We have been enjoying exploring the town of Coffs Harbour. It is a city of about 100,000 and it has a beautiful setting. There are lovely beaches and hills. The town has kept the shoreline relatively free from development so it is quite natural as you stroll along the beaches. The island that is just seaward of the marina is a bird sanctuary, with a wonderful walk up the hill and across the highland. At all times of the day you can see people walking, strolling and running along the breakwater and up and over the hill. I have been doing it every morning and it is a good workout. Today Barry and I took a walk out to the end of the Jetty, it's very sturdy and was used in the past for ships getting timber from the area to load supplies on and fishermen used to tie up and offload their catch there before the breakwater was built.

I thought since I was in Aus. I should attempt to learn to surf, Barry didn't think his ankle would stand up to it so he did not attempt it. I quite enjoyed the lesson, the fellow was a very good teacher. I did manage to get up on the board several times so I was quite pleased with myself. It was a 3 hour session in the water and by the end of 2 and 1/2 hours I was done, my eyes were sore and my legs were cramping and my back was starting to hurt, ah the pleasures of age! There are so many things to think about but I did get the concept and I think found the sweet spot of the board a couple of times. The fellow also offers white water rafting trips and said he would give me a deal so I decided to go. It will be a 2 day trip down a pretty spectacular river, leave Saturday morning and come back Sunday night. Barry has decided that he would rather spend his entertainment dollars on diving so has booked himself on a 2 tank dive next week. He is determined to catch up or surpass me in the number of dives he has!!

I called Graeme's (Trish's partner) parents because we are having a boat part shipped to them and they very kindly have invited us to stay overnight when we drive up. That will give us a chance to get to know each other and I am really looking forward to that. We are looking into having a sail made here as well as upgrading the rest of our rigging, it seems a pleasant place to stay and I am in no hurry to go further south until it warms up a bit more. I have plenty of boat projects that I would like to accomplish as well such as varnishing and polishing (what fun).Baie D'Opheliant in Noumea before we left

I am so confused!! For many of you that know me well, you will remember that I have a difficult time with left and right, difficult may be putting it mildly. I just can't seem to get it straight in my brain. For example when we were diving on the Coolidge, Barry asked me to check if his air tank was wide open and I twisted it a few times to make sure it was open. Well, we almost lost Barry, I had twisted it partially shut and he had a very hard time breathing when he went under water. He rather looked like a fish as he gasped for more air! Honestly, I did not do it on purpose, he even admitted last night he had some trepidation about me doing it but did not remind me righty, tighty, lefty losey.
So, we had been in New Zealand, Fiji, and Vanuatu for almost 6 month, they all drive on the opposite side from North America, I am truly not sure if it is on the right or left, but then we get to New Caledonia. They are French, they drive on the same side as we normal Canadians. All is good.
NOW, we are in Aus, and they drive on the wrong side, I am so confused, I do not know which side of the road to look for cars coming. I don't know which side of the sidewalk to walk on and in the supermarket I am constantly causing traffic jams in the aisles. Does anyone out there have a solution to my problem? Am I alone or is there a syndrome that I can identify with and a self help group that I can attend. I believe that I have even passed on this affliction to one of my daughters. I think she may have managed to partially overcome it but you would have to ask her partner for sure. What is a person to do.

We are here, that is a big YAHOOO!!! The passage was super, only one thing broke, I kept waiting for something else to go, great sailing, all down wind and only one very small yelling match. (it was about the pole, that would be the spinnaker pole) which comes in very handy when you are going down wind. Barry though we would get beat up on the passage like the voyages to and from New Zealand but it was not to be. We picked a great weather window, Barry is getting to be quite the weather reader, he gets it right 3 out of 5 flips of the coin. His usual gambit is to wait about until everyone else says it good and then we depart in a panic. This time he actually went out on a limb and said "Oh man, it really looks good" and we left!!!

