Headed for the Solomon Islands

We left Luganville, Vanuatu this morning. Headed for Noro in the Solomon Islands. It's a 750 mile passage, which would normally mean about 5 days, but there are particularly light winds forcast for a good portion of our journey, so it may be more like 6 or 7. We've had a very pleasant first day at sea.

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Vanuatu, Luganville

Our wonderful dive guides

On our sail from Port Vila to Luganville on Espiritu Santo we anchored off a little island off of the south east corner of Malekula island for an afternoon to take a break and a swim after an overnight sail up. It was a beautiful spot, but our enjoyment of it was a bit spoiled by a local guy who yelled from shore that we could pick up a mooring ball that was there, rather than anchoring, and then came out in his homemade outrigger canoe to collect some money for it (no problem there, we're happy to pay for the use of a mooring ball that someone else maintains). The problem was that after he collected the money for the mooring Tom then wanted to sell us everything from vegetables to guided snorkel tours. Normally these are things we'd be interested in, but we'd just stocked up at the market in Port Vila and were more interested in a nap than a snorkel right at the moment. Then Tom proceeded to tell us that some cruisers give him donations to help pay his kid's school fees (school is not cheap here in Vanuatu) and he wouldn't tell us how much to give, since it was a donation, but he made it pretty clear that he did expect one. We felt a bit strong armed, but gave him some more dough to get rid of him. Unfortunately, we understand from reading cruising guides and other boat's blogs, that this will be more and more the norm in certain places as we go. Some places in the Solomon Islands it's the norm to have about ten canoes surround you as you are anchoring to try to sell you things. I understand that these folks don't have many customers and that on our very not-homemade looking craft we must seem like very wealthy people, but the thought of having to deal the full effect hustle even as you are still trying to get the boat anchored wears me out already. It's also tough because I do like to meet the local people, and I don't like to be rude, but sometimes you just want to be left alone and it can be difficult to tell someone to go away. But apparenlty it's something we'll have to get better at as we go.



We did have a nice nap and a very refreshing swim off the side of the boat. That was a nice treat after a week in Port Vila where swimming off the boat was not an appealing option. Swimming is basically our air-conditioning on the boat, and we definitely miss it when we can't. We left in the late afternoon for another overnight sail to Luganville, and as soon as we left the channel we were met by a pod of dolphins. We all went up to the bow to watch play in our bow wake. It is amazing how powerful they are and how close they can swim to the front of the boat. There were a couple very small ones which we assumed were babies. After they left the bow of the boat Jeff spotted one doing a flip far off the stern quarter of the boat. Then we saw another flip and and another and another. Amazing! What a nice way to start a sail.



Luganville, mostly referred to as Santo, was a main base for American soldiers during World War II. More than half a million military personnel were stationed here over a three year period and there were often as many as 100 ships moored in the protected channel off town. During that time, the USS President Coolidge, a luxury liner that had been converted to carry troops during the war sank trying to come into the channel. The story we heard was that they were supposed to meet a pilot boat to lead them through the mines in the channel, but when they arrived they knew an enemy sub was behind them and the pilot boat wasn't there yet, so the captain decided to take his chances with the mines rather than the sub. The captain did hit one of the mines and ran the boat up on a reef to prevent it from sinking. The troops were instructed to get only themselves off with the plan being to return the next day for their gear. Unfortunately, the boat rolled off the reef in the night and taking all the gear, including the entire supply of quinine for the South Pacific. Oops.



The good news is that today the Coolidge is one of the most accessible wrecks for scuba diving in the world. It is also one of the best preserved in that there are still rifles, gas masks, boots, and even some artwork still there to be seen, if you are willing to go deep to do it. And I do mean deep. The wreck lies in 20 - 60 meters of water, with the stern being the deepest. I was surprised that we didn't need Advanced Open Water certification to dive it, but our guide told us Vanuatu is the only country in the world where your Open Water certification allows you to dive to 60 meters and I'm sure it's specifically for this very famous wreck that the rules are written this way. Any time you mention Vanuatu this wreck is mentioned as a must do, so we've really been looking forward to it and we were not disappointed. It is really amazing.




