Living & Learning Aboard the Good Ship Learnativity

LTY UPDATE: Tuesday, September 18th, 2012

LTY UPDATE: Tuesday, September 18th, 2012
Luganville Bay, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu

LTY time: 16:45 (Vanuatu time = UTC +11)
Location: Luganville Bay, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu
Position: 15 31.426 S, 167 09.759 E (you can cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
Wind: 10-15 SE
Seas/Swell: 0.5m ESE plus good tidal current through this channel
Weather: Sunny yesterday (Mon) Overcast today
Air temp: 82 F 28C
Sea temp: 90.5 F 32.5 C
Barometer: 1016mm

LEISURELY DAYS in LUGANVILLE BAY

Not too much to report from the anchorage here in Luganville Bay so I'll try to keep it brief as I spend my time picking up a few provisions ashore and catching up online with the good Internet connection I have thanks to my cellular modem.

First, thanks to all who sent me notes and concern about the dog bit and the update is that all is well and (sorry to disappoint any of you) I'm going to live! ;) The bite happened two weeks ago today when I was in Port Villa and the few (5) punctures seemed fine after good cleaning and keeping them that way along with antibiotic salve. But after ten days the largest deepest one suddenly became rather sore and red and the area around it on my inner right ankle started to swell a bit. This factored into my decision to leave my little slice of paradise pie over in Asanvari Bay early and come here to Luganville as it is the 2nd largest city in Vanuatu and has a hospital. By the time I got here to Luganville my ankle was feeling much better but I decided to be smart (hey! it can happen!) and go get it checked anyway. I won't be anywhere near any medical facilities for the rest of this month here in Vanuatu and then I've got the longer passage north to the Marshall Islands which is about 1500nm so that will take between 10-15 days.

I do continue to be able to find ways to surround myself with beauty.  On the walk back from the hospital I spotted this brilliant explosion of colour as a large bougainvillea had grown up intertwined with this tall evergreen tree.  And last night we had the amazing sunset you see below.

Getting around here in Luganville is pretty easy and I've got several options. I took my dingy up the bay a bit to the river entrance and was able to go up the river to the edge of the town center and tie the dingy along the river banks right in front of the market. In town there is a constant stream of vans and taxis such that if you put up your hand one will stop within seconds. Vans cost 100 Vatu and Taxi is about 150 - 200 so for between 1-2 US dollars you can get anywhere you like. The town is relatively small so you can walk to most places but it is spread out on just one shore side main street so it stretches for several kilometers and the van/taxi option is sometimes the way to go. I walked most of the town but the hospital is up the hills a ways out of town so I got a taxi to take me there. It was a tiny spot but there was a door marked "Emergency" so I tried that first and though it was locked, a smiling head nurse soon opened it up and invited me in.

Very Spartan but very clean facility inside and I received great care there. Contrary to what most people think, me included originally, medical care in pretty much all of the so called "developing" countries I have been to in the past 5 years has been very good and very affordable, so you have to initially work to change your views and attitudes accordingly. This most recent experience will give you some idea of what I mean. The head nurse asked for the details and gave me an initial exam followed by the attending physician. They pretty much agreed with my self assessment that there was an internal infection but it was getting better and recommended I take some antibiotics for 7 days to help ensure it was all cleared up. They also recommended a tetanus shot to guard against rabies and that I continued to clean the wound as I had been. I gratefully accepted their recommendations and prescriptions, confirmed that I had no allergies to medication and soon had a shot in my arm, a zip lock bag of Amoxicillin and a tube of antibiotic cream in my hand and was back out in the beautiful sunny day walking back to town.

Total elapsed time in Emergency: 15 minutes or less
Total cost: 3000 Vatu (US $30)

Need I say more? Well, just that today the swelling, redness and throbbing is almost all gone and my ankle and I feel very good.

Today I went back into town to get a few more provisions and top up my cellular modem to last me through my rounds of Skype calls, Emails, Kindle downloads and yes, PICTURE uploads of bats, boys and bread! I'll get to uploading those pictures tomorrow and let you know when I do but it is getting late, dark and cold for me here and the galley is calling my name so I'll sign off for now.

Night all!

Wayne

LTY UPDATE: Saturday, September 15th, 2012

LTY UPDATE: Saturday, September 15th, 2012
Vanihe Bay, Maewo Island, Vanuatu

LTY time: 18:15 (Vanuatu time = UTC +11)
Location: Vanihe Bay, NW end of Maewo Island, Vanuatu
Position: 15 16.556 S, 167 58.467 E (you can cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
Wind: 2 knots (inside the bay)
Seas/Swell: flat
Air temp: 82 F 28C
Sea temp: 90.5 F 32.5 C
Barometer: 1017mm

BREAD and BATS

Yesterday I sailed into Asanvari Bay on the south tip of Maewo Island and it has turned out to be a slice of the paradise pie Mother Nature seems to serve up for me so often. Tiny bay, verdant jungle rising up on the surrounding steep cliffs and hills, one small white and one small black beach to break up the otherwise rocky shore and perhaps most spectacularly the most picture perfect waterfall set back no more than ten meters from the midpoint of the arch that forms this bay. I spent some time ashore yesterday and talked with the few people who are living here right now and learned that while it is a very small village (3 actually, each having about 2-8 homes) most of the adults are away right now for various reasons. Chief Nelson is sick and has been in Port Villa for the past month and has a number of village members with him. There is a big gathering of all the women that is partly religious, partly for crafts and they are away for two more weeks on another island to the south. And many of the young men are away at other islands for work. In stark contrast to my previous anchorage in Namaram Bay where I was surrounded by throngs of kids and adults, Asanvari was pure serenity and the only sounds are those of the wind in the trees, and the slapping of the sea against the hull of LTY and the dinghy which is tied up alongside and the pulsating sounds of waves on the rocky shores.

No throngs of kids swimming out to see me this morning unfortunately but none the less I did have another surprise visitor at about 6:30 this morning. Ruby heard the approaching fiberglass skiff first as usual while I was in the galley making coffee and breakfast. I came up on deck to be greeted by an elderly man who wanted to know if I'd like a loaf or two of fresh bread?! Hmmm, gee let me think ……………….. YES please!! Seems he has a small home and bakery just north of this bay and he saw me come in yesterday and thought he'd drop by to offer me some of the bread he had just baked. With my enthusiastic Yes please! he reached into the bin at his feet and pulled out two hand formed loaves and passed them up to me. They were still very warm from the oven and filled my flaring nostrils with that magical intoxicating smell of yeast and fresh baked bread as I gratefully took them from him and paid the outrageous sum of 200 Vatu (about 2 US$). But hey, I thought I’d splurge! ;)

Of course in the way that serendipity and synchronicity always seem to look after me and help guide my life, I was on my last few slices of bread from Port Villa so this timing was perfect. Taking my treasure down to the galley I quickly altered breakfast preparations a bit, finished up fresh pamplemouss (grapefruit) I had already started eating which that some of the boys at Namaram had given me and finished frothing the milk for my morning latte. This is all pretty much my standard breakfast but now I sliced up one of the fresh papayas the boys had also brought out to me yesterday, pulled some tasty New Zealand butter out of the fridge and headed up to the cockpit. Pouncing on one loaf while it was still warm I sliced four thick slices and inhaled the steamy smells coming off the sourdough surfaces, smeared them with NZ butter that quickly melted and soaked in like the bread was a sponge and breakfast in paradise was served! Seemed more like dream than reality as I sat there savoring each mouthful and the splendor of this setting. What a way to start a day!