All the rest of our buddies stayed in New Cal and are stuck there as the lows are marching across Oz AND cyclone season here has commenced as announced by the South Pacific weather guru Bob McDavitt!!!!!! We ourselves are now SOUTH of the dreaded cyclone belt.
Aus is not what we expected, it has hills. We were sure it would be flat, there are lovely rocky hills and surfing beaches. It is first world, we went in and bought a cell phone today and had to make VERY TOUGH DECISIONS about minutes and plans and which one of the (#*&$) phones to pick, it was a wake up call after 5 months of grass huts, palm trees and sandy beaches!Our phone number is 043865531 and you have to figure out the Aus prefix because we are too tired to, but don't call now the network was down when I tried to activate the phone so we are still not connected, BUT WATCH OUT TOMORROW, the scrouge of the airwaves will strike.
We have been told how expensive things are in Aus but they are compatible with Yellowknife prices, except the bus it is a travesty, it was $3.80 each, ONE WAY, unbelievable. I only slept about 4 hours last night, we had to dodge at least 6 freighters, good thing I read that book How to Av0id Large Ships At Sea, thank you Paul and Lorraine. P.S. Barry says the secret is to yell really loud!!!

We are over half way now. It has been a decent passage so far. The winds up until yesterday afternoon were from behind us. It was a bit rolly but as we were going with the wind there was no bashing into waves. Yesterday it rained from about midnight until 10:00 A.M. then the wind died off and we motored for about an hour. Then the wind came up from the south. We are still able to make our heading but now we are bashing into waves and the ride is bouncy and we are on a 20 degree angle which makes cooking hard. At the moment we are scheduled to arrive in Coffs Harbour on Monday morning but lots can change before then, all is well on board.

We have left for Australia. It should be about a 7 to 8 day passage. We had 850nm to go when we exited the pass out of New Caledonia at 1600 hours today Monday, Oct. 25. I don't think I have any Halloween treats on board, there is some chocolate but I am sure it will be long gone by then. At the moment we are screaming along at 7 knots with a triple reefed main and our staysail, wind is on the beam so we are flying. Occasionally a rogue wave comes along and smacks us and I have changed my clothes so I am now dry and I hope to stay that way. The weather looks decent for the passage so wish us fair winds.

We have been busy making the cultural rounds in Noumea. We have been to visit the cultural museum, the city museum, the aquarium and the zoological park. I enjoyed the city museum the best because it explained the history of New Caledonia and the city of Noumea. It also had a big section on the participation of New Caledonia in the first and second world wars. New Caledonia was the French equivalent of Australia, it was the penal colony for France. Once the convicts were here and had served their penitentiary sentences, they were not allowed to leave but had to take up residence here. There are some beautiful old stone buildings including the Catholic Cathedral that were built with prison labour.
The indigenous people here the Kanaks were treated very poorly by the French, not even being classified as people until 1946. They had their land taken from them and made to live in certain areas where the land was much poorer. At one point they weren’t allowed to leave their homes after 8:00 P.M. I was appalled about how they were treated until I started thinking about how we treated the aboriginal people in Canada and I am not sure we did any better. There are quite a few homeless people in the main parks here, it reminds me of Yellowknife. There seems to be a big difference between the have and the have nots here. Friday night we were out walking around trying to find some place that was open for dinner before 7:00 P.M. and there were quite a few drunks having a good time.
The restaurants and shops operate on European time, the shops close for lunch for an hour or two and restaurants serve lunch until about 3:00 and then close until 7:00 or 8:00 for dinner. It takes a bit of getting used to. The shops seems very stylish after the Mother Hubbard dresses that are worn all over Vanuatu. The women of French descent have style, and all the women cruisers are eyeing their high heels and their stylish clothing and makeup and feeling a bit inadequate. I would love to buy a pair of heels, but can’t imagine myself tottering around in them, my feet would kill me and I would probably catch them on the toe rail as I tried to get off the boat and go headfirst into the water. I can’t imagine walking down the dock with them on.
The aquarium was great, we really enjoyed it the great variety of fish and informative exhibits. Fortunately the signage was in French, English and Japanese so we were able to learn about the aquatic life. They had a great display on mangroves and their ecosystem. The zoological gardens had lots of beautiful birds and as much as I hate seeing caged animals I know I would never have seen these birds if I did not see them in this setting. The park was huge and we could have walked around for hours. Getting a cultural fix has been a nice change from beaches and snorkeling.
I would like to leave this anchorage and visit some of the outer anchorages but I am not sure I can convince Barry that we should do that. He is really focused on watching the weather and being ready to leave for Australia when a good window becomes apparent. It should be an 8-10 day passage to Coffs Harbour our intended point of entry into Australia. I cleaned the hull yesterday so I hope we don’t stay here too much longer, I don’t want to do it again.
We are socializing with new and old friends, boats tend to go several ways from here. We have buddies that are going back to New Zealand and Fiji as well as on to Australia. We also made contact with a fellow that we met in Apia, Samoa over 2 years ago that lives here. He invited us to his home for dinner and served us venison, it was delicious. He speaks very little English so Barry and I practiced our French on him until his wife showed up. Her English was better than my French so we got along very nicely although we did continue to try and speak French to include Marcos.

