2011 Vanuatu Gallery (photo collections)
VANUATU 2011: w/ John, Kristy, Jodie ,Scott & Grandma (Fran)
VANUATU CRUISING with Jodie & Scott June & July 2011
Jodie, Kristy and John had a great sail across from Noumea to Port Vila. Arriving after dark, we hove-to and entered the next morning. Jodie has already swum around the entire bay! She and Scott are registered for a open water race in a few days. Scott arrives tomorrow.
EPI & Beyond
6/13/2011
After completing formalities in Port Vila, we set out last night to make our way to the island of Epi. We’re hoping to see the Dugong and sea turtles. Then we have plans to go across to Malekula island and the Makelyne area. Jodie also wants us to try and go to Ambryn to see the volcanoes. She’s beginning to feel that her vacation/cruise is coming too quickly to an end and the tensions are building to try and do more stuff! Tough for her when John and I get bogged down with boat stuff, laundry, provisioning, etc. I imagine she’ll be more assertive about launching out on her own on the rest of the trip. Scott is still a bit dazed and adjusting to the new climate, living conditions, etc. He seems happy just to be around our company.Vanuatu is quite lush – the climate hot and humid with at least drizzles/mists of rain most every day. My freezer/fridge are always covered in condensation which I wipe and mop up several times a day.
6/15/2011
We had a lovely afternoon yesterday walking in the village of Lamen Bay and snorkeling around a bit. We were up at dawn looking for the Dugongs (sea cows) that are supposed to be around here, but with no luck, however we did see several turtle which was very cool. The water this morning was so clear that we could see all the way to the bottom and watch the fish swimming around just from the side of the dingy!
Jodie, John and I arrived in Port Vila, Vanuatu on June 10th and Scott arrived into the airport there from Portland on June 11th. They have a fabulous little “bus” service of vans that will take you anywhere around Port Villa for 150vatu ($2US) We were pleasantly surprised to find that Port Villa is really very developed, yet has maintained a local/cultural element.
The people were very friendly and hassle-free, so it was easy to just wander around. After a couple of days getting have-tos like laundry, provisioning and engine/boat repairs accomplished, we set off for the island of Epi. Lamen Bay in Epi is reputed to have the Dugongs – a sort of sea elephant creature which we hoped to see, but despite lots of watching, snorkeling and even getting up at dawn…we did not see any. We did enjoy some lovely snorkeling though and saw several turtles. The villagers were friendly and as it turns out, Lamen Bay has one of the few secondary schools in the area. Students from surrounding islands come to “board” there and attend 7-12th grade. Fees are steep for the locals – 30,000vatu per term ($500US), hence only a small percentage of children attend school beyond 6-7th grade (age 12.)
Now we are off toward Malekula Island and a group of islands on the southern tip called the Maskelyne Islands.
On the 15th of June, we sailed across from Epi toward Malekula Island anchoring in the lovely cove of Awai Island. John and the kids had just set off to investigate the anchorage by dingy when our boat was visited by a series of dugout canoes. I really enjoyed the interactions with the shy and inquisitive people. They were wanting our empty plastic bottles and wanting to sell us some fruit. They were really sweet and so thrilled with the addition of not only receiving an empty plastic ice cream box, fish hooks and cans of food, but especially with magazines! Fortunately I’d grabbed a few “women’s” magazines from the laundry room in NZ because most of ours are news/journalistic sorts with very few pictures. Too bad I didn’t grab more fishing, boating, cooking and fashion mags – note for next time!
News break….As I’ve been writing this, we’ve had three canoes of teenage boys hanging around the boat chatting with Jodie and the exciting message arrived that one of the boy’s father just speared a shark! All but one of the canoes took off to get ropes and help bring it to shore. Another canoe of boys have increased their efforts of shooting a boy and arrow system out at the water, the special arrows float upright in the water.
