by Judy Handley | Aug 21, 2007 | Sailing Logs Year 2, Vanuatu |
Day 119, Year 2: Arrival in Rodd’s Bay, Ambryn Island
Date: Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Weather: Mostly Overcast
Latitude: S 16 degrees 06.561 minutes
Longitude: E 168 degrees 07.716 minutes
Location: Nebul (Rodd’s Bay), Ambryn Island, Vanuatu
We were up at first light and pulling up Windbird’s anchor by 6 AM. The day was overcast, but the sun continually tried to break through. Lamen Bay was hard to leave. It is definitely my favorite Vanuatu anchorage thus far, but other anchorages call. Last night at sunset, Mark called me up to the cockpit to see the Lamen islanders sailing their outrigger canoes from the mainland back to Lamen Island. They sailed right between the boats in the anchorage with their coconut palm-leaf sails. I love
it. If your sails wear out, you just go get another palm leaf. So simple and so beautiful.
As we motored out of Lamen Bay this morning, we could see the perfect volcanic cone island of Lepevi, a volcano that last erupted in 2003. We then set sail in 20 knots of ESE wind and had a delightful broad reach sail up the southwest coast of Ambryn. We could see Christina and Blue Marlin off to our starboard and Ranger off to port. Hanging over Ambryn there were thick clouds above both Mt. Marum and Mt. Benbow, Ambryn’s two active volcanoes. They spew volcanic ash out over the island making
it very difficult to grow food. Water is also scarce as drilling a well could result in molten lava instead of water. Ambryn is home to Vanuatu black magic. According to the Lonely Planet, “Sorcerers (man blong majik or man blong posen) are feared and despised. Many islanders have seen too many unexplained happenings and would treat anyone who is found practising black magic severely.” So why would we want to go to such a place? Well, first of all, magic performed for tourists is not considered
black. So that’s a good thing. We are specifically going to the Back To My Roots mini-arts festival near the village of Olal at the very top of the island. Here we will see the Rom dance. The costume for this dance is quite elaborate with dancers wearing tall cone-shaped painted masks with their bodies covered in banana leaves. We will see the wood carvings of Ambryn islanders, as well as tamtams (wooden slit drums), the black tree fern carvings, a variety of musical instruments, and on and
on. I am particularly interested in the musical instrument that is a single-string bow played like a jew’s harp. You pluck it with a coconut leaf. I just have to see and hear this.
When we left Epi Island we were not exactly sure where we would anchor and how we would get to the festival, but we had heard that about 30 other boats were planning to attend. Olal, where the festival was advertised to take place, doesn’t have a good anchorage, so we knew we would have to anchor before we got there. With the help of other sailors already at anchor, we found a place in Rodd’s Bay just before the northern tip of Ambryn. When we called on the radio, Arctic Fox and Diva were in that
anchorage. Not long after that call, Scot Free II called to say that they had gone to the Olal anchorage and found it a little too dicey, so they came back to Rodd’s. So Rodd’s Bay became our destination. Blue Marlin got in just before us and Tempe Te was there well before us. Christina, Ranger, and Fannieul.St came in right after us. So of the 30 boats that we had heard about, it looks like only half that many might make it.
Mark on Diva and Tim on Arctic Fox went to shore today and walked to the festival site. They found Chief Justin in a village near the anchorage and he will serve as our guide tomorrow. All of us yachties are to meet on the beach at 7:45 and then walk to Chief Justin’s home by 8:15. He will walk with us to the festival site which is out in the middle of nowhere. We know opening ceremonies are at 9 AM tomorrow and the Rom dance is on Friday, but other than that, no one seems to have specific information.
We will just have to go with the flow. Another great explore.
Now to one of the more exciting things that happened today . . . Mark caught a small Yellow-fin Tuna and Paul caught a very large Wahoo. Mark has really been wanting to catch a Yellow-fin and Paul really been lusting after a Wahoo, so today was their day. Tonight we had a reunion with Gerry and Donna on Scot Free II and enjoyed fresh sushi and sashimi on Ranger. It was delicious. We lost our Bongo lure today to a very large fish and caught the yellow-fin with a blue squid lure. The Bongo lure
was the one made out of a snack bag. It caught the large Wahoo we landed in the Yasawas and was our lucky lure, but we will just have to make a new one.
by Judy Handley | Aug 20, 2007 | Sailing Logs Year 2, Vanuatu |
Day 118, Year 2: No Dugongs Today
Date: Monday, August 20, 2007
Weather: Beautiful Day with Lots of Liquid Sunshine
Location: Lamen Bay, Epi Island, Vanuatu
Our day started in search of dugongs, but not a dugong was to be found. We went on a local boat across to Lamen Island and then snorkeled the area in search of the dugongs, but they were just not there today. We went with Paul and Marie on Ranger, Marianne and Andy Dostmann on Tempe Te and their two little boys, Sammy and Simon, and a couple of medical students visiting Vanuatu from Ireland. It was a beautiful day and a great boat trip across even though we didn’t find that elusive creature.
