Efate Island and some sick time

From Tanna, we had a little rough water on our short passage to Port Vila but we snuggled deep inside Paray bay where we got a mooring and enjoyed the calm conditions. The next morning we dealt with the customs folks without problems and got our passports stamped for the first time in Vanuatu. Port Vila is the capital and largest city of Vanuatu. We found a nice fresh market here and Kim replenished our galley, while Tom hunted for the bits and pieces needed to keep our little ship running. He found a nice machete to replace the one lost in Fiji and Kim made yet another sheath for this one.  Emily found a couple of French boat kids to play with for a day.

We found this island easy to get around and we used the public buses to see a few sights. We spent one day at Mele Cascades, which was a nice short walk beside manicured gardens along a series of small cascading waterfalls with a large waterfall at the head. Kim and Emily dipped in while the captain was sporting a fever from a runaway cold. Several days later he broke into the medical kit and took an antibiotic. While it cured the fever and chest congestion, clogged sinuses would plague him for most of our Vanuatu stay.

 

We also visited the Secret Garden which offered the history of all the Vanuatu islands, native plants and animals and several caged flying foxes, iguanas and also explained cannibalism and many of the legends of these people.

 

We also noted that several of the paid tours went to the Hideaway Island which offered an underwater post office and an exclusive resort. The world's only underwater post office lets you buy a waterproof postcard on land, fill it out and dive into the ocean to mail it. Since this small island was only 6 miles away, we elected to anchor our home right off the beach to enjoy it.

Unfortunately, Kim decided that she would rather pass a large 75mm kidney stone. We trundled her off to the public hospital on a bumpy taxi to check out the Vanuatu medical system. After waiting a couple of hours, Kim received a pain shot and an ultrasound exam that confirmed that she was passing a monster stone and had 5 or more smaller ones lined up in her left kidney. Her right kidney was clear of stones. This medical care cost us about $3.50 US and we at least felt good confirming the cause of the pain. We proceeded to sit at anchor for about a week while she passed the first big stone later that night and then about 1 small stone per day for the rest of the week. She took a pre-emptive antibiotic once she started to see blood in her urine with a slight fever. She seems OK for the past 3 weeks, but we are unsure whether there are still some smaller stones still there.

We decided maybe if we headed north we would all feel better, so we took advantage of calm seas to head north to Epi Island in search of dugong (manatees)…

 

Tom