by Judy Handley | Aug 15, 2007 | Sailing Logs Year 2, Vanuatu |
Day 114, Year 2: Underwater Photos and Grand Babies
Date: Thursday, August 16, 2007
Weather: Partly Sunny Day; Some Rain
Location: Port Vila, Efate Island, Vanuatu
We are working furiously to get ready to leave Vila and head north, but before leaving we wanted to give you just a glimpse of what we have been seeing underwater. I was not able to complete naming all of our underwater photos, so I took some of our favorites and they are included here. We have also included a few recent photos of our our grand baby Sam and of Justin and Jo’s new baby, an Australian shepherd named Alphie. These photos represent both one of our main reasons for being out here and
the main reason for getting home!
Mark has worked for hours getting all our photo albums posted and almost all of them are here for you to see. Just go to any log and if there are photos for that day, there will be one or two pictures at the end of the log. Click on a photo and you will be taken to the whole folder.
I will probably post a second log for today once we are underway. Next stop, Lamen Bay on Epi, arriving sometime in the morning.
by Judy Handley | Aug 15, 2007 | Sailing Logs Year 2, Vanuatu |
Day 113, Year 2: Getting Ready to Move On
Date: Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Weather: Beautiful Sunny Day
Location: Port Vila, Efate Island, Vanuatu
I can’t believe I forgot to mention our dinner an Le Rendez Vous in last night’s log. In fact, I forgot to mentioin the whole late afternoon and evening activities. We did some late afternoon shopping downtown and then went to the Vanuatu Cruising Yacht Club to pick up mail our daughter Heather had sent. Sadly, it was not there. It has either not arrived yet or it has been lost. Since today was a holiday, the Post Office wasn’t open, so tomorrow before we leave we will do some more checking.
We had planned to have dinner at The Flaming Bull across from the Cruising Club but it was too early when we arrived and we hopped on a bus and went to check out a restaurant that Mark and I had seen when we walked to Nambatu yesterday. I also forgot to mention this. During World War II, there were three radar stations in Port Vila. They were simply named Number 1, Number 2, and Number 3. Those names were transposed into Bislama and became Nambawam (now a park), Nambatu (plush residential area
with great Bon Marche grocery store), and Nambatri (also a plush residential area). We walked to Nambatu to go to Stop Press, a book store. We have yet to see what we would consider a bookstore in all of the South Pacific. There were some books available in Papeete, and once we found Stop Press, we agreed that it comes the closest. But it is just a department in the Bon Marche supermarket and there are multiple copies of a few books on the back wall. Cruiser book exchanges definitely are the
place to go shopping for reading material. I must say that the Bon Marche at Nambatu is the nicest supermarket we have been in with the exception of those in Papeete, Tahiti and New Zealand. This store was huge and had everything from hardware to books to children’s toys to food, plus a fantastic selection of French wines. Now, back to dinner at the Le Rendez Vous. It was a lovely little restaurant overlooking the harbor. We were with Paul and Marie of Ranger and both of us could see our boats
in the harbor just below us. The chef must have been from Sri Lanka as there were many Sri Lankan dishes on the menu. The atmosphere was probably better than the food, and we had a lovely evening. And the strangest thing happened. Marie and I had met a man named Yogi at the World Health Organization. Yogi was willing to give Marie a course of Malarone in case she or Paul gets malaria. I have them one of our courses in New Zealand, but now that we are here, it seems prudent to have at least
one course for each person and you cannot buy Malarone or Larium here. Anyway, Yogi was supposed to leave the Malarone at this office yesterday for Marie to pick up, but he forgot to bring it. Just after we arrived at Le Rendez Vous, who appeared but Yogi. And he had the Malarone with him. Lucky for Marie.
So that brings us to today. It was another internet morning for Mark and he is making great progress. If we don’t leave until noon tomorrow, I think he will get most of our photos posted. Well, at least the ones I have named. So if you are reading this log, you can start back through the logs and see the photos if you would like. Just click on the picture after the log and the whole album will come up. I have most everything done except for the underwater photos. Those are harder to name as
I have to look up names. So instead of trying to get them all done, I have pulled together the best of the underwater world and will at least try to get that posted before we leave here. While Paul on Ranger was changing engine oil and Mark was at the internet cafe, Marie and I went downtown shopping. We didn’t get there until after 11 AM and we knew most everything would be closed by noon. Unfortunately, the places I had hoped to go to get some gifts for folks back home were already closed.
