Luganville - Vanuatu

We slid into Luganville on Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu at about 1:30 pm and anchored in front of the town, hopped into the dingy to go see the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine people. This is not hard, just time consuming as it entails visiting three different offices and a trip to the bank then a trip to the Govenment Cashier, all at different ends of the town. Each place has it's own set of forms to fill in and the cashier closes at 3:30 pm. There was a very long line in the bank, so yes, we were not completely sure that we would have the process done in one afternoon. Oh we stress so much. We did get the formalities done and even had a bit of time to pick up phone SIM cards - must be connected you know. Back to the boat - we had to sweet talk the fellow, whose house dock we used without permission (how were we to know) to unlock the yard gate so we could get our dingy - then get to the boat. We upped anchor and moved across the channel to a slightly more protected area in front of the Aore Resort. This is a bonus as we are tired of boat food and are very happy to all pile into the dingy to go out for dinner. Glen and Trish are quite sporting and thought nothing of trusting our wobbly little boat to deliver them to shore and back. Even though we have had a wonderful crossing from Fiji to Vanuatu, we are all very happy to be sitting calmly in still water.

Well we waste no time - the next morning we are up early, getting our dive gear all in order so we can go dive the President Coolidge with Aqua Marine Divers. This will be Glen Gurr's first ocean dive! The dive master whisks us down to a numbing 100 ft below the surface to see the ghostly remains of the once proud vessel. Her hull is still mostly intact and she lays on her port side. Wreck diving is not really my thing, I don't like to go into small dark places under so much water, but this was more an exploratory dive around the exterior, so O.K. There are divers who come from all over the world to dive this old ship numerous times to penetrate every nook and cranny. All but two of the 5000 plus personnel escaped with their lives when the ship was intentionally run aground in an attempt to save her after she had run into some of her own country's mines. But the holds are still filled with her cargo, weaponry, etc. An underwater treasure box. Our second dive of the day is equally interesting and pertains to WWII also, Million Dollar point. This is where the US general ran every piece of equipment that the US army had in Vanuatu off of a long jetty into the deep water, when the presiding French/English governments of the day refused to pay for what they perceived was equipment that was going to be left behind anyway upon the US withdrawal after the war. Trucks, tanks, bulldozers, jeeps, cranes - you name it - is all in a mountainous heap of tangled wheels and metal just off shore in about 100 ft of water. This dive I liked, the sea life has made it's home amongst the litter which is nice, but it is just such a shocking waste when you think of all the good this equipment could have been used for, in this developing country, in it's after war life. We replayed all of our adventures for Trish when we got back to the boat. She had spent a leisurely day on the upper deck reading and watching the activity of the surrounding bay.

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