I just posted a bunch more pictures in my Memories of Vanuatu story so check back to see them. We are off to the aquarium this afternoon. The sail repair should be done tomorrow, Toketie arrived today and our other friends Cop Out should arrive this evening, so we should have a good Canadian contingent in town.

Ann sent this a few days ago - I apologize for the delay in posting it

We are safe and sound in Noumea, New Caledonia. New Caledonia was colonized by the French and although there was talk of independence in the later 90's I don't think they have that status yet. There is a lot of nickel on the island so there is money and the French are very good at building infrastructure so Noumea is a first world city. It has lots of new cars and three lane roadways where the French drivers roar around as is they are on a Grand Priz course. The shops are full of first world goods and there is French fashion and underwear as well as a hairdresser on every corner. I walked by a Puegot bike shop and lusted after an expensive mountain bike. The shores are full of big condo complexes and the marinas are full of lovely yachts, there is no room for us lowly cruisers. The main marina has a waiting list while all the off shore cruisers have congregated here, waiting to leave for Australia, New Zealand or Fiji for the cyclone season.
We are at anchor in a mooring field which is not a lot of fun. Mooring are usually laid out in a specified manner leaving swinging room for yachts the bigger the yachts the further the moorings are apart. Moorings have a short scope and mostly a huge weight at the bottom that secures the boat. When you are at anchor you have to let out chain, and you are supposed to maintain a scope of 5 - 1 or at the least 3-1, so for a 10 meter depth the minimum amount of chain would be 30 meters, therefore if the wind shifts and you swing when you have anchored in a mooring field you may or may not hit the boats that are around you depending on how precise you were at dropping your anchor and how much scope you have out. At the moment when the wind really blows from one direction we are about 1 boat length away from a moored trimaran and the wind has been really blowing since we got here 2 1/2 days ago. There was a huge high off of Australia and it has generated 30 knot winds, everyone is hunkered down on their boats because when you go anywhere on your dinghy you just get soaked and you daren't leave your boat because you might swing and hit someone or someone's mooring might give way and their boat might blow through the field and bash you, fun and games.
We have been doing some maintenance, Barry has checked all the hose clamps. That is why the engine wouldn't start while we tried to get into Lifou because a hose clamp had rusted out and not enough water was getting to the engine. Then he figured he may have found a small leak we had in the engine coolant system. We still have to get the sail repaired, we are waiting for the winds to abate before we try to remove it. I want to work on some hairline cracks we are have in our deck, so we have lots to do before we set off for Australia. Barry wants to leave as soon as there is a weather window, hopefully we won't be ready to leave when the first window arrives and we will have a little more time to spend exploring New Caledonia.

We are safe and sound in Noumea, we are busy fixing things, our sail is being repaired, Barry did a full day of preventative maintenance of our engine. It was a hose clamp that had failed that caused our problems so he checked all other clamps and found a couple of others that needed attention. Noumea is a first world city with all the trappings, I have heard that other areas are not the same, the French have poured money into the city and there has been lots of money made from the ore that is available in New Caledonia. The indigenous peoples, the Kanaks have been treated very poorly and you see homeless people hanging about the beautiful downtown parks, it rather reminds me of Yellowknife.
We set of to the cultural museum yesterday. It was a wonderful piece of architecture. I haven't got the pictures with me but will upload some at a later date. We bought a pass so will be seeing the botanical gardens, the aquarium and the national museum in the next little while. Barry is getting anxious about the weather so we will probably be off to Oz as soon as there is a good weather window.