A highlight of the trip with the kids so far was the opportunity we got to visit the beautiful Maskelyne Islands. Willy, who turns out to be quite a character, arranged for us to meet him at 7:30AM outside the narrow reef passage of the lagoon for their village, so that he could guide us over the shallow (only 1.5meters under our keel!!??) pass. Our big yacht tried to follow their dug out canoe – it was quite a sight! We then went ashore to visit the four villages, meet the chief and watch a very special men’s cultural/sacred dance of the Nambas. The men are naked except palm wraps around their penis which are then secured up to a thin strap around their waist, plus they had some body paint! The local women are not allowed to watch this dance (for obvious reasons) – but I guess Jodie and I were exempted from such modesty – we tried to keep our focus on their faces. They were obviously having lots of fun, especially the drummer who sat and pounded out the rhythms on a hollowed out log while calling out the song.
Typical of John – he suggested that he and Scott join them. Fortunately both of them had their little Speedo suits on under their shorts, so Jodie and I, not to mention the local men, were spared the full Monty!?!? Needless to say, we have some terrific photos:)
The rest of the day was spent wandering the villages, visiting a local soap production and visiting a clam marine reserve started 20 years ago by one of the teachers, closing the day with our attending a potluck with the chief and his family.
They shared traditional foods with us and we shared a large pot of stir-fried beef, some chocolate cookies and lemonade.
Setting off early we motorsailed (light winds) to Ambrym Island with hopes of anchoring in a bay that would allow Jodie and Scott to try and climb up to the volcano. Unfortunately, even the light winds and swell that we had made the anchorage unsafe for the night, plus the mountain was venting alot and covered with clouds of smoke, so we went back across the water to anchor in Aulia Bay. The convergence zone of clouds and moisture have descended on us once again, so although we could see the massive clouds created by the belching mountain, we did not get to see the red glow at night.
Today we will probably just meander up the coast investigating some other bays. There is almost no wind, it’s very hot and humid and mostly overcast. Predictions are for the winds to shift south, which would be great since that’s better for our sailing AND brings drier air. It’s a real struggle to dry swim clothes, towels, etc and the mildew is creeping in on us. Because of the conservative culture, Jodie and I must swim in long shorts and shirts. Otherwise, we wear mid-length skirts.
John just got the outboard running again, up until now we’ve only been able to row the dingy around which is okay but very time consuming and limiting. He and Scott are off for a test run. Looks like we’re ready for day ahead.
06/18/2011 Malekula
(written: John)
We are in Vanuatu where there are villages of 100 people clinging to the waters edge in islands shared with three or more ACTIVE volcanoes. It is dark and the sky is half lit with stars and half with towering cumulo-nimbus of the thunder and lightning variety. It is baking hot as Jodie starts baking in out little 400sqft appt. We will be sweating when the meal is ready. Bugs of enormous variety haunt the video monitor as I type and surround every other dim light. The shoreline with the villages is dark as night. No power, no light, but lots of laughter from the kids and spontaneous singing. What a great way for the kids to play hide and seek and procreate in the bushes as they do. 14 year old unmarried mothers are supported by toothless grandparents who throw their head back and laugh while talking with the grandchild in their laps playing with a cell phone because although light has not arrived, cell phones have. I think it is a status symbol because it costs US$1 minute to call and I have never seen anyone talking or receiving a call on one.
We are all well , sunburned and looking forward to the cool morning (5:30 snunrise) so that we can get out of our sticky hot beds. Sleeping outside is better.
(written: Kristy)
We have Jodie and Scott on the boat right now and are currently motorsailing up the coast of Malekula in Vanuatu. We’ve had some interesting and fun encounters with the locals including a unique men’s cultural dance in the Maskelyne Islands, in which they are clad only with the vine wraps on their penis’ which are tied up to there waist. These five dances were given just for us in a private clearing. Apparently it’s forbidden for the local women to see this dance, but not so for Jodie and me!?!? Tough to focus on their faces, not their dangling jewels. Typical John, he suggested that he and Scott join the dance -argh!! Good thing they both had on their little Speedo briefs, thus sparring Jodie and I the full Monty!! Great picture moment:) Lots of rain and hot humid weather, I’m hoping for some nice breezes to come around from the south.
06/21/2011 Luganville/Aore Island
Jodie and Scott were off and racing this morning in the Santo-Aore Ocean Swim.