I enjoyed the next hour or so reading and finishing my latte out on my lounge chair on the aft deck and then the waterfall started to call my name so I grabbed my shower bag and Ruby and I headed ashore to take up yesterday’s offer to shower in the waterfall. Again, not a soul to be seen and within minutes I was having one of the best showers I can recall. Talk about water pressure! It wasn’t even very cold as the day had warmed up already and I was soon lathered up, shaved rinsed in no time flat. Ruby enjoyed the chance to nose around the surrounding gardens and jungle while I sat on the edge of the pool at the base of the waterfall trying to take it all in. As if the shower and waterfall itself wasn’t enough there were about ten or more little black and white birds, some kind of swallow I would guess and they were putting on the most amazing acrobatic air show just for me it seemed as they dove down from high up in the jungle trees and made a 180 degree arc through the mist from the waterfall, back up to the trees, and down again and again and again. I literally had to pinch myself just to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. Turns out I wasn’t!

I went over to check out the cave in the rocks right in front of where I was anchored and there was lots of coral growing around the entrance but the caves were too small to swim or snorkel into as they only went into the rock about two meters. Then it was back to LTY to figure out what comes next. As truly awemazing as Asanvari Bay is I decided for a number of reasons to leave and make the short sail (about 10nm) across to neighboring Ambae Island. I have some online banking and bills that I need to look after by the 18th and the only place likely to have a cellular or WiFi connection good enough to do this is in Luganville, the 2nd largest city in Vanuatu, and about 65nm from here and it would work best to break up the trip into two day sails so I arrive in good light. The other increasingly pressing matter is that the dog bite on my ankle I got in Port Villa ten days ago had started to act up. The little bugger had punctured my skin in about four places but only one had gone through to the bone and all of these had been healing up quickly in the past ten days, the three smaller ones already gone and the larger one quickly receding. However yesterday it started to suddenly throb when I was standing up and by late afternoon there was some slight swelling so that became a bit of a concern. I gave it a very thorough cleaning till it was down to fresh flesh, put on some antibiotic salve and did this every few hours. Slept fine last night with my foot propped up on some pillows and it felt better this morning but I figure that the prudent thing to do is go get it checked professionally and maybe get some shots. Luganville apparently has a good hospital and so for all these reasons I pulled up the anchor and set sail just before noon with a bit of sadness at having to leave such an idyllic anchorage so soon. This is a very unusual occurrence for me as I usually stay in an anchorage for as long as it captures my curiosity and only move on when the next new destination starts calling my name. But banking and bites conspired to get me moving a bit sooner this time.

Some high overcast had come in on the sail over to Maewo Island and so I decided to find an anchorage while there was still good light and pulled into Vanihe Bay and had the anchor down just before 3PM. Oh my, more paradise pie!

Vanihe Bay is yet another tiny little anchorage, this one created by a small rocky point formed by an outcropping of almost vertical cliffs which rise dramatically out of the sea and then slope back just enough to allow a thick lush growth of jungle to form above. According to my charts the bottom is supposed to slope up quickly from the deep as you approach the cliffs and so I motored ever so slowly up to these towering rock faces in front of me and sure enough the depth meter started to count down and I found some good holding sand in about 40 feet of water that was only about 100 feet away from the rock faces.

However these cliffs run N/S and the trade winds almost always come out of the SE so what little wind does reach me this close to the cliffs would be pushing me away and all would be well. It is a bit intimidating at first to be anchored with this vertical wall of stone right in front and beside me so I cleaned up the decks, put in the anchor snubber and coiled all my lines from the sail over while I let the anchor chain and wind settle in and make sure this was going to work out. As I was busy out on deck doing all this I kept looking up at these magnificent rock faces and the trees above because as I was creeping in and dropping the anchor I had noticed that there were hundreds if not thousands of huge black crows or ravens perched in the trees above. Something didn’t quite seem right though and as soon as I saw some of them flying I knew what it was; these weren’t crows or ravens, these were fruit bats!

I got the binoculars out the more I looked the more I saw!

** Click on any photo to enlarge

There were bats hanging from almost every tree and perhaps the most dramatic were over a hundred of them that were hanging from the limbs of a dead tree. If I wasn’t seeing this for myself I would have thought it was out of a movie set.

 

I’ve seen lots of these fruit bats in the South Pacific and so I know them quite well by now. They are quite large with wing spans up to a meter and bodies that are 12-18 inches long. They also have quite bright yellow and brown fur collars around their necks which makes it easy to mistake them for hanging fruit many times and also makes them look a bit like little friars to me. They are quite different that most other bats (I think?) in that they like to be out soaking up the hot sun all day as they hang from the trees and you often see them flying around during the daytime though they are most active just around sun down it seems. However I have never seen this many in one place and there are at least several hundred, perhaps thousands, I can't be sure (or count that high!) I must have spent almost an hour just enjoying this experience and marveling at this latest of Mother Nature’s unending spectacles.

So my day started with fresh baked bread for breakfast, a waterfall shower before lunch and has ended with dramatic cliffs at my side and thousands of fruit bats to entertain me. While they will most certainly be different in the details, I do hope that each of your days are as filled with moments of experiential learning that both satisfy and drive your curiosity. And if not, why?

LTY UPDATE: Friday, September 14th, 2012

LTY UPDATE: Friday, September 14th, 2012
Asanvari Bay, Maewo Island, Vanuatu

LTY time: 17:05 (Vanuatu time = UTC +11)
Location: Asanvari Bay, SW tip of Maewo Island, Vanuatu
Position: 15 22.505 S, 168 08.020 E (you can cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
Wind: 50-20 knots (inside the bay)
Seas/Swell: flat
Air temp: 82 F 28C
Sea temp: 90.5 F 32.5 C
Barometer: 1017mm

AWEMAZING DAY in ASANVARI BAY

I awoke as usual to first light this morning and enjoyed watching the sky brighten gradually to bright blue as I lay there looking up through the large hatch directly above my aft cabin bed. I have a similar view of the night sky each evening when I go to bed and so my days start and end with these vivid reminders of just how fortunate I am and how amazing the cosmos is. Just as the changing hues and brightness told me that the sun had just peaked above the horizon I heard some odd splashes and the sounds of young voices followed by some slapping on the aft transom steps directly behind my head on the bed. In many ways I’ve learned that you sail by sounds and you get to know each and every one of the thousands of different sounds on the boat and know when something changes or there is a new sound. I hadn’t heard this symphony of sounds for some time but I knew just what it was; my first visitors of the day had arrived!

I’m starting to get used to it but it is still an odd feeling when I first come up on deck each morning and find a whole group of people already sitting on the beach looking out at Learnativity and waiting for me to rise. As soon as I’m spotted on deck the calls, whistles and shouts begin as they try to get my attention and it happens throughout the day and right into the evening in many places. I guess it is partly because wherever possible I seek out small little bays or anchorages that are not charted or popularly promoted in the sailing guides and so I am often the first boat and “white man” they have seen in quite a while. Then as soon as my first visitors discover Ruby and that I’m quite happy to host them onboard, show them around and answer their questions, it seems that more people that I could ever imagine were living ashore come out of the jungle. It is a school holiday for two weeks right now and so there are more children around with all day to do as they please so there has been a particularly large number of them aboard the past few weeks.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post I took a group of about ten boys for a ride with Ruby and I in the dinghy and had a few more of them onboard so word was out that this new boat in the bay was “visitor friendly” and the procession began early. Apparently their enthusiasm got the better of some of the braver ones this morning and they just couldn’t wait for me to be sighted so about six of them swam the 100 meters out to Learnativity “just in case” I was up before six today. It is such an amazing sight that brings such a smile to my face as I step out onto the aft deck and see six young glistening brown bodies hanging on and peering up at me from the bottom swim step, laughing excitedly and sounding like a bunch of young school girls even though these are almost always young boys ranging from about five to twenty years. So that’s how my day started and the procession of visitors from ashore continued for the next two hours and I think I must have had well over thirty of them onboard in groups of four to ten. I was just going to do a short sail of about 15nm up to Asanvari Bay today so I didn’t have to rush to get away and just reveled in the joy and laughter with all my new found Ni Vanuatu friends. (this is how the people of Vanuatu refer to themselves).