Memories of Vanuatu

Vanuatu was a spot where the population still lives in quite a primitive manner. Lots of people still live in thatched huts with dirt floors. The thatching varied from beautifully natural designs to dwellings that had painted thatching that emphasized the design, I preferred the natural ones. The crazy thing was that most of these folks had cell phones, but they did not have the electricity to charge them and in one anchorage we had a number of outriggers come up to us and ask us to charge their phones. One fella even told us that he thought cell phones contributed to unwanted pregnancies and crime. He spent most of the time that we had contact with him on the phone.
The locals seemed to think that because we had a big boat that they could ask us for anything and expect it in exchange for very little. For the most part we did not mind this, but at one spot we gave a fella one of our set of overalls, at first he said it was too big and refused them, but later his wife came by and said he had FORGOTTEN his coveralls and in exchange gave us 2 bananas, 1 pawpaw and another vegetable. Now we will have to buy another set of overalls if we ever want to paint the bottom again! In another spot we had a man come with his small daughter to welcome us and ask if we had anything. He said he had nothing for us but he did say that his wife was going to give birth and ask if we had any blankets, we happily gave him as spare Mexican blanket that we had, the smile on his daughter face was all the reward we wanted.
The Ni-Vans were most welcoming, they invited us to share their homes, their food and their lives. We were offered a place to live, the chief ‘s son said that his father would happily build us a home. We might have to take him up on it one of these days, it would a great spot to spend the winters and we would have a vacation get away for all our family to come and join us. We have heard that further north friends were adopted into a family and are welcomed there.
We often felt like we had stepped into a National Geographic photo shoot. The young man who took us on the tour of the hot springs by Mount Yasur in Tanna painted his face with colored mud that he dug out from around the hot steam vents. He also explained how they killed the flying foxes (or fruit bats) by throwing sticks at them while they were in the air. The primitive bows and arrows that fisherman used just emphasized the National Geographic feeling. In Erromango we watched the males of the village work together to set a huge fishing net around the entrance to an estuary, some swimming, some paddling dugout outrigger canoes. In Asunvari we woke up to a fleet of canoes being paddled in as parents brought their children to school. The fellow that was our guide to the bat caves, took his 5 year old son up and down a very steep slippery path to school every day, some days he carried him. The kustom dancing in Port Sandwich was amazing.
We are thinking of returning to Vanuatu next year to spend more time in this country that has so much to offer. There are so many places we didn’t get to experience and many other people who can show us how to happily live in a much simpler manner.

We tried to stop in at Lifou in the Loyalty Islands but I don't think it was meant to be. First of all we had no water coming out of the engine when we went to start it, it is a marina there so we needed the engine to maneuver around. Barry got that fixed and then a big squall came up so we slowed down so we would not get blown around when we got in, then we discovered a rip in our main sail so that was it, the place had three chances and it was no go, so we are continuing on to Noumea, the capital of New Caledonia. Our mainsail has been developing a number of small tears lately. I told Barry before we left New Zealand that we needed to buy a new main in Australia and he was adamant that it was just new (we bought it in 2005) and it had lots of life left in it, hmmm!!
ANYWAY, we are having a great sail at the moment, double reefed main, staysail and about half a genoa and we are comfortably doing 7 knots, whoopee. The sun just came up, Barry is sleeping and life is good.

