Boat-hiking: Tanna to Port Villa, Vanuatu, South Pacific Ocean

Boat-hiking: Tanna to Port Villa, Vanuatu, South Pacific Ocean

21st of August, 2025.

Apart from Thomas, we all take the dinghy to Tanna Island where Irene will collect more info about the volcano, possibly book a transport, and I will go and meet Michael, his relative Kelci and her boyfriend Michael. They already took my backpack earlier to their boat.

We take a walk alongside the beach. It’s beautiful but also wild. Waves are strong and there’s a strong wind too. But it’s very enjoyable! Kelci and Michael are so sweet, and it feels like we already know each other for longer. With the captain Michael is the same. He’s a very calm person, and a very confident captain. We all have a lot of laugh together and a very nice first interaction, just getting to know each other.

We walk back to the dinghy through the island, passing by a lot of tiny small villages (?), all with only a few houses. We talk with the locals and meet a very nice lady called Joulyn Namaka, who coordinates a tour called Sunshine Indigenous, where you can watch and experience some nice traditional dances and performances from the locals. Contact her via WhatsApp for more info: +678 765 1070.

Funnily enough, we also have some Rum after dinner, this time a banana flavor. Also, Michael just happened to make, all of sudden, popcorn. My favourite food.

Next morning, after some coffee and cereal, we leave around 10 a.m. I’m so surprise how well I am doing with the rocking. It’s not a tough passage anyway, and we have great weather, but being a monohull, I was expecting to feel much more uneasy due to the more constant moving. I am happily staring at the boat going in almost 45 degrees inclination, every five minutes, and I’m feeling alright as nothing was happening. Well, almost, as you really need to hold on tight.

Michael is a very confident, diligent and easy-going captain. It’s very easy sailing with him. He always talks about anything and everything about the boat in a simple way, with a low tone, which gives you a lot of confidence to know what’s going on. Before we left Tanna, he took me downstairs and made me wear and adjust the life jacket which would be mine for the crossing, and showed me how to use it. He also showed me all the lifesaving options in case of a disaster. We barely changed the sales, and we had great speed the whole time.

We were all snacking some bits of stuffs here and there during the crossing. After we decided the night watches, I tried to take a nap but was unable to sleep. It was extremely rocky downstairs and not really possible to sleep in the cockpit because of the constant splashing from the ocean.

During my watch I was astonished by the stars. You can see the milk way so clearly that you might think it’s a cloud. And I also saw a massive shooting star, which looked like a firework.

I took the last watch, meaning that by the time Michael came over to finish the night shifts, and we would arrive to Port Vila, I remained awake, as I was the one to be dropped off. Not that I would be able to sleep anyway.

The whole trip took about 20 hours but we reduced our speed at certain point because Michael wanted to arrive during sunrise.

I thought Michael would drop me off in Port Vila, so I would’ve to go to Mele Bay by land, hitchhiking of course. But he told me he would deliver me exactly to the boat where I should go, the pirate boat. Wow! Amazing! But then again, knowing Michael I wouldn’t expect anything different from him.

I message the Pirate captain and he’s already awake for my surprise. He comes to pick me up in his dinghy and it’s a funny introduction of three Michaels.

I say goodbye to Kelci and her boyfriend Michael. Then I say goodbye to captain Michael with the promise of meeting him in about 10 days for lunch, before he departs to his trip up North. I hug them all and it’s a sad goodbye, looking like we were travelling together for 20 days and not only 20 hours.