by Judy Handley | Aug 27, 2007 | Sailing Logs Year 2, Vanuatu |
Day 125, Year 2: The Move to Sakao Island
Date: Monday, August 27, 2007
Weather: Total Cloud Cover and Rain Still With Us
Latitude: 16 degrees 29.898 minutes
Longitude: 167 degrees 48.351 minutes
Location: Sakao Island, Maskelyne Island Group, Vanuatu
Today/tomorrow, depending on where in the world you are, must be the first day of school for teachers back in Concord, New Hampshire. Oh, my. That is so, so far away from here in both miles and culture. During the three days of the cultural festival on Ambryn, as I watched Napong Norbert, principal of the French secondary school and organizer and leader of the festival, I wondered how students at Concord High School would react if their administrators were to step out of their role and into the
reenactment of history . . . and then this morning as I sat in the cockpit, I tried to find the words to describe an anchorage such as we were in to those who have never been here–a pond-like bay with calm waters surrounded by hillsides of green with draping vines over everything. And add to that a view out to sea. That’s the description, but it just doesn’t paint an adequate picture. From the anchorage, we could watch the “line of pearls” or breakers as they crashed in from the sea to the southeast
of us. At low tide, that “line of pearls” became a graveyard of monolithic stones rising out the sea. From the anchorage at low tide, it looked almost impossible that we had entered through that rubble of stones. The path in was not obvious once we were inside, but it was a most peaceful setting.
The peacefulness of Gaspard Bay was partially broken this morning when Donna on Scot Free II called to let us know that a five-foot gray shark, along with a much smaller one, both with no markings, had just gone past their boat. Just knowing those creatures are about in the waters makes me nervous, and even more so since we were getting ready to move just about a half mile to Sakao Island to go snorkeling. I could only hope the sharks stayed in Gaspard.
Scot Free decided to move on to Uliveo Island and skip snorkeling at Sakao. They moved out of Gaspard around 9 AM. Mark spent his morning working on the dingy engine. This required him to run round and round the anchorage to try out the motor, and in doing so, he met a couple from New Zealand aboard Windchase. They wintered over in Australia last year and got there by joining the rally that leaves Vanuatu and New Caledonia in late October. They were a wealth of information, and confirmed our
thoughts about joining that rally.
Mid-morning, Ranger and Windbird made the move to Sakao Island. We could see it from Gaspard, but the closer we got the worse the weather and the harder to see. The misty rain was so heavy it looked like a light Maine fog. But once we were close, we could see the village mooring balls we were to tie-on to. We came in first and tied off to one of the mooring balls. As Ranger approached, the winds increased, and they had difficulty holding on to their mooring line. Their boat hook broke in two
under the pressure and Mark had to get in the dinghy and go to help. They got attached to the mooring ball, and then Mark went in to shore to check with the New Zealanders who are here building a catamaran for Chief Willie. He wanted to make sure we had both tied to the mooring correctly. They assured Mark that we would be fine, so we went about boat chores on this rainy, rainy day. Not a good day for land trekking or snorkeling, so catching up on boat maintenance sounded like a good idea. An
hour or so after we arrived, we got a radio call from Ranger. Paul had come up from below to check on things and discovered that they had broken away from the mooring and were headed toward the reef right in front of them. They were successful in starting the engine and pulling away, but they were obviously shaken. Only a few seconds more and they would have been stranded on a reef or washed ashore. After taking a few minutes to recover, they decided to come back and try again. They had the
mooring tie-off still on their boat. The tie-off had evidently disengaged itself from the mooring line and needed to be retied. Mark got back in the dinghy to go help and this time he ended up in the water with a snorkel mask to check the tie-offs. I didn’t do a laundry today, but we have a full complement of wet clothing from all of Mark’s excursions.
The knowledge that Ranger’s mooring broke loose has us all a bit nervous tonight. The wind is pushing us one direction while the current is pushing another. With land on one side and reefs ahead and behind, breaking loose from our mooring could be disastrous. We will sleep lightly tonight with regular checks on our position.