Not a bad “commute”! How was yours?? ;)

Once the swimmers had all been out to see me I got things stowed away, raised the anchor and was sailing out of Namaram Bay by about 09:30. The weather was perfect with clear skies and calm seas and although there was no visible wind off to the west of Pentecost I was reasonably sure I’d pick it up once I got up to the north end and out in the pass between Pentecost and Maewo islands. Almost as if I knew what I was doing this is exactly what happened as the wind continued to build as I sailed north and I was soon doing over 7 knots with the full main and genoa out to Port as the SE trades blew through at 1-20+ knots. It was only 15nm up to Asanvari Bay which is on the very SW tip of the long skinny N/S running Maewo Island and I had the anchor down by just after noon.

Asanvari had come highly recommended by Philip and Teri who had been here a few weeks ago and just loved it and I’ve read that every boat that has been here has raved about it. You never know just how a spot is going to strike you though as we are all so different, but this spot is right out of a movie set or poster and is just the most perfectly pristine little tropical jewel I’ve seen in a long, long time. Funny how life works as I found myself thinking over the past few days how Vanuatu was very beautiful and the people most interesting but didn't create the same degree of awe and amazement in me that Fiji did. Then I sailed into Asanvari Bay. If you get the chance do check this location out on Google Earth or Bing as I’m certainly not able to do it much justice with my impoverished prose though I think it would be a challenge for even great writers. I’ve taken lots of photos and videos already and whenever I get a good internet connection, maybe as soon as next week, I will post my backlog of photos up on the blog so you can get a much better idea of just what I’ve been experiencing lately.

Asanvari Bay is a very small arch cut into the SW corner of Maewo Island with a protruding finger of rock and coral creating a small west pointing finger at the south end and then curving in an arc that is probably no more than 2km long along the coastline. At the south end of this little bay there is a white sand beach with about ten or so huts and houses and the villagers I met there this afternoon tell me there is another small village a few hundred yards east on the other side of the point. Unlike Namaram Bay I did not see a single soul ashore for the longest time and then only a few young boys out in their dugout outriggers and maybe three adults ashore. As the shore curves around to the north it goes back to being craggy black volcanic rock until it reaches a large stream that enters the bay and a cascading waterfall set just back into the island that you think must be a mirage it is so beautiful and picture perfect. The shoreline continues on the shallow arch around to the north and changes to steep sided cliffs that have risen up out of the water with some underground forces and comes complete with a tiny cave that I am anchored right in front of. As the arch finishes its curve north there is another beach, this one of highly polished black volcanic stones sprinkled with white shards of dead coral that has washed ashore.

On my visit there this afternoon I met Jason, a man of about 40 I would guess who lives in one of the two small houses there and amongst a large and very fertile plantation behind his house he has two pigs who get their own beachfront palm oasis and seem to enjoy a steady supply of coconuts based on the thick carpet of coconut husks they were sleeping on. Ruby did her best to get them to play with her and they seemed amused by this strange little critter but weren’t up for any games.

I made a brief stop at the waterfall on my slow trip around the bay in the dinghy and someone has gone to a lot of trouble to pour a very substantial concrete sea wall and erect a small little “bar” building complete with stools. However the waterfall itself is Mother Nature at her best and so I just stood in about two feet of this clear fresh water that had just crashed down the rock face of the waterfall above. I’ll go back in tomorrow as the elderly man and woman there said I’d be welcome to come back for a shower and/or to wash my clothes. Now THAT is my kind of shower and laundry facility!!

I could go on and tell you how clear the sea water is, how there was a steady flow of the most beautiful little black and white birds putting on the most amazing aeronautical acrobatic show as they zoomed through the moist air just in front of the waterfall, but I’ll leave it at that and the pictures to follow for now. Suffice it to say that as I try to comprehend how just this one day has started and ended I think you can appreciate why I keep repeating and appreciating just how fortunate I am. As with today I have no idea and no expectations of what great surprises and experiences tomorrow will bring but I’ll be back with more attempts to capture and share this with you. I truly appreciate having you along for the ride albeit limited by my abilities to describe it all to you.

Wayne & Ruby the Wonderdog

LTY UPDATE: Thursday, September 13th, 2012

LTY UPDATE: Thursday, September 13th, 2012
Namaram Bay, Pentecost Island, Vanuatu

LTY time: 17:15 (Vanuatu time = UTC +11)
Location: Namaram Bay about mid-way up West coast of Pentecost island, Vanuatu
Position: 15 37.534 S, 168 07.368 E (you can cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
Wind: 3 knots (inside the bay)
Seas/Swell: flat
Air temp: 82 F 28C
Sea temp: 90.5 F 32.5 C
Barometer: 1017mm

MOTHER NATURE is SUCH a SHOWOFF!

Been a fabulous few days since I left Uliveo Island and continued making my way up north through the islands of Vanuatu. I stayed in Uliveo for a few days after my friends Teri and Philip left to head south to Port Villa and had the whole little bay all to myself. The locals all knew me by now so they were not coming by to offer fruit and ask for things so it was very peaceful. Ruby and I took a few trips off in the dingy to explore a few more deserted spots and she had her usual great time running nonstop on the beaches and in the jungle on the coastline. Tuesday morning dawned with clear blue skies and the sea was calling me again so it was up with the anchor and I motored my way on a very circuitous route through all coral and the other little Meskelyne Islands and out into open ocean again. The day cleared up and once I was clear of the wind shadow of Meskelyne I picked up the SE trades again which were blowing about 8-14 knots most of the time. The wind does vary here much more than it did in Fiji but most of my headings here are NW so this is all downwind sailing and I’ve been getting lots of practice trying out the new setup of putting my spinnaker pole out to windward and pulling the big genoa out to it so that I have what is called a “wing on wing” sailing setup with the main sail out to one side and the genoa out to the other. This presents a very large sail area to the wind coming from my back and doesn’t take too much to push all 33 tons of us along at 5-7 knots. The boat is also nice and level most of the time as there is no heeling and with the wind from behind the apparent wind (wind you feel on the boat) is much less so it is extremely calm and serene sailing.

I headed for Ambrym island which his home to Vanuatu’s other active volcano and I made my way around the west corner and then up along the NW coast of Ambrym where I was able to carefully hunt out a great little unchartered anchorage. The bottom in most areas here slopes up very steeply from the ocean and then turns to black sand just off shore of most islands with coral intermixed along much of it. Taking my best guess from the guides and charts I have I spied this little indentation just south of the very north west tip of Ambrym and crept in slowly with my eyes carefully going back and forth between watching the bottom in front and beside me and the depth gauge. The black sand makes it a bit more difficult to see compared to the white coral sand in other places but as I crept in towards the shore the depth gauge finally started to show a gradually decreasing depth and about 100 meters off shore I had about 25 feet and was right on the edge of where the coral started to grow on the bottom. Up at the bow I carefully targeted a sandy spot and dropped the mighty anchor and let the wind push me back as I played out almost 150 feet of anchor chain, locked it down and waited for the confirming tug as Learnativity stopped her backwards travel and the chain went taut. The shoreline was composed of small cliffs of black lava and it was speckled with kids who were both coming out to see the unusual appearance of a yacht in front of their small village and having a great time jumping off the cliffs into the warm water. I later found out that it was the middle of a two week school holiday and so each day was filled with the music of children’s laughter as they swam, jumped and played ashore.

I also had a steady stream of them coming out to the boat in their family dugout outrigger canoes. I must have had over 20 of them come to visit over the next few days once word got out that I was happy to have them aboard and let them look around. Many of them returned with treats for me in the form of papayas, coconuts and pamplemouse (sp?) (grapefruit) which I was most grateful for and exchanged this for chocolate, dried cranberries and some Canadian souvenirs. Mostly though they loved the chance to explore the boat, ask lots of questions, and try out the binoculars that were a big favorite with them all. I was also able to give them a few magazines I kept for just such opportunities and which they enjoy for both the pictures of new and different things and a chance to practice their English and reading. Of course teenagers are similar in many ways the world over and so one of the groups of the older ones got brave enough on one visit to ask if I had any wine! Of course they assured me this was only for their parents ;) but I declined and told them this was just not allowed.

