Port Stanley is a beautifully sheltered bay along the northeast side of Malekula Island. It was also an easy day sail from our previous anchorage on Ambryn. One of the really nice things about the islands of Vanuatu are how conveniently spaced they are. Twenty, thirty, maybe forty miles tops.

That’s the charting iPad, yet there always seems to be some new photo/video editing being made when I’m not looking.

From Port Stanley it was just a quick sail over to our next stop. Flying along in rather rough conditions for about ten miles I looked up at the sail as we were making a turn and saw this. That bolt is the only thing keeping the mast from swinging wildly out into the spreaders. In other words, if that had completely let go in the conditions we were in at the time, running with full sail in big beam seas, there’s a very good chance it could have taken the mast down. We dodged a bullet catching this when we did. A solution will have to be found in Luganville, our next stop.

The Ratua Private Island Resort sits in front of an absolutely perfect bay, protected by excellent coral reef. It’s a beautiful, upscale place, completely ill suited to a bunch of grubby cruisers. But they were more than welcoming, letting our big group of kids have the run of the volleyball court while the adults knocked back their $9 bottles of beer. The place, like everywhere else in Vanuatu, is struggling right now with no tourists (the national airline went bankrupt), but the managers offer to knock the price of the Goat Curry dinner down to $70 and $50 for kids still fell on deaf ears with us.

Spaghetti dinner under a full moon it is.

Underwater was a nice place to spend time here.