As there is currently very little wind and a low to the south is forecast to bring westerlies in a few days, it looks like Twister will be staying put in Port Vila for another week. There are worse places to be stuck. Food is good, people are friendly, the water is warm and clear, and good surf is nearby. I was disappointed by how badly I surfed in Fiji in May--I could hardly catch a wave. I felt much better about my surfing after a couple of sessions by Pango Point near Port Vila. One might think that I would do a lot of surfing, sailing across the Pacific. Yes, some of the best surf in the world is on my route, but the breaks are often not close to where you anchor your boat and rowing an inflatable dinghy puts many of them out of reach. Whereas I surfed about twice per week when I lived in San Diego, it's more like twice per month over the last year.
I am leaning towards bypassing Papua New Guinea on this trip across the Pacific. As I am on a bit of a schedule (more on that), I wouldn't have time to see much and by all accounts Port Moresby is not high on the list of dream vacation destinations (it is high on the murder rate list, though). And recently I've been contemplating making Cairns, Australia my next stop. It would be a shorter passage to Cairns than directly to Thursday Island in The Torres Strait, although overall it will be farther to Darwin.
I just go the official word that I have a spot on the upcoming winter (August) AMLR cruise to the Antarctic Peninsula. It's only a one month cruise this time, and that is good for me as a longer cruise would probably preclude my getting to South Africa this year. Found this link with some photos from last year's summer cruise I was on. So, I'm planning to get to Darwin, Australia by mid-July and leave Twister there for the month of August while I fly to Punta Arenas, Chile and board the Nathanial B. Palmer (Here is a site that shows the current position of the Palmer. Will try to remember to post this again closer to August).
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