We left Vanuatu this morning at 0600. There are 7 boats that left today so are able to talk to some on the VHF, that is nice. We are cruising along at over 6 knots with reefed main and staysail so we have good winds. We are not quite close hauled so it is not the most comfortable sail. At the moment I am bracing myself up with my feet and lower arms while I type so will keep this short. We will stop for a couple of days in the Loyalty Islands if we reach there before dark tomorrow, we should if the wind remains the same strength. Hope all is well with you as you plan for your Thanksgiving weekend. It has kind of snuck up on us, so we have no particular plans

We are in Port Vila again, the capital of Vanuatu. We are waiting here until the weather co-operates and we can leave for New Caledonia. We have had several great adventures since the last time I posted a blog. The first one was when we went to a blue hole upriver from an anchorage just north of Luganville on the island of Espirito Santo. The blue hole is exactly what it’s name describes, we traveled about a kilometer up the windy river, the channel kept getting narrower and narrower. At the end the channel was just wider than the dinghy and the rest of the river was covered with vine like floating vegetation. Then the river opened up into this wonderful wide circle and the bottom fell away to about 10 meters. It was crystal clear and the water was fresh. We had a great time swimming, there were quite a few young people swimming and they came over and we took pictures of all of us under the water, when we came up we laughed and laughed. We had fun experimenting with the camera as well. There was a huge tree at the edge of the water and people were swinging and diving in and having a great time. I figured they didn’t want to see a 55 year old grandma make a fool of herself so I didn’t give it a try.

ASUNVARI

We sailed off to another island, Maewo and there we headed off into the hills on a 5 hour hike to see a cave that was filled with bats. Other cruisers had told us what a great time they had there so we set off. It was a challenging hike as it had rained the day before and on the way down the ground was just goo, I would slip and slid down the hill. Our guide was excellent though and he had a hand for me whenever I needed it. The cave was huge and there were hundreds of bats flitting about inside. There were so many that their radar didn’t work in it’s usual superb manner and a few crashed into us. At the end of the cave it opened up and the sun shone in. It showed a cathedral of rock with a huge opening at the bottom. We threw rocks into the hole and they would bounce down forever, apparently there was another cave opening at the bottom. You would have needed lots of very good climbing gear to find out what was at the bottom of the cave. After we came down from the hills we had a swim in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall. (If you click on the pictures they will enlarge and you can tell that the specs on this picture are bats)
The anchorage where the village was is called Asunvari and it is gorgeous spot. There was a nice curving bay with a sandy beach on one side, where the village was located and then the waterfall at the other end. The land to the back of the village was a steep rock face which is covered with lush vegetation. They had a yacht club there and we had a meal, the fellow that had prepared it had been a chef in Luganville and he knew how to cook. We had dinner with a couple from a Spanish boat. They had been in Pago Pago in American Samoa when the tsunami hit last year so we were regaled with first hand accounts of what happened when the wave hit the harbour.
When we went ashore in Asunvari the chief of the village approached us. He needed to get to Port Vila to see a doctor and asked if we would be willing to take him. We had planned to make a number of stops on our way back to Vila, but we decided this was something that we could do so we agreed to take on a passenger on our voyage back to Port Vila. We sailed for 36 hours straight experiencing quite changeable conditions but managed to get to port before dark. Jif (chief) Nelson spoke pretty good English but we struggled to come up with conversational topics that interested all of us. At one point I asked about local legends and he came up with three stories that he shared with us. He used to work as the skipper of a commercial vessel that visited the islands around his home. He also skippered a traditional sailing canoe that was sailed from his island of Maewo to Port Vila. He told about visiting a bunch of different islands and I think other crafts joined in from the other islands and they all sailed to Vila. It was a unique experience having him onboard and we appreciated the bananas and papayas that he gave to us to compensate us for the food he ate on the trip.
We are enjoying the company of cruisers we have met up and down the island here in Port Vila, but time is running out in the season and I am anxious to get to New Caledonia. We may leave on Thursday but I am not sure if the weather will co-operate.

JIF NELSON

We enjoyed seeing these folks sailing home after a day of gardening. Traditionally they used to use palm fronds for a sail.





Standing on the bow of the 40 foot catamaran from Australia near Cook's Reef. View of Emae Island from the back of the cat.

I love this shot of these kids playing on the beach.

Here is some of the group having a dip in the fresh water after the trek through the jungle.

These next three pictures are from the mini Festival in Port Sandwich. The mask is truly impressive, it is made out of organic materials and looked quite heavy. Have a look at the bass player sitting on the box making music.

