by Judy Handley | Sep 2, 2007 | Sailing Logs Year 2, Vanuatu |
Day 131, Year 2: Sunny Sunday!
Date: Sunday, September 2, 2007
Weather: Sunny and Windy
Location: Banam Bay, Malekula, Vanuatu
Yeah! We finally saw the sun today after eight straight overcast, mostly dreary days. People were so excited that many of the boats here took off in the early morning, despite the windy conditions out there. We actually thought about taking off for our next destination north, but we decided to wait until tomorrow and get an early start. But then we heard from Scot Free II tonight at 6 PM on the SSB radio and what he had to report about the Port Stanley area was not all that favorable. Evidently
the anchorages where we would be going are more affected by the winds than indicated in the cruising guides, so we are going to sit tight one more day and then head north. The underwater world here offers much to explore, so we will just busy ourselves with that tomorrow and head north on Tuesday when the winds are supposed to subside.
We went with Paul and Marie on Ranger for a walk on the beach this morning. We were looking for shells and each found a couple of really nice ones. Of course, we picked up more than those couple, so the shell collection is growing. Mark, Marie, and I then went snorkeling in the afternoon. Paul is still recovering from the infection on his leg, but now that we are staying here one more day, he is thinking that he might be able to snorkel tomorrow. Even though the sun was shining this afternoon,
the underwater world didn’t look much different than it did yesterday in the rain. We heard from New Dawn this evening that the snorkeling way out on the reef is good for seeing large fish, so that is what we will explore tomorrow.
Dinner tonight was on Ranger. The food was fabulous and we talked mostly about our next few days. We didn’t get to the topic of Australia which is what we had both hoped to talk about. We will be there before we know it, so at some point, I know we will begin planning for that arrival.
Early this morning one of the New Zealand boats in the anchorage announced that today was Father’s Day in New Zealand. He also announced that since most cruisers are out here without children, that all mothers should be at the beck and call of fathers today. That elicited a number of rather negative comments from women, so that is the last we heard of New Zealand Father’s Day. Later today we heard from our daughter and found out that our grand baby Sam just cut his tooth. Can’t believe he is old enough to have teeth.
by Judy Handley | Sep 1, 2007 | Sailing Logs Year 2, Vanuatu |
Day 130, Year 2: Taking the Day Off
Date: Saturday, September 1, 2007
Weather: Rain and More Rain . . . No Sunshine
Location: Banam Bay, Malekula, Vanuatu
I can’t believe it is already September. I also can’t believe it is still raining. But it is. We are trying to make the best of this dreary time by catching up on photo naming and backing up photo albums on CD. That was our day except for an hour and a half snorkel in the afternoon. You can still snorkel in the rain and we once again enjoyed the underwater world here in Banam Bay. We think we will go out again tomorrow. The weather doesn’t show a break until Wednesday, but we are still hopeful
that we can move north on Monday. But we will still be here tomorrow and enjoy what we can.
Tonight we actually watched a movie – a real rarity on Windbird! We watched The Fellowship of the Ring and enjoyed it tremendously. I can’t quote it exactly, but Gandolf’s words of wisdom were something to the effect that you don’t have the power over how long you live but you do have the power of how you spend the time you are given. Powerful thought!
by Judy Handley | Aug 31, 2007 | Sailing Logs Year 2, Vanuatu |
Day 129, Year 2: We Love Nana
Date: Friday, August 31, 2007
Weather: Light Showers, Clouds, and Wind . . . With Just a Bit of Sunshine
Location: Banam Bay, Malekula, Vanuatu
Today was a fantastic day here in Banam Bay, but the most exciting part of the day for us was an email from our daughter telling us that our grand baby Sam had a good first week with Nana. She is his primary care giver in the day care home Heather and Jed chose for him. Heather has to return to work next week, so this was the “trial” week. Evidently Sam is bonding nicely with Nana and that is fantastic news. We haven’t met Nana, but we definitely appreciate her.