Two boys, Amos (15) and Robert (9) were the most frequent visitors and on one of their last visits they stopped by to show me one of the more interesting if somewhat unsettling catches which was a sea turtle they had just caught and killed. They say there are lots of them here and they swim in the rocky areas near the shore and are a relatively regular catch. They were on their way to take this one home for their mother to boil and make into various meals. I asked them if they liked eating turtle and they said it was OK but not one of their favorites.

I looked after several of the boat jobs needing attention such as replacing my main alternator and fixing a troubling seawater leak into the freshwater cooling side of my diesel generator and was reminded how true it is that cruising is the art of moving your boat from one exotic repair destination to the next! Just part of the price that has to be paid to enjoy this phenomenal life of freedom and independence and one I’m happy to pay. That along with more reading, writing and snorkeling and two days and nights zipped by. The water here was finally nice and clear again after being rather murky in the Meskelyne Islands and other spots so far in Vanuatu plus the water was finally back up over 30 degrees Celsius so I enjoyed more snorkeling time though the coral and fish life wasn’t too spectacular.

What WAS spectacular though was the night time entertainment from Mother Nature. I was completely unprepared for the spectacle that awaited me when I came up on deck as part of my regular night time off to bed routine. The night skies are so fabulous when I am anchored in these remote spots partly because I’m the only boat and light source as the small villages don’t have power and so it is completely dark and when the skies are clear of clouds they are filed with more stars and galaxies than I ever imagined possible. It is so black that you can see the galaxies very clearly and they almost look like “cloudy” areas out in the cosmos as they are so dense with such far away billions of stars of their own. I’ve become relatively accustomed to this, though always amazed and in awe of it all and so I’ve made it a habit to come up on deck each night as I’m making my way to bed and check out this cosmic show each night to send my hopes off into the cosmos and to enlist the help of the stars to bounce special thoughts to some of the special people in my life.

Two nights ago though, it wasn’t the distant stars that took my breath away but the land based one. As I looked southwest the whole sky over the rising hills of Ambrym Island were ablaze in the most intense shades of orange and red I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen some pretty amazing sunsets in the past five years but nothing to match this. What I was witnessing was the smoke billowing out of apparently VERY active volcanic cone and spreading for miles above and beyond that was coruscating with the light from the fiery cauldron of lava below! I just stood there on deck with my mouth agape and tried to take it all in. As my awemazement lessened a bit in time I again turned my gaze upward and out into that deep starry starry space over the open oceans to the north when I saw not one, but TWO shooting stars in quick succession. My my, Mother Nature was really putting on quite a show for me tonight and as I was about to discover, she wasn’t done yet! As I was looking upward at the more stationary stars and bouncing my hopes and wishes off them, there was suddenly a whole series of fiery stars zipping around down below the horizon! No, I didn’t have THAT much wine with dinner tonight, they were fireflies! The most enormous ones I have ever seen. As I watched this spectacle for the next long while I was able to see some of the ones that flew close enough to me in the light of the stars and the volcano and I could see that they had large wings like those of a moth and their bodies must have been two to three inches long with this huge glowing end section. I’m not sure what I could ever have done to be so blessed with such spectacles but there I was completely immersed in the fiery side of this incredible cosmos we are a part of as Mother Nature showed off and shared with me what she has going on below me, around me and above me. All this in ONE night! Could I lead a more charmed life? I think not!

This morning sun dawned a bit later than usual as it took a bit longer to make it above the mountainous topography of Ambrym Island and reveal an increasingly clearing and blue sky and an ocean that looked more like a lake as there was not a breath of wind and not a wave or ripple in the water. Hoping that there would be more wind once I cleared the top of the island I felt it was time to continue north and make my way up along the west coast of Pentecost island and perhaps all the way up to the south end of Maewo island where I’ve been told there is a great anchorage and some fabulous snorkeling in Asanvari Bay which is about 50nm away. However my departure from Ambrym was delayed a few miles off shore when the new alternator decided to throw both belts off. With no wind I just shut off the engine and spent the next hour figuring out this newest problem which turned out to just be used fan belts that were not up to the strain of this high output alternator and after replacing them with new ones I have in my well stocked “spares” department, I soon had it working again. But just as I fired up the main engine again the sea water pump alarm went off and I found that its belt had suddenly become too loose! Fortunately that was a quick fix of readjusting the belt tension and I was underway again at last. Better yet the wind filled in a bit later and I was able to setup my spinnaker pole again and have that wing on wing arrangement I mentioned earlier. The SE trade winds were very light and varied from 5-12 knots but with all that sail area this was enough to keep me moving forward at 4-5 knots and enjoy a leisurely and peaceful sail along the west coast of Pentecost Island.

By mid-afternoon I was about half way up Pentecost and the skies were increasingly overcast so I started looking for a good spot to anchor while I still had some good light above me and headed for another small unchartered anchorage by the tiny village of Namaram where I writing to you from now. Similar to the previous anchorage off Ambrym I crept in slowly and found an indentation in the rocks and coral where there was just black sand rising up close to shore and was able to drop the hook in about 25’ off water. This spot is very sparsely inhabited but there are a few homes ashore and I headed ashore in the dinghy to ask permission to stay. There were only a few buildings nestled into the jungle a ways back from the shore and at first it seemed to be deserted but I finally came across some young boys ages 3-7 I would guess and they led me to an adult who then took me to the local chief. Chief Roman was up to his elbows in grease as he was repairing the villages chain saw and after a quick introduction I was able to help him figure out that the carburetor gasket was cracked and letting in too much air so it wouldn’t start. He had some material that could work to make a new gasket and he felt he could do that himself and told me to go enjoy walking around the area. One of the challenges in these small villages is the lack of much skills or tools to maintain things and so they do tend to do without more than with. It makes for a good source of interaction and bartering for me in many places where I am able to help out with my floating tool shop and a reasonable set of skills in mechanics, metalworking and wood working.

With the blessing of the chief to anchor here and explore the area, I went back to LTY and picked up Ruby and headed back ashore where we were soon mobbed by about ten young boys ranging from about 3 to 13 I’d estimate. As usual they are initially equal parts fascinated and fearful of Ruby but once I assure them she won’t bite or hurt them she soon wins them over and they are all petting her, calling her name and having great fun running after her. After lots of fun doing that I was launching the dinghy to head back to LTY when the oldest boy asked if I could give them a ride in the dinghy. So I soon had a dinghy full of ten VERY happy young boys and we were off at high speed for a quick trip around some of the outlying rocks and then back down to the shore in front of their village where we dropped them off and headed back to LTY. I could still hear them laughing and excitedly telling all the other kids in the area about their fun and fast ride in this strange ruby boat. Such a fun way to end the day.

It is now well after sundown and very dark up here in the cockpit, and my thin tropical blood is getting chilled so I’ll sign off for tonight. Depending on how things look in the morning I’ll probably head north again and make the jump over to Maewo Island and what is supposed to be a spectacular anchorage in Asanvari Bay. I’ll be back with an update for you on just how that turns out to be from my perspective and wish you all a good night for now.

