Cannibals, cruise ships and volcanoes in Vanuatu
Anchored in Port Resolution, Tanna, Vanuatu
19 31.5S 169 29.7E
Previous anchorage in Vanuatu: Amelghowat Bay, Anatom
20 14.3S 169 46.6E
Today is our fifth day in Vanuatu. We were all sad to leave Fiji, especially George, who is still seriously considering "becoming Fijian" when he grows up. Several of the rally boats chose to stay for longer in Fiji, and will return to New Zealand from there, missing out Vanuatu and New Caledonia. The fleet started with 39 boats and we are now down to a more sensible 23, which has meant saying goodbye to good friends, including several of the "kid boats". As we sailed west towards Vanuatu we realised we knew very little about the place; we have various guide books, but hadn't read them before we arrived. I'm pleased to say that after a few days in the country we now know the basic geography, history and culture, and we all love the place; George is already wavering on his commitment to Fiji and is now thinking of living permanently in Vanuatu..
Our passage here became a bit spicier during our third and final night at sea. The sky clouded over, a constant drizzle fell, and periodic dark black clouds brought with them angry squalls. The wind rose from a steady 15 knots to gusts of over 25 knots, and the motion became considerably rollier. If Jack had been awake, he would certainly have declared he was in "crawling mode". Fortunately all of the junior crew were fast asleep. Angus and I had to wake each other several times during our off-watches in the night - to put reefs in the main or roll in some jib - and the wind direction changed frequently which meant lots of sail trimming was required. All this activity meant I didn't have time to write a blog on the last night, and the days since we arrived in Vanuatu have evaporated in a constant stream of boat chores, shore explorations, some pretty serious windsurfing practice and a lot of parties.
We all agreed that Fiji to Vanuatu was our favourite passage so far, despite the engine room antics and almost setting fire to the boat on night one. Jack rated it his best because he "didn't get sick at all". I'm not sure how his memory works; he went green several times and vomited at least twice, but he seems to have blocked it out. For me, the full moon was one of the best thing about the trip; there is something so reassuring about being able to see the boat and the sea, bathed in silver moonlight, rather than the oppressive inky blackness that we had night after night from New Zealand to Tonga. For all of us, the gentle motion was such a welcome change from our other passages. For most of the trip it was possible to walk around the boat without it being a major core-muscle workout, and mixing up powdered milk in the measuring jug was easily achievable without spilling a drop. Our minds are already thinking ahead to the passage back to New Zealand, and we are hoping it won't be as bad the trip up to Tonga...
As we closed the coast of Anatom, the southernmost island in Vanuatu, we heard the boats ahead of us radioing one another to report whale sightings. Sure enough, as we rounded the southern tip of the reef, we too were greeted by the resident pod of pilot whales. First on our port side, then directly ahead of us, and then to starboard we watched them; blowing out showery mists of water and arching their black backs as they swam by. It was quite amazing; there was only one point when we were so close that we began to wonder if we might end up sailing straight into one of them. "There she blows!" shouted the crew in excitement, pointing and leaning over one another to get a better view. What a welcome to Vanuatu!
Vanuatu is the least developed of the South Pacific countries. The population of around 250,000 live mostly on twelve of the one hundred or so islands. The islands are much more spread out than in Tonga and Fiji, making it almost impossible to travel from one to another in a small boat; the only options are cargo ships or internal flights. There are three official languages; English, French and Bislama. And then there are over a hundred local dialects, each spoken by fewer than 2,000 people. Most of the children grow up speaking four languages! We had a fascinating cultural tour in the village of Amelghowat, on Anatom, where their main business is tourism. They didn't bat an eyelid at the arrival of twenty-three yachts; they are used to entertaining entire cruise ships - at a rate of one or two per week. Our host was a most eloquent lady named Mary, educated only to the age of 16, but with immaculate English and perfect delivery. We were captivated by her tales and explanations as she walked us through the village, and talked us through village life in Vanuatu.
We covered cannibalism first. If you hang the right sort of leaf behind your ear when you visit another tribe, they will see instantly that you come in peace, so they will not attack you. Fortunately, the Ni-Vanuatu (the name for the people) abandoned cannibalism when the Christian missionaries arrived in the 19th century, which was certainly a relief to hear. We were then introduced to the Village Chief, a hereditary role (no female inheritance by the way), who is protected at all times by his two warriors, with two very long wooden spears. Jack was seen a little later on the tour, testing the warriors by waving a stick at them. Luckily they didn't rise to the challenge, and we didn't get to see their spears in action. We were shown traditional weaving, how to make houses from palm leaves, herbal medicines and remedies, fishing and cooking techniques, how to trap a chicken, and a fascinating demonstration of what the villagers do before, during and after a cyclone. We were all really impressed by the presentation, level of information and professionalism of the tour. It wasn't until an enormous Carnival Cruise ship arrived in the bay the following day that we saw first-hand how the people of Anatom have embraced tourism as their main source of income. For better or for worse, it gives them a way to earn money, which opens up possibilities beyond subsistence village life.
