Vanuatu Port Vila and Ambrym

Port Vila 17 -20 August

The sail overnight was challenging to say the least. Catherine and I did not have any sleep and the other six boats that left that evening had the same problem with the swell coming from one direction and steep waves coming from the opposite direction – anything but relaxing.  After completing the quarantine requirements in Port Vila (basically they wanted the money and did not seem interested in visiting any of the boats) we went back to the boat as did the crews on the other boats for some sleep. So we wrote off that day and surfaced at 5pm for Happy Hour along with the other boats at the waterfront bar.

The weather had closed in again and it was clear we could not leave Port Vila for a few days with high winds and rain. A trip to the cultural museum left us with more questions than it answered as it seemed a random collection of items with next to no explanation of any of them. On the plus side we found a French supermarket on the way back where we could re-provision with many of the items we had not seen for a long time.

A wet dinghy ride in the evening from the boat to the shore did not bode well and after an hour’s walk through the town unsuccessfully dodging down pours we ended up in a pizza bar which if nothing else offered shelter. And the shelter was better than the pizza turned out to be so that is one restaurant off our list.

One of the delights of Port Vila is the market which offers a huge range of fruit and vegetables. Each island is allocated a day on which they can sell their produce and the market stays open 24 hours, six days a week. Apart from the lack of fruit because of the cyclone, the quality and range of the vegetables was fabulous. It was almost a pleasure to go shopping. On the other hand, the trip to the French supermarket was just something that had to be done and we stocked up for the next two weeks while we would be visiting the northern islands.

Port Vila is on the island of Efate. It is very different from the other islands. It has one main sealed road where the other islands either have no roads or just tracks. It has several supermarkets, resorts and some large western style houses. Vanuatu (formerly known as New Hebrides) was ruled by a condominium of France and England up until 1980 when they achieved independence. During that time the two powers never agreed, there was intense rivalry and even now there is bitterness about having to speak English and French to work in government positions. Their official language is Bislama, then English and then French. Some children go to French schools and some to English, however most villages away from Port Vila speak their own language. There are over 30 languages spoken in Vanuatu.

Some of the shipt wrecks in Port Vila

Port Vila was also struck by the cyclone and you could see many boats wrecked on the beaches. It has

however recovered quickly as it seems a lot aid (and there was a huge amount) has been spent here and not managed to get to the other islands.

Just as we were about to leave, the skipper of Gallant Cavalier who had already gone up to the northern islands had to be flown back to Port Vila for medical treatment. A small cut on his leg incurred sometime in Aneityum (he cannot even remember getting the cut) had become infected and he developed septicaemia.  He made the decision to fly back rather than travel back with his crew as he felt so ill, arriving 24 hours ahead of them. The doctor who treated him said that he would not still be alive if he had waited the 24 hours to travel back on the boat, it was that close. It will take him weeks to recover before he can think of sailing again.

Ambrym21 -25 August

Rainbow on route

We made two overnight stops on the way to Ambrym as the sea was rough with the strong winds –

one at Havannah Harbour and the other at Lamen Bay on Epi. On route we were greeted with a rainbow very close to the boat and where we could see both ends touching the water. We wanted to spend some time in Lamen Bay to see the Dugongs and sea turtles but that would be for the return journey.

Main school room

Pupils work on display

We sailed to Ranon on Ambrym so we could see the famous Rom dance and as we anchored, Geoffrey who is the local guide came out to us in his canoe. He arranged for us to take a tour or the village the next morning and he explained about the history of the island, the people and how they live now. The village has one of the largest schools in the island group where many of the people from the other villages across the island send their children. They board at the school since the journey along unmade roads is very difficult and impossible for the children to return home other than during the school holidays.

Dancing in mid flow

Rom Dance

The next day we took a 60 minute trek up the mountain to a village where they performed the Rom dance – a traditional dance with the principal dancers wearing masks and covered in banana leaves.  Four of the dancers wore the masks and banana leaves with 8 others in the centre singing traditional village songs, taking it in turns to take the lead. The square in which the dance is performed is sacred, surrounded by giant wood carvings which were magnificent. Some of these are hollowed out to form drums (called Tam Tams). We were allowed to take pictures but were warned not to touch the banana leaves of the dancers as this was strictly taboo.