I hope to try again tomorrow morning before we leave. The shop that was open was Pilioko. Nicolai Michoutouchkine and Aloi Pilioko are two artists that have an art gallery here. They now have a shop on the main street as well. One of their specialties is hand painted clothing and we thoroughly enjoyed looking through these. The artwork is colorful and bold. And next to the clothing shop is an artefact shop with ornate carvings and masks made by master craftsmen in south Malekula. Since we
are going there and might be able to buy directly from the artists there, we focused on the clothes and each bought a great shirt and a pair of capris. Michoutouchkine was in the shop today and he signed the pieces we bought. It was great.
Marie and I had a nice time together taking photos on the main street and visiting the market. When we had bought as much as we could carry, we headed back to the Waterfront Restaurant where we tie up our dinghies and called Mark and Paul on the VHF to meet us for lunch. After lunch, we delivered everything we had purchased to the boats, and then spent the rest of the day doing more provisioning and taking a walk up the hill to the site of the Parliament House and the National Museum. Nothing
was open, but it was interesting just to visit the sites. We walked home by way of the fruit and vegetable open-air market (which never closes–open 24 hours a day) and loaded Paul and Mark down with bags of food. By the time we were done, we were all laden, but we won’t see many stores in the next six weeks, so it was time to stock up.
White Swan and Maggie Drum are on their way here. Blue Marlin and Christina both arrived yesterday, along with Anna Maria and Ernst of Galetea. They were part of the Riverside Drive Marina group in New Zealand. La Vie and Galaxie, a boat we met in Tanna, are spending time on the island of Erromango, but will also be heading this way soon. Many of us are working our way north quickly to try and catch a special arts festival on the island of Ambryn next week. So we will leave here tomorrow afternoon
and do another overnight to the island of Epi. From there it is a day sail to Ambryn, so if the weather cooperates we will make it. The anchorage on Epi promises to have turtles, a resident dugong named Bondas, and some good snorkeling. Some very strong southeast winds are headed our way, so we are hoping the anchorage there will be settled enough for us to enjoy the underwater life.
by Judy Handley | Aug 14, 2007 | Sailing Logs Year 2, Vanuatu |
Day 112, Year 2: Skin Blong Ba
Date: Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Weather: Partly Sunny Day; Periods of Rain
Location: Port Vila, Efate Island, Vanuatu
So I was in The Drug Store today and I saw these very colorful drink cuddlies for beer bottles. Something was written on them in Bislama (Vanuatu pidgin English). I thought they might make nice Christmas stocking stuffers, so I went to investigate. The writing on them said, “Skin Blong Ba.” I couldn’t figure out what this meant, so I asked the clerk. She responded, “Skin Blong Bottle.” Now I understood. This is the ‘second skin’ for a bottle to keep it cool. It made sense once I got it, and
that is my constant state here. People either speak French or they speak Bislama. I can read Bislama, but I can’t understand it, so conversations take a bit of time. The French I will never understand, but maybe I’ll catch on to the Bislama after a bit.
We spent the entire morning at the internet cafe today. I was sitting naming photos as fast as I could and Mark was posting the photo folders on the website. We just couldn’t get this to happen when we were in Savusavu in Fiji, so were were a bit surprised when it worked today. We sent our pictures from the first month and a half in Fiji to our son on CD and asked him to get them posted for us. He handed that job to our daughter-in-law, Jo, and she was successful in getting those on the website.
Thank you, Jo! And today, slow as it was, we were able to get the photos posted from when we arrived in Vanuatu. We will continue the process in the AM, but it is a holiday here, Assumption Day, so we can only work until 11:00. What we don’t get posted, we will send to Justin and Jo and once again ask them to post for us. I wish there was a faster way to get pictures on the site, but this is as good as it gets from out here. We won’t be anywhere with internet for the next six weeks, so it could
be a very long time before pictures from here on will be posted. We will do the best we can.
We found out on our way here from Tanna that our logs have not been posting. I didn’t find out until today that “Day 107: Too Many Cruisers and Only Tuskers” was posted seven times. We had a comment from Cheryl in Maine saying that we must really like that Tuskers beer! When we got to the internet cafe this morning, the website was magically fixed. Maybe our son read yesterday’s log and went in and corrected things, or maybe the stars were aligned just right today. Anyway, thanks for your patience
when these technical glitches happen. And thanks to those of you who let us know about the problems.