Mark swears that it is the “snipe” of the Pacific. We had time to walk on Lamen Island to pick up shells and watch the bountiful hermit crabs scurrying about. Every time I would reach down to pick up a really pretty little shell, it started to move. The hermit crabs obviously know how to pick beautiful homes. By the time we got back to the mainland, it was time for lunch. We took time to eat and then headed out to the reef just around the southern end of the bay. We had been told by other cruisers
that they saw nudibranches there, but we saw none. But I did see a few fish and other creatures I have never seen before. I saw the outlandish Clown Triggerfish with huge white polka dots on a black stomach and bright yellow lips, beautiful Bluespine and Orangespine Unicornfish, and my “favorite” of the day–a meter-long White Fin Shark. I had decided to leave the group and snorkel down around the point when I saw this little fellow. I know they are probably harmless, but I was reminded of why
it is wise to always snorkel or dive with a buddy. I swam as fast as I could to get back to where Mark, Marie, and Paul were snorkeling. And I think I will remember to stick close by from now on. Snorkeling in this area was okay, but not what we had hoped, so we decided to dinghy across to the north side of the bay and check out that area. It was mostly dead coral, but Mark and I did find the fish nursery. We found little coral in a shallow area with lots of little fish. There were tiny butterflyfish,
tiny Picassofish, and tiny boxfish. It was great fun to see the little version of many of the fish we have seen in the past couple of days.
We had hoped to do one more snorkel late this afternoon in search of more turtles and dugong, but we ran out of time. We had invited Paul and Marie to dinner, and I needed to do a little house cleaning and cooking. We had a nice evening together and will leave VERY early in the morning for Ambryn, known as the Black Island. It is an island of active volcanos, black soil, black sand beaches, and black magic. We will be attending an arts festival on the north side of the island and will get to
see black magic in action. When performed for tourists it is okay, but otherwise it is strictly banned. We expect at least thirty other boats to be attending, so the anchorages on the north side of Ambryn will be quite crowded. But it promises to be a good time.
by Judy Handley | Aug 19, 2007 | Sailing Logs Year 2, Vanuatu |
Day 117, Year 2: Turtles in Lamen Bay
Date: Sunday, August 19, 2007
Weather: Beautiful Day with Lots of Liquid Sunshine
Latitude: 16 degrees 35.789 minutes
Longitude: 168 degrees 09.791 minutes
Location: Lamen Bay, Epi Island, Vanuatu
We found the turtles! There are beautiful green turtles here. At least we think they are green turtles. They are big and they feed on the turtle grass on the bottom and they have four pair of lateral scales. Therefore, we think they are green turtles. We have very little identification sources for turtles aboard, so maybe once we post the photos, someone can let us know what we really saw.
We left Revolieu Bay at 7:45 this morning and arrived here in Lamen Bay at 10:45 AM. We sailed most of the way with winds that varied from 8 to 25 knots. We had a calm ride for part of the trip, but then things started to get a little lively. We finally took down the sails and motored the last bit into port. As soon as we arrived, we got ready to go snorkeling. I’ve heard that somewhere here there are beautiful nudibranchs, but we didn’t find those today. Nudibranchs are fantastically colorful
caterpillar-like creatures of the sea. We will keep searching tomorrow. In the afternoon, Mark and I went to shore in our dinghy. We had intended on walking to the village, but we never made it. There is guesthouse here on shore called Paradise Sunset Bungalows. We went ashore there and inquired to see if there was someone we should check with to have permission to walk on the shore. Evidently the people here are not as traditional as in the outlying villages, and they do not go by the old
custom of gaining permission from the chief to visit. There is a store, a school, and an airport on shore, as well as the guest house. This place has obviously acclimated to tourists. While on the beach, we talked with Marianne and Andy, a Swiss couple that we first met in Sawa-i-Lau. They have two beautiful little blonde headed boys, Simon and Sammy, who are about five and two, respectively. While we were talking, Simon was working hard at flying a kite and Sammy walked into the village and
started playing with children there. At two years of age, he is most comfortable with just about anyone. We also talked with Jason and Laurel of Monkey’s Business. Jason and Laurel are probably in their thirties and are from Colorado. We have seen their boat many times, but this is the first time we have met. After talking with them, Mark and I headed back out in our dinghy, but we went only part-way and stopped in a shallow area. Mark put on his snorkeling gear and jumped in to look for turtles.