They both swam the Segond Channel between Luganville, Espirito Santo and Aore Island, a 2.6km swim starting off the beach in town, swimming over the reef, across the open water (80 meters deep) and ending at the beach for the Aore Resort. Each swimmer was accompanied by a canoe, which was a good thing as everyone became quite separated, some occasionally swimming off-course.
John and I supported both from our dingy with cheers and photos, keeping well clear of the swimmers.
The kids did great- Jodie was the fastest woman with a time of 51 mins
winning a carved trophy and a one-way ticket on Vanuatu Airlines between Espirito Santo and Port Vila! Scott was just thrilled to have finished since he’s never done an open water swim before and this was a pretty challenging swim complete with waves, currents and deep water. After a big post-race buffet lunch, we’re back resting on our boat as it floats around on a mooring at the resort.
Fortunately we made it back and put our shade cover up just in time to avoid the torrential downpour and winds outside – Jodie is teaching herself to play a song on the guitar that she’s picked up off my Ipod, Scott’s looking through our photo album, John’s reading…pretty chilled.
Jodie and John have booked a double dive to explore the USS President Coolidge wreck and a reef. Scott and I will go hang-out at the resort pool, read and maybe even go into town on the inter-island ferry.
06/25/2011
The winds were howling last night so we had to take our Shadetree cover down at midnight – woke up this AM and it was pretty nice, even got pretty hot mid morning so we put it back up and just as we were finishing the winds struck followed by incredibly torrential rains that have continued for the last 4 hours! This is Jodie’s last day so she and Scott just decided to go snorkel anyway and are off swimming in the the waves and rain. After jumping in they said it was warmer in the water than out in the rain:)We plan to enjoy a nice dinner out at the resort tonight.
John is off trying to use the resort computer to download a computer virus program…Jodie downloaded some files for John while at an internet cafe onto a USB a few days ago for John, but when she went to load them in our boat computer, we got infected with a new and nasty virus!!? Argh…at least John is a good sleuth and will hopefully sort it all out for us.
VANUATU CRUISING & Boatyard w/ Scott
6/27/2011 (Scott, John, Kristy)
Palekula Bay, Espirito Santo
Alas, we have sailed onwards into the gales of 25-35kt winds, a fast sail about 10nm around the point. Scott was totally awed by the massive seas, not at all frightened and actually a bit in the way as he bounced around the cockpit exclaiming loudly at each new roller and breaking wave:) We’re once again anchored in what should be a beautiful spot with lots of old wrecked rusty boat littering the surrounding reefs. Espirito Santa, especially near Luganville is home to lots and lots of wrecks from WWII. Jodie and John dove on the USS President Coolidge and “Million Dollar Point”. I think John and Scott will enjoy lots of dingy exploration tomorrow. Hopefully the winds will calm a bit. It’s still about 20+ in here. Nice to have a good, strong boat and anchor!
It’s a beautiful sunny morning here and the winds are still blasting us at 25+kts, but from the SE so the air is nice and dry – a good morning for laundry after a good sleep by all with the natural fan that blew all night. Was tough to get your Dad to shut down his wind generator overnight, he was so-so-so thrilled with the voltage production in these winds, but it was the first thing switched on this morning – so we are once again producing natural power:)
06/29/2011 – Surunda Bay, Espirito Santo
We’re anchored ow in Surundu Bay which is supposed to have been the setting for Michener’s book from which the musical South Pacific (Bali Hi) was inspired from. Michener was stationed here during WWII. For now, the best property is a lovely private estate with large main house, pool and two lovely guest cottages, plus dock and catamaran and power boat – all marked No Trespass! We reinflated the kayak and I went exploring up a fresh water passage through the mangroves and found the infamous “blue hole” mentioned in the guide book. It was kind of fun exploring up the channel between the mangroves – you’d have liked it:) Now, we’ll keep saying, “oh Jodie would have liked this, or Jodie really would have been excited by this….and alway…I wish Jodie was here:)”
(written by Scott)
Mom is cooking a lovely Vanuatu beef stirfry now as our boat rests at Surundu Bay. We have all had a wonderful day, mostly sunny with no rain. We just arrived here today from Palikula Bay where we saw a large lionfish and a cow stingray. There were large wrecks all around, very rusty and often all the way onto the beaches just around where we were anchored. 