The weather just wasn’t conducive to a trip ashore, so we will do that in the morning–even if the weather is still yucky. We suspect that this weather is here for a few days which is unfortunate, but maybe by tomorrow morning we will have convinced ourselves that rain is no problem. Scot Free II reached their destination on nearby Uliveo and we will talk with them in the morning at 8 AM to exchange information about our two anchorages. Paul and Marie came over in the late afternoon and we discussed
strategies for where-to next. After going ashore, and hopefully snorkeling on the reef here, we will make a decision about where to move and when. In the meantime, we will just enjoy our time here on Windbird in Sakao.
by Judy Handley | Aug 26, 2007 | Sailing Logs Year 2, Vanuatu |
Day 124, Year 2: Rainy Day in South Malekula
Date: Sunday, August 25, 2007
Weather: Rain, Rain, Go Away
Location: Gaspard Bay, South Malekula Island, Vanuatu
It was another rainy day in paradise. Early in the season, we had heard that by the time we reached Vanuatu, the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) would be headed south and might possibly sit right on top of us. I’m not sure if that is what is happening, but we sure are having the kind of rainy days we had in American Samoa when the ITCZ was sitting on top of us there. There are periods of sunshine between the rainy times, but it is hard to open up the boat and get air down below. Just as
soon as you do, the rain comes again. So we are using the fans to try and keep cool. I think the humidity is about the same as the temperature, somewhere in the 80’s, and it feels very hot and sticky. But no complaints, mate. The scenery is beautiful and I actually got to see the back of a dugong this morning. Early in the morning, I kept spotting signs of underwater life across the bay. I know I saw a turtle or two surface, and I thought I might be seeing dugongs. So we went out for a slow
dinghy ride around Gaspard Bay. While deep in the bay, I did see the back of a dugong surface, but only once, and only for a short time. Dugongs are related to elephants and aardvarks, and look just like manatees except that dugongs have v-shaped tails much like dolphins. Manatees have a rounded tail shaped something like a beaver’s tail. They both have paddle-like fore limbs that they use to move themselves along the bottom grazing on sea grass. Dugongs are often called sea cows or sea pigs,
and the one I saw today definitely looked like a sea pig. We keep searching for these guys, but they seem to be elusive.
It was a quiet day on Windbird. After getting back from our dingy tour, both Mark and I worked on photos. I named photos and Mark started looking at all of the video we have from the festival. He would like to put together short videos of each of the dances we saw. Mid-afternoon, Mark and Gerry from Scot Free II took the dinghy across to Sakao Island to meet Chief Willie and find out about anchoring over there. There are three moorings that can be used by visiting yachts, but one is already
in use by some men from New Zealand. They are here building a catamaran for Chief Willie. Tomorrow we will move to Sakao Island and snorkel on the reef. Then on Tuesday, we will continue on to Uliveo to visit the marine reserve and giant clam farm. Of course, all of this is weather dependent. If it is still rainy, we might just stay here one more day.
We had dinner aboard Ranger tonight, along with Scot Free II. We ate some of that delicious Wahoo Paul caught on the way to North Ambryn and enjoyed the company of Paul and Marie and Donna and Gerry. Gerry has recovered from his kava overdose and Paul is holding his own with the infection in his leg. The leg is still red and swollen, but the open sore is healing nicely. We just need to figure out how to get that swelling and redness to disappear. We need some more of that Ambryn black magic.
by Judy Handley | Aug 25, 2007 | Sailing Logs Year 2, Vanuatu |
Day 123, Year 2: From Ambryn to Malekula
Date: Saturday, August 25, 2007
Weather: Mostly Overcast Day with Periods of Rain
Latitude: S 16 degrees 28.420 minutes
Longitude: E 167 degrees 49.203 minutes
Location: Gaspard Bay, South Malekula Island, Vanuatu
We traveled from the east to southwest today with northeast winds behind us. We motor sailed, sailed wing and wing, motor sailed again, and finally just motored our way into Gaspard Bay on the very southeast tip of Malekula Island. It was an easy day, only 32.5 miles from anchorage to anchorage. We traveled with Ranger and Scot Free II. Diva, Arctic Fox, and Rendezvous Cay went a little further to Awai (pronounced like Hawaii without the ‘h’). We plan to spend a few days here in the Maskelyne
Islands on the south end of Malecula, and then possibly sail up the east side of the island. All will depend on the weather, but at this point, this plan looks like it will work for us. We are hoping to visit Sakao Island here and meet Chief Willie. Travel here is all done by sailing outrigger, and we have some canvas from New Zealand that we are to deliver to him. We also hope to go down to a little island called Ulivea where there is giant clam reserve and to a snorkeling spot where the National
Geographic cruise ships go. The snorkeling is supposed to be really great. In between water excursions, we hope to spend some time just chilling out. We have been on the go ever since we arrived in Fiji in May, and some down time would be nice. But if I were a betting person, I would say that there will be no down time. Somehow we will manage to find just one more thing that we must see or do. We shall see. Right now, it is evening here and we are listening to a mix of classical music on our
MP3 player. We are in a quiet little anchorage with nothing but bird sounds and it is so peaceful. So maybe we are on the right track for down time.
