Day 8 - Tuesday 23 July - Wala, Vanuatu

The sea journey from Luganville on Santo to Wala Island is the shortest segment of our cruise and we thought that we would arrive in the middle of the night. No we were still making progress at 7.00am this morning and when we loooked at the navigation chart on the television we could see why. We had spend the night cruising in a series of concentric squares so that we would reach Wala in the morning! The ship seemed to have a bit of a roll last night and Philip who always sleeps on his side kept thinking that he was going to be one of the characters in that song ..."and the middle one said roll-over...".

Dropped anchor this morning for a glorious warm and sunny day with the island of Wala not far off the bow of the ship.

We took the tender boat over to the island just after 10am with our snorkel gear but forgot to take the camera so we have no photos on the actual island. Whilst on the island we walked through the stalls and past many villagers wanting to take us for a tour of their village and homes. Away from the crowds near the jetty we were approached by a lovely lady Maria who invited us to join us for a tour of her family's section of the village and this seemed to be a more in need group as they did not have all the clothing and others for sale. Maria provided us with a very informative tour showing us through the family sleeping quarters, gardens, cooking and washing areas and gave us some insight into their live style. The island has no electricity or running water and the children go by boat each day to the neighbouring large island which the villagers refer to as the mainland for schooling. The cost of the tour was $5 each and we were pleased to have met this lovely lady. At the end of the tour we were given a piece of white grapefruit to eat - so sweet unlike our grapefruit at home and the grapefruit trees are up to 5m tall.

We then headed back to the beach area near the jetty which was protected from the wind and went snorkelling. Saw some live coloured coral and a myriad of various types of small blue fish, some blue starfish, blue sea slugs and some clams. The picture below taken from the ship shows the beach area where we were snorkelling right out to the anchored yacht but just past the yacht was the drop off from the island into very deep water.

Another leisurely afternoon reading followed by our 5km walk around the Sun Deck while the Spirit prepared to leave - we were right beside the funnel and hooters when the leaving hoots were sounded!

Tonight's dinner theme was Mexican Fiesta and as no one on our table had anything resembling Mexican attire, Desi, the maitre'd decided that also could be her Mexican sister from a different mother and so drew a mustache on Alison!

Alison feeling a little unsettled with the movement of the ship tonight so we have skipped going to watch the passenger talent show and retired to our cabin where we were greeted by tonight's towel creation from our cabin steward.