We did four dives on the Coolidge, starting with shallower ones and getting deeper each day (this is not optional, the dive guides want to assess your abilities and your air consumption as you go along). The first day we went to about 30 meters and saw the ships big turret mounted gun and then swam back to the bow along the top of the boat seeing rifles and helmets laying on the top and looking down in holes to the inside of the boat. The ship is now laying on it's side, so when I say "top" I mean what is now the top which is what used to be the starboard side of the boat. The second day we did our first decompression dive ever and went inside the boat to see "The Lady" which is an original piece of artwork that has been restored and replaced by the local diveshops, and some chandeliers, and a row of toilets. It was funny to see the toilets hanging off what seems like the ceiling. The next day we swam into the engine room and saw the gauges and telegraphs and the big turbines, then through a corridor with bed frames and rifles. Jeff saw a pair of boots that he said appeared to be in almost perfect condition. Most things have a good film of coral on them now, but even so can pick up the rifles and easily identify the helmets, but Jeff said coral must not like leather because the boots were quite clean. Our fourth and last day we dove down to 60 meters and saw the boats enrmous rudder (about the size of a barn door), the name Coolidge on the stern and the swimming pool and then did our first safety stop swimming about 5 meters above the boat along almost it's entire length. I really enjoyed that part since you got a real feel for just how big the ship actually is. And there is some really lovely coral growing on it and beautiful fish to see as well. On this deep dive we had 15 minutes of bottom time and then it took us 45 minutes of safety stops to come back up. It was fun, but it's going to have to be something equally spectacular to get me interested in going that deep again.



The Coolidge dives were are first dive every day. Our second dive most days were on reefs. Tutuba point was my favorite. It was really really large patch of really really lovely healthy coral. One day our second dive was Million Dollar Point. This is where the US forces dumped a huge amount of surplas equipment after the war. Apparently US manufacturers gave the government good prices on equipment during the war with the caveat that none of it be brought home afterwards. Apparently we offered to sell the equipment to the goverment here at the time (Vanuatu was then under joint control by the French and the British) for pennies on the dollar, but they did not respond. Some people say they were holding out for a better price, knowing that we couldn't take the equipment home. Others say that the military personnel were just as happy to dump it as sell it since then they didn't have to take an inventory. In any case, everything from giant bulldozers to jeeps to cases of coca-cola were dumped into the sea. I'd been told the story, but was still amazed to see how big the pile is. We swam along it slowly for 20 minutes on our dive, and it is a very tall pile. Astounding. It was hard to tell what most of it was, but there were lots of axles and tires, and just the size of the pile itself made it worth seeing.


Matthew enjoys our Ryobi radio with ipod (we like it too!)

 


We had increasing long surface intervals between dives as our first dives got deeper. We went with Santo Island Dive and Fishing and each day they served us wonderful lunches and we had lots of time to chat with the our dive guides who were all from Vanuatu. They were a really nice and friendly group of guys and getting to know them some was a great treat. We met them for kava a couple times after diving and that was great too. Their favorite kava bar is called Nemo's and is right on the water so you have a nice view with a breeze coming in. It was a very relaxing spot at the end of the day and seemed to be frequented by mostly recreational kava drinkers, none of which, I am happy to report, were throwing up. The gentleman who owns the dive shop and the manager of the Beachfront, the resort we are anchored off of, go there for kava almost every day as well, so we got to chat more with them also and got a lot of information about the wreck and the local history from them.



We really enjoyed our stay here and if you are a diver and thinking of coming to Vanuatu, I whole heartedly recommend you do so. I also whole heartedly recommend Santo Island Dive and Fishing. Their guys are "numba wan" in my book!