We are still reeling from the experience we had at the Ambryn festival. It was just all so fantastic, but almost unreal. But there is a little side story that I must tell. After we returned from the festival yesterday, Marie and I gathered as many school supplies as we could from our two boats and Mark and I took them back to shore to give to a very young primary teacher we had met on the way back from the festival. She has 33 first and second graders and all she could say was that it is “very
hard work.” I could certainly emphasize with her and we wanted to give her supplies that might make things just a little easier for her. Mark and I then went back to Windbird to print some photos for Chief Justin. We were to meet him on the beach at 5 PM with the photos and then stay for a little kava session. We got there and delivered the photos, but Mark and I decided that we just had too much to do to get ready to leave early this morning to stay for the kava–any excuse we can make to avoid
this nasty stuff. So we said our goodbyes and left Gerry of Scot Free II, Tim of Arctic Fox, Mark of Diva, Jan of Christina, Rose, Tim, and Joe of Rendezvous Cay, and a couple from New Zealand with Chief Justin and a few locals. We heard nothing more about this until this morning, but evidently there were four rounds of kava and everyone came back to their boats pretty wasted. Some were very sick, throwing up all night, while others were just went to sleep immediately. Ambryn kava is known to
be among the strongest, and I think that might be right. Two shells (a half of a coconut shell) of Vanuatu kava are supposed to leave you fairly wasted for a couple of days. But four shells?? Obviously not a wise idea. They should have read Getting Stoned with Savages. This is one time when I am really glad we opted not to participate.
So Ambryn is behind us now and we are on to adventures here in the Maskelyne Islands on the south end of Malekula. Captain Cook named this island after his successful venture into Port Sandwich just around the corner from us. It was successful in that he didn’t get eaten. So he named it Mallicollo which I have been told translates as “bad bottom.” In the Lonely Planet guide there is a reference to this and some explanations as to why it might have been named thus. “Most stories involve mischievous
villagers, plants that contain a strong skin irritant, kava, and French sailors clutching their rear ends, shouting ‘Mal a cul!’.” After last night’s experience, I’ll go with the kava story.
by Judy Handley | Aug 24, 2007 | Sailing Logs Year 2, Vanuatu |
Day 122, Year 2: Back To My Roots Arts Festival, Day 3
Date: Friday, August 24, 2007
Weather: Mix of Liquid Sunshine and Real Sunshine
Location: Nebul (Rodd’s Bay), Ambryn Island, Vanuatu
I think we have reached the level of cultural overload, at least for a day or so. The Back To My Roots festival has been so fantastic. The Rom dance today was the culmination of the festival and it was spectacular. It is really hard to describe what we have been seeing. You need to see video to really get the picture, but I will try to paint the best picture with words that I can. The Rom dance is definitely the most striking of the dances we have seen. There were ten to twelve people dressed
in the Rom costume–a high conical mask of banana-fibre that is brilliantly painted in shades of red and green and a body costume of dried banana leaves that totally covers the body from neck to toes like a oversized sack dress. These figures stomp and sway to the beat of the large tamtams for almost two hours as the dance progresses from one area to another. All the while the group of men dressed in kastom-style are singing and dancing with their movements building to an almost frenzied-level.
It truly is one of those things that you have see to truly appreciate, and again today, we felt so privileged to be here to witness this. There were so many local people in attendance today and it was fascinating to the young children. They sat and watched, almost spell-bound by the dance, but as soon as it was over, they jumped up and started playing. I would love to know what they were thinking.
As Principal Norbert promised, the winds did not turn to the north and west. That would have made this anchorage a bit untenable. The winds stayed in the northeast and will continue in that direction tomorrow. That should nicely carry us back southwest to the southern end of Malecula island. Paul’s infection seems to be under control and he was able to attend the festival. He and Marie will sail along with us to South Malecula where we begin yet another Vanuatu cultural experience. Every island and every village is so very different from the last.
