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