The masked dancers

Tam Tam

The Rom dance is now a tourist attraction but they still perform the dance as part of the ceremony for the aspiring Chief to earn his next “grade”. Grades are how the Chief earns respect among his people and the other Chiefs on the island. The man finds someone who has a mask design which he pays for with pigs and money. The masks for the Rom dance are then made by the men in secret and each design is subtly different. The men practise the dance and it is then performed only in front of the men in the village with the masks being burned afterwards so that the spirit of the dance doesn’t stay to make trouble in the village. Ambrym is the island of black magic and although not practised often it is still believed despite the efforts of missionaries. The masks used for the tourists are not burned and anyone can see the dance (if you can get there!).

Vanuatu - Tanna and Erramango

Vanuatu - 13 August -16 August

The volcano as we approached Tanna

Our biggest fish yet!

On route to Tanna from Aneityum Catherine caught our biggest fish so far - a Mahi Mahi which took some effort. Otherwise an uneventful journey but as we approached Tanna you could see the Volcano which was one of the main attractions to come to Tanna.

Tanna 13-15 August

The attraction of going to Tanna is the active volcano which is one of the few places you can go and

Remains of the guest houses

The Yacht Club

see an active volcano just two hundred metres below the top. There were six boats that sailed with us to Tanna and we all met in the Yacht Club that night for drinks and arrange two 4WD trucks to take us the next day. The yacht Club was a traditionally built structure made from bamboo and leaves and had withstood Cyclone Pam although the three guest houses had nothing but their foundations left. Very friendly people and we had a good evening.

A coffee shop and not bad coffee!

In the morning a number of the boats came ashore to deliver some of the aid we had brought from Fiji – mainly rice, flour and sugar. The plan had been to take it to the school but this was closed so we found the community centre where we could leave it for them to distribute. We were surprised to see a coffee shop in the village which served very good coffee grown in Tanna. There we met a French trio who were staying in the village, on holiday from New Caledonia, who wanted to experience village life. This is something that the village offers to bring in tourists but you would need to be seasoned travellers as it is very basic living with no mod cons just earth toilets and buckets for washing.

In the afternoon we were getting ready to leave for the volcano when we got a call on the VHF to say that we all had to clear immigration before we could go back on the island. Immigration officials happened to be in the bay and they decided that we must clear immigration immediately, despite being told in Aneityum that we did not need to do this until we reached Port Vila which is the capital.  It was clear that the Immigration Officer would not let us on the island until he had gone through the clearance of all the boats with 30 minutes before the trucks were due to leave to go the volcano  and he had 10 boats to clear. Despite his earlier somewhat hard-line approach, he cleared all boats within 30 minutes and we went to get in the trucks.

In the back of the truck

Getting 10 people into each truck which was designed to carry four people was an experience with six of us sitting in the open back of the truck. They did provide some cushions which were needed for the 90 minute ride along pot holed tracks through the jungle. All part of the experience but I was glad when we arrived at the foot of the volcano. 

The final 300 metres was on foot to the rim of the volcano where we were greeted with explosions of magna shot high into the sky as we walked along the rim just feet away from a drop into the volcano. You could see the orange magma boiling in the centre of the volcano with huge explosions every few minutes. It was even more spectacular as it started to get dark with the orange magma showing up clearly as it fell back to earth still molten. The noise of the explosions and the tremor of the ground added to the effect and it was a fantastic sight. Worth a few hours of being shaken to bits on bumpy tracks wondering just how well maintained these vehicles were.

Erromango 15-16 August

In conversation with the other boats we decided to stop off at Erromango – we had cleared immigration now so getting to Port Vila was less pressing.  It was 80 miles so we started off early in the morning to arrive just as it was getting dark.

