Gone awry. Or maybe it's really called serendipity. Whatever the case, Saturday came and went and I'm still in Vanuatu.

Hitchhiking across the world on a sailboat is really not as crazy as it may sound. There are always tons of sailboats looking for crew for journeys and passages and there are always tons of crew hanging out in ports looking for a ride to wherever, whenever. It's really an amazing phenomenon. Both spend lots of time in the yacht club waiting to run into each other and see if things work out, or chatting with other yachties to see if they've heard of boats looking for crew or vice versa. Boats need crew to help sail them as much as crew need boats to hop on - all this is very common. Message boards, email and channel 16 on a VHF radio become lifelines of communication for people who are just boat-hopping all over the place across thousands of miles... Dealing with immigration in terms of signing on and signing off boats is pretty much as complicated as it gets. You check out a boat, they check you out; you both try and decide if the dynamics are good, and then off you go... You'd be amazed at the fluidity of it all.

So that's what I'm doing. I'm now going straight to New Zealand and Salamandra is heading to the Philippines in a month's time. Jo's change in plans was the impetus for all the change, but I already really wasn't too keen on sailing all the way to Darwin. The fact that they needed/wanted more crew and didn't get it in time to do the trip without killing themselves just sealed the deal without too much "heartache" on either side. So, everything has completely changed for everybody: departure dates, routes, and destinations. Jo has a job and an apartment already and is staying in Vanuatu. I'm going to try and find a boat to New Caledonia or New Zealand, but worse case I'll just head to the Air Vanuatu office tomorrow to buy a ticket out of town to start my adventure on land. Salamandra is going to stay anchored here and start advertising to pick up crew passing through town or else hope people discover them on the internet (like I did) and want to fly in and join them...

Life now is all about going with the flow. And, I actually don't mind the change at all - I actually am glad it happened. Sometimes the best things happen when you least expect them to, or when the best-laid plans completely go "awry." Fingers crossed for serendipity to come knocking. It's all good.

Stay tuned...

Judy