Oyster Island, Santo and the Blue Holes

So we're at Peterson Bay, off Oyster Island, which is in turn off the big island of Espirito Santo here in Vanuatu. We an up here a day ago because in seems to be a good place to wait out bad weather, and it's also quite beautiful. The forecast for the past few days was for very light winds and that has mostly been true. So we decided to hang for a couple of days of R & R.

Remember that old movie from the 1950's called Creature from the Black Lagoon? Well this place reminds me of the black lagoon. We had to verify with locals that are no saltwater crocodiles here (they are up in Banks Islands a bit north of us). The birds are sounding very tropical and cicadas hum from the trees.

U.S. fighter planes used to take off from an overgrown runway not 300 meters from where we are anchored. Hard to imagine all the ships and men and conflict in this peaceful place.

Yesterday we dove on an outer reef - nice but too short as we had to go through two narrow passes through the coral and then return, all be about 4:30 pm when the light was still allowing us to see the coral heads under the water. Of course it was an opportunity for bathing too.

Today we plan on making bread in the morning, and then taking the dinghy about a mile up a river to a "Blue Hole." Basically these "holes" are freshwater artesian springs that form a deep pool. Minerals in the water give the crystal clear water a blue cast. So if the rain showers we see scattered around us today hold off we should be able to go do that this afternoon. We also have to wait for a fairly high tide to make it all the way.

With luck I'll be able to pull down some good weather info this morning, which should give us an indication of water's ahead in the next week. It's a day from here to Sola - where we check out of the country. Then four days to the Solomon's.

All are well. Tamsyn is getting excited about her birthday in a few days, but she doesn't want to celebrate on passage. A year ago we were at Minerva Reef. all is well here, and it looks to be a hot humid tropical day. Everyone says hi.

Owen

15 22.374 S
167 11.440 E

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