Stories · The Voyage

Vanuatu to Townsville

1 Sept 2003

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.

Enough crew to set the MPS!

Passage Conditions

To the casual observer, the passage from Vanuatu to Townsville would be a SE aft-of-the-beam run. So it was except for the imperceptible dip in the isobar E of Townsville. The Low in the Southern Ocean gave Sydney a dose of strong winds and behind the associated Front, rain was falling. We were largely unaffected but the Trough that continued north gave us a change in direction from SE to E then NE. Prior to that, winds were SE from 15 to 25kts.
About 600nm from Vanuatu our route took us past Mellish Reef. We were all set to investigate a possible stop and dive but our ETA ocurred in darkness so we pressed on. The electronic chart showed no deep entrance so we really needed good weather with a high sun. The weather deteriorated soon after - it would have been an exciting stop.

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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