We switched gears in the afternoon and went looking for connectors to connect the hose from the dinghy fuel tank to the dinghy engine. We thought our dinghy engine was dead when we reach Tanna and couldn’t get it started, but it ended up to be the fuel connector. We really had no hope of finding one here, but we found Vila Marine and they had just what we needed. Next we went to the Georges Pompidou building to see if we could buy a permethrin impregnated mosquito netting for our bed. The Ministry
of Health that is currently located in a motel used to be located in the Georges Pompidou building, but it is now mostly empty except for the guy selling mosquito nets for 300 Vatu or ~$3 US. These nets have been credited for seriously reducing the malaria rate here and are provided by the Global Foundation. The nets are made in Japan by the Sumitomo Chemical Company. We have a net with us that we bought in the US to cover the entire cockpit area, but when in mosquito land, I guess you can’t have
enough nets. And even though we have decided not to take a malarial prevention drug, we bought yet another one of those today. The locals are given Chloroquine to take as a prophylaxis, so we now have every anti-malarial drug available on Windbird. I’m starting to feel like a pharmacist. We also bought Pinetarsol soap. If you use it, it is supposed to help repel mosquitoes. I can see why. It smells so bad that it will also repel people. We also have “Bug Off”, a DEET spray to repel the mozzies.
So we are armed with all the paraphernalia. Mosquitoes, here we come.
Because of the holiday tomorrow, our plans for the day are somewhat changed. We had hoped to visit the Vanuatu Cultural Center Museum, but we doubt that it will be open. We are required to check-out of Port Vila 24 hours prior to leaving, so if Customs is closed tomorrow, that could also change our planned Thursday morning departure date. But as I have said many, many times, flexibility is the name of the game.
by Judy Handley | Aug 13, 2007 | Sailing Logs Year 2, Vanuatu |
Day 111, Year 2: Arrival in Port Vila
Date: Monday, August 13, 2007
Weather: Sunny Day; Winds ESE 15-20
Latitude: S 17 Degrees, 44.782 Minutes
Longitude: E 168 Degrees, 18.724 Minutes
Location: Port Vila, Efate Island, Vanuatu
Wow! What a great downwind sail we had from Tanna to here. Downwind always means that you rock and roll a bit, but we had great winds and sailed wing and wing all the way from Tanna to just outside the entrance to the inner harbor here. We arrived at just about the same time as Pantafive, a Danish boat that left Port Resolution a couple of hours before us, and a few hours before Ranger, who left Port Resolution with us.
This is going to be a short log. There is much to share about what we discovered here in Port Villa today, but I am frankly just too tired to write. We now know that the incidence of marlaria in the islands here is much less this year than last, so that is good news. After much searching, we found the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization and they had some information to share. I’ll just have to give the malaria update tomorrow.
Port Vila is a delightful little town, half English and half French. Tomorrow we will spend the morning in the internet cafe and then tour the town in the afternoon. We will spend Wednesday getting ready for our next month in the out islands, and then off we go.
Note: We found out today in an email from my sister-in-law Sue that our logs have not been posting for the past few days. Tomorrow morning is dedicated to website work–posting pictures and posting any logs that are missing. Not sure what the problem might be, but just be aware that if a log is not posted for a day, it is a technical error. I post each and every day. We apologize for the break in postings and hope we can figure out the problem so this doesn’t happen again.
by Judy Handley | Aug 12, 2007 | Sailing Logs Year 2, Vanuatu |
Day 110, Year 2: Overnight Passage from Tanna to Efate
Date: Sunday, August 12, 2007
Weather: Sunny Day; Winds ESE 15
Latitude: S 19 Degrees, 00.640 Minutes
Longitude: E 179 Degrees, 01.924 Minutes
Location: Passage to Port Vila, Efate Island, Vanuatu
We are sailing wing and wing dead downwind in winds that vary from 10 to 20 knots. Right now our speed is about 6.5 knots, but that varies with the strength of the wind. We will arrive in Port Vila in the morning and the really good thing is that we are sailing, and not motoring, and we are enjoying the easy roll north. Leaving Tanna was difficult for me. We did not have the time to do everything that I wanted, but we were very fortunuate to be able to pack most of the “must sees” into our five
days there. Cannibalism was still alive and well on Tanna not all that long ago (sometime in the early to mid 1900’s) and living where a live volcano is constantly spewing forth fire from the center of the earth must have an effect on people. It is a very special place. We were given a wonderful introduction to Vanuatu and we look forward to our trip north through the islands. As we left Port Resolution this morning, Dianna on White Swan was blowing her conch shell to wish us well. Hopefully
we will see them in a week or so further north. They are staying to savor Tanna’s wealth just a few more days. In fact, they are making a second trip to the volcano this afternoon.
