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   SEPTEMBER 26 , 2006
ISLAND LIFE

August 25 – 31, 2006

We left Nguna Island after breakfast on the 25th and made our way to Sulua Bay on Emae Island.  We only stayed one night, as the wind was right to get to the next stop of Lamen Bay on Epi Island. We had a great spinnaker run and arrived in the afternoon in Lamen Bay.  Several canoes, laden with people and garden produce, went by us over the next few hours to Lamen Island, about 3 miles across from the anchorage.  There are a lot of people living on the island but they all have their gardens on the mainland.


This family has made a sail out of palm branches for their canoe.  Paul took this picture and asked them to come back the next day to receive a print.  When the family returned, Paul offered them our old canoe sail (Paul started sailing 35 years ago with this sail on our canoe) and they gratefully accepted the gift.



     Click on Pics to enlarge


We have not yet found any Catholic Churches in Vanuatu.  There are lots of Seventh Day Adventist and Presbyterian churches – often a village will have both.  On Sunday morning, we dressed in our church clothes and set off by dinghy to search for the Presbyterian Church.  We were directed to the church by a Ni-Van on the beach, who said that we were a bit early and that he would be along eventually.  It turns out that there is a series of bells that strike at intervals for the Presbyterian service in the islands and we had only just heard the first of three sets of bells.  We stood outside the church and spoke with the locals until the third set of bells.  Even then, the 1000h service didn’t actually get started until closer to 1030h.  We enjoyed the service, although most of it was spoken in Bislama (pigeon English) and also the local dialect.  We were offered to share the songbook of the fellow next to Paul and then we could participate in the singing in Bislama. 

After the service, we met the only other white couple present – two Australians who worked for Oz-Aid and had been on the island for one year.  They had managed a project to build a science and technology extension to the high school, all paid for by Australia.  Their year was up at the end of the week and they would be returning to Australia.  We were offered a tour of the high school the next day and we spent an enjoyable few hours looking around and speaking with a few teachers who had not left the school during their two-week school break.

Schooling is very expensive for the natives of Vanuatu.  Everyone pays for school – about 200 vatu per term for elementary school and about 700 vatu per term for high school.  A lot of children don’t go to school, as the parents cannot afford it.  Even though 700 vatu equates to about $7.00 US; that is a lot of money to a Ni-Van. 

We enjoyed our stay at Lamen Bay and would have enjoyed it even more if we could have caught a close up look at the bay’s resident dugong (also called a “sea cow”).  We met another yachtie who actually has a picture of himself snorkelling and petting the dugong underwater.  Paul climbed the mast one day and saw the dugong surface 50 metres away but by the time we got in the dinghy with the snorkel gear and went to the location, there was no sign of the dugong.

September 1, 2006

We had a good spinnaker run to Malakula Island, the second largest Vanuatu island.  We intend to spend most of our remaining time in Vanuatu travelling slowly up the east Malakula coast and the southern part of Espiritu Santo Island.  We arrived at the most southeastern anchorage on the mainland of Malakula, Awei Island, where we stayed for five days.  There was lots of canoe traffic in this anchorage as people from several villages from the nearby small islands tended their gardens and coconut plantations on the mainland.

Chief Mansa was a frequent visitor to the boat.  He calls himself a chief, however, we have since learned that this title usually refers to the family patriarch.  Indeed, Chief Mansa’s village on Awei Island only houses three families – all related to one another.  Chief Mansa has several sons and daughters and many, many grandchildren.

 

Chief Mansa and Paul after we fixed his prescription eyeglasses (donated previously by another yachtie).  The arm of the glasses had snapped off completely and we managed to replace it with an arm from an extra pair of our glasses.
       

 

Several of Chief Mansa’s grandchildren, posing with the canoe that Chief Mansa has recently carved.  These children were enthralled with Mary’s painted toenails.  When we first started a conversation with the villagers, the children (boys and girls) spent several minutes touching Mary’s toes.

 

This group of young people paddled their canoes to the mainland early one morning and spent the entire day extracting and bagging coconut meat for 200 vatu per bag.  Very hard work.  Here they are taking a much deserved break and enjoying fried bananas.
       

 

This fellow is extracting the coconut meat.


Paul learned how to open up a good tasting nut called Nangai, which is plentiful on the island, however, a lot of work to open up.
       

 

September 6, 2006

We spent the last few days of our time at the southern end of Malakula Island on Uliveo Island in the Maskelyne Group (a small group of islands just off of the mainland).  We anchored just across from two villages and thus, were visited regularly by locals asking us if we wanted to trade or buy anything.  We met a very nice man in his 30’s named Keith who sold us some fruits and vegetables and coconut from his garden.  Keith also asked us if we enjoy music and told us about a Seventh Day Adventist group of “a cappella” singers from Port Vila who were performing that evening on shore.  He encouraged us to attend and we told him that we probably would.  We had an early dinner and then set off in the dinghy.  We had read in our cruising guide that the Maskelyne Islands have had confirmed cases of malaria so we covered ourselves in our mosquito repellent before we left the boat.

