Exploring New Cal's South Lagoon

We've met a very nice couple from Australia, Norbert and Sharon, their boat Cadeau is docked behind ours. They have been a fountain of information for us with regard to Noumea and for our upcoming trip to Australia. They walk everywhere! (We are getting better at that - taxi prices dictate!) We all hoofed off to the Yacht Club at Port Pleasance (a mere 100 miles away) in order to watch the semi final world cup rugby game between France and Wales. Upon entering the building the first people we see are David and Jacqui from Jackster, they have JUST arrived from Vanuatu. They've thrown the anchor out, changed their clothes and dingy'd over to watch the game. Jacqui is a ruby NUT. Glen and I are still trying to sort out the rules, but Norbert/Sharon and David/Jacqui are all happy to coach us through the game, even though the commentary is completely in French (only Jacqui speaks French). We have a great time razzing the fellows across the table who are cheering for France as we have all aligned ourselves with Wales on Jacqui's recommendation. It is a fun evening. On the walk back, Norbert and Glen whinned so much about being hungry that Sharon had us on for some snacks and of course a night cap.

It is Oct 16, 2011. We've walked to and from Mass on this lovely Sunday morning. David and Jacqui are at our boat when we return and the kidnap case of the Costa del Mar sunglasses is concluded. They return Glen's sunglasses. Coffee on the back of the boat is so much nicer when it is shared with friends. At 1:30 pm we cast the dock lines off to head out for 10 days of exploring the Southern Lagoon. The weather has been warm and windy but wind doesn't matter when you are on the dock.

Because it is a short day of cruising, we head for the north side of Ouen Island for a tiny indented bay, Kouo, arriving about 5:00pm. It is a lovely snug little bay surrounded by palm trees, mangroves and their famous towering pine trees. We are the only boat there. The late afternoon is magical as we relax on the back deck and watch Mother Nature get ready for night time. There are several turtles breaking the surface of the flat clam water as they bob up and down feeding. It is such a thrill to see them just doing their thing. The trees are filled with song birds that are trying to outdo each other with their music. Slowly darkness falls and everything becomes still and silent. By now Glen and I have finished our BBQ dinner and are on to our next level of entertainment, the underwater lights off of the back transom. It is very interesting to see what little sea creatures and fishes are attracted to the glowing lights. Tonight though, we attract something very un-desirable!

A small motor boat, overflowing with 9 young men, pulls suddenly up to our back swim grid. They are local Kanak men, all sporting "Bob Marley" hair-do's, and they have clearly been doing some sort of partying. They are all speaking loudly and at one time, each saying something different. These are not the shy respectful locals that we have become accustomed to from Fiji and Vanuatu. They are aggressive and bold. A demand for whiskey or beer! Where is the owner? How many people on board? This is OUR island! ... Glen managed to diffuse the situation like a true diplomat, discouraging them from coming on board and eventually getting an invitation to visit their village the next day. When they finally left to continue their "good times" we were sooo relieved. A snap decision was made to up anchor and head out in the darkness to someplace safer just in case they decided to come back later.

In the blackness of night we venture into Prony Bay, hoping that the charts are accurate so we don't run ourselves up on a rock. The big nickel mine on the shore of the bay is lit up like a small city. We coast into an area where there are several other boats and put down our anchor. Good night!

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New Caledonia - Noumea

We arrived into the pass on the reef to enter into New Caledonia exactly as planned at 6:30 am. The visibility was good, the currents non existent and we made good way on through to the town of Noumea, Port du Sud marina. The clearing in went seamlessly with Chloe from Noumea Yacht Services doing all of the work. French is definitely the language of choice here and we would still be in customs trying to explain ourselves.

So far, we haven't done anything extraordinary. A walking tour of the down town area, eating out at a few nice restaurants, cleaning up the boat, checking out the market to replenish all of the stuff we had to throw over board because quarantine wouldn't allow it into the country and just hanging out. We could have been gone to the outer reefs a bit sooner, but we really want to go to Mass at the St. Joeseph's Cathedral on Sunday and will head out after that.

