Ciao Bella Vanuatu!

Well it had to happen sometime, and with some 2400 miles (roughly 16 days) sailing to cover in less than a month, we figured we’d better bust a move and get away while the weather was still looking good.

Our time on Espiritu Santos will be well remembered, whilst Vila didn’t exactly seem like much of a tourist trap, Luganville was even less so. The town itself (pop around 12 000) is a pretty typical sleepy tropical setup, with a good market and a number of other stores that all seem to sell a bit of everything and shut each day between 11:30 and 1:30. Hmmm…..maybe that’s why its so sleepy! Anyway there was enough there for us to chill out in the bay for four or five days and re-provision comfortably before we left.

The two highlights while on Santos would have to be a little road-trip I took via mountain bike around the coast to some famous blue water springs and a couple of days spent diving on ‘Million Dollar Point’ and the sunken wreck of the ‘USS President Coolidge’.

After waking up early one morning with no plans I thought it might be a good idea to hire a bike some place and see if I could make it the 40km or so around the island to the famous ‘blue holes’, one of the few tourist attractions in the area. While no one else was keen to slog their guts out on a bike in the rising heat I set out to find a bike to rent. Unfortunately it didn’t take long to find out that there wasn’t a single place in town that rented out bikes so my only option was to try bartering with the locals (luckily most speak pretty good English). After flagging down a bunch of kids on the street I’d had a few offers but no one seemed to have any brakes and I was told there were a few hills along the way so I had gratefully declined. After almost an hour spent hunting for a bike I decided to flag the brakes and take the next offer, so I was soon on my way on a beat up old mountain bike with 3gears (out of 21), no brakes, and a seat that would later become the bane of my beaten and bruised bum….oh well, I figured It was good to get off the boat and get some exercise.

Anyway, after taking the scenic route through a bunch of native villages and being treated to some of the local produce I rejoined the main road around the island. Like Efate (Vila), the main roads still exist from those built by the Americans during WWII, and although no bombs were ever dropped on these islands, the roads outside of town all look like they’ve been carpet bombed by the Japs at some stage or another. Only after a couple of hours on my bike, the combination of a seat with the padding eaten out of it and a road with potholes up to my elbow, left me fearing I might be rendered infertile forever after! Anyway, just when I thought I couldn’t take it anymore a trusty Hilux rolled up with three raucous Aussie girls on the back, and (regrettably) their husbands in the cab in front. Being a seasoned hitch hiker, it wasn’t long before I was drinking cold beers on the back with the girls and on my way to one of the most beautiful swimming holes I’ve ever seen. Of course, by this time the batteries were flat in my camera so I cant show off the girls... oh well! Luckily I was with a good crew with some local knowledge as the pool was so hidden that I never would have found it on my own. It would seem property is pretty cheap in Vanuatu and it’s becoming a popular sport for kiwis and Aussies to build holiday homes here, good old fashioned kiwi batches with solar panels and all!

The Diving in Santo is also world famous. Although no battles were fought here during WWII, there was a major American naval base at Luganville and the Americans managed to sink a bunch of their ships all on their own! The most famous of these is the ‘USS President Coolidge’ which sunk just off the shore outside of Luganville when it hit a couple of American mines. It now lies about 50m off shore in around 20-60m of water. The Coolidge is a cruise ship that was converted to a troop carrier/transporter for the war in the pacific. It is now one of the most famous wreck dives in the world thanks to its easy access, and awesome array of war paraphernalia, including cargo holds packed full of jeeps, trucks, tanks, bulldozers and the like.
We dove the ‘Coolidge’ the day before we left with a local dive outfit who were cowboy enough not to care too much for legit diving certification, but they were cheap, and we didn’t all have our cert’s on us anyway so who’s complaining! Anyway, first dive was a bit of a recccie so they could suss us out as divers. We still got to penetrate the upper decks and got down to 40m though, pretty deep considering Simon had only just been certified! The second dive in the afternoon was definitely the highlight. This was a more in-depth (excuse all the terrible puns here!) penetration to the medical supply room and a couple of cargo holds. The supply room is still full of medical supplies and instruments and the cargo holds were packed full of cool shit like guns, jeeps and tanks. At those depths you only get about 20mins bottom time so it soon time to head for the surface, stopping several times along the way up the coral bank to feed the fish and decompress. Yay! Definitely a dive spot to go back to, there is soo much more to explore.

‘Million Dollar Point’ is only 500m down the coast and is a famous dumping ground for American equipment after WWII. From what I hear it was cheaper of the Americans to dump huge amounts of machinery (trucks, bulldozers, planes etc.) of the back of their ships than is was to take them home again…go figure! Anyway, It makes a super cool spot do dive or snorkel with wreckage ranging from 5-30m of water.