Children wathcing us come in

Erromango was one of the worst hit islands by Cyclone Pam and is not visited by tourists (unlike Tanna and Aneityum) so we decided that we should take most of the aid there. Food aid from Port Vila had stopped two months ago David was their spokesman (as he spoke very good English) and arranged a trade – they would not accept the aid as a gift but wanted to trade for it. So the next morning we were all invited to the village community centre where we greeted with the children from the village singing traditional songs. The women had got up as 4am to cook us some traditional food so as to be able to offer some hospitality. We were all taken back by this as food was still in short supply as the trees had no fruit and their crops were only just starting to bear fruit, but this is their nature.

In return for the aid, all the villagers brought something from their gardens – tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, taro and kava. We felt bad about taking anything but it would have been very rude not to so most people just took a few things and left the aid that we had brought. We were then taken on a tour of the village and you could see the devastation still with trees still having no leaves where the Cyclone had stripped them bare. Such warm and friendly people and so generous despite everything.

Yacht Club in progress

In the afternoon, David took us to see the Yacht Club he is building to attract more yachts to stop at the island. It is work in progress and he is funding it by donations and buying material from Port Vila when he can. It will help bring in more people to the island and with it some much needed currency for the village to buy staple foods such as rice.

We were taken in the afternoon to the Cave of skulls which is a burial site of the chiefs of the island (until the missionaries stopped this practice along with throwing the dead in the sea). We took a 30 minute boat ride along the coast before negotiation a very tricky reef to get to the beach.  A walk up to the first cave was steep but walkable whereupon we climbed into the cave to see the bones of the bodies placed there.

The second cave was a climb up a sheer wall, using the tree roots

Climbing up to the cave

The Chiefs looking out

and vines to make our way up and along a narrow path to the cave which overlooked the sea. Here the heads of the chiefs were arranged so that they could watch over the sea for any enemies arriving.

The next night we left for Port Vila with the aim of an easy sail overnight so that we would arrive in the early morning and have the day free. One of the yachts took a father and his son to Port Vila from the village to visit the hospital as the son was ill and there is very limited medical care on the island. There is an airstrip on the island (courtesy of the Americans from WWII) but the cost of flying to Port Vila where the hospital is located is prohibitive. The alternative is to wait for the weekly supply ship but again the cost is too much for most of the villagers so it was fortunate that we were there.

Vanuatu Aneityum

Vanuatu: 7 August – 12 August

Journey

We were delayed five days in Musket Cove waiting for a weather window as the unseasonably strong winds and rain continued. We left on Friday 7 August with north winds predicted for the first day and then south easterly winds – all fairly benign according to the forecast. Indeed the first day was good sailing in the north winds and then the winds turned south at midnight and we found ourselves going to windward in 22-28kn winds with steep 3m seas coming towards us. After 24 hours or waves crashing over the boat and very uncomfortable conditions, the winds eased along with the waves and the rest of the journey was very straight forward.

One of the boats, Sweet Disorder, lost its rudder halfway on the journey and without steering was forced to call the New Zealand coast guard who co-ordinate rescue operations in this part of the South Pacific. The nearest vessel was a fishing boat that went to give them a tow back to Suva which was the fishing boat’s destination.  However, they would not agree to provide the tow until they had confirmation that they would be paid which delayed getting the tow in place. The insurance company agreed to the cost and they had a slow and difficult tow against the wind and waves back to Suva.

The fishing boat stopped before arriving at the island and refused to continue until they had confirmation that the money was in their account.  The insurance company made the payment and at that point the Fijian navy came out and took over the tow, taking Sweet Disorder to Denarau Marina for repairs. They were greeted with a Navy Band playing on the dock as they arrived to a big fanfare with the Navy taking full credit for the rescue of a sailing boat on the edge of disaster! It will take six weeks to get the boat repaired but undaunted they plan to continue their trip once it is fixed.

Aneityum 10- 12 August

We arrived at the anchorage at 7pm, just as it was getting dark and we anchored without problem. It was noticeably colder in the evening than it had been in Fiji although we were only 180 miles further south.

We had a very busy day the next day starting with the tour of the village by a local guide. There are one thousand people living on the island in three main villages. We visited one of the settlements where they live in traditionally built houses from palm tree leaves and bamboo. The villages are very well kept and beautiful with the villagers taking obvious pride in their village and their way of life.

