It was quite windy at Beqa, and so we thought we’d take the wind and sail over to Vatulele. Its a bit off the beaten track but a nice spot. We had snorkeled the bit of reef near the private island which was suprisingly nice but didn’t fancy moving elsewhere. So this morning we left at 8am.

The first part was motorsailing until the wind kicked in, but once clear of the reef at the western side of the Beqa lagoon, we found plenty of wind. Headsail alone had us doing 4-6 knots, occasionally in the 7s. We made good time, and changed down to genoa as we got within a couple of miles as the wind was really picking up.

The pass into Vatulele is deep, but a bit hard to find and was going to put the swell right on our beam as we turned in. A bit of crabbing got us close without too much exposure to the swell, then we turned in and made it without significant bouncing, though one wave did get Nina on the bow.

We’re now anchored on the NW side of the island, off the old, abandoned resort. The good news is that the ship which was on the beach here in 2019 has gone! It must be a huge relief to the village as it looked a horrendous mess, and I wasn’t sure how they’d get rid of it. I suspect it was cut up in situ, but we’ll ask when we go to the village tomorrow.

There’s a few things to see here, but for now, he’s the obligatory panorama…

Unlike when I was here in 2019, we seem to be getting mobile coverage here. There is a cell mast, but its long been powered off (went with the resort) - but Digicel do seem to have optimised their network for coverage over distance. That will make blog posts and getting weather forecasts much easier! Think our current thinking is to leave here on Sunday, but we’ll see how we get on…