There is a nice narrow spot cleared in a thick bunch of mangroves that we have used our inflatable kayak to go through that we found full of funky bugs, fish, and big crabs. Surundu Bay is the countries cattle ranch. It features a nice new rich estate with cattle at the shore. There are a lot of turles that we have enjoyed watching as they check us out. One turle made a whale-sounding breath right by our boat during happy hour. It is dark now, and we plan to watch the movie Clear and Present Danger starring Harrison Ford while we eat dinner.
06/30/2011
So, Raynad was social tonight!:) We’re in a different bay and I invited the couples from the other two boats over for happy hourish 4pm. One is an Aussie/Kiwi couple, the other couple is from the US and get this…from “oh, just a small town in Colorado- Gunnison”!! Amazing that last year I met a couple from Gunnison in Tonga, and now a couple from Gunnison in Vanuatu..this town is like only 2500 people max without any sizeable water, so go figure!?!? A nice evening all around. The Aussie/Kiwi couple however got Ciguatera from a Mango-Jack fish(sp??- the reef fish neuro-sickness) and have been really sick. They have been eating off of their fishing for years, including eating this type of fish, and no problems, but here they got hit hard. They are devastated since they won’t be able to eat ANY fish for several months and will be ultra-sensitive even after that.
07/03/2011
So, the drive shaft is officially seized and we are engineless. Not information that I’m going to share right away with anyone but you. We’re now looking into our options of repairs in Port Vila, but may likely need just stay where we are right now and then sail our way to Brisbane after my Mom and Scott leave. The facilities for pulling a boat the size and weight of ours out of the water, just aren’t available in the islands and Brisbane is only about 300 miles further than Fiji and much better equipped. It’s a real bummer and a real change for our future plans, but at least Australia keeps other new options open.
We had a lovely dinner out last night to celebrate our 29th anniversary. Scott stayed on the boat, ate noodles and watched the movie Ghandi which he really enjoyed. John and I went over to the LucaLuca Resort, a very new place built by a South African guy who’s lovely estate is on the bay we’re anchored in, and ate some of the terrific Vanuatu beef fillets (a nice portion of two fillets each) and shared two bottles of SA merlot:
07/06/2011 Sailing back to Port Vila for Repairs
We decided to take the opportunity to sail back out through the reef guarding Surundu Bay with our new friends standing by for support. Steve and Serena of s/v Westward were headed north to the lovely Oyster Bay area, so they too were leaving with the mid-morning sun and lowering tide. Quite the feat for us to lift anchor and navigate around coral heads and out a narrow passage between two reefs with just sails!?!? A bit of good fortune helped us squeeze just over/past a couple of big bommies (yikes) and the current helped us keep a good 2 kts through the reef. Now we’re fluctuating between 4-15kts of wind and speeds of 3.0-7.2kts of speed, with an average of about 4-5kts. Not as bad as was predicted by the grib files, so hopefully the winds will hold enough to keep us off the reefs as we make our way southward past Malekula, Ambryn and Epi to Port Vila. Had our speeds been better, we’d marked a possible anchorage on the NE side of Malekula, but as it’s going, we won’t get to Wala Island until about 6pm, so dark, we’ll probably need to tack offshore and continue on for the night.
Scott has been quite the explorer with the kayak, almost always just with the fading light of the evening. Last night he went way out and we were getting really concerned just when he turned around. Lots of turtles around, so that was fun. They are such funny things and they didn’t seem as frightened by the kayak after a day or two.
We’re tack, tack, tacking our way down between Pentecost and Malekula Islands, the winds have chosen to be on our nose, but at least pretty good so we’re making zigzag progress. Scott and I are on the first night watch, we’ll wake John to tack and then switch over. At this pace, our trip will probably take 2-3 days.
Ambrym News Flash!
