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Hello from Oyster Island on Espiritu Santo, in Vanuatu, October 14, 2008

Our last update had us departing the island of Ambryn, where we watched the Rom dance and other festivities as part of the “Back to My Roots Festival”. From Ambryn we have been working our way north to the Banks and Torres island groups in Vanuatu.

Our first stop was at Waterfall Bay on the island of Pentecost, home of the famous land diving (we call it bungee jumping) where the village men, wearing only a namba, jump from rickety wooden towers 200 feet high toward the ground with only vines tied around their ankles. Unfortunately, it was the wrong time of year for us to see these spectacular death-defying jumps, as they are done in April and May to bless the yam harvest.

Instead, we went to see one of Vanuatu’s many wonderful waterfalls. This particular waterfall had an inside and an outside fall. We first hiked up through muddy taro patches to reach a dark cave where we crawled through a short opening. We waded our way through the darkness until we reached the torrential waterfall. The force of the water was so strong that it literally took your breath away, and the darkness made it kind of eerie. After our exhilarating shower, we exited the cave and descended down to the front of the waterfall where it emptied into a large pool. We swam and jumped off the rocks with the local kids, enjoying the fresh cool water.

When we returned to Lazy Bones, a large transport boat was loading sacks of copra (dried coconuts) from the beach. Then hundreds of excited kids hopped aboard. They had come here for an annual sports week and were on their way back home. Evidently the overloaded boat didn’t get everyone the first time, as it came back three times to pick up another child left behind.

From Waterfall Bay we sailed north to Asanvari on the island of Maewo. This large bay is home to the Asanvari Yacht Club (again a loose term) run by Chief Nelson and his son Nixon. Asanvari also has a beautiful waterfall, which is also used to generate electricity. It did not take long before we discovered they had fried many of their electronic items like cell phone chargers, DVD players, etc. that they asked us to fix. So off we went to the waterfall to check out the problem. Several hours later they had a great hydro generator that was delivering 220V AC and not 340V AC. It was too late for all the fried electronics, I’m afraid, but we gave them some spare phone chargers.

One of our friends, Rod, turned 75, so we asked the Yacht Club if they could help us celebrate his birthday. We organized a fun party with 40 yachties, a string band, dancing, and a nice dinner. I played the guitar and sang a humorous song Gayle and I had written for Rod, partly in Bislama, which elicited a few chuckles from the yachties and locals.

The next day at noon we were invited to a local wedding just over the hill. Time is not very important to the villagers, so ”just over the hill” could be a 5 minute or a 5 hour walk. It turned out to be about a two-hour hike up and down a muddy, slippery, and rocky trail. Most of us had dressed up a bit and had worn the wrong kind of shoes. I was the pack mule, carrying baskets that would be used for serving the food for the wedding.

What we had imagined as a wedding was not what we encountered. It began first with a two-hour political rally in Bislama (Pidgin English), as elections were only a few days away. Politicians seem to be the same, whether in the U.S. or Vanuatu—loud and full of promises. But at least they have elections and the people do vote.

We then met the groom, who explained the details of the wedding. He is from the island of Tanna and his wife is from Maewo. They have been married officially for six years and have two children. They are getting married again for the traditional customs. It has taken them this long to save enough money for the wedding. In Vanuatu the cost paid by the groom to the bride’s family is ten pigs and 20,000 Vatu ($200US) if they are both from the same island. Between islands the fee is two pigs and 80,000 Vatu ($800US). It had taken them six years to save up the 80,000 Vatu, as income is minimal, especially in the outer islands.

The groom’s entire family had all moved temporarily from Tanna to Maewo for the wedding six months ahead of time so they could get to know their in-laws. Can you imagine having your future in-laws living with you for six months??