A side note - drinking the water from green coconuts and then cracking them open with the machette (without whacking your hand off) to eat the soft pudding like flesh, is truly a delight that we have discovered in the South Pacific. Just wanted to record that for memory's sake.

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On to New Caledonia

Vanuatu has been great. This is definitely someplace that we will come back too. We have only briefly touched the secrets and treasures that she holds. There is such a rich cultural fabric here and the people are very nice.

So now we are traveling south to New Caledonia. This is the second night shift and we should be arriving at the outer reefs at 6:30 am - planned for daylight entry. Current position lat. 21.58.165 S and 167.15.782 E long. We've only encountered three other vessels so far. Pretty big ocean. The travel conditions have been great, low swell and light winds. It kind of sucks entering some of these countries as they restrict all of the food items that you can import, so I've had to get rid of all of our fresh food. It is a good thing we don't want to eat too much when we travel. Yeah I know it is the same in Canada and the U.S. but it still seems like such a waste.

So New Cal, here we come.

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Tanna Island and Yasur volcano

The easiest way to explore a town when you are boating is to have to find the immigration and customs offices to check in. No body ever knows where they are and you get a different set of directions from each person you ask. Finally we have the check in detail taken care of and actually browse around the town a bit. It is a nice place with everything you need for shopping, the usual arts and craft stores, Chinese everything stores, several supermarkets and even some upscale clothing stores (French influence). They have a fantastic market. Glen scores his coveted white radishes and a watermelon.

Oct 7 We say goodbye to Abbie, she flys home to Australia today. Now it's just Glen and I on the boat again.

Oct 8 - 5:00 am is an early wakeup call because we have to be on shore for 6:00 to be picked up to start our day tour to Tanna Island and the volcano of Mt Yasur. Yasur is the world's most accessible active volcano. Currently it is in Stage 2 activity with Stage 4 being the highest or most unstable grade. Earlier this year Yasur was in Stage 4 and was closed for viewing. We chose to do the day tour thing because it is a day's time to travel by boat, the anchorage there is rough and unreliable, plus your boat gets all covered with volcanic ash - a cleaning nightmare. So we fly at 7:30, arrive at 8:00 and by the time the guide/driver/tour operator get organized we head out at 8:30. It is a 2 hour drive to the volcano, you should have an hour at the volcano and a 2 hour drive back to check in for the 2:50 flight back to Port Vila. The drive is interesting as we see most of the island, but our driver decides to play "bus" picking up and dropping off anybody who wants a ride along the way thus increasing our drive time and shortening our volcano time to 1/2 hour as now there is concern that we can't make it back to the airport in time. But after rushing us through our volcano visit, they take another road back and wonder of wonders, it turns out to be a much better/faster road and we make it back with about an hour to spare (that could have been volcano time!), plus they hit us up for another $1000 vatu (they felt the tour operator hadn't paid them enough for taking the day off of work to show us around). But the volcano.....! The raw power that the earth holds! The mountain is a pile of volcanic ash looking much like a huge pile of black sand. It is a two minute walk up to the crater from the parking area. That caused me to huff a bit - been on the boat too long - to carry a 30 lb pack and ascend straight up. You would laugh at my whining, it is a poured concrete ramp - looks like wheel chair access, but not - too steep. Yasur greets us with a loud roar of puking lava that we can see over the rim as we walk up. There are three vents, A, B, C. A and B are most active. In the short time that we are on top looking into the bowels of this angry sore on the earth's crust we are treated to regular mini eruptions. The sound effects are much the same as the jet cars staging on the drag strip, loud and vibrating. The molten lava is flung high into the sky, (you probably aren't going to like my analogy but this is what I thought when I saw the first one go off) to me it resembled dead bodies being thrown into the air and flopping gracelessly back to the earth in a crumpled fall (yeah I know - gross). We could have watched for a very long time, it is quite mesmerizing. The belching steam and gas, the red glowing lava that cools to black rock in the time it goes up into the air and tumbles back to the earth. It would have been nice to hike around the rim, which a person could, but we didn't have time. They have several resorts near by that cater to volcano watchers and you can come to see it at night too, that would be wild. Maybe next time.