Anyway, so now were just about to pull into Ghizo Island in the Solomons. We’ve been at sea for the last 6 days and were originally planning to go straight to Papua New Guinea but some more dodgy weather (40+ knots) was forecast ahead of us so we have veered north to skip along its northern edge. We’ll probably spend three four days here while the weather clears before we head south to follow our original route to Darwin. We don’t know a lot about Ghizo, but I hear there’s some more good diving. I think there was quite a bit of action here during WWII so I’m looking forward to some more wrecks!
Take care ya’ll and stay tuned!
Tomo

Island Hopping through Vanuatu

Hey people! Well I've managed to get myself behind a computer again, sitting in an anchorage outside of Luganville, on Espirto Santos (Northern end of Vanuatu Islands). It’s stinking hot and I should be snorkeling but I know I’ve gotta blow this one out…even if it is for the second time after the computer crashed on me!

We left Port Vila about a week ago with plans to continue North along the volcanic chain of islands that make up Vanuatu. While Cassie stocked up with fresh fruit and veges (half of which I had never seen before), the rest of us stocked up on cheep DVD’s and even cheaper duty free booze. $14 for a 1l bottle of Johnnie Walker and no limit meant we had quite a load to carry back to the boat! Trouble was we couldn’t drink any till we cleared out of Vanuatu in a couple of weeks time……hmmmm, definitely a test of will power!

We thought it would be nice to take it easy so we decided to do short trips during the day before pulling up into a protected anchorage to spend the night. Our first stop was just off the northern end of Efate (Port Vila) before we hit open water again briefly on our way to Cooks Reef. This reef is off the southern coast of Epi and with perfect conditions we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get in a bit on snorkeling and spear fishing before heading out to sea again. Unfortunately, the fish weren’t as big or stupid as I would have liked, but it was still good fun.

Our next destination was an inlet off the southern end of Malakula Island, called port Sandwich (don’t ask about the stupid name, it must have been the French who left in 1980). We had been having excellent sailing conditions since leaving Vila and this leg was no exception with average speeds of 7-8kts for most of the trip, mostly under spinnaker. We were also coming to the end of the last Waahoo that we had caught just out Vila, so it was time to throw out the lure again. It wasn’t long before we had hooked up again, this time it was Simon’s home-made popper made out of an old broomstick that did the damage. This thing has been slaying plenty of fish on this trip so if you’re thinking about trolling for the big fish don’t get sucked into the hundred-dollar jobbies down at you local tackle store, this thing is the shizzle! Anyway, another beautiful Mahi-Mahi hit the freezer and should keep us going for a good while yet.

When we finally reached the mouth of the inlet at port Sandwich after an 8hr sail we were all relieved to be out of the heaving swells that were building with the rising winds. We had been reading in the Vanuatu cruising guide about man eating sharks in this harbor so we were also a little hesitant to get in the water! Port Sandwich used to be an old French settlement before Vanuatu gained its independence in 1980, and the French moved out. It’s now occupied by a few hundred Melanesians who have funnily enough abandoned most of the French buildings to build their own traditional houses. Most of the villagers here work in the Copra (coconut) plantations which is the main industry on the island.
Anyway the next day we all went ashore and it wasn’t long before we had been introduced to what seemed like half the village. The people here speak Bislama (local pidgin english), French, and English (in that order) and although they kept telling us in English ‘I don’t speak English’, we seemed to have no problems communicating. Before we knew it, a feast of roast pig had been arranged for us the following day. For the last couple of years I’ve had a philosophy of only eating what I would call Free-Range, good-karma, sustainable meat. When I went traveling I knew I would have to compromise on these values if I was really going to experience local culture, but in this village I had no worries. The whole village was simply a free-range grazing area for cows, pigs and chickens. When they found out we were after a pig, the word was put out amongst the villagers and before we knew it, the pig was killed, butchered and roasted in the local bakers (wood-fired) oven. Yum!
After our feast with the locals of Pig, yams, rice, and fresh bread (hmmmm…..starch!) we also got a chance to try the infamous Vanuatu Kava. We were told specifically not to eat anything before hand so just before dinner one evening we landed our dingy and met one of the Peace Corps workers who had agreed to show us some of the-night life around town. It was only 6:00 when we got into town, but already dark and as we walked past several kava bars (really just low-key grass huts… no neon lights here!) we could already hear the kava being prepared. There are also very few lights (and definitely no signage) in the village at night, so if you didn’t have a guide your chances of finding kava might not be so easy. Anyway, we found our bar, a low key grass hut filled with men talking in hushed tones (and spitting all over the show) and settled down on bench outside. The first round wasn’t so bad because we didn’t know what to expect. Me, Si, Cassie, and Terry threw down a bowl, and immediately felt the numbing effects take over in our mouths. After a second bowl was choked down by each of us (now anticipating the earthly tones of dirty dish water….aghhh) we were well on our way. I think it affected each one of us differently but it sure made the 30min walk back to the dingy a bit more of a mission!