The ceremony was pretty dull. The groom does his ritual separately in one village and the bride in another village. Then they come together for the pig killing and feast. The simple ceremony consisted of the groom holding a woven mat over his head while his new in-laws would, one at a time, walk around him twice, then tap him on the shoulder. He would then give that person 200 vatu ($2US), a token that he is buying them into the family. We figured the feast was much later that night after many rounds of kava, so we excused ourselves and braved the long, muddy trail back to the comfort of our boats in Asanvari Bay.

We next visited Sansom, home of the moon cave. About fifty villagers greeted us on our arrival by dinghy. They led us to a large cave with petroglyphs of ancient ships. It was believed that the moon was taken from this cave. When you look up at the ceiling of the cave you can see a circle of rock missing, which ancient legend says was the moon.

The cave is also home to man-made stalagmites. The children stack flat rocks on top of each other. As water drips from the ceiling, the rocks eventually bond and form stalagmites that looked like stacks of pancakes all around the cave. What fun for the kids!

We stopped briefly at the island of Ambae before sailing on to the big island of Espiritu Santo and Luganville, its capital and major port. Santo, as most people call it, played a major role in WWII, harboring as many as 100 U.S. Navy vessels at one time as a staging area for the battles at Santa Cruz, Guadalcanal, the Coral Sea, and more. Many WWII remains are scattered over the island, including Quonset huts, air strips, etc.

While building the many air strips and buildings on Santo for the war, the U.S. recruited over 10,000 islanders, including eighty known cannibals from Malekula! I’m not sure how much they enjoyed the military cuisine, but you know what they say about Spam!

Luganville is also home to a famous wreck called the S.S. President Coolidge. The Coolidge was a luxury cruise ship which normally carried up to 900 passengers and crew, but was converted to carry 5,000 Army troops under the command of a captain from the American Steamship Line. Due to an amazing number of communication errors, the Coolidge hit two friendly mines on its way into the channel. The captain managed to drive the ship up onto a reef and get all but three people ashore. This was a major catastrophe in that these 5,000 troops were then unable to provide the needed support during the battle of Santa Cruz and Guadalcanal. It was probably lucky for the troops, as many people died in those battles. To make things worse, the troops made it ashore with nothing--no extra clothes, no supplies, no weapons and no equipment. The ship slipped off the reef shortly after and sunk in about 200 feet of water, so nothing was salvaged. Somehow the island had to accommodate and feed 5,000 unexpected guests.

The Coolidge is now one of the world’s most famous wreck dives. The 654 foot luxury liner is intact and full of interesting and ornate items, including “The Lady”. We wanted to dive on the Coolidge but have postponed the dive until we return to Santo.

We picked up a mooring at a small resort island called Aore, which is two miles across the channel from Luganville. It is charming and a great place for a vacation--good food, beautiful views, a pool, and a nice place to relax with friends. Luganville, on the other hand, is a small one-road, dusty town where minimal supplies can be purchased.

From Luganville we sailed up to Oyster Island Resort. This pretty bay is considered a hurricane hole. The shallow entrance will only allow boats with less than six feet of draft to get into the main anchorage. A New Zealander named Grant, who grew up in Vanuatu, recently purchased the resort and was busy working on building bungalows and up-scaling the place. The food at his restaurant was good and reasonable. Grant managed to implement high speed internet in a little hut outside the restaurant. So we took advantage of free internet, great food, and shady hammocks for a few days.

We took a dingy trip up a river to the “Blue Hole”. The river trip, like the jungle ride at Disneyland, was amazing. Birds sang back and forth along the tropical journey. The Blue Hole at the end is 150 feet wide and 50 feet deep and is a stunning deep blue color. An underground spring is feeding the Blue Hole with fresh water, making it very clear and cool. Swimming was very refreshing and invigorating.

We sailed from Santo to the island of Gaua in the Banks Islands group of Vanuatu, famous for its “water music”. Six ladies got into a shallow river and used their arms and hands to make some amazing sounds and rhythms under the water. It is quite unique. They had even gone to Spain to display their talents!