We agreed that he would swim back to Windbird, but that I would go back and watch just in case he needed a dinghy assist. Usually I do the reconnaisance, but Mark opted for this tour of duty. I watched for a bit and decided that he looked like he was having way too much fun. So I put on my snorkeling gear and jumped in, pulling the dinghy behind me. Mark motioned to indicate that he had found a turtle, so I went that way as fast as I could. Actually he had been swimming with a turtle who decided
to go down to the bottom and feed and send up another turtle to swim with Mark. Both of us followed this second turtle until we came close to Windbird. We then looked down and saw another turtle grazing on the grass near our anchor chain. This turtle actually crept closer and closer to our anchor, and finally sat right on top of the anchor and kept feeding on the grass. I’m just glad she didn’t decide to eat the anchor. It was such an honor to get to watch these beautiful creatures feed on the
turtle grass. The grass looks like a yellowish-green moss on the ocean floor. Not my idea of delicious, but they seem to love it. Both Mark and I really enjoyed this experience.
By the time we got back to Windbird, it was getting close to sundown. Ranger called and invited us over for “sundowners”, so we quickly showered and headed over to Ranger. We discussed the pros and cons of leaving here tomorrow to head to Ambryn island or waiting and heading there on Tuesday morning. The festival that we are attending there begins on Wednesday, and we have no details on time, ways of getting from the anchorage to the village where the festival is happening, etc. But in the end,
we decided to enjoy this beautiful anchorage one more day and then head to Ambryn as fast as we can on Tuesday. Many cruisers are planning to attend the festival, so hopefully someone else will have figured out the details. While we were on Ranger, we got a call on the VHF radio that Paul heard while he was down in the main salon. He answered and said a woman wanted to talk to us and that she was coming over. It was Marianne that we had talked with on the shore and she wanted to know if we were
interested in going together to pay for a trip to nearby Lamen island to search for dugongs. Evidently the old dugong who called this bay home has died. His name was Bondas, but he evidently left behind about five young ones that are sometimes in this anchorage and sometimes over at Lamen island. We told Marianne that we would love to come along in the search of dugongs, so tomorrow at 9 AM we will do that. If you have never heard of a dugong, they are very similar to the manatees in Florida.
Some people refer to them as Teletubbies, a kind of fat little vacuum cleaner. These mammals have a fat snout that swishes about on the ocean floor in search of food. Manatees have a fan-shaped tail, whereas dugongs have a split tail like a whale. Both turtles and dugongs used to be a major source of food here on Epi, but the chiefs have banned the hunting for both as they have realized what a tourist attraction they have with live ones.
Another busy day. Every morning we think we will slow down and just relax, but there are so many wonderful things to see out here that we just can’t allow ourselves to do that. We are constantly discovering new things and meeting new people, and loving every minute of it.
by Judy Handley | Aug 18, 2007 | Sailing Logs Year 2, Vanuatu |
Day 116, Year 2: Snorkeling and Body Surfing in the Rain
Date: Saturday, August 18, 2007
Weather: Partly Sunny with Periods of Drizzle . . . Again
Location: Revolieu Bay, Epi Island, Vanuatu
I just reread yesterday’s log, and once again I forgot to mention a couple of the highlights of the day. I mentioned that we anchored next to Scot Free II, but I didn’t mention that we got together in the evening on Ranger. Donna and Gerry brought a friend with them, Marie Christine. Marie Christine is a French woman single-handing around the world. When she was in Vancouver seven years ago, Gerry and Donna met her. And yesterday when she sailed into Revolieu Bay, they saw each other for the
first time in seven years. Marie Christine always had a dream of sailing around the world, and shortly after passing her medical exams to become a dermatoligist, she left France as a crew member on a boat headed to the Caribbean. She never turned back. She ended up in French Guinea and bought her boat there. She has been cruising the world since 1986. Since the French have strategically placed islands in the South Pacific, French Polynesia and New Caledonia, she has been able to sail the Pacific
slowly and stop for years at a time to work. Not a bad deal.