That pretty much sums up the traditional way of living in most of Vanuatu outside of Vila and Luganville. Not a lot of villages have electricity, relying on generators (rare) or solar panels. The people are super friendly, never pestering, and always generous. Crime seems to be very rare, and we’ve read that there’s a 100% employment rate in Vanuatu. This hardly surprised me, when you go into a store in Vila it seems like there are always 2 staff to every customer!

So now we’re in Luganville in the North, and planning to stay for about another week. There are loads of WWII wrecks around here including the famous USS Coolidge so we’re all looking forward to doing some diving on sunken ships, planes, jeeps and reefs. My underwater camera is still holding up so I’ll see If I can get some good photos…..stay tuned!

Vanuatu......hello paradise!

Hey Everyone....I know I've been pretty shite up until now at keeping you up to date, so I though I'd pick up from Vanuatu, then fill in the rest later with some good pics.

We left New Caledonia about a week ago, Noumea was a bit of a let down and pretty shabby (not to mention expensive!) so we were all keen to move on to new places. Vanuatu was always supposed to be our first port of call after Opua (NZ) but we defected to New Cal en-route to dodge some dodgey weather. Anyway, the trip from Noumea was pretty quick thanks to a steady 25-30kt breeze. Pretty rolly weather though, I now swear by motion sickness pills!

Life onboard during passage has been pretty chilled out so far, thanks to the good weather we've generally picked before leaving. There are four of us on board, Terry (Skipper), Cassy (Terry's Daughter), Simon (another kiwi from Whangarei) and me. Most of us are generally up during the day (bar the odd cat-nap), reading books, laxing out, fishing, or otherwise just trying to stop ourselves from being rag-dolled around the cabin in rough seas. 'Sora', is a pretty easy boat to sail with all the mod cons and fancy gadgets (including auto-pilot, in-mast furling, chart-plotter, electric winches) so it's pretty easy to plug in your destination, raise the sails and let the gadgets take over until you reach port. All you really have to do once you're in open water is trim the sails now and then and keep watch for bad weather and boats that might get in your way. During the Night we all take a 3hr watch to make sure there is always someone on deck in case anything goes wrong or it looks like we're about to get run down by a container ship! Watches are always a good time to get a bit of quiet time to your self, but I've also discoverd how to watch movies on my ipod which generally helps keep you awake!

Pretty soon after leaving Noumea (capital of New Caledonia) I threw a line out as we threaded out through the complicated reef system surounding New Cal. Fishing off 'Sora' is a little bit unconventional, and somewhat unsporting.... but then again I like to fish for the table, not for the sport of it. Anyway, to put it simply we just got one big eff-off game fishing reel with a bunch of million pound fishing line and bolted it straight onto one of the safety rails at the back of the boat. We do this so we don't have to dick around in the rolling swells for hours trying to play a fish on rod and reel, given the manourverability of a 55ft ketch under full sail this general wouldn't be practical! When a fish hooks up we generally just tow it for a bit (sometimes till they're just about dead and surfing on the surface behind the boat) and haul it up by hand/reel when its stopped fighting. With this setup we can catch just about anything from Tuna to Marlin, as Terry has done so in the past. On the way from Noumea we caught a small Tuna and two Mahi-Mahi (Dorado) of respectable size... the first of which somehow manged to win the manic wrestling match that ensued after we hauled it on deck, spitting the hook and jumping off the gaff back into the sea...woops! I must say I felt a bit guilty, Mahi-Mahi are such beautiful big creatures and aparently they mate for life. The second one was not not so lucky and was soon filleted for the freezer. Stink thing is when you catch one of these big Palegic (Ocean crossing) fish theres normally enough meat on them to feed the four of us for at least a week so once we catch one thats generally the end of our fishing for the rest of our passage. Catch and release is not exactly a humane or sustainable option!

Our last leg between Noumea and Vila was relatively short at about 300 miles so it only took us 3days doing an average speed of 6-8kts. Given the rough seas we were experiencing it was just as well. Our first impressions of vila from the boat were already in stark contrast with Noumea, with loud music and colourful markets lining the water front. As you can imagine we were all super keen to stretch our legs and sample the local fare but unfortunately we had arived on Saturday. Customs wasn't open until Monday and until we cleared we wouldn't be aloud on shore......ahhhhhhhh!!!!! Oh well, the boat's usually an absolute mess after an ocean passage so I spose it made tidying up a slightly easiey task to get stuck into.

Well now it's Tuesday and we've had a bit of time to suss out Vila and I'm loving it. The people are soooo friendly, most things cost the same as NZ but piracy is also rife so Ilegal DVD's, Computer Software, and counterfit clothes are super cheap. Tomorrow we'll hire a car to drive around the island and hopefully visit some of the local tribes.....I'll keep you posted!