walking on the sandspit

After we finished diving we learned that the weather was not going to co-operate with our original departure date, so we decided to rent a jeep and take a tour up the east coast of the island. It was beautiful and we waded out a sand spit onto a deserted island (deserted except for the cows who apparently wade out too - it always surprises me to see cows wading in the ocean) and checked out one of Vanuatu's blue holes. I was excited to finally see one, because the guide books we have tell you they are cool and say you mustn't miss em, but they never explained what they were. Annoying. Turns out they are big pools of fresh water that has been filtered through lava rock. The water if very clear and very blue, and the one we were in was quite cool, which felt really nice after driving in the car all day. There were a couple rope swings and Fred and I went off them. I somehow ended up on the high one, and I really thought twice about going at all once I saw the sharp lava I would have to swing over, but I figured I might never get another chance to rope swing into a blue hole, so I went for it. I scraped my feet a bit on some lava at the low point of my swing, but made it in relatively unscathed. Ashley was very sad she didn't catch the moment of our flip camera (which we have courtesy from Tom Burke - thanks Tom!), but truthfully I am just as glad that the moment is not captured on film, but it was fun!

blue hole - the water really was a strange blue

Vanuatu, Port Vila

We spent a relaxing and fairly uneventful week in Port Vila. For me the highlight of the week was running into our very good friend Roy Dickson who sails on a boat called Peggy West. We originally met Roy in 2008 in the Marquesas and it has been our pleasure to run into him again many times. The only small problem this time was that Irene, who is another of our favorites wasn't currently on the boat with Roy since she was on her way home to Ireland to visit her family. We had a couple nice nights with Roy this time. One was out for Friday night happy hour and one night he had us all over for a lovely dinner aboard his boat. He also helped Fred and Jeff repair our dinghy. Thanks Roy!

On the way back from Friday night happy hour we were walking along the waterfront and I was drawn to the sounds of some serious hip-hop music coming from a big bandstand set up in the park. There was some sort of break dance competition going on and one of the Ni-Vans was busting some old John Hughes moves up on the stage. We only saw a couple performers before some sort of break occurred but I was pretty impressed. In the daytime in this same park there are stalls set up selling woven bags of varied construction. Apparently each island has their own style (I got an orange and white strappy number). The contrast with those and the break dancing is the kind of thing I love about the towns in the South Pacific islands.


Port Vila was also the site of our first visit to a kava bar. Kava is a drink found in many South Pacific countries, which is embraced very enthusiastically here in Vanuatu. We've been told by many people that the kava in Vanuatu is quite a bit stronger here than anywhere else, and here there are actually bars set up where you can buy the kava prepared already. The other countries we've been in you could buy kava root in the markets and make it yourself, but we were a bit confused as to how exactly you were supposed to make it. The traditional preparation calls for the root to be chewed by young boys and then their spit is collected in a bowl and that concoction is drunk later. We neglected to bring any young boys with us on the God Spede, so that method was out for us, and although we'd been told there was an alternate method that involved straining stuff through a sock, the instructions for this method were always vague, and we know where our socks have been, so we never tried this method either.



In Vanuatu, however, there are bars where it is sold ready to consume, so we decided to give it a try. We went with Rueben and James, two nice guys we had met earlier that evening when they drove us to dinner. We hailed them down thinking they were driving a taxi. We we asked if they were a taxi, and they said yes, but something about the way they looked at each other first, then looked around a bit and shrugged, made me suspect that they were just two guys out driving around. We later learned that all taxis in Port Vila have a T or a B on their license plate, but at this point we had just arrived in town and were still learning the ropes. Anyway, Rueben and James were very friendly and chatted with us on the way to dinner, and gave us their phone number, so we called them after dinner and asked them to take us to their favorite kava bar. They took us to Ronnie's, which we had read in a book was the place all the ex-pats and government officials liked to drink their kava. I was a little surprised that it was an open air place with plastic garden style tables and chairs on a dirt floor under some big trees with parts under a roof. I guess the word "bar" had led me to expect something else, but open air really is the coolest way to go in these parts, so it makes sense.