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Efate Island - Havannah Harbour

Our 6 hour trip from Maskelynes to Efate is boringly smooth. Glen and Trish were disappointed (Not) that we didn't have huge waves and howling winds. Upon arrival we adjust our chosen anchoring spot several times based on a variety reasons and finally decide on a spot directly in front of the village of Port Havannah. It is a beautiful spot and two other sailing vessels are anchored there as if to confirm the wisdom of our choice. A small river veiled by mangroves sends out a procession of local dugouts from the village. Frank engages us in conversation and we run down a list of fruit and vegis that we could use and are happy when he says he can get us fresh tomatoes and green coconuts. He'll come back in an hour. His spunky young son is paddling beside Frank in his own canoe that he has made and is quite proud to pose for a photo. They'll be back in an hour, so we decide to see what is behind the mangrove curtain and pile into the whaler to check it out. A surreal world of rain forest jungle and quite greets us. The river is only about 2 feet deep and clear as glass so we can see the little critters crawling on the bottom. It is fun creeping along through the overhanging branches and vines, glimpsing houses set back on the bank. One family has built a retaining wall of coral rock thus creating their own private swimming hole, which in today's heat is being used to it's purpose. An Australian woman calls hello to us and our ensuing chat reveals that this is the home of her son and daughter-in-law. We learn lots things just by saying Hi to strangers. The river shallows to the point that we get grounded and have to turn back. Frank is waiting by the boat for us with our shopping. Nice. Happy hour consists of homemade pina colodas using our new fresh coconut water and flesh with the last of our Fiji pineapples. A dash of Malibu Rum - Yummy. The usual evening calm is disrupted by a sudden squall. Rain dumps from the sky and we get our howling winds. Guess what? Yep, the catamaran anchored beside us drags off of it's anchor and comes very close to impact with us before he gets his engine started and moves off to re-set. All kinds of entertainment for us.

The morning breaks bright and sunny. We move out back down the harbour about 2 hours to a location called Paul's Rock. This is noted to be a great dive site. We anchor the big boat away from the reef and ferry to the site in the whaler. It really is a nice dive with lots of fish, some new ones that we have only seen in books before, so that is a bonus. Our dive takes about an hour, we rinse off the gear, haul anchor and head for Port Vila - about an hour away. Port Vila is the capital city and is located on the south east corner of Efate Island. It has a large deep harbour. Our initial parking spot has a slight roll to it, but is manageable for comfort. The guys are ecstatic, they finally have internet. Wow, the stress it causes to be disconnected for 2 weeks. About 5:00 pm a rain storm rolls in challenging our holding position and filling the whaler with rain water. Thankfully it passes in an hour and we can bail the whaler out (self bailing pump is broken - new one still in package!). We are wanting a bit of urban pampering (dinner out) so break out the flash light to find the dingy dock as we motor slowly through the sleeping boats (boats are sleeping - people aren't it's only 6:30 pm, but dark). In Port Vila, they have these buses (mini vans) that charge $150 vatu per person (approx $1.50) and take you pretty much door to door, but they do pick up and drop off others along the way. This is much less expensive than taxi rides if you have the leisure time to ride around a bit. So we grab a bus and head for Kanpai - Japanese Restaurant. It is a lovely evening out and no more rain. Unfortunately though, the storm has raised the swell level into the bay and we spend the night rocking. Trish figured it could be patented as "fitness in bed" as you have to brace your body from one side to the next to keep from rolling out.