Scott just gave me quite a scare when during our night watch he suddenly exclaimed, “Oh, Mom look, look, what’s that!?!” My first sighting was of something very bright red and fiery on the horizon. Fortunately, I remembered that we are only about 34nmiles north of the volcanic island of Ambryn and we’ve been fortunate enough to witness one of it’s eruptions! Very cool. It looks like a blazing setting sun from our viewpoint. Since the moon will disappear in about 2 hours, the view should be even more spectacular. We will eventually be within just a few miles of the island, during the night hours, so John too will hopefully get to enjoy the sight during his watch.
Just had to share the excitement:)
07/07/2011
Lots of zigzaggin all night long – definitely the slow way to make distance! At last we have a good angle, so keep your fingers crossed that it will last for awhile and maybe even all the way to Vila…too much to hope for probably. 6.8kts of speed now, so captain and crew are happy. Was lovely watching the bright red volcano spouting last night, now it’s just gray clouds.
I too am now looking forward to bobbing at anchor/mooring and getting an undisturbed night of sleep. We now have a pretty steady 12-16nts of wind just forward of the beam, so are making more direct progress toward Port Vila. The glow of the volcano was really cool, we could see it throughout most of the night since we were zigzagging about, until the sun came up and everything went back to gray smoke. Scott is taking a few short watches and is very good about it, but one of us is always up with him to manage the sail issues, etc. He’s the best critter spotter and totally comes to life when dolphins or birds come around the boat.
Arrived outside Mele Bay about 5am, winds have dropped so are still zigzag tacking our way into the bay and hoping to be able to line up and sail through the passage at the entrance to Port Vila. We really could use a little wind help, the tide is incoming until 11am and we need that current to assist us, otherwise we won’t be able to go into the port until tomorrow! Will keep you posted.
07/08/2010 – Port Vila, Efete Island
YES! We are happily anchored at last near the Q-dock in Port Vila:) It’s been a long journey without any use of the engine – lots of zig-zaggy tacking and light/fickle winds. I think our average over most of the trip was only 2-3kts of speed, however, we did get some strong winds and good directions for a few hours and we luxuriated in the ability to pick up Raynad’s skirts and fly!! Captain and Crew are quite proud of ourselves for managing the entire trip purely using our sails, even to navigate in, out and around the reefs. You can imagine our stress levels sometimes, but everyone put their best efforts into the project and now we can feel good about our impressive sailing skills:)
07/09/2011 Star of Russia
Raynad is swinging on a buoy beside the haul-out slip waiting for repair. The buoy is in a depth of 30m and is tied to the wreck of the Star of Russia which is a sailing ship converted to steam that plied the trade winds until its untimely death in 1914. One of the local dive trips is to the wreck and the divers descend the very line that we are tied to. So one wreck is tied to another, a happy conjunction.
The story goes that the Star of Russia was built in the same boat yard as the Titanic which also sank.
07/11/2011 Port Vila Boatyard
Well we got pulled today -yeah- an amazing thing to work on and watch!?!? John was at the stern, Scott at the bow, and I was in the skiff revving the engine at full speed pushing the boat around – and that was just to line it up for pulling onto the skates, then securing, then wrenching , then hauling up the ramp with a tractor! Took about 2 hours and I took lots of pictures after my job was finished and I was able to just beach the skiff:) 
So now we sit up 20+feet off the ground with a view out over the beach to the bay. Mind you it’s the industrial area so we view the container port and we have some trees brushing the back deck, but all in all not too bad and we have a bit of a breeze. The owner, Sue, has allowed me to put the freezer stuff in their ice freezer, so the steaks are safe. I have everyone on bug and cockroach patrol and the toxic substances are ready to fire – buggers – but I do not want an infestation and we do literally have the trees draped on the swim step, so it’s pretty easy access for all kinds of undesirable critters.
As soon as they’ve finished securing the cradle underneath us, a bit unnerving to be up high in the boat and feel it swaying underneath and being jerked around !?!? the guys will come aboard and we’ll definitely have a happy hour!
