Vanuatu

Vanuatu runs north to south in a long volcanic chain, and a charter here reads more like an expedition than an island-hop. Efate holds the hub: Port Vila's harbour and the cyclone-hole shelter of Havannah Harbour round its northwest coast, with Lelepa and the burial island of Eretoka close by — together Vanuatu's only UNESCO World Heritage Site. Tanna lies a night's passage south, its live crater glowing above the same anchorage Captain Cook named Port Resolution, after his own ship, in 1774. Espiritu Santo lies a further passage north of Efate again — the wreck of a mined troopship and a chain of jungle-fed blue holes worked out of the old wartime port of Luganville — and most owners treat it as a trip of its own rather than folding it into a single week. Kastom, the customary law and culture still governing village life, sets the terms ashore almost everywhere outside Port Vila itself. The dry season runs May to October, carried by the south-east trades.

“Yasur has glowed above Port Resolution, more or less without pause, since Captain Cook named the anchorage after his own ship in 1774.”

Signature anchorages

Four islands and four very different kinds of shelter — a dredged harbour, a cyclone hole, a customary burial ground, and a night's passage each way to the volcano and the wreck.

• Port Vila — the harbour & Yachting World's sea wallVanuatu's only marina, and the country's main port of entry. A dredged channel, roughly 5m deep and 50m wide, runs south of Iririki Island for yachts drawing over 3m or carrying masts above 20m; the sea wall itself holds 3–6m and takes craft to about 21m (70ft) alongside, with shore power, water and a fuel wharf. Clear customs at the yellow quarantine buoy (17°44.275'S 168°18.597'E) before going anywhere else.
• Havannah HarbourA deep, reef-fringed bay round Efate's northwest coast and one of Vanuatu's recognised cyclone holes — a 50-metre yacht rode out Cyclone Pam here at anchor in 2015. Good holding in 5–7m on sand; a former WWII seaplane base, with The Havannah resort and its Point restaurant on the shore at Samoa Point.
• Lelepa & Eretoka — Chief Roi Mata's DomainTender to Fels Cave on Lelepa's southwest shore for rock art up to 3,000 years old, then on to uninhabited Eretoka (Hat Island), where the 17th-century paramount chief Roi Mata was buried with fifty of his household. A taboo on setting foot ashore has held for four centuries; a licensed guide is required for both stops, and non-negotiable for the burial ground.
• Port Resolution, TannaOne of Vanuatu's best natural anchorages, named by Cook for his ship in 1774 and still village-run — the Nipikimanu Yacht Club keeps moorings, a dinghy landing and a small restaurant. Yachts may not clear in here without the Director of Customs' prior written permission; officers then travel out from Lenakel for a displacement fee, shareable among boats arriving together.
• Luganville & Aore Island, Espiritu SantoSanto's only town, and by 1945 the second-largest American base in the Pacific. The anchorage off the main wharf is exposed; better holding sits off Beachfront Resort in town or across the channel at Aore Island Resort, where a mooring in 28m of water serves visiting yachts, services now limited.
• Champagne Bay, Espiritu SantoA crescent of white sand on Santo's northeast coast, named for the freshwater spring that bubbles up through the sand at low tide. A settled-weather anchorage a run up the coast from Luganville, and the usual last stop before a passage north or south.

The scene

A live crater, a mined troopship, and the kastom culture that still sets the terms ashore.

Table & stay ashore

Three islands, three very different addresses — a Havannah Harbour retreat, a volcano-side lodge on Tanna, and Santo's own mooring.

A week, sketched

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