Yesterday we got to dive on the President Coolidge. It was a luxury liner that was launched in 1931 and then converted to a troop carrier for WW11. The Coolidge sank when it went off course and struck a mine, the captain managed to beach her before she sunk and all but 2 of the over 6000 troops managed to abandon ship safely. The wreck is situated just off shore so you actually walk into the dive and then follow ropes down to the wreck. It is lying on its side and it is massive.
Our first dive we saw helmets, rifles and shell casing that had been abandoned lying on the side of the wreck. The dive master stopped and put on the helmet and picked up a rifle and he looked kind of scary with that stuff on over his scuba gear. We swam along the side and then along the forward promenade deck. The big 3 inch gun that was bolted to the forward deck is still there along with more huge shell casings.
Our second dive we got to go and see" the lady" it is a statue about a meter high of a woman sitting on a horse. It was still in very good condition and the colours were still highly visible even after 60 years. Our dive leader gave her a good brushing off when we were there so I am sure the constant stream of visitors keeps her clean. Barry bravely removed his regulator and kissed the lady. Then we got to dive inside the wreck, we saw a chandelier and then looked way up and saw the sunlight streaming in the portals. It is deceiving, I kept forgetting that the wreck was on its side so although I knew which way was up that was not the orientation of the ship. We swam inside through some quite narrow openings, I was quite happy to let the others go first to make sure they would fit and not get stuck.
Apparently you can do over 10 dives on the Coolidge and you can see a different part every time. We may go back to Luganville and dive Million Dollar Point, the spot where the American government dumped excess machines after the war; jeeps, trucks, bulldozers and other heavy equipment. The story goes that the army wished to sell them to the French but the French knowing that the Americans would not remove the vehicles offered them rock bottom prices for them. Rather than hand them over for nothing the U.S. drove them off the point and sunk them. Apparently an Aussie told us that the Aus government pulled some out a couple of decades later, changed the oil and took out the rust and the bulldozers worked for many years. What a waste!
We are going to head up to a resort today, we have heard some wonderful reports on the spot and then will begin to work our way back south to Port Vila where we will wait for a good weather window to sail to New Caledonia.

We are tucked away in a great anchorage at Port Sandwich, Malekula Island. You are discouraged from swimming in these waters because a shark attacked a young yachtie a few years ago and she perished. We came here because we heard there was a feast and some dancing to be seen. It has been well worth it, the feast the first day was delicious with many traditional foods, more lap lap and lots of food with taro and manioc. A couple of local string bands played the night away, there were guitars, ukulele and a sting box bass. The bass was just a box with a stick attached to the top with a string strung from the top of the stick to the top of the box. It gave off amazing resonances. The singing was very high, there was a lot of falsetto singing and the harmonies were not what we had been used to with the Polynesians. We danced and joined in the fun that everyone was having.
The next morning a walk had been organized to a waterfall. There are 15 boats in the anchorage and about 8 dinghies full of people set off down the bay. We got off in a mangrove swamp and then took a walk through a very steamy jungle. The palm trees had vines that wound there way up the trunks making their trunks appear about twice the normal size.
We stopped at a bridge over the Murder River. This was the spot where the French and the locals fought in the 1800's. The story goes that one of the French contingent was having his way with the chief's wife so the war was on, thus the name. Cannibalism was practiced until the late 1960's on this island. The French governed here until independence in 1980 and apparently this island did not want the French to leave. Under their rule there was electricity, a good system of running water, and well maintained schools, life was good.
We turned off the road and went to a wonderful oasis. Fresh water babbled over boulders and fell in a 3 meter waterfall. There were pools of water above the falls and everyone stripped down and went in the water. It was a tad dirty but very refreshing after tramping through the steamy jungle. We got back to the anchorage just in time for a delicious lunch featuring some very tasty coconut cake and a wonderful chopped up fruit salad.
After lunch we saw some kustom dancing. It was an all male troop with painted bodies and very little on except the nambas or penis sheaths. They had on the most wonderful masks, they were about a meter high with long pointy tops, and full faces. You will have to wait for the pictures, it is hard to describe. There were nuts shells wound around their ankles and when they stomped to the beating of the drums they would clash together making quite the noise. They carried sticks that used to be used to bash people and pigs over the head to kill them, fantastic stuff.
After that was over we asked the peace corp. volunteer that was helping to get the island organized about how kava was made, She took 4 of us over and we watched kava being cut up in tiny pieces and then put through the grinder, then it was strained about 5 times before we got a sample. I had 2 bowls and felt very relaxed and laid back. One fella said it was good for high blood pressure so I may have to indulge more often. The string band returned and we spent the afternoon enjoying some good music.
Another Fast Passage 39 showed up in the anchorage so we got a chance to go aboard and have a look at how it had been laid out. Our interior was in much better shape than theirs but the owner is a young man of about 30, who lives to surf. He had a useable navigation station that we were very jealous of; maybe one day we might feel the need to do something about ours!!