07/13/2011
(written by John)
Raynad is a Tall Ship today because it is out of the water in a yard in Vanuatu getting its bottom inspected. The shaft bearings were giving out so I spend a lot of time looking up narrow orifices under the boat. Kind of a colonoscopy for yachts. I feel qualified. We have to get this work done before Fran comes Tuesday since she is bringing shorts and straw hats and dreaming of sandy beaches whereas our vista now is the usual filthy boat yard with coated with a grimy mixture of mud and finely ground dust made of toxic soft black bottom paint that gets everywhere. We have a lot of cleaning to do. Its just like old times but way too hot to wear a boiler suit.
07/16/2011
Scott’s Birthday!!
Tough to celebrate in the boatyard. Scott and I went diving in Havana Bay and visited a turtle reserve. Scott really liked the turtles. Then out for a meal – of course Scott had to have Coconut Crab – great fun watching him crack his way through that monster! Finished it up with a traditional Vanuatu happy birthday song performed by all of the restaurant workers. Very fun day after all.
VANUATU CRUISING with Scott & Grandma (Fran)
07/22/2011 Mele Bay and Geckos!
Mom made it safely to Vanuatu on Tuesday – looking very much like the earth trotting grandma she dreams of being complete with straw hat and sunglasses:) Sorry for the slow correspondence, but she arrived in the midst of activity in the boatyard and logistics management to get the boat launched back into the water (an incredibly crazy nail-biting process,) cleaned up and re-provisioned. We secured a little apartment in town, so everyone enjoyed a couple of nights sleeping with air conditioning and fans after luxuriating under long showers. Not to waste time, as soon as food was put onboard and Mom secured happily into the cockpit…Raynad took off and raised the sails. A short trip, but a perfect inauguration for mom since the winds were about 8-15 knots, bay waters pretty calm and we only had about 5 miles to go, so we just tacked back and forth giving her a 2 hour, gentle sail arriving into the head of the bay and dropping anchor next to the Hideaway Resort.
Rescue story: Just as I dropped the anchor, what should also drop off of it but a small white gecko!! My exclamation snapped Scott to immediate attention and action. We thought the gecko had sunk and drowned, however, we had to lift and reset the anchor and when I brought it up, there was the gecko trying to swim for its life out toward the open sea! Scott sprung to action to try and net and save the gecko, but alas all was happening too fast and as the poor struggling creature started disappearing behind the boat, Scott dove overboard to the rescue:) We now have a tiny gecko living between two clear plastic cups, quite happy after eating the assorted bugs that Scott captured for it last night. It’s scheduled for release on land sometime today.
Coffee is on this morning. Torrential, convergence zone rains have been falling all night and this morning, so no water shortage here, nor ventilation for that matter. A rather hot and sticky night. We’re hoping the skies will clear later this morning so that we can take mom and Scott to shore and visit the Mele Cascades (a series of waterfalls and pools) and a cultural/garden center.
In the meantime, it’s pretty rocky-rolly where we are anchored, so we may just head back to town and more stability for Mom.
7/25/2011
Roadtrip- Efete Island Vanuatu w/ Fran & Scott
Yesterday we took off driving with plans to hit the hot pools up at the Beachcomber and then come back toward Vila and go to the waterfalls, however, as things go and small side roads start attracting attention from Dr. T, we ended up at a gorgeous resort restaurant in Havana bay.
Even more magical was the fact that they were setting up for a wedding on the beach point. It didn’t take us all long to decide that we wanted to linger in this lovely oasis, enjoy a lunch/dinner and take in the view. The small wedding took place about 2:30pm, so we joined the small gathering of non-attendees who observed the ceremony down on the beach from the lovely lawn above. So, we now have another “honeymoon” spot to recommend:)
We still drove out to the hot pools to let Grandma have a good soak before coming back by the Havana Point for sunset.
All, in all, it was a lovely day with nearly perfect weather.
VANUATU CRUISING ONWARD -John & Kristy alone again….
