Who: Marjorie, Thibaut, Ulysse & Titouan
Where: Vanuatu
Boat: Lagoon 380
Blog: www.lagoon-inside.com/fr/family-pacific-dream
We have been sailing as a family in the Pacific Ocean for 4 months. The Vanuatu archipelago was for us one of our favorites. What made the biggest impression on me when we arrived here was its isolated and quite undeveloped character. Independence essential! There is almost no infrastructure, and the only boatyard in Port-Vila has no chandlery. Up to now, we have had very few problems to solve. Our boat is simple: two Yanmar engines, two solar panels, B&G electronics and a very intuitively-designed 12V watermaker. Before our departure from Noumea, we had firstly to find suitable gas bottles, as the French bottles are different from the New Caledonian ones. A few weeks later, we had a problem with the electricity supply on our watermaker. Fortunately, we weren’t far from Port Vila, the only place where we could find any shops. The transport costs from France for the defective parts would have been excessive, so we opted for parts coming from the building trade. And we succeeded in getting our watermaker working again. These are the only little problems we have met during our four months’ cruising. Very few, compared to some other boats we met. We make it a point of honor to clean the boat regularly, which allows us to spot potential future problems. We service the engines ourselves (there is no Yanmar agent in Vanuatu!), inspect and check the rigging tension regularly, while having a look at the electronic equipment and the plumbing. A quality boat, lots of care and maintenance, a little management in the field and you have everything you need to launch into an adventure… Go for it, it’s just there, in front of the bows!
