The Western Pacific - Pacific Crossing Notes: A Sailor's Guide to the Coconut Milk Run - page 379

deck and declare it “not so bad!” before disappearing into his cozy quarterberth bunk.
Back at age four, when we cruised the Atlantic for a year, he was the one most susceptible
to seasickness; at the ripe old age of nine, he is practically immune.
The culinary arts pretty much went by the wayside on those first days, and we vaguely re-
membered the good old days, when passage-making meant a good book and the occasion-
al batch of muffins. Now, we were in a constant game of Twister: right hand on the over-
head rails, left hip bashing the corner of the chart table. Dodge flying cookie tin; spin
again. A good thing to be said about short passages is that even when they get messy, the
end is always in sight. Normally, we don't start our countdown until the last miles of a
passage, but in this case, it kicked in as early as mile 462 of 489!
Conditions gradually eased over day three for a smoother ride on day four. The swell had
gone on to bully other sailors in another part of the ocean, leaving us with a gentle bounce
- a warning that further mischief awaited, perhaps. We opted to keep the main reefed des-
pite wind down to fifteen knots to slow down for a morning arrival. It was with a sigh of
relief that we lined up the range markers and entered reef-protected Anelcauhat Bay on
the south side of Anatom (Aneityum). Crews who arrived two days later made it under
gentler conditions but logged hours of engine time as the trade winds fell into a slumber.
That's yet another trade-off of cruising: comfort and speed versus budget. We're not
above kicking the engine on when we have no choice, but we generally try to spare diesel
costs. In that sense, we certainly did pick a good weather window.
Making landfall on Anatom in Vanuatu
For the following month, we were enchanted by the people and landscape of Vanuatu, a
magical place that earned top marks among so many Pacific highlights. We kept putting
off our departure. One more island! Just one more! At the same time, we were digesting