by Judy Handley | Aug 23, 2007 | Sailing Logs Year 2, Vanuatu |
Day 121, Year 2: Back To My Roots Arts Festival, Day 2
Date: Thursday, August 23, 2007
Weather: Another Beautiful Day
Location: Nebul (Rodd’s Bay), Ambryn Island, Vanuatu
Today was just so fantastic. I can hardly believe that I am really here and it is almost impossible to describe the feeling you get from deep within when watching and participating in the dances performed. You can feel the energy build as the men dance the same dance their ancestors danced long ago. The tamtam (slit drum) keeps the beat, and the rhythm of the drum and the stomping of the feet stays with you long after the dances are over. I feel so privileged to be here in Vanuatu and to be participating
in this three-day festival. Before I go into the details of the day, I want to mention that Paul on Ranger is much better. His high temperature is now back to normal and his leg is very red and sore to the touch, but he seems to be bouncing back. Christina on the yacht Christina from Sweden is here and she is a nurse. She has been overseeing the progress and is advising Paul and Marie on what medications to take. She has been wonderful, and due to Paul’s tenacity, Christina’s advice, and Marie’s
watchful eye, Paul is actually hopeful that he will be able to attend the festival tomorrow. It is a very long walk, probably two to three miles, but at least it is a fairly easy walk. He, as with all of us here, was so looking forward to attending this festival, so we really hope he can make it for the finale. Mark’s infection seems to be under control for the moment, so everyone is on the mend. I also want to mention Chief Justin. He has been our guide and “mentor” throughout the festival,
trying to help us understand what is happening and how it fits into the culture here. He was so pleased yesterday when we said we have a son with his same name. Tomorrow evening, I think he is planning on hosting a kava session for the men and will further explain the meaning of much that we have seen. Unfortunately, women cannot attend a kava session, so we will remain on our boats while the men are on the beach. Bummer!
This festival is most definitely a National Geographic moment. The kastom dress for men is the penis shield woven from Pandanus leaves. The penis covering is attached to a wide belt around the waist. Attached to the back of the belt are a myriad of leaves–each man has a different arrangement of leaves that signify his rank. There are some men with feathers attached to the top of their heads, some that wear flowers in their hair, and some with nothing in their hair. That’s it for the men. Women
wear only a grass skirt with a necklace of banana leaves that are twisted in their hands until they shred and can be woven around the shoulders and back and down the front. So hopefully you have some picture of the kastom dress. Today we witnessed a Yeng Dance which has something to do with the planting of yams and the celebration of youth. The Yeng Dance involved the carrying of a very colorful geometrically designed huge three-dimensional triangle held high above one young man’s head. It is
very heavy and he had to concentrate totally to keep it held high during the duration of the dance. Evidently there should have been a second one, but somehow they couldn’t find it, so a second young man stood beside the first, but without the beautifully decorated triangle above his head. This dance was done with half of the men wearing seed pods on a braid wrapped around their ankles. These seed pods make the most wonderful jingle when they stomp their feet. After the Yeng Dance, we were treated
to the women singing the songs they sing when a person of high rank dies. We then saw demonstrations of sand drawings. These are like repeated geometric figures with an added dimension depicting a pineapple, or sea birds, or the fruit of the yam, and on and on.
When Napong Norbert (Principal Norbert) announced that we would have a short break (lunch), Chief Sekor invited all of the women attending to come with him to visit a kastom village. No men allowed. So off we went, but we actually just walked to the opposite side of the festival area where there was a temporary hut erected and all of the women dressed in kastom style were gathered. They were inviting us to shed our clothing and put on the grass skirts that they wear. Christina was the first to
rip off her shirt, followed by Idunne of Blue Marlin, Sally Christine of Convergence, Rose of Rendezvous Cay, and Jill from New Zealand (not sure of her boat’s name). Cynthia of Arctic Fox, Donna of Scot Free II, and I were just a little more hesitant, and by the time we felt comfortable with the idea, there were no more grass skirts. She who hesitates is lost. So we took pictures while the five women were transformed into kastom dress, face painting and all. Then we found out that they would
be going back out to the festival area and dancing with the ni-Vanuatu women. Were they really ready for a public showing? Well, Rose of Rendezvous Cay chickened out, but the other four went out. It was great fun, and the local women seemed to really appreciate that people from outside would participate. Actually all of the locals really got into this and a great time was had by all. The afternoon activities included black magic demonstrations and then one last dance of the day. This was a
dance performed as part of a circumcision celebration. As it came to a close, we were all invited to come and participate. It was a great day.
After an hour and a half walk back to our dinghies, the first crew to arrive all gathered on Scot Free II’s dinghy and just sat there and talked about our day. It was then that I tried to figure out just how many of us are here. There’s Windbird, Ranger, Arctic Fox, Convergence, and Rendezvous Cay from the US, Blue Marlin from Norway, Diva and Christina from Sweden, Scot Free II of Canada, Tempe Te from Germany with crew from Switzerland, Slow Motion from Germany, and a yacht from New Zealand.