The weather here continues to be challenging, but despite the clouds and periodic light showers, we had a great morning ashore. We went in at 10 AM. Chief Saitol met us this morning and we were then given time to again peruse the collection of shells for sale. We are learning about all of the different types of shells from Ross and Laura on New Dawn. They are a young couple from Anchorage, Alaska, and they have been studying the various shells that are common out here. They have definitely pricked
our interest, so when we returned to Windbird today, we got the only shell identification books we have aboard and started trying to name the shells we have. Yet another new thing we need to learn!
We had ordered bread yesterday and two very warm loaves were given to us when we arrived on shore this morning. We ate fresh bread and bought shells, and then got ready for the dance performances. We were led to the nasara by a young man who served as our guide. As we had read in the Lonely Planet, the men here have a culture club and present kastom (custom) dances for visitors. When we first arrived, all of the men lined up to shake our hands just as in a wedding reception line. The chief gave
a welcoming speech and then we got to see the welcome dance, a grade-taking dance where a chief rises from one rank to another, the dance celebrating the birth of a son, and a circumcision ceremonial dance. The men wear a leaf wrapped around the penis that is attached to a bark belt. That is the kastom dress for the Little Nambas. After the four dances, we were led out of the nasara to see the women and children dance. The kastom dress for women here is a skirt of thin strips of Pandanus leaves.
Little girls wore the same, but the little boys wore nothing. We saw the dance welcoming a new girl child and then the women attending were invited to dance. At the end of the women’s dance performances, we lined up to shake their hands and were then led back into the nasara to hear the chief’s parting remarks. Those of us attending were then asked to each introduce ourselves and say something about where we are from and our impressions of the performances. The men then lined up to shake our
hands. When the man who had been lead drummer for the day came to shake my hand, I asked him about his small bamboo slit drum. I wanted to know if it was called a tamtam like the big slit drums. He then insisted that I take his drum to keep. There are all sorts of requirements for gift giving here, but I was assured that it was okay to take the drum. I was delighted, but I hope to be able to give the man something in return tomorrow.
We returned to Windbird and had lunch and then went out to explore the snorkeling possibilities. The area close to the outer reef was not good as the water was just too cloudy, so we came back into the inner bay and snorkeled over some very nice bommies. I once again saw a few fish I had never seen before and look forward to going back tomorrow and seeing these “newbies” one more time. If the weather information we are receiving is correct, I might have four more days here to check out the new
fish. It looks like high winds and seas until Tuesday, so we will just have to kick back and relax and continue to enjoy this lovely bay and its gracious people.
by Judy Handley | Aug 30, 2007 | Sailing Logs Year 2, Vanuatu |
Day 128, Year 2: From Sakoa Island to Banam Bay, Southeast Malekula
Date: Thursday, August 30, 2007
Weather: Rain, Clouds, and Lots of Wind–Just E of SE 25 knots
Latitude: S 16 degrees 20.358 minutes
Longitude: E 167 degrees 45.305 minutes
Location: Banam Bay, Malekula, Vanuatu
The sea doesn’t allow you to get sloppy. We know this, but sometimes we need a reminder. Well, we got the reminder today. We left Sakao in the Maskelyne Islands just on the south coast of Malekula this morning, and knowing we were only going to be out three or four hours, we didn’t secure things like we would for a major passage. We knew it would be windy once we got out of our secure little bubble on the north side of Sakao Island, and we knew that there would be two to three meter seas. But
still we didn’t latch everything down. Big mistake. Everything on deck was fine. It was down in the main cabin that we had the problem. As we headed out of the pass between Malekula and the Maskelyne Islands, the winds started building quickly, and along with the winds, the seas. We hadn’t bothered to put up the mainsail as we thought we would be headed downwind and would probably just use the headsail. So we had nothing to stabilize us, and all of a sudden, “Whammo.” It was that old time
rock and roll with Windbird rolling far to starboard and then far to port. Everything not tied down went flying. The oven door flew open and my precious cooking stone flew out and broke in two pieces. But at least it didn’t shatter. I can still use it with a bit of care. Other things went flying, but nothing else broke, so we were lucky that our sloppiness didn’t result in more damage. We altered course to ease the rolling a bit and finally got the headsail out. That helped tremendously.
