critical staging area for the US during the war. The Coolidge was a cruise ship that had been converted into a troop carrier and was bound for Luganville with 5,000 troops and tons of critical supplies onboard. Everything was going swimmingly right up until their arrival. The port has two approaches, on each side of a smaller island a couple miles away. One entrance is obvious and wide open, the other requires weaving between a couple of islands. Not difficult, but not quite as easy. Well, the Navy didn’t need two entrances, so they heavily mined the obvious entry, and informed the fleet. Except the Captain of the Coolidge never got the memo. In he comes at full speed and the guys on land are freaking out, frantically signaling for him to stop. But it’s too late. Boom goes the first mine. Boom goes the second mine. And there is immediately no doubt they are going down. The Captain heads for shore, driving the ship right up onto the reef, just yards away from land. 5,000 troops patiently make their way down the ladders, and walk ashore. But the reef doesn’t extend far, and the sea drops off quickly behind it. The ship begins filling with water, and starts sliding back. It didn’t take long at all for the ship to disappear, fully loaded. Today it’s an epic dive site with the bow sitting just 60′ below the surface and the stern down around 180′.

How sweet is she for opening up for us? Vanuatu has been filled with kind people like her.

After filling up the fridges we headed up around the east side of the island to a lagoon that would give us access to some nearby blue holes. The entrance was sketchy across a couple of reefs at high tide only, but once inside we were about as secure as you can get on a boat. There seems to be something fun to see and do every twenty miles in Vanuatu.