We have been slowly making our way north among the many islands of Vanuatu. Yesterday we had participated in a group sail. It was extreme amounts of fun. We were at an anchorage where there is a huge reef off the Emae Island; it is called Cook's Reef. There were 5 boats in the anchorage and we all piled into a 40 foot catamaran and sailed out to the reef and anchored and went for a snorkel. It was the first time I had sailed on a cat so it was an interesting experience. There were 16 on board, we had 2 local guides and the 12 others were Australians. It was great fun getting to know the Aussies and gleaning some great intel about Oz from them. I also quizzed them on some Aussies sayings so that I would know the lingo when I got there. Michael and Andrew, our guides, had a look of wonder and concentration on their faces as they were piloting the cat. We learned some more Bislama as well. The captain of the boat like to talk so we christened him Tok tok too much, and me lookum behind you, means see you later.

At the reef we anchored and spent about an hour in the water. Barry found some great shells but we left them there as they had creatures in them. (We did take one shell from Fiji with a creature in it and spent the next week, dissolving him out of it and putting up with the stink, so we have resolved never to pick up another live shell. I actually felt pretty bad about taking it!) Barry would dive down and turn these big shells over and then leave I felt bad about the poor creatures inside so after he left I would dive down and turn then back over. We saw some great examples of coral we had never seen before and there were a bunch of Nemo fish hiding out in the soft coral.

On the way back to the anchorage the Aussies put out the fishing lines and caught 2 good sized barracudas. They were thinking of throwing them back but Michael said that his village would love to have them. There were a couple of larger fish on the line but they snapped the 30 pounded test line and they lost three lures. That was a major loss and the captain was not happy.

I enjoyed sailing on the cat, I did not have the sensation of moving that you do in a monohull, and there is no heeling of course. Also the wake at the back coming off the pontoons made me think we were going a lot faster than we actually were. I lay on the trampoline that connects the 2 pontoons and watched the water for a while, I could see how you could just fall asleep out there. It was perfect weather for the venture and we had a terrific time.

We hope to get to a festival at the end of the week and then make our way up to the island of Espirito Santo where we want to dive on the wreck of the Coolidge, a former luxury liner that was converted to a troop ship in WW2, which sunk when it hit land mines going into the harbour at Luganville.