Tanna is an absolutely fascinating island. It is definitely the most primitive place we have visited in the South Pacific. Outside of the West Coast towns of Lenakel and Isangel, there don’t seem to be any sea going boats other than outriggers. There are none of the village fishing boats with 50-horse Yamahas that we saw in Fiji. There are also no concrete structures, only traditional housing with thatched roofs and bamboo sides, outside of the Lenakel-Isangel area. We did not see villages with
generators, but we did see villages with big solar panels, so there is some electric power in the larger villages. The mix of Christianity (mostly Presbyterian’), the Jon Frum cargo cult, and the kastom (old custom) believers, makes for a most interesting cultural mix. We had some absolutely wonderful village experiences in Fiji, but I can see that our experiences here will just as wonderful, just very different. We were so lucky to meet the young woman, Mary, who took us to her village of Ianumei
Nisori yesterday. This was a village of only four or five homes, just one family, but it gave us a real feel for what it is like to live here. We are going to have culture shock when we arrive in Port Vila on Efate island tomorrow. Port Vila is one of the more picturesque towns in all of Oceania. It is a mix of English and French and has all of the modern services. It even has an American restaurant, Jill’s Cafe. I’m sure we will enjoy it for what it is, a hub of services, and will quickly
be on our way further north. But there is a lot of history to see in Port Vila and some wonderful excursions around the island if we have the time. We are planning on spending only three days there (including the day of arrival) and then heading to an anchorage on the north side of Efate called Havannah Harbor. Port Vila and Havannah Harbor were both US military bases during World War II and over 100,000 US soldiers passed through these ports on their way to destinations in the North Pacific.
From there we will head north to Epi. But between now and the time we leave Port Vila, I know we will gain information that will probably change our agenda for the trip north.
It is time for night watches to begin, so that means I have to shut down and go to sleep. It looks like we will be able to continue sailing wing and wing through the night, or at least that is the hope. More tomorrow from Port Vila.
by Judy Handley | Aug 11, 2007 | Sailing Logs Year 2, Vanuatu |
Day 109, Year 2: Rainy Day in Port Resolution
Date: Saturday, August 11, 2007
Weather: Rainy Day; Almost No Wind
Location: Port Resolution, Tanna Island, Vanuatu
In 1774 Captain James Cook sailed into this bay following the glow of Mt. Yasur. He was denied permission to go to the volcano which at that time was considered tabu (sacred). After seeing last night’s fireworks, I know he would have loved the show, but that was just not possible in 1774. He did name the bay after his ship, the HMS Resolution, and he used a small islet offshore to do many of his sightings. I always enjoy sailing where Captain Cook once sailed. And I am constantly amazed at the
fact that many of today’s charts are still based on his sightings.
I spent most of today working on photo naming, but we did take a mid-day break and went to shore to take the pictures of the two-week old baby, Mark, named after Mark on Diva. I printed copies of Mary and her son Christian as well as Neri and her new baby and other two children. The rain had stopped when we started to shore, but by the time we got there, it was getting really serious about raining. Ranger went with us to deliver the photos they have taken. I have to say we were dreading the walk
through the bush to Nisoi, but fortunately for us, Mary was on-shore cooking in the hot springs. She took us back to the new garden and crafts center for us to make our presentations. Afterwards, we walked to the hot springs on the shore where laundry is done and to the place where you can cook your dinner in 200 degree water. It is great for the village to have this little treasure. We enjoyed visiting with Mary once again and both Ranger and Windbird gave her the photos we had taken yesterday
as well as a couple of t-shirts. She once again invited us to a special celebration tomorrow in the village, but we are leaving by 10 AM and will not be able to attend. Christina and Blue Marlin will be going, so we will be well represented.
It was just too rainy to make a trip into the Yacht Club and Irupow village today. I wanted to visit the cultural center one more time, but that didn’t happen today. Maybe I’ll have time fore we leave in the AM.
I got an email from our son Justin today and he said that Vanuatu sounds amazing to him. It is a very special place and it is most intriguing. I’ll close today’s log with the transcription of a sign I saw just outside the Custom’s Office in Lenakel. It is written in Bislama and then translated into English.
Sign Written in Bislama:
PLIS KAM INSAID NOMO SIPOSE YU KAT ANYTHING TO DO WETEM WORK BLONG MI OR ANY OFFISOL TINGTING. BE NO KAM INSAID FROM PRIVATE TINGTING.
TA
Sign Translated in English:
PLEASE DO ENTER ONLY IF YOU HAVE QUIERIES ABOUT MY JOB OR ANY OTHER OFFICIAL QUIERIES. BUT DO NOT ENTER IF YOU ARE ENTERING FOR PRIVATE MATTERS.
THANK YOU