And even though the rest of the trip was an adventure with fairly steady 25 knot winds and gusts to 34, we made it to Banam Bay with no other “little” disasters. On days like this, I always want to blare the song, “Old Time Rock and Roll” from our tiny little speakers, but I still don’t have that song on CD or on the MP3 player. We definitely have to get that when we fly home from Australia. Since we are not quite half way home yet, I know we will have many more rocky and rolly days.
As we rounded Bangon Point, we could see four sailboats at anchor in Banam Bay–Cynthia, Tim, and their son Cameron on Arctic Fox, Donna and Gerry on Scot Free II, Laurel and Jason on Monkey’s Business, and Ross and Lauren on New Dawn. Ranger was coming in with us, so now there would be six boats. Tim on Arctic Fox had talked with us on the SSB this morning and told us that the villagers had invited everyone to a kastom (custom) dance this afternoon, followed by a tasting of local foods–the ever
famous laplap of Vanuatu. This is grated cassava or manioc root that is wrapped in leaves and baked in an earth oven. It has the consistency of baked polenta, but the taste is different. So we arrived in Banam Bay, tried to get the boat back in order after the mayhem of the rowdy sail, and then headed to shore with Ranger for the afternoon festivities. Once we got to shore, it was a short walk to the first village. I think this village is called Vetgot. There is a larger village, Fartapo with
Chief Saitol further around the bay, but Chief Saitol’s son, John Eady and his wife, Lena Owen, have established a little resort in Vetgot and they welcomed us and announced that we would have laplap today, but dancing tomorrow. It was just too rainy for dancing today. They have a little thatch-roofed shed where they had beautiful shells, shell necklaces, and vegetables on display for us to purchase. And they actually had a few plastic chairs so that some of us could sit while we slowly met the
locals and started to talk. It is not as easy here as it was in Fiji to talk to the locals as many times they speak very little English. Many speak French and the rest speak Bislama, the pidgeon English that is hard for us to understand. But despite the language problems, we did make connections with some of the people. A couple of the young men were very charismatic and fun to talk with. There are about thirty young men here that make up the “Hefa Sar Culture Club.” Many of the young men were
sitting under the shed with us today and tomorrow they will present their Small Nambas kastom dance. We can’t wait to see how this differs from what we saw on Ambrym. We understand that only tourists are allowed inside the nasara for the men’s dance. The local women and children will dance outside the nasara, but are not allowed inside. We’ll find out more about this tomorrow.
It started raining when we were about half way here on our sail from Sakao, and it continued to rain through the afternoon. In fact, it is still raining enough that we can’t open the hatches. Just when you think you can, another little rain comes along. It has been days since we have seen either the sun or the moon. Early this morning the sun broke through for a few minutes, but that was it. It looks like we are in for a few more days of this overcast weather. We just have to ignore this ugly
weather and enjoy this fabulous country despite the non-cooperation from the weather.
We got a surprise last night in the form of an email from Margaret and Patrick of Aqua Magic. We sailed with them last year as far as the Marquesas, but we haven’t seen them since. They are currently in Australia and are planning much the same trip back to England that we are planning for getting back to the US. It was great to hear from good friends. We have also heard from Doug on Sylvie on Windcastle this week. They are currently back in California getting ready for Sylvie’s son’s wedding
in September. In October, Doug and Sylvie plan to be married and they will return to New Zealand in January and prepare for the continuation of their Pacific cruising in the 2008 season. We probably won’t see them until we are all back in the US, but it is wonderful to keep in touch.
by Judy Handley | Aug 29, 2007 | Sailing Logs Year 2, Vanuatu |
Day 127, Year 2: Snorkeling–Someone Just Has To Do It
Date: Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Weather: Continued Total Cloud Cover; No Rain
Location: Sakao Island, Maskelyne Island Group, Vanuatu
Today is what I would call a low-activity day for us, although we have managed to be quite busy throughout the day starting at 6:20 AM. That is the time that the weather is on the Rag of the Air radio net. We have heard all kinds of horror stories about high winds, so we thought we would tune-in and check the Rag’s information against the information we are getting from our GRIB files. The GRIBS show wind, but not a good sense of sea state. I actually listened to the net from bed this morning.