The cruise ship activity was amazing to see. If you look on google maps at Anatom (20 14.3S 169 46.6E), you will see a very small island in the reef, with an airstrip visible on it. This is Mystery Island, home to Anatom's (absolutely tiny!) airport, and also Queen Elizabeth II beach. When a cruise ship is in town, Mystery island comes alive. Every villager from Anatom is there offering something. There are boat rides and snorkelling trips, kayaks to hire, woven delights to purchase, cannibal soup cauldrons to have your photo taken in. I don't want to be too stereotypical about cruise ship clientele, but let's just say there were quite a few who selected inflatable sofa hire and spending their dollars in the food and drink alley over anything where they ran the risk of burning more calories than they consumed. I feel there could be some useful work in looking at preventative health on cruise ships!
We left Anatom this morning and had a fantastic 50 mile downwind sail to Port Resolution in Tanna, which took us most of the day. We are under an active volcano, Mount Yasur, which we will visit tomorrow evening. Words can't quite describe the excitement! From the anchorage, we can see periodic puffs of black smoke and ash, and now that it is dark, the clouds of volcanic debris are lit up a pinky-orange in the night sky. We have been practicing the "Lava" song on our ukeleles and Angus' squeeze box, so are planning to try and record it with a lava shower behind us tomorrow. There is a steaming / smoking rock on the shore just near to us in the bay, so we will go and investigate that when we wake up. The kids are planning to take a frying pan, eggs, a saucepan, milk and hot chocolate, and some marshmallows to toast when we get there, so I hope it's as hot as it looks. They all quite fancy themselves as contestants on "Survivor", (not that they've ever actually watched it), and they want to try out some wild cooking. Ideally they want to sleep on shore, too, but we haven't found a suitable place for that yet..
That covers most things we have done and learnt in the past few days, with the exception of lots of parties and lots of windsurfing. Angus and I are both getting reasonably good on our inflatable SUP which converts to a windsurf. I'd say we're still only intermediate, but if the wind is blowing hard we can look like we might be advanced for a brief moment or two, before we lose control and get dumped into the sea at high speed. I've also had to do several GP "home visits" to poorly people on other boats; yesterday I did one on the SUP and one in the green kayak, both with a day-glo pink dry bag. I've walked and even cycled to home visits before, but arriving by sea is a new thing for me.
Sending lots of love to everyone back home, well done if you read this far.
Photos to follow in insta / FB in a few days when we get our hands on some Vanuatu SIMs. We do update our position on the predictwind tracker as often as possible, so if you follow the link on the blog website you should be able to see where we have got to.
Laura, Angus, Eloise, George and Jack Xx
19 31.5S 169 29.7E
Previous anchorage in Vanuatu: Amelghowat Bay, Anatom
20 14.3S 169 46.6E
Today is our fifth day in Vanuatu. We were all sad to leave Fiji, especially George, who is still seriously considering "becoming Fijian" when he grows up. Several of the rally boats chose to stay for longer in Fiji, and will return to New Zealand from there, missing out Vanuatu and New Caledonia. The fleet started with 39 boats and we are now down to a more sensible 23, which has meant saying goodbye to good friends, including several of the "kid boats". As we sailed west towards Vanuatu we realised we knew very little about the place; we have various guide books, but hadn't read them before we arrived. I'm pleased to say that after a few days in the country we now know the basic geography, history and culture, and we all love the place; George is already wavering on his commitment to Fiji and is now thinking of living permanently in Vanuatu..
Our passage here became a bit spicier during our third and final night at sea. The sky clouded over, a constant drizzle fell, and periodic dark black clouds brought with them angry squalls. The wind rose from a steady 15 knots to gusts of over 25 knots, and the motion became considerably rollier. If Jack had been awake, he would certainly have declared he was in "crawling mode". Fortunately all of the junior crew were fast asleep. Angus and I had to wake each other several times during our off-watches in the night - to put reefs in the main or roll in some jib - and the wind direction changed frequently which meant lots of sail trimming was required. All this activity meant I didn't have time to write a blog on the last night, and the days since we arrived in Vanuatu have evaporated in a constant stream of boat chores, shore explorations, some pretty serious windsurfing practice and a lot of parties.
We all agreed that Fiji to Vanuatu was our favourite passage so far, despite the engine room antics and almost setting fire to the boat on night one. Jack rated it his best because he "didn't get sick at all". I'm not sure how his memory works; he went green several times and vomited at least twice, but he seems to have blocked it out. For me, the full moon was one of the best thing about the trip; there is something so reassuring about being able to see the boat and the sea, bathed in silver moonlight, rather than the oppressive inky blackness that we had night after night from New Zealand to Tonga. For all of us, the gentle motion was such a welcome change from our other passages. For most of the trip it was possible to walk around the boat without it being a major core-muscle workout, and mixing up powdered milk in the measuring jug was easily achievable without spilling a drop. Our minds are already thinking ahead to the passage back to New Zealand, and we are hoping it won't be as bad the trip up to Tonga...