We all walked up to the bar and got our first bowl of kava. It was served in little plastic bowls, something like you'd use to serve cereal to a five year old back home, and looked exactly like muddy water. It got scooped into the bowls out of a big plastic bucket. It tasted pretty much like muddy water with pepper added. Truly vile, but we had read enough to expect that and knew to just slug it down and not sip and savor. Even having been forwarned, I was surprised at just how bad it tasted. It's giving me shivers writing this thinking about it. Ugh. Anyway, I thought the effects were quite nice. The first bowl made my mouth a bit numb and gave me a very mellow feeling. The second bowl gave me a nice little happy glow, much like a second glass of wine. I decided to stop there because we'd just had a big dinner (we found out later that you're supposed to eat after having kava) and one of the bad effects of the kava is that it will upset your stomach if you drink too much. As we sat there having a nice conversation with Rueben and James, I became of all the spitting going on around me. It does leave a nasty taste in your mouth, so apparenlty spitting on the ground next to your chair is considered perfectly acceptable. Then I noticed some people getting their kava and taking it to a trough that seemed to be built for that very purpose. They'd drink their kava, take a sip of some beverage, and spit it out into the trough, then repeat the rinse and spit then rinse their bowl and return it to the bar. This was all well and good, but I'm glad that I was completely oblivious to the fact that there was a gentleman a few tables over who was occasionally leaning to one side of his chair and throwing up. Yes, I'm really glad I missed that part!



After a bit Rueben and James drove us back to the dinghy dock and we all went home and slept like babies. Kava was traditionally used for ceremonies and rituals, and women were not allowed in the same room as the kava bowl. Now, it is touted by many people in the US as a cure for anxiety, insomnia and back pain. After talking to lots of people here in Vanuatu, I'd say it's just considered the normal thing to drink after work with your friends. It's kava time, so you go have a few "shells" before dinner.



We also did a day of diving at Port Vila. We dove a wreck in the harbour called the Star of Russia. This was an old sailing ship designed by the same people who built the Titanic. This was my first time inside a wreck and I just wasn't super impressed. The visibility in the water was not great and another group of divers went into the wreck before us and I think they stirred up a bunch of silt, so it just seemed like swimming amongst a bunch of sharp things without seeing much. We have a lot of supposedly good wreck diving coming up so I was sad to be so nonplussed by this first experience, but decided to wait and see, and since then we've done some truly awesome wreck diving, but I'll get to that later. The next dive was on some very nice coral just outside the harbor.

Sorry, for some unknown reason we took no pics in Port Vila.

Vanuatu, Tanna

We did it. We stood on the rim of an active volcano in Vanuatu. We heard it rumble and saw sparks and some pretty big chunks of lava fly up out of it into the air. It was pretty impressive, and a little bit scary, but not terrifying as I had read it can be, and as I'm sure it is when the volcano is more active. I was a bit concerned when our guide pulled us aside when we first got to the rim and said, very calmly, "When the volcano goes off don't be in a big hurry to run. Stop and look to see where the lava is going and only run if some is coming towards you". Don't be in a big hurry to run? RUN? I might need to run from lava? On this skinny volcanic lip that has little lava rocks sticking up everywhere? Seriously?

Volcano rim with lava rocks

Well, I guess sometimes people do have to run because those lava rocks on the rim weren't placed there by some landscape designer, they got there when the volcano blew them out. However, the day we visited the wind was pretty stong at our backs and the lava chunks that reached our height stayed comfortably far away horizontally, which was fine with me. I was also happy that we weren't seeing a big lake of smoldering lava when we looked down into the volcano, which was what I had imagined. Actually, I had hoped to see just that before we got there, but once I saw how skinny the rim we were walking on was and how steep down both sides went, I was pleased to see that if I fell off into the volcano there was a big rim about 50 feet down to catch me. Now, I'm sure it's warm on that rim, but not as warm as molten lava, and I was grateful for it.

Lava fireworks



But I'm getting ahead of myself here, let me go back some and tell you about our stay from the beginning. We had a nice calm four day passage from Fiji to Vanuatu with unusually large seas being the only real problem. These waves had been kicked up by some bad weather farther south of us. We motorsailed most of the way trying to get in before some thunderstorms which were on the way reached us. As we were approaching the harbour, Fred saw a bunch of birds working the water near us and Jeff threw in the fishing line and caught a little skipjack tuna almost immediately. We find that skipjack tuna is delicious when eaten the first day, but gets bit strong tasting the next day, so catching a little one is perfect, and we had just enough for dinner for four. Jeff made a great stirfry with this one, which we all enjoyed, while also enjoying our first dinner in four days where we could put our plates down on the table without having them fly off into our laps. On passages most our meals are eaten out of bowls while we brace ourselves in the cockpit.