Needless to say, but the first thing we do in the morning is up anchor and go searching for a calmer spot.

Today is Oct 5 and Glen and Trish fly out of Vanuatu for Australia. We finish our day off doing boat stuff, it is "Constitution Day Holiday" here.

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Maskelynes

From Ambrym Island it is a three hour hop over to the Maskelyne Islands. This is a group of small islands off of the south tip of the very large island of Malekula. We choose to anchor in a calm bay beside the island of Awai. It is picture perfect calm and before very long there are several dugout canoes full of people, mostly older children - it is Saturday today, silently gliding around the boat so that they can get a better look. One man stops to chat and ask if we would like any vegis or fruit. You can trade or pay for produce, it just depends on what you have to offer and what they are needing. Everybody in Vanuatu speaks pretty good English and the main mode of travel on water is by outrigger dugout canoes. There aren't a lot of fuel stations around for motor boats. We have some great pictures of the people in their canoes. To throw a little contrast into the scene, we drop our whaler down so that we can travel in relative speed and comfort to visit the large village of Peskarus on the island of Uliveo. It is Saturday and everybody is just hanging out. We pull in as close as possible to shore and hop out into knee deep water to wade in, toss the sand anchor out and let the boat float free. We meet Gren (sounds like Glen) the Chief, who is conveniently sitting in the shade of a huge tree along with several of other village men. After our chat, we have asked permission to anchor in their water and to tour their village, Josaiah is elected to be our guide. The village is large and picturesque. The house yards are set in a grid pattern with well packed walking paths as dividers. Everything is so clean - the Chief strictly enforces village rules and no littering is one of them. The same thatched houses with raked dirt yards, stake enclosures for the coveted pigs, the odd dog - in god shape, not many cats, some chickens and loads of children (again I have forgotten my candy bag - must be boatzymers). We travel down a wide packed dirt road to the school where we meet the headmaster, Benson and a young teacher, Bill. Bill is the son of the Chief on Avok Island and he agrees to ask permission for us to dive on the reef tomorrow. With our tour now finished, we discover that the whaler has floated away from the beach on it's anchor line. A quick word from an elder on the beach has a gaggle of small boys bobbing out to guide the boat back to shore. It is so cute, they are like a flock of little ducklings and make as much noise too with their chatter. They happily pose for a picture with the stray boat. Our afternoon is spent lazing on the boat. It is sunny with a light breeze, things just don't get much better. We won't get into any cultural activities here, though the area is rich in history, as we don't have the time to spend. We have to have Glen and Trish to Port Vila for a flight to Australia by Oct 5.

Our dive the next day is good. Especially for Glen G. this is his third open water dive and we get to spend a long time underwater oogling the fishes and checking out the crevices and caves. It is not nearly as packed with life as we are used too from our Fiji experience, but still good. Again we loll around all afternoon like we are guests on a cruise ship. Not too many canoes out, it is Sunday. One fellow does stop in to ask if we would like some lobster. Of course! So he promises to get some for us tonight (same promise was made yesterday). About 1:00 am I am awakened by.... what? Then I notice a light reflecting off of the boat. A quick inspection out of the port hole confirms that somebody with a flashlight is outside of the boat. Glen and I go out to meet them - four fellows in a large dugout - they have eight beautiful lobsters for us. For a mere $7000 vatu ($70.00 cdn) we have the makings of a feast. Our lobster dealer tells us that he went hunting for the lobster last night too, but he took his wife with him and she is not very good help, so tonight he has proper hunters with him. The guys catch the lobster at low tide at night when the lobsters come out on top of the reef. They shine a flashlight into their eyes and sneak a hand in sideways to grab them. One guy asks if we have cigarettes, but Glen tells him "No. Anyway smoking is not good for you." To which one of the other men responds to the first, "Yeah, It is not good for you!" They all got a laugh out of that. Nice guys.

