Espiritu Santo Island, Vanuatu (Aug/Sep 2012)

Espiritu Santo (Santo)

We sailed as far north to Santo, before heading back south again to Port Vila.  Santo is where there was a big US military base during WWII and the famous “million dollar point” dive site.  After the war ended, the American government asked both the French and English administrations if they were interested in buying the US military equipment.  Because the French and the English bickered over an appropriate price, they could never decide on what to pay.  The US government got tired of waiting, so they took all the war equipment and dumped it into the water.  Today that point with the old Quonset huts, jeeps, tanks, etc, is a popular dive site.

We moored at Aore Island Resort where we could take the resort ferry to Luganville to buy groceries, diesel and propane.  The resort had laundry and rubbish facilities plus a nice restaurant and pool that we used.  The resort had great snorkeling and a road nearby where we spotted parrots (collared lory).  We also spent a half day touring Santo where we saw million dollar point and Peterson Bay, and lunched at Oyster Island resort.