It came time to sail west from Santo and Vanuatu. We had had quite a time in Vanuatu. But now all hands were chomping at the bit for a sea passage. We cleared outward bound with the very gracious folks of Customs & Immigration, who could not have been kinder or more helpful. The day came in fair and sunny. I wanted to catch the west bound tide in Segund Channel – this was an afternoon tide. This Channel is about 8 miles long and another 20 miles to open sea west of Santo. Royals had been bent to the newly crossed royal yards. Two upper topsails had been down on deck for repair and they had been sent up again. Donald was very pleased with his provisioning. The ship was all prepped as were the crew. All good to go.
The wind had been blowing hard on the dock so we had the 200 pound danforth kedge anchor with 600 feet of line at the ready. The plan was set this anchor at right angles to the dock to pull the bow of the ship off if needed. The breeze laid down so that we could just spring her off and head out into the channel without setting an anchor to windward.
We were off the dock at 1500 – and steaming down Segund Channel (over no doubt a million WWII Coke bottles). It looks like jungle either side, and ageless. We were under all plain sail steering west by 1900 with a fingernail moon and small seas. Spring led getting the ship under sail and did a seamanlike outstanding job of it.
Over 3,000 miles ahead of us to Bali and a bit less than half that for Cape York, the northern tip of Australia and Torres Strait. Winds look fair and weather looks good – off we sail!