Wayne & Ruby the Wonderdog

LTY UPDATE: Sunday, September 9th, 2012

LTY UPDATE: Sunday, September 9th, 2012
Uliveo Island, Vanuatu

LTY time: 17:35 (Vanuatu time = UTC +11)
Location: SW bay of Uliveo Island, part of Meskelyne Islands, Vanuatu
Position: 16 31.833 S, 167 49.716 E (you can cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
Wind: 5-12 knots (inside the bay)
Seas/Swell: flat
Air temp: 86 F 30C
Sea temp: 85 F 29.5 C
Barometer: 1020mm

LIVING LARGE in ULIVEO

I had a boisterous but fast sail from Port Villa to Uliveo on Tuesday night. Both the wind and seas were quite a bit more than forecast with winds at time over 35 knots and seas up to almost 5 meters at times. The wind was also almost directly behind me which makes it a bit tricky to sail as I’ve described before, but with the winds being so strong and the following seas so large I was able to sail at 6-8 knots with just the main sail up which worked out quite well. The seas were not quite directly behind me so they would roll dear Learnativity all the way from one side to the other, at times well over 45 degrees so it was a very “active” ride but not overly bothersome or problematic.

I did have one nasty problem for a few hours when the outer cover on the main halyard wore through and jammed in the clutch. This is the line that goes up to a pulley at the very top aft side of the mast and pulls the main sail up so it is one of the more critical lines and the boat and takes some of the most stress and strain. In my usual “thrifty” ways I’ve been trying to eek out every last nautical mile from this now six year old line and over 30,000 nm, and I finally succeeded in doing so about midnight on Tuesday. However I’ve been planning on this event for some time and so I’ve had 200 feet of a new high tech halyard in my stores and all ready to go. Most of the lines we use have all their strength in the inner core and then are covered with a different material, usually poly based, woven covers that are better in your hands, protect the inner core from UV and take the wear and tear from the clutches (line holders) and winches. So what happened was that the common spot where the “teeth” of my clutch jaws clamp the halyard when the main sail is in the fully raised position, wore through in the high winds and stress they were experiencing on the sail on Tuesday night. This created two problems; one is that the inner line was now able to slip through the clutch so the main sail slid down the mast a few meters and then the outer cover material bunched up and jammed the clutch jaws. This in turn gave me two problems; a flopping main sail in a full down wind run and no ability to raise or lower it due to the jammed halyard. Both of these conspired to then have the upper part of the flopping main sail to tangle with the shrouds (stainless steel wire line that holds up the mast) and were threatening to tear the main sail.

With no other choice I could see, it was time for me to take a trip up the 70’ mast and free the main sail before it ripped on the shrouds. Fortunately I installed mast steps all the way up the mast shortly after I bought Learnativity for just these type of situations and so I’m used to climbing the mast. However doing so in 30-35 knot winds and with the boat rolling from side to side in the big seas did make it a bit more challenging. It took the better part of an exhausting hour to do so, but I was finally able to get the sail free though not before the batten, a fiberglass rod that slides inside a horizontal pocket on the sail about every 2 meters up the main sail to help keep its shape) snapped in two. Nothing much I could do about that in these conditions and if I could get the sail back under control it wouldn’t likely cut through the sail pocket material. I spent a good while then cutting about 4 meters of the outer cover of the halyard off and managing to tape the ends tightly to the inner core such that this jury rigged line would now be able to feed through the clutches and mast pulleys. With this all done I was then able to reef/drop the main to have less area in these higher winds and then tighten up the luff (edge that goes up the mast) and pull down the boom such that the sail was back to flying properly and we were soon back to sailing along at a good pace. This held just fine all the way into the bay at Uliveo island and the main sail all furled up into the boom just fine to my great delight as we pulled in just after noon time. Best of all, I was greeted by Philip on the VHF and he came out in his dinghy to be show me the way around some of the big bommies and corals here in this lovely little bay.

It has been a salubrious time tucked in here in the small and well protected little bay on the SW corner of Uliveo Island which is one of the small islands that make up the Meskelyne Island group on the SE tip of the large island of Malakula here in Vanuatu. Lots of factors contributing to this welcomed condition, primary amongst those being here with my dear friend Philip and his new mate Teri on their Outreemer catamaran “Blue Bie”. Philip and I first met over four years ago when we both happened to be making our entry into Ecuador at the same time and place and had to wait for several hours before the authorities could process us. We just seemed to hit it off immediately and our friendship has grown more and more with each year as we continue to find ways to meet up as we make our very different ways around the sea.

Best of all I managed to get here in time for Philip’s birthday on Friday which made the time even more special. We spent part of the day on a nearby beach with them enjoying the kite surfing, Ruby enjoying beach time and me learning the details of kite surfing, catching up with Philip and getting to know Teri.  I got some shots of Philip and Teri out kite boarding and one fun thing was the juxtaposition of old and new as some of the locals would paddle over in their dugout outrigger wood canoes and you’d get shots like the one on the right here with this centuries old canoe paddling beside 21st century kite boarding.

Then it was back to Blue Bie to celebrate with champagne and then we joined forces to make a fabulous birthday meal topped off with freshly ground coconut cake with Swiss chocolate icing and complete with a full set of Happy Birthday candles thanks to Teri’s great foresight and caring while they were in some shops in Port Villa a few weeks ago.

Over the past few days together we’ve had more kite surfing, beach walks, a trip with the locals to their giant clam farm and ashore for a Kustom dance and ceremony and mostly just lots of time spent being together. Unfortunately Teri’s time is almost up here in Vanuatu and her flight back to Maui is in a few days out of Port Villa so they sailed off yesterday (Saturday) afternoon heading for Port Villa and to be there in time for Teri’s birthday present to Philip of a scenic flight over the islands in a small sea plane. So we had one last late lunch together with hamburgers grilled on my BBQ a few last licks and cuddles with Ruby and they were off into the late afternoon sun heading south. Vanuatu turns out to have amazingly high quality beef, for reasons I’m not completely sure of and while I’m not a big beef eater the fillet mignon we had for Philip’s birthday (he is a BIG beef lover) and the hamburgers, were truly delicious.

The Vanuatu culture continues to be filled with lots of new learning for me and quite different that others I’ve experienced. For example they prefer to life in very small groups and so even on this small island of Uliveo there are at least four separate small villages rather than one large one. It is also quite common that each village will have its own language or dialect and in some cases these are so different that people on the same island don’t understand each other’s language. However they also all speak Bislama, a form of “pidgin English” as well as English so communicating amongst themselves and with us is not a problem. They are all very proud of their culture and traditions and quite anxious to have “show and tell” events referred to as Kustom ceremonies. “Chief Jim” of the nearby village invited us ashore for their such a ceremony on Thursday night after visiting the giant clams and it was most entertaining. This is the third one I’ve been to and the most informal of them all. The dancing was performed only by the men, which is more traditional but on Aneityum both women and children participated which is quite rare apparently.

The only slightly disappointing aspect of Vanuatu I’ve come across is that they have the most focus on charging fees and seeing us as a source of cash income of any of the places I’ve been so far. All quite understandable and reasonable I might add as they have increasing needs to buy thing such as gas for their outboard motors and their sources of income such as from copra (coconut oil) have dropped off precipitously in the last 20 years. Fiji was notable to me in part because some how they continue to avoid the “wanting” or lust for material goods and the deep contentment with other riches they have such as friends and family. Having been living in this culture for over two years I’d become accustomed to it, though always marveling at it and learning more about it, so the contrast here in Vanuatu no doubt seems stronger to me.

The other nice change is that the clouds have cleared off and I’m back to being spoiled once again by blue skies, sunshine, starry nights and increasingly warmer temperatures. From others I’ve talked to and what I’ve read this is an unseasonably cold and wet year so far and it may also be because I’ve dropped down to almost the limit of my preferred “20/20” living (between the two Tropics) zone. However I’m now headed in the “right” direction for my warm weather body, which is north towards the equator so I’m hoping this warming trend will continue as I go and I’ll soon be back to the heat and humidity I’ve strangely come to prefer these past few years. I don’t expect any “sympathy” from anyone but I have the luxury of living wherever I’d like to and I choose to live where neither sea nor air ever goes below 30 C and where I don’t need to wear socks, pants or much clothes at all thank you very much!