We snorkled twice today and that’s just about all we got done. We went out in the morning with Paul and Marie of Ranger. We went back to the same area we snorkeled yesterday, and either I was too easily impressed with yesterday’s experience or things just weren’t as good today. I think I am just too easily impressed. Anytime I’m in the water and see fish, I’m happy. So even though the coral here is mostly dead, there are still some great fish. We didn’t see much new today, but it was still
okay. When Mark and I returned to Windbird, we got back in the water again to examine the bottom of Windbird. We have not done any maintenance since New Zealand, and there were a few gooseneck clams attached to the top and bottom of our rudder. Mark scraped those little guys away and then we spent a couple of hours backing up our photos on our Maxtor hard-drive. We try to have at least two back-ups of all photos, either on our current computer and on the Maxtor, or on the Maxtor and on CD. We
haven’t burned any CD’s for some time, so we will need to do that before we delete the older folders from the working computer. Keeping track of photos is almost a full-time job.
Our second outing of the day was a desperate attempt to see turtles and dugongs. Mark stayed in the dinghy and I got in the water. I held on to a rope as he slowly motored all around the bay as I body surfed behind the dinghy. I could see the bottom easily, but after almost an hour of being drug around the bay, I saw no signs of life. I loved body surfing and surveying the bottom all around. I think this is my favorite new sport. Mark just thinks that I am trying to truly establish myself as
a Pisces, which I am and for which there is really no doubt and no need to further establish this fact. I never learned to swim when I was young, but put me in snorkeling gear and I can stay in the water all day long. Even though I was having a great time, Mark was getting a little bored with just pulling me around, so we went back to the reef to snorkel one last time. It was getting late in the day and it was raining, but Mark was still able to get pictures of Regal angel fish. We have seen
them many times, but have never been able to get photos of them. so this was exciting. We also found another one of those really fat sea stars that I am calling a cushion star. This time we touched it and turned it over to see the bottom. These sea stars look like a coral head at first glance, but the blood red designs are almost geometric and obviously not a coral on closer inspection. The other interesting thing we saw today was a a thread-like creature. At first I thought it was string,
but after seeing a couple that obviously had thread-like tendrils extending from a central point, it became evident that this was just another strange little sea creature. We revisited our anemonefish families that we met yesterday and finally called it a day.
Tomorrow morning early we will leave here for Lamen Bay, just twelve miles north. I am still in search of those turtles and dugongs, and we have heard that Lamen Bay has both. Here’s hoping.
by Judy Handley | Aug 17, 2007 | Sailing Logs Year 2, Vanuatu |
Day 115, Year 2: Revolieu Bay–A Great Anchorage
Date: Friday, August 17, 2007
Weather: Partly Sunny with Periods of Drizzle
Latitude: S 16 degrees 43.659 minutes
Longitude: E 168 degrees 08.677 minutes
Location: Revolieu, Epi Island, Vanuatu
We are sitting here in a fairly calm Revolieu Bay even though the winds outside the anchorage are blowing a good 20 to 30 knots. We arrived here at dawn and have had a great day. But before talking about that, I’d like to regress and describe our overnight sail.
We left Port Vila at three in the afternoon and made our way around the south tip of Efate. This is an area of overfalls. This is rough water caused by a relatively shallow area. We chose to hug the coast and endure the roughness rather than to go way out to sea to avoid it. At sunset we were making our way through the pass. It was a bit bouncy and we were looking forward to getting through to calmer waters. But that didn’t happen. We did get through the overfall area, but then we got into
higher winds and seas. We could see right away that our overnight was not going to be a calm run. Once we rounded the south point and headed north we were on a beam reach and we were rocking and rolling in 25 knot winds. During my midnight watch, the winds increased with frequent gusts to 33 knots. Mark got very little sleep on my watch, and in fact, neither of us slept much during the night.