For the first time in days, maybe weeks, I could lie there with no fan on and actually have the sheet over me without perspiring profusely. The winds from the southeast are bringing cooler weather. Cooler is a relative term out here. It is not really cool, but the difference between 76 and 82 degrees F is huge. By 7:30 AM I was sending emails and by 8:00 AM we were on our own little local net on the radio talking with Maggie Drum back in Port Vila and Scot Free II here in the Maskelyne Islands
but at a different anchorage. Maggie Drum and White Swan are staying in Port Vila because of the increased trade winds, and Scot Free II was moving on today from here in the Maskelyne Islands up the east coast of Malekula. We check in every morning hoping to keep track of where friends are out here. The single-side band/HAM radio is invaluable to us out here for boat to boat communication.
My goals today were not too lofty. I just wanted to name more photos and go snorkeling. Mark’s goal was to continue to try and figure out why our electrical system is not working “quite right.” We are having to run the motor way more than usual to get our batteries fully charged and we are just not quite sure why. Paul on Ranger’s goal today was to install a 12-volt light in Chief Willie’s boat shed. So Mark and Paul headed to the island to install the light Paul and Marie were donating. They
got it stalled but Chief Willie didn’t think the light was bright enough. That was probably true, but it was a little disappointing that he was not more pleased. It was the best that could be done with current supplies. The light they installed was a cabin light, a quite expensive one at that. I know Chief Willie really appreciated the effort, but it would have made everyone feel just a little better had he been more openly grateful. While Paul and Mark were onshore, Marie stayed here on Windbird
and tried to help me name fish photos. I’ll call this the “Name That Fish” game. I thought it would be easier with two of us, but actually it took longer. It is so hard to fit the photos to the exact fish, and even harder when two people have two differing opinions. We could get to the right family most of the time, but there are so many varieties that pinning the name exactly is very hard. I’ll continue this task alone using the wonderful resource book, Reef and Shore Fishes of the South Pacific,
given to us by our good friends, Linda, Mike, and Garrett Stuart back in Concord, New Hampshire. They brought it to us when they came to visit in Rarotonga last year and it has been the envy of other cruisers ever since. Once again, thank you to the Stuarts. We think of you each and every time we open that book.
Once Paul and Mark returned from the island, we all discussed where to from here. We had thought we might go to the next island just south of here, Ulivea, but that is where Scot Free II and Arctic Fox have been and they found it a little worrisome with the high winds. The way we are tucked in here we can’t tell that there are high winds around us until we try to cross the pass to go snorkeling. But Donna on Scot Free II said it is hard to sleep in the Uliveo anchorage for fear of dragging anchor
and hitting the reef. So they left there today, coming past us, and headed back out to the east side of Malekula to Banam Bay. After talking with Ranger, we thought we might leave here and do the same. We will go to Banam tomorrow which is only about a sixteen mile trip. If we leave early, we will get there before noon. Our plan is to then leave there the next day and head further north up the coast of Malekula to the Port Stanley area. That might be as far north as we go before heading back
to Port Vila, but we will just have to see how things go.
The afternoon was filled with snorkeling. To get to the reef, we have to cross the pass between this island and the mainland. We aren’t feeling the high winds in the anchorage here, but once in the pass we know the winds are real. Snorkeling yesterday and again today was a little challenging with the wind waves, but we once again had a wonderful array of sea life in front of us under the water. Paul’s leg infection is still keeping him out of the water, so he manned the dinghy while Mark, Marie,
and I snorkeled. We saw those beautiful orange to pink to red to purple Anthias that we saw yesterday. They are so beautiful. We enjoyed the bright red sea fans and the dark red feather duster sea stars. We could probably snorkel this reef day after day and find more treasures, but we will move on tomorrow morning with the possibility of returning here on our way south.