I’ve now got the new halyard reeved up inside the mast and through all the pulleys and clutches so that should be good for at least another six years I hope. I have a piece of new batten material that is too short to fully replace the batten I need but I’ve been able to fashion a repair that will hold me till I can get a new one in Majuro in a few months and so all is good to go for the next journey. I’m not quite decided just where that will be as there are lots of great spots and attractions in the many islands to the north and east of me and so I’ll probably just start doing some short day sails and hop scotch myself up north till I get to Luganville in the big island of Espiritu Santo where I will checkout of Fiji and either head up to Santa Cruz in the Solomon Islands or just start making my way on the long passage north to the Marshall Islands. I’ll keep you posted as the sailing goes and as with life, create the path behind me one nautical smile at a time.

LTY UPDATE: Friday, August 31, 2012

LTY UPDATE: Friday, August 31, 2012
Dillon’s Bay, Erromango Island, Vanuatu

LTY time: 17:100 (Vanuatu time = UTC +11)
Location: Dillon’s Bay, Erromango Island, Vanuatu
Position: 18 49.105 S, 169 00.694 E (you can cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
Wind: 10-15 knots SE (inside the bay)
Seas/Swell: 2ft @ 6 seconds SE (coming from)
Air temp: 78.8 F 26C
Sea temp: 85.1 F 29.5 C
Barometer: 1017mm

DELIGHTFUL DAY in DILLON’s BAY

I awoke to a new day with a clearing sky and it was a beautiful sunny day right up till this evening when the clouds have come back in again and cooled things down quite a bit. Not too much to report today as I’ve simply had a super simple day. Had several more men row out from ashore early this morning as I was having breakfast and traded for some fresh papaya and a few new fruits I don’t know and look forward to trying. Ruby and I went ashore to one of the few small sandy beaches in this bay, most of them are rock cliffs or rock beaches. She enjoyed her time ashore racing around as usual and I got some good shots of Learnativity looking out through some of the large coral outcroppings sculpted by the sea.

Did a bit of snorkeling but I’m afraid I’ve been spoiled with that I’ve found in Fiji the past few years and so it was a bit underwhelming but still gloriously clear waters and always interesting creatures to observe and learn from. I took the opportunity to give Learnativity’s hull a good inspection and clean off a bit of the growth starting around the waterline and all looks very good there. I spent a few hours ashore walking around the village that spreads itself along the river here.

One interesting thing I learned was that they all live on the north side of the river because the south side is where they bury their dead so this is all a beautiful cemetery area. It was the same simple village buildings and quite a large community by Vanuatu standards as they are a people who much prefer to live in small little communities of 10 to 50 people rather than create larger ones. In this case I think it is the river that creates a single area where more can live. Even so, the homes are all quite spread out and what I’m gathering from my walks through these villages is that the people are much more inclined to spend time in small groups than large ones. Though there was an area all cleared off under some beautiful huge trees that they explained was where the ladies held their market to sell their wares each Wednesday.  Two men rowed out to visit and brought me this delicious selection of Popos (Papaya) and Pamplemouss (Grapefruit) which will last me for several breakfasts as you can see.

And once again there was great care paid to keeping the village area and pathways very clear and well-manicured. The soil is very rich so there is great variety of plants, flowers and trees growing. They don’t have any electricity in the village but they do have a supply ship that comes in about once a month from Port Villa and brings things like building supplies, rice, flower and other goods they can’t produce. They also showed me an area where they are cultivating Sandalwood, which historically was a very sought after prize by foreign sailors from faraway lands. Too much so actually in that most of the forests of Sandalwood have apparently long been wiped out and hence the need for this village to try to bring this still prized wood back into prominence. They don’t do any carving or other processing of the Sandalwood, just sell it to buyers in Port Villa apparently and helps them generate some income to purchase the other goods they need.

I’m likely going to pull up anchor about 8pm tonight and make the overnight sail to Port Villa. It is just over 80 nautical miles so I’ll do this passage at night so I can arrive there in good light tomorrow morning. I still need to look after my full checking in as there was no Immigration authorities on Aneityum Island where I first entered Vanuatu. Port Villa is also the largest harbour and city in Vanuatu so it will give me another glimpse into this fascinating country and culture. I’m also looking forward to restocking my galley with fresh veggies, bread, cheese and the like. All the more so given the high French influence of this area so I’m hoping to enjoy some particularly good and different breads, pastries, cheese and wine. I’m also looking forward to meeting up with Philip, a single handed sailor from Switzerland who has become a very dear friend. We initially met when we were both checking into Ecuador about 3 years ago and have serendipitously met up several time since as we both ply the waters of the South Pacific. Philip and Teri have been kite surfing their little hearts out up north in Vanuatu the last month or more and looks like we might be able to meet a bit north of Port Villa and spend a bit of time with Blue Bie and Learnativity anchored together once again.

So life continues to treat me extremely well and I’m doing my best to enjoy, appreciate and savor each moment in an attempt to be worthy of such great fortune. I’ll write more once I get to Port Villa and let you know what urban life is like here in Vanuatu.

Wayne

LTY UPDATE: Thursday, August 30, 2012

LTY UPDATE: Thursday, August 30, 2012
Dillon’s Bay, Erromango Island, Vanuatu

LTY time: 16:40 (Vanuatu time = UTC +11)
Location: Dillon’s Bay, Erromango Island, Vanuatu
Position: 18 49.105 S, 169 00.694 E (you can cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
Wind: 10-15 knots SE (inside the bay)
Seas/Swell: 2ft @ 6 seconds SE (coming from)
Air temp: 78.8 F 26C
Sea temp: 85.1 F 29.5 C
Barometer: 1018mm

GREAT DAY of LEARNING & SAILING

It was still overcast in the early morning but there was enough blue sky breaking through that I figured it would clear off up north and so I quickly got everything all ready, made some breakfast, put up the main sail, pulled up the anchor and we were off to Erromango Island. The wind was nice and strong running 15-20 knots out of the SSE which meant that it was going to be pretty much a dead downwind sail to Erromango today. I headed straight north out of Port Resolution to get a bit better wind angle for the sails until I was about five nautical miles north of the northern end of Tanna and a bit more clear of the wind shadow and then changed heading to about 315 degrees to head straight for Dillon’s Bay which is about mid way up the west coast of Erromango. Just as I was leaving Mount Yasur had an eruption large enough that I could hear it and so it seemed like a very fitting However this put the wind dead downwind which is one of the more difficult wind angles to sail.

Before I knew what little I do now about sailing I thought that this would be the best wind angle but what I’ve learned is that it is one of the slowest and is very tricky because your main sail completely blankets the genoa (large front sail) from the wind. Initially I tried to run what is called “wing on wing” where you put the boom out to one side as far as you can and then fly the genoa out to the opposite side. This way both sails are getting the full “push” from the wind. This is also why this is not the best wind angle for sails because, again counter to what I would have previously thought, you get much more power from a sail when it is acting like a wing and producing lift, rather than when it is being pushed by the wind alone. Also, because you are sailing the same direction the wind is coming from, each knot the boat goes in effect “subtracts” a knot or more of wind speed. I tried this setup for a bit but the genoa kept loosing its wind whenever the wind shifted or with the corrections of the autopilot and then it would snap back into place and this was putting a lot of strain on the forestay and mast. Last year I finally got my large spinnaker pole that I had salvaged from a wreck all set up and so now was the perfect opportunity to learn how to use it to pole out the genoa and keep it there.