As we closed the coast of Anatom, the southernmost island in Vanuatu, we heard the boats ahead of us radioing one another to report whale sightings. Sure enough, as we rounded the southern tip of the reef, we too were greeted by the resident pod of pilot whales. First on our port side, then directly ahead of us, and then to starboard we watched them; blowing out showery mists of water and arching their black backs as they swam by. It was quite amazing; there was only one point when we were so close that we began to wonder if we might end up sailing straight into one of them. "There she blows!" shouted the crew in excitement, pointing and leaning over one another to get a better view. What a welcome to Vanuatu!
Vanuatu is the least developed of the South Pacific countries. The population of around 250,000 live mostly on twelve of the one hundred or so islands. The islands are much more spread out than in Tonga and Fiji, making it almost impossible to travel from one to another in a small boat; the only options are cargo ships or internal flights. There are three official languages; English, French and Bislama. And then there are over a hundred local dialects, each spoken by fewer than 2,000 people. Most of the children grow up speaking four languages! We had a fascinating cultural tour in the village of Amelghowat, on Anatom, where their main business is tourism. They didn't bat an eyelid at the arrival of twenty-three yachts; they are used to entertaining entire cruise ships - at a rate of one or two per week. Our host was a most eloquent lady named Mary, educated only to the age of 16, but with immaculate English and perfect delivery. We were captivated by her tales and explanations as she walked us through the village, and talked us through village life in Vanuatu.
We covered cannibalism first. If you hang the right sort of leaf behind your ear when you visit another tribe, they will see instantly that you come in peace, so they will not attack you. Fortunately, the Ni-Vanuatu (the name for the people) abandoned cannibalism when the Christian missionaries arrived in the 19th century, which was certainly a relief to hear. We were then introduced to the Village Chief, a hereditary role (no female inheritance by the way), who is protected at all times by his two warriors, with two very long wooden spears. Jack was seen a little later on the tour, testing the warriors by waving a stick at them. Luckily they didn't rise to the challenge, and we didn't get to see their spears in action. We were shown traditional weaving, how to make houses from palm leaves, herbal medicines and remedies, fishing and cooking techniques, how to trap a chicken, and a fascinating demonstration of what the villagers do before, during and after a cyclone. We were all really impressed by the presentation, level of information and professionalism of the tour. It wasn't until an enormous Carnival Cruise ship arrived in the bay the following day that we saw first-hand how the people of Anatom have embraced tourism as their main source of income. For better or for worse, it gives them a way to earn money, which opens up possibilities beyond subsistence village life.
The cruise ship activity was amazing to see. If you look on google maps at Anatom (20 14.3S 169 46.6E), you will see a very small island in the reef, with an airstrip visible on it. This is Mystery Island, home to Anatom's (absolutely tiny!) airport, and also Queen Elizabeth II beach. When a cruise ship is in town, Mystery island comes alive. Every villager from Anatom is there offering something. There are boat rides and snorkelling trips, kayaks to hire, woven delights to purchase, cannibal soup cauldrons to have your photo taken in. I don't want to be too stereotypical about cruise ship clientele, but let's just say there were quite a few who selected inflatable sofa hire and spending their dollars in the food and drink alley over anything where they ran the risk of burning more calories than they consumed. I feel there could be some useful work in looking at preventative health on cruise ships!
We left Anatom this morning and had a fantastic 50 mile downwind sail to Port Resolution in Tanna, which took us most of the day. We are under an active volcano, Mount Yasur, which we will visit tomorrow evening. Words can't quite describe the excitement! From the anchorage, we can see periodic puffs of black smoke and ash, and now that it is dark, the clouds of volcanic debris are lit up a pinky-orange in the night sky. We have been practicing the "Lava" song on our ukeleles and Angus' squeeze box, so are planning to try and record it with a lava shower behind us tomorrow. There is a steaming / smoking rock on the shore just near to us in the bay, so we will go and investigate that when we wake up. The kids are planning to take a frying pan, eggs, a saucepan, milk and hot chocolate, and some marshmallows to toast when we get there, so I hope it's as hot as it looks. They all quite fancy themselves as contestants on "Survivor", (not that they've ever actually watched it), and they want to try out some wild cooking. Ideally they want to sleep on shore, too, but we haven't found a suitable place for that yet..
That covers most things we have done and learnt in the past few days, with the exception of lots of parties and lots of windsurfing. Angus and I are both getting reasonably good on our inflatable SUP which converts to a windsurf. I'd say we're still only intermediate, but if the wind is blowing hard we can look like we might be advanced for a brief moment or two, before we lose control and get dumped into the sea at high speed. I've also had to do several GP "home visits" to poorly people on other boats; yesterday I did one on the SUP and one in the green kayak, both with a day-glo pink dry bag. I've walked and even cycled to home visits before, but arriving by sea is a new thing for me.
Sending lots of love to everyone back home, well done if you read this far.
Photos to follow in insta / FB in a few days when we get our hands on some Vanuatu SIMs. We do update our position on the predictwind tracker as often as possible, so if you follow the link on the blog website you should be able to see where we have got to.
Laura, Angus, Eloise, George and Jack Xx
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