Sunday 4 September Earthquake? What earthquake?

The 520nm sail from Fiji to Vanuatu took 3 easy days with constant trade winds from south east and a comfortable following sea. On the first day David caught a skipjack tuna which I cooked for dinner. On the second day he caught 2 dorado – one a monster at 5' long and weighing 30kgs / 66lbs. With that our freezer was full and we didn't fish until the early morning we were on our way into Anatom, Vanuatu and we could give away whatever we caught. One more dorado jumped on the hook which went to Oso Blanco once we arrived.
How do you know when you're caught in an earthquake? If you're sailing you don't feel it. When we were arrived in the anchorage we learned that there had been a 7 magnitude earthquake centred under the sea 40 miles south as we were sailing along the south of the island. We'd neither seen or felt anything unusual. Whereas the boats at anchorage in shallow water 2 miles from us felt their boats shudder. They'd phoned friends in the States to check on the earthquake website and sure enough we'd gone through a quake. Fortunately for everyone there were no further effects. This is The Ring of Fire and the biggest tourist attraction on next island north, Tanna, is the most accessible live volcano in the Pacific region. We understand earthquakes are a daily occurrence.
Eric from Oso had asked permission from the Customs man for us to leave our boat before clearing in tomorrow morning to go for dinner on board theirs this evening. What a treat to arrive after a long passage and to go out for dinner. Annie had prepared a wonderful corned beef and vegetables. Contrary to our normal practice, we had coffee after dinner which kept us awake long enough to get back to Jackster and fall into bed.

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