This spinnaker pole is quite large as it has to stand up to some significant forces when being used with the spinnaker for this size of boat and it is 24 foot long and 4 inches in diameter. It takes quite a bit of rigging to control this pole and so I had to rig up a halyard from the top of the mast to the outer end of the pole and then two “guys” as they are called that run from the outer end of the pole back to the deck of the boat, one fore and one aft. The inboard end of the pole is attached to a “car” that slides up and down a track in the mast and you set it up so that when the pole is out to the side it is parallel with the water. Not having done this before it took a bit of time for me to get all the lines and blocks set up, walk the outer end of the pole up to the bow, get the lines all in place, furl in the genoa, run the genoa sheet through the end of the pole and then get the pole out so it was about perpendicular to the length of the boat and the outer end was about 12’ off the deck. Of course the wind decided to pick up just as I was doing all this plus there was another sailboat about a nautical mile off to my port side so it was a bit challenging as I figured out how to adjust all these lines and get the genoa unfurled and flying properly off the end of the pole. Seemed like more but it only took about half an hour and I finally had it all setup properly (I think?!) and could get back in the cockpit to see how it all worked.

Wow! We took off! At one point about an hour later we touched NINE knots! The fastest straight sailing speed I’ve seen I think as I don’t count the higher speeds when I’ve been surfing down the back side of large swells. Plus the motion is very nice as I also had a following sea and so the boat pitches, where the bow and stern go up and down in a rocking horse like motion and occasionally it would also roll as some of the large sea swells hit at a bit of an angle. It was a very sweet ride and one of those experiences where it feels especially good when you’ve overcome challenges, figured things out and get it all working. As I’ve mentioned many times, Learnativity turns out to be the perfect name for my boat and learning is one of the best things about this whole experience.

To put the icing on the cake, the skies which had been very overcast for most of the trip, suddenly started to clear as I rounded the SW corner of Erromango and as I made the turn to sail into tiny Dillon’s Bay it was out in full force with nothing but blue sky overhead. Turns out that I didn’t need much lighting for this bay as it seems very free of corals and I’m now anchored in about 22 feet of water with nothing but sand below. The “bay”, really just a small indentation in the shoreline as you’ll see if you check it out in the sat photos on Google Earth of Bing, is just the kind of spot I love. In addition to great holding for the anchor (mind you with the 75kg monster I carry it is good holding pretty much everywhere) there is a relatively large creek that flows into the middle of the beach ashore and about six or so homes of various sizes that I can see ashore. There are cliffs on either side of this river entrance and beach area that rise up probably 100 meters in spots and are all covered with various kinds of lush green trees and vegetation.

I had just got the anchor snubber all set and the latest batch of black volcanic dust from Yasur all washed off and was about to splash the dinghy when “Charlie” rowed out to greet me in his outrigger canoe. These are the most common boats in these islands and are all hand hewn from local trees. Very simple and smart design. I asked if it was OK to anchor here and he said I was most welcome and I’ll come see him in the morning to meet others and see a bit of the island. He said they have lots of fruit and vegetables so that will be good to replenish my galley as there wasn’t much at Port Resolution. And just now Robert and his 18 month old son Roland rowed out to say hello. I was surprised to learn from them that there are about 500 people in this village but makes sense as the river is here and apparently most of the homes are lining the river and so I can’t see them from here. Erromango has a population of about 2000 I think but I’ll find out more when I go ashore in the morning.

And so ends a perfect day. Lots of learning, fast sailing, sunny skies, beautiful safe anchorage, enough wind to keep the wind generator humming and a great looking sunset just starting to happen. Do I lead a charmed life or what?!

Wayne

LTY UPDATE: Wednesday, August 29, 2012

LTY UPDATE: Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Port Resolution, Tanna island, Vanuatu

LTY time: 16:15 (Vanuatu time = UTC +11)
Location: Port Resolution, Tanna island, Vanuatu
Position: 19 31.483 S, 169 29.800 E (you can cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
Wind: 5-10 knots SE (inside the bay)
Seas/Swell: 1ft @ 6 seconds SE (coming from)
Air temp: 77 F 25C
Sea temp: 84.2 F 29 C
Barometer: 1021mm

FALLING SKIES?

Just ash really, but certainly lots of it the past 24 hours. Yesterday afternoon I heard Mount Yasur give off a big explosion and that along with a wind change has had a steady rain of ash falling on the decks and everything outside. The trouble with having these nice shiny white new decks is that you see every speck of dirt! I’ve swabbed the decks down with seawater twice today but will just leave it till after I leave here to get the rest of it off. It’s interesting in that you can’t see the ash and it has been overcast and rainy since yesterday afternoon but each time you go out on deck there is a larger accumulation of the very black dust from the fallout. Nothing to be alarmed about and it washes off reasonably easy with a stiff brush and small price to pay for the experience of being here and being able to stand on the edge of that volcanic cone and watch Mother Earth do her thing.

One of THE most wonderful things about this lifestyle overall is the direct connection I am afforded with these forces of nature. It borders on being spiritual at times. Standing on the edge of that cone, feeling the ground thrum with the eruptions and then reverberate with the thud of each lava “bomb” hitting the ground around you, smelling the fumes and watching the magical firework display as the lava spewed every upward before falling back to earth was yet another of these visceral experiences for me that creates such a direct connection with this planet and the cosmos overall. I’ve become more and more enraptured and intrigued by physics and cosmology over the past few years and these kinds of experiences only serve to reinforce the very real and direct physical connections I’m learning we have with the cosmos we are a part of.

As I wrote last year, one of the most amazing things I’ve learned is how the very molecules and atoms which make up our body were created by the intense heat and energy in the explosion of high mass supernova stars and so in that sense we are quite literally all made of stardust! Therefore as astrophysicist Neil Degrasse Tyson nicely put it “We are connected to each other biologically, to the earth chemically and to the rest of the universe atomically. That is kinda cool! That makes me smile and feel quite large at the end of that. It’s not that we are better than the universe, we are part of the universe. We are in the universe and the universe is in us.” Having the kinds of experiences I seem to regularly have out here sailing the world makes me feel SO much a part of this grand universe, however small. So I will gladly clean my decks of volcanic ash in preparation for heading out for the next leg of this grand adventure.

As you may have guessed I did not sail north today. Woke up at first light as usual to find that it was drizzly and grey and why would I chose to sail in that when I can enjoy a day to rest and relax before a sunny day dawns for more adventure and action? Of course there is also a very pragmatic reason for being a sunshine sailor and that is that I depend largely upon visual navigation in these coral invested waters. As wonderful as all my digital technology of Radar, chart plotters and satellite photos is, there is still no substitute for what I can see with my own two eyes as I come into the next new anchorage and therefore I’m quite practically dependent upon having the light of the sun high overhead to light my way foreword. So it has been a wonderful day spent doing a few boat jobs and a lot of reading and we’ll see what the weather brings tomorrow and head north to Erromango when the sun is back.

I’ll be back to post an update when that happens and let you know a bit more about the next great anchorage I’m fortunate enough to experience.

Wayne

LTY UPDATE: Tuesday, August 28, 2012

LTY UPDATE: Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Port Resolution, Tanna island, Vanuatu

LTY time: 18:10 (Vanuatu time = UTC +11)
Location: Port Resolution, Tanna island, Vanuatu
Position: 19 31.483 S, 169 29.800 E (you can cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
Wind: 5-10 knots SE (inside the bay)
Seas/Swell: 1ft @ 6 seconds SE (coming from)
Air temp: 77 F 25C
Sea temp: 84.2 F 29 C
Barometer: 1021mm

WOW!!!!!

That’s about the best I can do to try to describe what it was like to stand on the edge of the volcanic cone of Mount Yasur and look down into the boiling lava pit below. It is yet another of those great experiential learning events where you just have to be there to understand it. Something majestic and “raw” about the whole thing. Standing there looking into the “core” of Mother Earth, the moon like terrain of fallen lava rocks all around you. It is a very visceral experience with the smell of the sulphur from the explosions, feeling the ground shake with each eruption and feeling and hearing the lava “bombs” as they land not more than 20 meters away in some cases. Yet another awemazing life experience and learning for me!!

