VANUATU TO TOWNSVILLE Author Peter Aston Date 1 Sept 2003 Map Ref Pacific Ocean , Tuvalu to Queensland Summary   With a crew of 3 aboard, (#1 son James his friend David Haynes and I) Illywhacker completes the last leg of our passage - this time across the Coral Sea from Luganville, Vanuatu to Townsville in North Queensland, Australia. Click for a larger view

Enough crew to set the MPS!

Passage Conditions

The Crossing

Life aboard was comfortable with 3. We kept 2 hour watches and used a hot-bunk system when conditions precluded use of the forward cabin. At such times, the bunk mattress on the saloon floor was the most comfortable if one ignored the sloshing of the water in the tanks below.

A realisation that Australia's Quarrantine laws would prohibit us keeping meat, fruit and vegetables, fish, nuts, eggs and honey on arrival in Townsville created a different concern. Could we eat it all in on week? Lyndall had provisioned the boat for months of cruising so we had the task of consuming a good deal of the ship's stores. Breakfast, morning tea, afternoon tea, happy hour, dinner and snacktime became serious occasions - at least to the skipper although often meals were accompanied by groans of "not this again" from the spoilt crew.

As we entered Flinders Passage at dawn on Sunday 31 August we felt we had arrived, we were inside the Great Barrier Reef, a familiar cruising ground and home was just 60 nm away. The 1194nm passage from Luganville was completed in 8 days 10hrs, an average speed of 5.9kts.

We anchored out in the holding pen overnight with permission from Customs then came alongside the Breakwater marina fuel dock to clear Customs at 0700 1 Sept. We were home.

Illywhacker waits at anchor n Luganville as we sip a beer or 2 looking out from the Beach Resort

View of the straits at Luganville

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