August 13 – Avokh Island
It’s a mellow Sunday morning here in the bay neighboring where we anchored with both of you (Awai Island amongst the Maskelyne Islands,) it’s a very quaint, traditional and religious village stacked on the hillside of the tiny Avokh Island. We didn’t stay at the lovely Awai Island anchorage because there were already 4-5 boats in there and it seemed too crowded. Funny though as we passed John was looking through the binoculars and saw that one of those boats was that of our friends from Surunda Bay (remember Steve and Serena Scott, the Aussies we exchanged happy hours with who had gotten that fish poisoning-cequaterra(sp??) John called them on VHF16 and sure enough it was them!! We might dingy across soon and see if they are still there. That poisoning is pretty tough as Steve said they were just last night enjoying their first beers since getting sick. Apparently any alcohol consumption just made the symptoms worse. They still can’t eat fish. For such reasons,sadly I was not trying to fish more after coming closer in shore and didn’t have any fish to give the villagers who this time asked us if we had any since they had not been able to catch any and their village was getting ready for the big Sabbath Meeting. It was already sunset when we arrived, so I passed over some empty plastic bottles, got permission to stay, and the greeting canoes left. Just as it got dark the village bells tolled and what had been lots of laughter and village noises completely stopped. All lights went out and a total quietness settled over the bay. In respect of their apparent call for silence and darkness, we turned off our stern and anchor lights and went down below to eat an early dinner with dim lighting and then just go to bed. We were both pretty tired after getting up at 3-4am to set out.
August 15- Avokh, Sakao, Gaspard – Maskelyne Islands
Today has been a very busy day! Our last adventure of the day was to end up anchored next to a beach at Sakao Island, also in the Maskelyne Group and going ashore to meet three kids who were jumping around and absolutely ecstatic to see us actually drop anchor:) Seeing it was a small group and probably just a family vs a full village, I grabbed the plastic flutes that Jodie had bought in New Caledonia, and took them with me. 
What a hit they were as they shyly at first tooted and then got more and more aggressive about playing them- laughing and dancing around the whole time. It was a girl, Emma, age 11 and her two brothers and a baby cousin. I showed them how to try and make different notes, with mixed success, 
but they were keen to try. They all walked with us as we toured their charming homestead complete with some actual attempts at landscaping, a lovely beach and fabulous views out over the other islands.
I think that they are quite vulnerable to big storms though as some of the more permanent structures had been quite damaged over time, including an old boathouse complete with stone and steel ramp and motorcycle engine. We went across the wide channel in just the dingy for a couple of hours to try and find the Dugongs of Gaspard Bay and saw about 8 of them – mostly rolling up and diving down, but still very cool:) When we returned, your John decided to take the three kids dingy riding.
What a hoot that was – a bit scary when he let them drive and I’d watch the skiff rear-up and zoom away!!??!! Lots of squealing and laughter and big waves – I’m not sure who had more fun, the kids, or John:)
Last night, we were sitting drinking a cup of tea and trying to decide our future destinations when I looked out the window and saw a canoe approaching paddled by one guy in a red shirt. I went out to greet him and he had brought me the two pawpaws that I’d mentioned to another the day before that I might like to have. Turns out he is one of the chiefs, and he ended up coming aboard, talking for over 2 hrs, seeing the boat, drinking a beer, getting a solar light, 10meter rope and empty 1gal Chlorox bottle from us along with the promise that we would come ashore at 8:30am the next morning to see his kava plants, the school and walk through the village.
So, that’s what we did, complete with long sucking walks through marshes of mud..(broke my sandals)…but he was sincere and it was fun. He left us on our own in the village where the Presbyterian’s were having a church meeting of elders from the surrounding villages. The minister ended up having all of the people sing us three hymns. John really liked that and we even sang along in their language using hymn books.
We passed out candies to all of the children, John hi-fived all the teenage boys – much to their amusement, since I’m not sure they’d ever done that before. We’d planned to anchor overnight at the bay with the dugongs, but it was too windy with lots of shallows, etc., so that’s why after leaving Avokh Island where we’d been for two nights, ended up coming back to the anchorage across at Sakao Island.
Tomorrow we’ll set sail around the corner for Sandwich Bay and the Island Night Festival Aug 16-17.