It seems that every island has a waterfall bay, and Vanua Lava was no exception. This bay has a magnificent twin waterfall cascading down from the mountain top into a huge pool, where we enjoyed a refreshing swim every day. This bay was also one of our first experiences where the numbers of canoes coming to the boat and asking for things was overwhelming. Here, too, there is a yacht club and three chiefs for a total of six families. They even had a printed list of activities and the costs associated with them! Everything had a price, even a walk. The chief explained that whatever we wanted to give to the village should be given to him, and he would fairly distribute the goods to the families. We soon learned from the canoe people that this is not the case at all. The chief doesn’t share, and our supplies would make it to the villagers only if we gave them directly to the villagers in the canoes. So we did our best to divvy up the goods. But the barrage of canoes wanting things became so frequent and annoying that we decided to leave sooner for our next destination, Ureparapara.

Ureparapara was once a volcano whose side was blown out, like Krakatoa. The result is a large cone-shaped bay filled with water. Ureparapara is known for its swell and bullet winds gusting down from the crater ridge of the extinct volcano. We set a stern anchor and never experienced the roll or the bullet winds during our week-long stay.

We were again engulfed by canoes, many with lots of kids and smiling happy faces. The village had not seen a supply ship in seven months. The copra boat had not shown up for eight months, so they had no way to earn money for school fees. The few yachts that visit this bay can make a huge difference.

During the course of our stay we repaired many things--broken pipes, solar panels, chargers, watches, etc. We donated and installed new 12 volt lights for the church. We became good friends with Chief Nicholson and his family. He came aboard and played guitar with us. We gave the chief and villagers a great many items. Gayle had spent many months in New Zealand shopping for clothes, shoes, soap, food, etc. to give away to those in need. We gave the schoolmaster many school supplies and the health worker quite a bit of medical supplies. We learned later on that this chief, in spite of his promises to us, does not share either. In fact, we were told as we were leaving that he would sell what we had given him for the village, after he kept whatever he wanted for his family and relatives, which was quite a bit. This was sad to hear, but we now know that we give to those that need it and not just to the chief to distribute. Politics again! The chief, however, did manage to get himself and some other helpers out to Lazy Bones at our request to help clean the bottom of Lazy Bones with us, in gratitude for all the repair jobs and tons of food and supplies we gave them.

During our visit, a 150 ft Brigantine tall ship called the Soren Larsen sailed into the harbor. We were invited to go aboard for drinks and dinner one night. We joined the crew and passengers of the Soren Larsen in the village the next day, where the locals provided some custom dancing, followed by a soccer game with the village versus the Soren Larsen, who graciously accepted their defeat of 6 to 1. That evening a string band played music during dinner, dancing, and lots of kava drinking.

The chief wanted us to make him a DVD of the string band, which we have never done before. Gayle filmed ten songs in different locations with our video camera. We took the string band out to the Soren Larsen and they played a few songs on deck as well. It was quite a sight being on this old Brigantine in the center of an extinct volcano, listening to the locals play their five-string guitars, ukulele, string base, and tambourine (which we loaned them and ended up giving them). We also took and printed many pictures of the string band and the chief’s family, which seemed to grow with each click of the camera.

We eventually said goodbye and sailed back to the Reef Islands, uninhabited atolls twelve miles back from where we came from, with the hope of having some peace and quiet for a few days. The first day was magnificent--a gentle breeze and deserted white sand beach islands protected by their reefs. Then the wind started to build. For two days we endured 30 knots of wind. Even though we were protected by the reef, there was no protection from the wind, and the chop was quite short and high. We pulled up anchor in 30 knots on the third day and headed back to Ureparapara for one night. Upon entering the bay, another boat captured Lazy Bones looking more like a submarine than a sailboat as she surfed down the huge swells. The next morning we headed out for Hayter Bay on the island of Tegua in the northern-most island group of Vanuatu called the Torres Islands, where very few boats visit.

Stay tuned for the Torres Islands, our last island group in Vanuatu.