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Ambrym Island

By now, heading out for the 6 hour passage from Santo to Ambrym Island doesn't phase Glen and Trish at all. They can even walk up and down the stairs while we are underway and carry things in their hands to boot! We anchor in front of the village Ronon. This is our first village visit in Vanuatu and we are not sure what the protocol is for greetings and permission. It turns out that the Ni-Vanuatu (what the people are called - Ni-Vans for short) have it figured out that it is better to charge a nominal fee for everything rather than accept a gift of kava like the Fijians do. You still need to ask for a chief. We are met by a fellow named Ruben and he gives us the low down. Glen and I arrange for a village tour for tomorrow as well as a performance of their traditional Rom Dance. The Rom Dance is one of many traditional dances, each island of Vanuatu seems to have their own special dance. Back at the boat we all kick back and enjoy a beautiful still evening, no wind and flat calm water. We are dining on the top deck, soaking up the perfect weather and in the fading shimmer of the day on the water a dugon lazily feeding is our entertainment. Dugons are similar to manatees.

Abbie decides to forego the village tour so Trish and I and the two Glens pile into the rubber dingy and head to black volcanic sand beach. The gentle swell breaking on the shore is going to be a challenge for us to land and not end up capsized sideways. Good timing on Captain Glen's part sends us in between waves and everybody climbs safely and gracefully out of the dingy and onto the beach. Ruben and Barry meet us. Barry is going to be our guide for the $850 Vatu per person tour (roughly $8.50 Canadian). He is a professional guide for their village. What a lovely clean and organized village. The houses are mostly made of traditional building materials - pole frames covered with palm leaf thatching on the roof and woven panels for the walls. Barry indicates that the houses are quite durable and very easy to replace if they get cyclone damaged. There are a gaxillion children and I have forgotten to bring my big bag of candies for them. The people of Ambrym are well know as being some of the best wood carvers in the South Pacific, so part of our tour is spent shopping at each "carver's" home. Both Glens are lucky to find the perfect souvenirs for themselves. Before we head back to the boat for lunch, Barry wonders if we would be interested in having a feast on the beach in the evening. Great, this will be a great cultural experience for Glen and Trish - we accept.

Our Rom Dance is scheduled for 3:00 pm. The truck to taxi us up to the village of Fanla to see it is late (no problem, Barry calls this "Black Man's time", in reality, just some repair work needed to be done. Trish gets the cab seat of the little Toyota 4 X 4 truck and Glen, Glen, Abbie, Barry and I get to sit in the box. Just like being back on the farm! It turns out, that the trip in the truck through the rain forest, 4 wheeling through ravines and up a very steep path (can't really call it a road) is a very good part of the outing. If all we had gotten to do was drive through the forest, that would have been fantastic, getting to see Fanla village and the Rom Dance is a bonus. There are two volcanos on Ambrym and it is the center for traditional magic and sorcery, there is a lot of meaning to this dance and it would take pages for me to do a history lesson here. There are only male dancers half of them are completely covered in a cloak of dried banana leaves and have large carved masks with flowing beads and hair attached - they look like scary little huts stomping around - they carry a woven thing that looks like a club, but has rattles on it. The other half of the men are nearly naked - they have a wide belt of bark around their waist, a banana leaf wrapper on their penis and a tail made out of leaves. These are men of rank as they wear curled boar tusk necklaces. They also stomp their feet, but they are the singers. One man beats a rythym on a hand held wooden tube. It was quite different to any of the South Pacific dancing we have seen thus far. I am imagining that google should have some pictures of Rom dancing. I remembered to take a bag of candy and Glen gave sweets to all of the children and smiling older women. He gets the kids to pose for pictures then delights them by showing them the results.