I came on watch at 4 AM and by 4:30 I could see on the electronic chart that there was an island to starboard, but I could not see it, try as I might. It was a clear night with thousands of stars, but as the first light of day tried to break through, that clear sky turned into a misty morning with gray clouds where that island should be located. I could see the green light of Ranger to port and the lights of big boat coming up behind me, but not much else. I couldn’t see the sun rise, but as it
got lighter I could begin to see the head and tail of an island to starboard. The rest of the island was valed in heavy low-lying clouds. As we approached our waypoint for heading into Revolieu Bay there was a cargo boat between us and the island. I know it is time to wake Mark but he has had very little sleep, so I hesitate. I look for Ranger, but don’t see her where that little green light has been beside us all night. I look further back and there she is but she looks like a ghost boat in
the early morning light. I could barely make out the rigging against the gray and white sky. There was only the slightest hint of pink to the north, but none of the beautiful pinks, blues,and yellows of most mornings at sea. we followed our waypoints to the anchorage and as we got closer, we could see that Scot Free II was right in front of us in the anchorage. We anchored just shy of them and made contact with friends that we haven’t seen for awhile. Once Ranger got into the anchorage, we talked
and agreed that it was time for a morning nap before continuing our day.
In the early afternoon we picked up Marie and Paul on Ranger and visited the villages on shore and talked with the “boss man” Fred to get permission to walk through the villages and snorkel offshore. The idea of property here is different from back home. The water that they can see from the village is thought to be their property and asking permission to anchor here is the proper procedure. When we walked into the village we found out that a marriage celebration was underway. A young woman from
the village here is marrying a young man from across the island. Today was the wedding celebration in this village. The wedding will take place in the young man’s village at the end of the month and the couple will live there. Although it was interesting to see what was happening, we felt like we were intruding, so we said we would return tomorrow and we walked back to the shore. On the way we met a young woman named Lucy and her one-year old Katie. Katie reached her hand out to shake Mark’s
hand and then each of us. She was so cute and Lucy, her mother, spoke very good English. We then walked toward the dinghy and met an older gentleman name Tom and his grandchild. She was also a one year and something and she also extended her hand. She extended the left hand and Tom immediately corrected her and showed her how to shake properly with the right hand. We talked with Tom who had a good grasp of world geography and we talked about how far away from home we are. He said that his people
don’t have the money to travel as we do. There was not much that we could say in return. We are privileged to be able sail around the world as we are doing. We don’t have much, but have so much more than these beautiful, humble people. It is such an honor to meet them and share their land, even for a short period of time.
After returning to our boats, we decided to go snorkeling. The reef here is mostly dead coral but the fish are beautiful. We saw way too many crown-of-thorns, so that is partly the reason for the dead coral. But we also saw so many of the reef fish that we have seen elsewhere. The difference is that they are so big here. we saw the largest colony of anemone fish that we have seen to date and we found huge cushion sea stars. Others have seen the fantastically colored nudibranchs here, but we
didn’t see them today. It was another great snorkeling experience.
We will stay here tomorrow and then head just twelve miles north to Lamen Bay. We have not seen the turtles or dugongs here, but they should be here and at Lamen, so that is our next pursuit.
by Judy Handley | Aug 16, 2007 | Sailing Logs Year 2, Vanuatu |
Day 114, Year 2: Overnight Passage to Epi Island
Date: Thursday, August 16, 2007
Weather: Sunny Day with Periods of Rain
Latitude: S 17 degrees 39.631 minutes
Longitude: E 168 degrees 06.535 minutes
Location: On Passage from Port Vila, Efate Island to Revolieu or Lamen Bay, Epi Island
We are faced with a destination that is too far to make in a day sail but is not quite far enough for an overnight passage. So going as slow as we can is the goal tonight–not a situation that us normal for us. But even with that, we are doing better than 5 knots with a double-reefed main and a scrap of headsail in 20+ knots of wind. The nice thing is that the seas are calm and currently we are having a most enjoyable broad reach sail.
Leaving any port for us is always a frenzy. There are always more things to do than there is time to do them. We visited the Australian Embassy this morning to check on the best way to get our Visa for that country and had a great visit with Paddy and Alison of Zfarse while we were there. Then it was downtown to do all of those last minute errands. I was on a mission to find a mail packet that should have arrived here for us, but after checking all over town, there was no mail. Either it is
not here yet, or it has been lost. We will ask friends that will be in Port Vila long after our departure to keep checking for us, so hopefully the packet will arrive and friends can get it to us. We might even return to Port Vila on our way south, and if so, we can get the mail then.
Ranger left with us today and our destination is Epi Island. We will pull in to either Revolieu Bay or Lamen Bay. It all depends on the winds tonight and our arrival time in the morning. I am hoping that we can anchor first in Revolieu to swim with the dugongs and porpoise, and then go on to Lamen to swim with the turtles and snorkel where there are cuddlefish and octopus. Both sound great, so I am hoping to be able to do both.