It has been six months since Cyclone Pam devastated the island, stripping all the fruit off the trees, knocking down many of the trees and stripping the leaves off many of the remaining ones. The guide explained how they prepare for cyclones, storing bananas preserved in a pit in the ground covered with leaves and stones, and cooking the roots of a particular tree which provides sugar and water which they eat in the immediate aftermath.  The root of the tree has to be cooked for 3 days and two nights and according to their tradition, three men must tend the fire, sleeping next to the fire and must not eat and only drink water – otherwise the root will not cook and cannot be used. They have a cyclone every couple of years although none as devastating as Cyclone Pam. The villagers took pride in their ability to be self-sufficient in the aftermath before any aid can be delivered. As they are the southernmost island, they are last in the route for the supply ships and they were one of the islands worst hit.

There is still no fruit on the island as the trees have only been growing for six months now and it will take another few months before they start producing fruit – bananas, mango etc. Vegetable crops were also devastated but recovered more quickly. Many houses were destroyed but they have started rebuilding again 

The main village

The main village has a primary school and secondary education is on Efate at Port Vila so children have to leave the island at twelve. One of the downsides of formal education has been the loss of skills passed on from generation to generation. The children used to work

A traditional fishing net they still use

with their parents day to day, learning the skills and traditions and the skills are gradually being lost – something that they are actively trying to reverse since their way of life depends on them. Some of those skills are being taught in schools now although the guide said that the skills taught in schools are not the practical skills required but more of an academic learning.

In the afternoon the villagers took us to the reef to snorkel among the coral and fish.  We were taken in a long boat and dropped off to allow the tide to bring us back across the reef with little effort. That is little effort until the last 100 metres swimming across the tide to get back to the island which made the swim seem that much longer.

Our dinner

Later that afternoon we were invited to Mystery Island which is just off the main island for traditional dancing and a feast. There were about 30 of us from the yachts and the islanders had gone to a lot of trouble, spit roasting a pig over an open fire and cooking many of their traditional foods – taro, kasava and sweet potatoes. The dancing was fearsome and you could see that the roots as warriors.  We had Vanuata kava which is supposed to be much stronger than either Tongan or Fijian but after one cup we decided that beer tasted a lot better and fortunately we had brought some supplies with us, as had the other boats.

The Queen (of England) named the island “Mystery Island” and the name has stuck ever since. It is

Traditional dancing

The Chief (centre) welcoming us

used by Cruise Ships who bring a couple of thousand people on shore each week for a two hour visit to see the dancing and buy souvenirs. This is something that the village has cultivated over many years to bring in currency to the small island which otherwise has little means of earning money. We were lucky that we were such a small group which allowed a lot of time to talk to the villagers about their way of life which apart from the cruise ship visits is spent as any other village. They were expecting a cruise ship the following week the first since the cyclone.

Making fire

Two minutes later!

One of the interesting demonstrations is how they make fire. They   It never happened like that when I was a boy scout!

use a particular tree which is very dry and use a branch from the tree against the trunk to quickly generate enough heat to light some kindling. It took no more than two minutes to have a blaze going.

Many of the boats left the next day but we stayed on so that we could see more of the main island and talk to the locals. Everyone was very engaging and one even apologised that they could not offer us any fruit to take away with us which is what they would normally do for visitors from boats. Apart from yachts, very few people visit the main island on Aneityum as it is not easy to get to.

PeaceCorp worker in school library

We met two girls who were US PeaceCorp workers on the island who had signed up to two years living in the village  to provide help – one in the local school sorting out the library and the other at a medical centre in one of the other villages. They live and eat with the villagers with no internet access, no trips home during the period and limited conversations with a few people who can speak English. Both of them have been learning Bislama which is a common (but second language) in all of the islands – each island has their own native language which is different in each island and often different between villages on the same island. Both girls had been upset that they had to leave the island just before the Cyclone hit, at the insistence of the US PeaceCorp, to be flown to safety while the villagers did not have any option but to stay – they have great attachment to the people of the village. 

To celebrate the survival of the Cyclone, the PeaceCorp produced a video showing how the villagers coped and were in high spirits in the aftermath despite the hardships incurred by all the villagers following destruction of their crops, houses and fruit.