Looking down into Mother Earth herself: Mount Yasur, Tanna Island, Vanuatu

 

I’d made arrangements with some of the villagers ashore for this trip and went ashore in my dinghy about 4pm to meet them. They have a small (Toyota) pickup truck with some wooden seats made up in the back and we crammed about 12 adults into the cab and truck bed for the half hour ride up to the mountain top. Roads were all carved out of the black lava dirt/sand and surprisingly good condition most of the way. They have a little entry way at the base of the mountain where they collect the 3300Vautu fee (about US$33) which I think is very reasonable and goes to support local schools and road upkeep on the mountain. The road goes up very close to the top and you only have to climb about the last 300m up to the edge of the cone which you can then walk around about 1/3 of to get different viewpoints. The volcano is quite active and there were about 15 eruptions or so I’d guess in the 2+ hours I was up there. Some are relatively small and just cough up some molten lava that sprinkles back down on the surrounding inner cone. And then there are some much larger eruptions and explosions where very large volumes of lava come right up and out and flings hundreds of lava “bombs” a few hundred meters up into the air. They make a sizzling sound as they make their upper arc and come back down to earth and you can hear and feel the larger lumps of molten lava, some larger than a big beach ball and many the size of a basketball, as they thump the ground upon landing only meters away on the slopes of the inner cone below you. Huge clouds of dark grey ash erupt with this and slowly rise upward and there is a noticeable but not overpowering sulphur like smell.

The eruptions are all very sporadic of course so trying to have your camera at the ready is a game of patience and timing. I haven’t had time to go look yet but I think I got several very good photos and at least two good video shots that will give you a much better idea of what it was like. I will likely get a good internet connection this weekend or next week when I think I’ll make it up to the big city of Port Villa so I’ll post the video and pictures then and you’ll get a much better idea than my poor attempt to describe it in words. Trust me, it was AWEMAZING and as real at it gets!!!

 

 

I’ve also spent more time exploring ashore and it is equally authentic an experience and a bit like going back in time. The Vanuatu people prefer to live in small little villages and don’t cluster together so even in this small bay where I am there are 5 different villages within about a 2km radius. Several have buildings for Primary and Secondary schools and there are even a few “Cafés” that would serve you if you wanted to apparently.

 

I just enjoyed walking around, learning and looking. You ask permission in each village with the first adult you meet and they are very happy to show you around, answer questions or let you go on your own. In one of the villages there were about 20 ladies and young girls all busy weaving palm leaves together for a new thatched roof on some of the village homes. They apparently last about 2-3 years and they spend about a week at a time creating a whole set of these woven “shingles”. The men look after building the superstructure for the roof (out of branches) and then layering on the palm fronds that he ladies have sewn together. They were happy to let me sit there and watch for about an hour, answer my questions and do a lot of giggling. Amazing to be able to be a part of for a bit.

Their villages are immaculate. Well groomed and cared for, nicely built and lots of attention to details. The walk ways and roads are all made of the dark almost black volcanic sandy soil and they must rake and brush these several times a day as they are so unbelievably smooth and clean that I was almost hesitant to walk on them. Children are everywhere, some helping out with various jobs with the adults, some playing by themselves. There are chickens, some pigs and some cows doing their thing and mostly in the areas on the outskirts of the village. Like I say it is like stepping back in time and feels very special to me that I’m allowed to walk into their world and experience it with them.

Meanwhile back on Learnativity today I spent the whole day doing some needed boat jobs. My house batteries are pretty much done after 6 years and I’m doing my best to coax the last bits of life out of them before replacing them. Two of the eight have dead cells in them now so I needed to do some rewiring to isolate them and I think I’ll be fine for a while now. I really should have replaced them in Fiji I guess but I was spending so much money there on all the other parts of the refit and I always like to squeeze every last penny out of all my equipment so I’ve left it till now. I’ll have a look around the big town of Port Villa when I get there and see what I might be able to source for new batteries there but I’m hoping I can make it up to the Marshall Islands where I have much better options for getting good batteries. I’ve got lots of ways of producing lots of electrical power from solar to wind to diesel generator to the alternators on my main engine, so no shortage that way, but as with what’s keeping solar and wind power from becoming true solutions for electrical power ashore, the issue is being able to STORE all that electrical energy which is where the batteries come in. However I use VERY meager amounts of electrical power compared to most so I’ll be fine.

Tomorrow if the weather looks good I’ll make head off and sail up north to the next island of Erromango. It’s about 55nm so just a day sail and there is also a tiny little atoll about 20nm NE of here that I may stop at and will just wait to see what weather and whim dictate tomorrow. After that is on to the big island of Efate and the big city of Port Villa, largest port and city in Vanuatu, about 30,000 people. I’ll let you know more about these as I experience them and should get a full internet connection in PV so I can upload pictures from the past few weeks.

Till then I wish you well and thanks again for joining me on this amazing journey!

Wayne

LTY UPDATE: Sunday, August 26, 2012

LTY UPDATE: Sunday, August 26, 2012
Port Resolution, Tanna island, Vanuatu

LTY time: 17:40:00 (Fiji time = UTC +12)
Location: Port Resolution, Tanna island, Vanuatu
Position: 19 31.483 S, 169 29.800 E (you can cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
Wind: 5-10 knots SE (inside the bay)
Seas/Swell: 6ft @ 6 seconds SE (coming from)
Air temp: 77 F 25C
Sea temp: 84.2 F 29 C
Barometer: 1020mm

GREAT SAIL to TANNA

I was up at first light to make breakfast and get things all ready to go and by 06:30 had the main sail up, then the anchor and we were on our way north to Tanna Island, home of one of Vanuatu's two active volcano's. It was a perfect morning with the scattered clouds dispersing as they day progressed and a good SE wind of 15-22 knots. Ideal sailing weather other than still a bit cold for my thin tropical blood. It was a fabulous and fast sail up to Port Resolution, just under seven hours for the 45nm sail. Swells were rather large out of the SE so must have been some good sized storms down in the lower latitudes which is typical this time of year but these make the ride all the more thrilling for me.

 

Port Resolution is a tiny and reasonably well protected bay on the SE corner of Tanna and you can check it out in Google Earth to get a good sense of it. I’m tucked in close to shore on the SE corner out of the way of most of the swell that hooks around the point and so far it is very comfortable. Some of the local boys/men have already been out in the dugout outrigger canoes just to chat, offering some fruit and the like. One of them is making arrangements for those of us who arrived today (three other boats) to get a ride up to “Yasur” the volcano and it looks good to be able to do that tomorrow afternoon and evening. We’ll leave here about 5pm so we get there in time to see both the sunset and then the fiery display in the night.

 

This is not your typical “tour” and would be outlawed I’m sure in most other places as there is always the danger of being hit by one of the “bombs” as they call them, which are the chunks of just hardened lava as it gets spit out and every year there are a few deaths apparently. However they monitor the volcanic activity and you don’t go if it is being particularly violent. With these kinds of things and most in life, I just play the odds and I figure the odds of getting hit are relatively low and well worth it to be able to peer down into an active volcano and have this overall experience so OF COURSE I’m going! I’ll give you the update tomorrow or the day after as it is likely going to be late by the time we get back tomorrow night.

Otherwise this is another gorgeous spot. I’ve been ashore to walk around for an hour or so and it is like a botanical garden in the small villages. There is even a “Yacht Club” in the form of a small building where you can gather and three small bungalow type huts that I think you can rent. I’ll spend more time ashore and go walk to the larger village and market tomorrow so will know more then. But from my excursions today it is absolutely beautiful, very friendly people and very remote.

Sun has gone down already here (6pm) as the bay is set as most are inside some relatively steep mountainous walls so the sun sets early and rises late visibly. That means it’s getting cold for me and time to go make dinner so I’ll leave you with this short update and have lots more to relate after more time ashore and the trip up to see the volcano.

Wayne