14 August 2011 – Sakao Island continues
So, next incident in the calamity of cruising for Raynad this season, we got our anchor chain completely stuck yesterday – it was super nasty and after about 1+hrs of really working it, we could only bring up 10m out of 60m of chain and the poor winch was really taking a beating..the grinding sounds were horrific from the chain. We figured that it was wrapped around some big coral thing, or even a wreck down below us. Since we were in 25m of water, we couldn’t see what was going on by snorkeling, so I called out on the VHF16 for anyone in the vicinity with scuba gear. Interestingly, a couple in a bright yellow catamaran called Citrus Tart,came by about 2 hrs later saying that they were “avid snorkelers” and would give it a try. The guy pulled himself down the anchor chain, but due to ear problems couldn’t get more that about 15m down, so wasn’t able to see anything. Super nice couple though. I called out on VHF16 again and this time a boat called Delos came back and said they had scuba and were on their way to south Malekula from Ambrym and would come help. Being John, your dad continued to fiddle with the chain/anchor and since we were in a super eddied/tidal area, the boat was being moved around alot by the tides and powers of the water around us….so long story short at about 3:30pm the chain and anchor came up!! What a thrilling moment of relief. The unfortunate side was that Michelle and Steve from Citrus Tart were coming over for happy hour at 4:30pm and we’d really been looking forward to chatting with them (they just came from some of the areas were are heading to and were super friendly – she looked a bit like a triathlete) but once the anchor was up, we could hardly drop it back down for the night. We’d be idiots to get stuck twice?!?! So, onwards we went the 10nm to Sandwich Bay arriving and dropping anchor (in mud- no bommies) at about 6pm. In debriefing the incident this morning, we both agree that scuba gear is a priority for the future whenever it becomes possible to buy AND it’s still a real puzzle just exactly what was down there holding our chain. Once it started to come up, it just came straight up with lots of crunching and terrific noise, but up it came and off we went!
PORT SANDWICH CULTURAL FESTIVAL, Aug 16-17
Yesterday was the first day of the cultural festival here in Port Sandwich, Malekula. They opened with a traditional men’s “culture dance” like the one we saw with the kids in the Maskelyne Islands – the small nambas – where the men were clad only in banana wraps on their penis’ which were then strung up by a vine around their waist, rooster tail feathers in a headband (this was new), greasy/mud body painting, and rattling seedpods around their ankles. 
Two men beat the tam-tams and lead the singing which was mostly composed of songs for battle. After this we were just free to wander, but there is a Peace Corps volunteer here who has been teaching English, she’s also the one responsible for starting this whole idea of a festival, and she’d brought her students over with instructions for them to “interview” us. I ended up spending the time with a young woman, age 18, called Aleka who is already a mother of an 18month old, but is taking courses in computers, home/domestic skills and English. She was delightful and ended up showing us their gardens out the road and taking us to her home to meet her mother. 
The community fed us a lunch of traditional foods which were eaten off of mile-a-minute plant leaves! In the afternoon, the women did some traditional dances for us in their grass/mat skirts, no tops and shell necklaces – the old lady who was calling the song and beating the drum was quite a character:) The women then gave us a demonstration of how they prepared a couple of traditional foods and it was really interesting to watch how they split coconuts, scrapped them, peeled and grated tubers, sliced and mushed green bananas, all using only bamboo knives, shells and other basic utensils. 
One was a combination of coconut creamed & mixed with green bananas and stuffed into a hollow section of bamboo stopped at each end with banana leaves. The other was a mixture of grated/mushed taro and coconut placed between sheets of “island cabbage” and cooked in a banana leaf pack on the open fire. They also roasted scrapped taro over the fire. Although the tastes were very mild, it was all good, my favorite unexpectedly being the simple roasted taro. After a break, we came back to shore for an evening of string band music, kava and beer. I brought back to Aleka some prints of the pictures we’d taken of her and her mother and a Cosmopolitan magazine! They were a total hit with lots of giggling from Aleka and her cousins- her mother insisted on giving us some mandarins, a cucumber and a handful of peppers. The string band produced amazingly good music considering that the guitars all had only 3 strings, were taped together and the bass was the old soapbox and single string sort. The bass player was actually the most impressive of the group – he and the goofy descant singer. All-in-all a fun and interesting day.
Today we’ll open with a Circumcision Ceremony!!
Since they had one of the yachties kill the pig for yesterday’s ceremony, I wonder if they’ll be looking for volunteers for today’s??!!?!