We got into Port Resolution on Tanna at about 4 PM. We enjoyed some arrival cocktails while we got the sails covered and the lines coiled and the shade awnings put up and caught our breath. We also enjoyed knowing that nobody would have to get up in the middle of the night for watch duty. No matter how good a passage goes, I'm always happy for it to be over and can just feel myself relax.



The next day we went ashore to see if we would be able to check into the country on Saturday. Some places you can, but you usually have to pay an extra fee. We pulled the dinghy up on the beach and Fred went up to the yacht club to make enquiries, but the place was deserted. In the meantime a very nice gentleman named Phillip came down to the beach to say hello. I was surprised out how excellent his English was. We had read that there are more than 100 local languages in Vanuatu, and that the common language, Bislama, was a form of pidgen english that includes some French and spanish words thrown in for good measure. We read that the correct way to refer to the Pope in Bislama is "numba wan Jesus man". So, given that and that Tanna is a fairly remote island in Vanuatu, I was afraid we would have a very hard time understanding anyone, but Phillip's English was outsanding. Possibly better than mine. He explained that he was not from Port Resolution, but had come over from a nearby village for church services. He was a member of the Seventh Day Adventist church and their services were held on Saturday. He told us that we would not be able to check into the country until Monday, but that it was OK for us to walk around the local village and the nearby areas before then. This was good news, since sitting the on the boat for two whole days was not super appealing. Phillip was nice enough to walk up us the trail a bit and point us towards the village, which really was a village. This is one of the few places I've been which really seemed like a village. Most of the houses were made of local materials. The walls were woven from leaves with a very nice diamond pattern on them. A few of the homes had some corrugated tin for some of the walls, and some had concrete foundations, but most of them looked probably as they looked 100 years ago.

We saw a gal walk across a field with some buckets and fill them up with water from a well, and saw another lady doing her laundry in some similar buckets under a tree. Everyone we saw was very friendly and gave us a big smile and some came up and introduced themselves to us and welcomed us to their village, which I thought was very nice.



We walked across the peninsula and came to a lovely beach with fringing reefs which formed a safe, shark free place for swimming, and there was a big group of kids down a ways having a grand time playing in the water. There were some homemade benches under some shade trees here and we sat down there to admire the view. Johnson came up then and introduced himself to us. He said he was the one in the village in charge of people on yachts and he would arrange us a car on Monday to take us across to Lenakel, on the opposite side of the island, so we could check in. He also said we were welcome to enjoy the village until then. Ashley and Fred took a quick dip and then we headed back to the boat to rest up a bit more. Sunday was mostly spent relaxing also.

Swiming hole

On Monday we went ashore and climbed into the back of a Toyota pickup that had very skinny benches built all around the outside edges and a big metal cage overhead with a rain covering over it. We were told it was two hour ride to Lenakel. we went about half a mile and then stopped to pick up a lady with a live chicken and a few kids. We went another half a mile and stopped to pick up some more people. Another half a mile and we stopped for a few more people. We began to suspect that the trip to Lenakel wasn't very far distance wise, but it would take two hours because we were going to make a million stops. Eventually, when there were 16 of us plus the chicken in the back, the driver must have decided he had a full load and we were off to Lenakel. I passed out some bubble gum and everyone had a good time trying to blow the biggest bubble. My pathetic efforts were greeted with gracious smiles. After we asked a few questions about what we were passing everyone began calling things out as we went along. Schools, Churchs, and markets abounded. We also went through ash plains generated by the volcano. They looked like big grey sand dunes. Then the road got pretty steep and there were a few times that the truck was slipping and sliding and I thought we might have to get out and push, but our driver, David, got us through it each time without any assistance from us.