We have time to head back to the boat for "Happy Hour" before our feast on the beach. It is dark now and all 5 of us are in the dingy using a flashlight (that doesn't shine more than 10 feet out) to find our way to Barry on the beach. There are five different versions as to where we should head. Finally a flash light from the beach gives us a point to aim at and we arrive in fine form. Barry and his wife (he calls her his girlfriend) have prepared roast suckling pig, taro with coconut cream drizzle, cooking banana with pumpkin topping and kasava with green cabbage/coconut milk topping. Everything is displayed like a big plate of cakes on several huge banana leaves layered over some packing quilts on the sandy beach. Desert is big wedges of papaya and fat ripe bananas. You don;t need plates and cutlery just pick it up and eat it. I know you won't know what most of this stuff is or have any idea of how it tastes, but let me assure you that it was fabulous. We supplied the beverages. Barry's Uncle brought some kava. We ate and peppered Barry and his family with questions. The conversation was good. The funny thing about being invited for dinner though is that they don't eat until after you have gone, even though we pleaded with them to eat, they waited until we left. Very gracious hosts. We slid seamlessly back to the big boat and re-hashed our very full, very fun day.

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Rendevous of Friends

Today, after a leisurely breakfast, all of us (5) pile into the rubber tender to go to the Aores restaurant where we catch the water taxi across the channel to Luganville. We are going to explore it's great expanse.... one main street. Half way across, I am reminded that we are leaving port the next morning very early so we have to clear out of Luganville Customs today. So while everybody else gets to enjoy a lovely lunch and some sight seeing, I head back on the water taxi. Now I wish I could say that I am an accomplished dingy driver, but sadly that is not the case. I am equiped with last minute instructions from Glen on starting. I pleased myself greatly by being able to get the engine swung down into the water and started! So far so good. Some helpful soul cast my lines off and now I am at the mercy of "The Dingy"! It stalls. I restart it. It stalls. I restart it and without releasing the choke put it into gear (luckily forward).....Whoa! the gears clunk and the little rubber pony bucks back in the water before jumping forward like a race horse. I shut the choke, the dingy stalls. *&%$@! I'm floating aimlessly out in the channel. O.K. once more.... same technique aaanndd we go. OMG steering is not nearly so easy as Glen makes it look. As I am now doing donuts one way and then the next, not even being cool enough to look like that is what I am planning to do, issuing all kinds of surprised "oops" and "aak" sounds (and God knows what else - my "remember this moment" recorder was not ON). I did not even look back to give a sheepish grin to the people on the dock. I was now trying to feather the throttle between flying and dying. I finally arrive at the boat and the decision of "head on collision" (at low speed) with the swim grid is how I choose to transfer myself from one vessel to the next. Hummmm? Glen didn't tell me how to shut it off once the stupid thing doesn't stall when you release the throttle. I assume that the "kill" switch will do the trick until I find out if there is a better way. I boost my energy level for the return ordeal by having a tasty lunch of leftovers (it was good). Going back was not quite so traumatic and thankfully there was nobody around to witness my crash into the dock (why change what works?) to get tied back up. Finally I am back on the Luganville side of the water and we get ourselves cleared for departure. A trip to the market was in order and we stocked up with beautiful local produce - I love these markets.

Whilest the Glens and Trish were out for lunch they met up with David and Jacqui of Jackster fame (their boat name) so invited them out for a drink on board then dinner out at Aores resort. We had already made arrangements with Eric and Ann on Oso Blanco to do the same as they are planning on leaving for New Caledonia in the morning. As well, we had Scott and Annya from Beach House over as well. Big crowd for the old Mystery Ship, but she handled it. The staff of the Resort sent their water taxi out to get us (big numbers and money talks) which was way easier than taking three dingys (drunk dingy drivers are even worse than me on the water). The evening was too short, the conversation never stopped. Suddenly we are saying goodbye to everyone. We borrowed Eric's whaler (way faster than our rubber dingy - our whaler is still up on big boat) to drive David and Jacqui back to Luganville, they still had a taxi ride to another bay and a dingy ride back out to their boat. This was a really good day.

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