We are off the grid

Saturday 22nd July 2017
Sulvua, Emae Island

Feeling a bit shaky today, first night without internet. What do you do if you want to know something and there’s no help available from Google???

Up a bit before 6 this morning, a quick toilet trip ashore, some breakfast and we dropped the mooring line at 6.50. It seems all 13 of us had adequate sleep.

No wind so we motored out through the opening to the north of Havannah Harbour into a smooth sea. The wind started to build so we raised the sails and gave some assistance to Perkins. As the morning went on the wind continued to build until we were traveling comfortably at over 7 knots.

We dropped the anchor into a nice patch of sand just before 1pm. A nice anchorage.

Straight into getting the large dinghy off the deck and over the side then load up the bags of medical goods. Several trips ashore using both dinghys to transport people and goods. After a couple of hours Vic, Mark, Nicola, David and Glenys returned with a bag of coconuts, Susut (like Choko), Manioc (like tapioca), cucumbers, local lettuce, several Paw Paw among other things. There’ll be no scurvy on Chimere.

Forgot to mention we successfully fired up Chimeres desalination plant yesterday on our way to Havannah. Within a couple hours we had the tanks topped up, we think we made something like 400 litres of fresh drinking water. Very easy, what an asset. Unfortunately our wind farm and solar farms aren’t meeting our electricity needs in full at the moment.

A windy night 15 to 20 knots, a couple of crew have dived on the anchor and tell me it is nice and secure in sand. We have 9 on board tonight. With help chopping up lots of fresh vegetables, Nicola prepared an amazing stir fry for dinner, very nice.

If you can read this we have managed to work the Satellite Phone.

Fair winds, smooth seas and we’re off the grid

Phil Wicks