Bubble blowing contest

We were pretty happy to get out of the truck and stretch our legs when we reached Lenakel. We hit the bank, then Fred went and checked us into the country officially, then James, our guide for the day, took us to the market where they had all the taro and kava you would ever want for sale, but not a whole lot else. We did buy some sweet bread pastries that were for sale, but passed on the rest. Next we stuck our heads in the some of the small stores next to the market. For some reason, Lenakel has at least 20 stores, most of which are tiny. There were lots of big bags of rice, and local sugar, and then a very random selection of other non-perishable items. We saw some Pringles in one store, and were excited until we got a look at the flavors. I kid you not when I say that the three flavors were Soft Shell Crab, Shrimp and Blueberry with Hazelnut. Has anyone else ever seen these? I certainly hadn't. We decided to pass on them and got back in the car for the long bumpy ride home.

Lenakel outdoor market

Later that day the same truck came to get us and we went to the volcano. This time we were accompanied by only our guide, a few young boys, and two rather serious looking fellows with machetes. I offered the bubble gum around again and was surprised that the machete weilding chaps were vert excited to get some. They did not look nearly so menacing once they were chewing gum. They got off fairly soon, but the kids came with us to the volcano and had a great time. They were running around rolling rocks down the side of the volcano. Jeff called it lava bowling. Then as we were walking down from the high point of the rim we looked up to see them doing a truly crazy dance and laughing their heads off above us on the rim. It was great.

Dancing boys

We arrived at the volcano in the late afternoon, while it was still light, then walked around a bit and picked our spot for later. James gave us our briefing and showed us some photos on his digital camera that he had taken the night before, so we would have some idea what to expect. Once it got dark the real show started. They call it fireworks and I can see why. It really did look like someone was lighting an enormous roman candle down there. Then a big boom would come and everyone would gasp and that's when the larger chunks of lava would come flying out. The closes one came to us was to land on the big lower rim below us, but it was a pretty amazing show.



On the jolting truck ride home in the dark I started thinking how ironic it was that James had a cell phone and a digital camera but the cooking in the village was done over open fires and the laundry is done in buckets. I had seen one bank of solar panels in the village about the size of a big door, and a wind generator, and I expect there were some mechanical generators as well, so I guess it makes sense that you could have small electronic devices when you don't have running water or propane tanks, but given that we'd read that in Vanuatuan society the women are expected to do almost all the work, while the men make almost all the decisions, I suspected that the housekeeping conveniences simply aren't given a very high priority. If we had had more time to spend in Port Resolution I may have come away with a different impression, but then again, maybe I would have found that the huts had big screen TVs inside and been even more convinced of my half-baked theory. In any case I would have been happy to spend more time in Port Resolution getting to know the friendly folks there and finding answers to some of my questions, but our time in Vanuatu is going to be limited because we need to leave here and head north out of the cyclone area before the cyclone season begins in December, so on Tuesday we pulled up the anchor and headed off to Port Vila.

We had downloaded weather information and were expecting 10-20 knot winds for this 130 mile sail, but instead we got more like 20-30 knots and quite a bumpy ride. Fortunately it was only an overnight sail, as it was a bit unpleasant. The harbour in Port Vila is very protected and we felt like somebody had turned the wind off as we came in. We were able to pick up a moooring ball in the harbour and have been enjoying the town very much, but I'll write more about that in my next entry. Our current plans are to stay here till Tuesday to do some minor repairs and take advantage of the excellent stores here, then head north to Santo where there is some very good wreck diving.



As always, we hope all is well with all of you!



Arived in Vanuatu

We made it safe to Vanuatu. Anchored in Port Resolution on Tanna at about 4 PM. Have not left the boat yet, but looking forward to checking out the local scene tomorrow. Also looking forward to an full night's sleep - no getting up in the middle of the night for watch tonight!

Sailing to Vanuatu

As of Friday morning Fiji time, which is Thursday afternoon US time, we are about 200 miles away from Vanuatu. Hopefully we'll be able to reach the anchorage Friday before dark. The trip has been pretty uneventful so far - which is just how I like a passage to be! Fairly light winds and big waves, but we are motorsailing right along making good time. We plan to check in on the island of Tanna so we can visit it's active volcano. I just hope it's not too active while we are there!