Port Vila is the capital of Vanuatu, which was formerly the New Hebrides. The British and the French both had a presence here and at one time there were two systems of government, the French would follow their laws and the English would follow theirs. Independence was declared in 1980 and Vanuatu just celebrated their 30 year anniversary at the end of July. There are over 100 local languages being spoken in Vanuatu at the moment as well as Bislama which is a pidgin English, it is written as it would have sounded coming from an upper crust English man. Here is ea, thank you, is tank you tumas, of is blong, or belong, ex. The Vanuatu Ministry of Culture would be Vanuatu Ministry Blong Culture, it is very interesting to try and decipher the signs that are written in Bislama. Vanuatu is an island nation with over 23 islands, but it seems each area on an island has developed their own language, we were making an effort to learn some of the language on Tanna but once I figured out they only spoke it there, I gave up. The children are taught French and English at school, so once they are done primary school they should have a working knowledge of 4 languages. Each island has there own culture and dances so we are looking forward to learning about each as we explore further north.
Port Vila is the seat of government so we took a walking tour and saw the parliament buildings, the residence of the President, which was surprisingly humble, the court house, the national bank, the big Catholic church, etc. The bank building was huge, it had better be because the exchange rate is a 100 to 1, so you walk around with 1000 vatu bills in your pocket as well as 5000, and they don’t go very far here. We figure it is rather like Yellowknife prices here, good thing we stocked up the boat before leaving Fiji.
We went to the museum on a Sat. morning and were lucky to come upon a cultural demonstration. A fellow was teaching cultural arts to school children and he explained how the sand drawings were done and how a story accompanied each one. Then he had some of the kids’ show us their drawings, the kids had been chosen to attend cultural expositions in other countries. As well as the stories and drawings he played the pan flute and sang and then he played the Vanuatu national anthem on these very cool bamboo instruments that were liked a percussion swinging xylophone, I guess you had to be there. It was fascinating.
There a big high weather system that has been causing high winds since we arrived. We are planning on leaving Port Vila today to go to a quieter spot for the evening and then heading further north tomorrow. Both Barry and I have infected cuts in our legs, I got a scrape when we were walking up the volcano and did not care for it right away. Barry cut his leg in Fiji and it never healed and then started to become inflamed awhile ago. I have managed to clean mine up and get it under control, but Barry’s did not respond as well so he is on antibiotics now. It just reminds you of how careful you have to be with even the smallest cut.

I posted 2 blogs on the same day, you should go back and check out the blog on the volcano!

We spent almost a week on the island of Tanna, where the volcano was. We also took a walking tour of the hot springs around the anchorage. A 15 year old boy was our guide and he was very informative. At one spot where the vents occur, he reached down and found some very soft clay which he painted his face with. There was red, white and a bluish colour that he could use to decorate his body. The water in places was hot enough to cook with. At one spot he explained that during the rainy season the other vents were covered up with water so all the hot water in the area would fill up this cut in the rocks and come spilling over, mother nature at her finest.
We sailed all day to come to an anchorage called Dillon’s Bay on the island of Erromango, which means, land of the mangoes. All the trees are in bloom now and you could tell that when the fruit ripens there will be mangoes everywhere, to bad we will have to move on before that.
Yesterday we were treated to a lesson on how to prepare laplap. I had seen it mentioned and thought it was a doughy substance that was cooked over a fire. I was wrong. First they prepare the insides of the dish, there were three different laplaps. The first was mashed up bananas, with rosettes of spinach type leaves inserted in the banana goop. The second was a mixture of yams and sweet potatoes, the third was pumpkin and taro. The women put down vines in a criss cross manner, then they lay banana leaves on top, they sprinkle the banana leaves with coconut milk and then add the fillings. Then they add more coconut leaves and then they fold up the edges of the leaves and tie the vines making a big banana leaf package. The package is about .75 meters square and weighs up to 7 kg.
While the women are preparing this the men have built up a fire rocks are piled in the fire and super heated. Once the laplap is ready the men scatter the stones, put two of the banana leaf packages on the fire and cover them with stones then add the third laplap on top. Then the place banana leaves and other vegetation on top of everything to keep the heat in finishing off with a woven pandanas mat which was weighted down with stones and firewood. The food is then left for over an hour to cook. We were invited to stay and sample the wares. It was a long wait, well after our normal eating time but it was worth it. Everything was delicious, the spinach leaves in the banana goop was scrumptious.

It was wonderful to experience this, sharing in the Ni-vanuatu’s lives was a privilege. That is what keeps me cruising.

These guys are using pronged sticks to move around the red hot rocks, they put on their flip flops for the job, normally they are barefoot.

We also took a walk up to see the sandalwood groves and the swimming hole up the valley. We had to ford a stream, Mike and I took off our shoes and gingerly made our way across. We both wore them on the way back, it was very slippery. I seem to remember doing the same sort of thing when we lived in Tungsten, the water was a lot colder then!