Blue Marlin has eight-year old twins, Diva has ten-year old twins and a twelve year-old, and Convergence and Arctic Fox both have fourteen-year old boys. This is only twelve boats, and I think there are actually more, but it is dark and we can’t see to figure out if there are more. Mary Christine, the single-hander from France, was here yesterday, but left today. I found out this afternoon that Randy and Sally Christine on Convergence were the original owners of West Marine and Randy is now the
Chairman of the Board. You just never know who you are going to meet out here, but whatever we all did before, the playing field is leveled out here. We are all just people on the boat next door.
We topped our day off with a dinner of yellow-fin tuna that Mark caught on the way in here. What more can a humble being ask for? Well, there is one more thing and that is good weather. We had reports of northwest winds coming our way tomorrow, and yesterday Principal Norbert promised that he would talk with the weather gods and make that not so. Northwest winds in this anchorage would not be good. So today the GRIB files are showing no northwest winds. Ambryn magic has played it’s hand once again.
by Judy Handley | Aug 22, 2007 | Sailing Logs Year 2, Vanuatu |
Day 120, Year 2: Back To My Roots Arts Festival, Day 1
Date: Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Weather: Picture Perfect Day
Location: Nebul (Rodd’s Bay), Ambryn Island, Vanuatu
Black magic, definitely black magic, took over today. We had a wonderful day at the arts festival, but then we came home. Mark downloaded all of the pictures and videos that we took today, some from his camera and some from mine, but somehow mine vanished from our computer. I have looked forward to this day for so long, and it was excruciating to know that all pictorial traces of it were gone. Cruisers are always willing to share, so I’m hopeful that I will be able to get some video from today,
as well as still photos. But I lost the pictures of Mark catching the Yellow-fin Tuna yesterday and my great photos of the volcanoes of Ambryn as we sailed up the coast. No one can replace those, so we will just have to be happy with the memories.
We went to shore before 8 AM this morning and gathered with all of the other cruisers that are here. We walked as a group through the village of Nebul and on to Magam. Here we met Chief Justin, Chief Sekor, and Principal Norbert (pronounced as Nor-bear). We didn’t know at the time that Chief Sekor and Principal Norbert would be the stars of today festival, but we did now that Chief Justin would lead us out into the bush to the festival site. It was a good hours walk on to the village of Saint
Louis (pronounced the French way) and Olal, and then on inland into the bush. Once we arrived at our destination, there was a period of “check-in” time where we all paid admittance to the festival. Finally we walked through the hanging palm-frond “gate” and entered the site. We were met there by about twenty male members of the community who were dressed in kastom style (only a leaf wrapped around the penis and attached to a belt around the waist). The belts were decorated with all sorts of natural
leaves hanging this way and that, and most had feathers on their heads attached to their hair in some fashion. They sang and stompted the Vanuatu dance as we followed them to the actual festival arena. I found this welcome dance to be most fascinating. Men who had been dressed just as we were only minutes before, transformed into the traditional kastom dress. Chief Justin stayed with us as our guide, but Chief Sekor and Principal Norbert (principal of the French secondary school three kilometers
further into the bush from the festival site) made the transformation. Principal Norbert acted as the MC of the day and he explained everything in English and then in French. It is always so embarrassing to be only an English speaker in these situations when locals speak at least three languages. We were treated today to male dances, female dances, and the Namamki Grade dance. The latter is when village chiefs advance by performing the grade dance. Today we witnessed two chiefs doing this.
The festival far exceeded my expectations. I thought that I would just be watching a tourist show, but this festival seems to be a true attempt to help the villagers remember their past, while at the same time putting on the show for tourists. On Friday, Principal Norbert will be bringing his high school students to experience this trip into their past, and I’m looking forward to meeting these young people and hopefully to talking to them about their impressions of all of this.
Paul on Ranger didn’t get to go with us today. He has a high temperature resulting from what we think is an infection on his leg. Yesterday Mark went on a course of antibiotics to fight a skin infection on the top of his foot. The slightest bite or scrape out here can result in really serious infections. Mark is holding his own, but Paul is still fighting a high fever. We can only hope that he will be better tomorrow. I doubt that he will be able to attend the festival tomorrow, but maybe by
Friday he will be able to make the trek with us. Friday’s highlight is the Rom dance with the fantastically beautiful painted masks, so I am very hopeful that Paul will be able to attend.