Our tentative plan is to head north along the coast of Malekula to an area of islands off Port Stanley. We will then make the final decision as to whether we go further north to Espiritu Santo island or to start our trek back to Port Vila on Efate. The latter is more likely, and from there we will wait for the weather window to leave Vanuatu and head further south to New Caledonia. In less than two months from now, we will be leaving Noumea, New Caledonia for Australia. That will be the end of
another wonderful season of Pacific cruising. We could spend years out here, but we both want to keep moving to get back home in the next two to three years. We are not yet half way around the world. There is so much to see that you could spend an entire lifetime in the South Pacific and still not see it all. Our love of the sea and its fantastic offerings is very strong, but our deep love of family calls us home.
PS We haven’t seen a trace of the recent full moon. The trough we are in has completely shielded us from any sighting of stars or moon. But the moon is still bright enough to light up the clouds and give us some viability. We think this is the first time in our voyage that we have not been able to enjoy a full moon. Maybe this is just more of Vanuatu’s black magic.
by Judy Handley | Aug 28, 2007 | Sailing Logs Year 2, Vanuatu |
Day 126, Year 2: Life Ashore and Underwater in Sakao
Date: Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Weather: Still Total Cloud Cover But No Rain Today
Location: Sakao Island, Maskelyne Island Group, Vanuatu
After Ranger’s close call with the reef yesterday, we were all very thankful for a quiet night. Once we were sure Ranger’s tie to the mooring was not going to break loose again, we were all a little more at ease, but Mark was still nervous about the size of the line holding us to our mooring. Today, he added a heavier line and now we all feel a little more secure. We have heard reports of very strong southeast winds heading this direction, but we are nicely tucked in here at Sakao. We decided
not to make a move today, but maybe tomorrow.
Mark spent his early morning working on the dinghy engine. When we were in Samoa last year, he and our son Justin had to get into the carburetor to clean it, and that was once again the case today. The carburetor was filthy, so now that it is cleaned, we are hoping that our dinghy engine is once again just fine. Once that task was done, it was time to go into the village here. Ranger picked us up since we still we not sure about the reliability of our dinghy engine, and we went to shore together.
Chief Willie met us once we were ashore. We met his mother and his daughter-in-law and youngest grandchild. We took pictures and talked with them for a bit and then we met one of Willie’s youngest children, Noelin. She is eleven and a most charismatic young woman. She is on holiday from school on the island of Uliveo and she decided to become our guide as we walked on the island. We walked through the village and then on to the end of the island to the medical clinic. It is at the top of a
hill. No one was there, but we could see that it does have minimal provisions. Noelin and her cousin Nika, who is eight, continued to lead us up to the top of a knoll where Dr. Hank lives. He is not on the island right now, but we really enjoyed the view of the islands from his home. We walked back toward the clinic where Noelin and Nika stopped to fill their water containers from the clinic rain water tanks, and then we all headed back to the village. Willie and family had asked if we had 9-volt
batteries, sugar, rice, and flour that we could trade in return for use of the moorings. We promised to return in the afternoon with those items and with copies of some of the pictures we were taking.
We returned to our boats, had lunch, and gathered provisions to take back to the village. Noelin and her cousin Nika, plus Nika’s younger brother, came out to visit in an outrigger. They were very polite and we loved having them aboard as guests. We all went back to shore together. It was great fun distributing the pictures we had taken and visiting with everyone. We learned that Chief Willie’s wife was working on the other side of the island in the garden today so we will hope to meet her tomorrow.
When we returned to the boats, we prepared to go snorkeling. One of the reasons we came here was to give Chief Willie some canvas from Dr, Geoff back in New Zealand, and the other reason was to snorkel in the area here where we had read that the National Geographic tour boats bring its passengers. We snorkeled first in front of the village where we found loads of fish but not such great coral, and then we went in a dinghy across the channel where we found a great little reef. One of the first
things we saw was a beautiful lion fish that Mark was able to photograph. We saw other fish that we had never seen before and lots of small sea fans, just beginning to grow.
We had Paul and Marie over for dinner tonight and we think we might stick around here in the Am, at east long enough to snorkel out on the reef one more tme.