We experienced a magical few hours as we attended the performance of Christian music sung in four-part harmony, both in English and Bislama by a group of 12 Nivanuatu men. We were the only white faces as we sat on a woven palm mat offered for our use by the wife of the chief.  For almost three hours we enjoyed the most wonderfully rich harmonies under the light of a full moon and the sound of the warm breeze in the palm trees.

We continue to be so blessed by these experiences.

Returning to the boat after the concert was also an experience and one that we laughed about for several days after.  It was full moon time, which means “spring tides” and lower low tides than usual.  By the time we returned to the dinghy it was high and dry and we, with Keith helping us, had to drag the dinghy for 15 metres through ankle deep sticky mud.  Mary got her flip-flops stuck and ended up wading bare foot through the muck (something that is not pleasant!). 

The next morning, after working out the tide situation, we went ashore to thank Keith for the great evening and met his brother Philip.  Philip encouraged us to attend the Presbyterian service the next day. We said that we would if the tides were right and we had enough water for the dinghy. He asked us to stay for lunch with his family after church.

On Sunday morning we again donned our church-going clothes and set off to the village.  As usual, we were the guests of honour in the crowded church.  We were the only white people, everyone knew that we were from Canada, and everyone prayed for us and for our safe travels.  We were asked to take part in a family thanksgiving offering of fruits and vegetables by the fellow sitting next to Paul.  We don’t always know what is going on as the service is in Bislama or the native language. However, occasionally we catch an English word and “Canada” and everyone looks at us.  It is custom for the guests to follow the church elders out first and to line up at the front doors so that everyone can shake our hands and greet us.

After church we went with Keith and Philip to Philip’s house where we had a family lunch.  Mary had brought a rice dish and we sat on woven mats and enjoyed a lunch of papaya slices, Mary’s rice, and laplap (a meal made from a root vegetable.  The flesh is pounded and then wrapped in banana leaves and baked on hot stones in an open fire – coconut cream is added as a topping).  Laplap is not our favourite food to eat, however, it is something that is offered regularly to visitors and we are slowly getting used to the glutinous texture.

Mae, Philip’s wife, shyly asked if she could visit our boat (both Keith and Philip had been out but the native women do most of the work in the village and aren’t often out in the canoes) and we cheerfully asked both families out to visit Bella Via.  With the number of people who wanted to visit, we made it a two-trip session, with each group staying aboard for a soft drink and a snack.  We said goodbye to Philip and Keith and their families as we were planning on leaving their anchorage in the morning.  We promised to look them up when we return to Vanuatu (probably in two years).

September 11, 2006

We left after breakfast and had a great sail to Banam Bay, halfway up the coast of Malakula Island.  We worked the many reefs (shallower water) in an effort to catch fish, but alas, no hits today.

Banam Bay is a large deep bay with good protection from the southeast tradewinds.  We were only the second boat in and that other boat left the next day.  We were approached by a canoe soon after we anchored and George asked us if were interested in buying crayfish.  We settled on a price of 500 vatu for one large crayfish and we ordered two large ones to be delivered the next morning.  George dives at night for the crayfish.  At 0700h the next morning, Paul met George at the beach and picked up our crayfish, which we so enjoyed for dinner that evening.
Instead of two large crayfish, Paul returned with one large and two smaller ones.  We ordered more crayfish during our stay at Banam Bay but the seas were too rough and the divers didn’t go out.


We really enjoyed our stay at Banam Bay.  We met a youth named David who told us all about his family – we met his father and his grandfather, Chief Sital, who is 81 years old and quite spry.  We were about to leave Banam Bay after a few days as we were alone in the bay, when several boats loosely travelling as a group, came in and anchored.  This afforded us another opportunity to meet yachties from different countries so we decided not to move just yet.  We ended up staying for about four more days.

Here are a few pictures from our stay at Banam Bay:
These men are weighing and loading bags of copra (dried coconut) for shipment to a factory on another island. 
The men receive 1500 vatu for one bag of copra and the barge returns weekly.
We attended a custom dance in Banam Bay, which was much more authentic than the one that we had attended earlier in Port Vila.  The men wear only a namba, which is a penis wrap, and the women only a grass skirt.  The men performed three dances and the women two.  The men and women’s dances were performed separately in two different areas of the village.  After the last dance of the men, we were asked to partake in some laplap.
We went to another village one afternoon with about 30 other yachties and danced to the music of this band.

September 17, 2006

We travelled just 10 miles to Pangkumu Bay, which ended up being a rolly anchorage and we stayed only one night.  Another 20 miles approximately brought us to Port Stanley, a large bay on the northeast shore of Malakula Island.  We anchored near another boat, Wandering Star, who we had met in Banam Bay.  We were looking forward to getting to know Canadians Russ and Shirley a bit better. 

This is the longest fish that Paul has ever caught – a beautiful 4 foot long Barred Mackerel.  We caught it just as we were entering Port Stanley.  Paul went ashore immediately and offered it as a gift to Elder Willie, the chief of the village.  It was accepted gratefully and, for the next week, locals came out in their canoes to tell us how much they enjoyed the fish.

 


Shortly after we arrived at the anchorage, Paul reported that another boat was arriving and it looked familiar.  We were so delighted when we realized that it was Imajica with our Australian friends, Vivienne and Tom.  We hadn’t seen them since we were in Noumea, New Caledonia.

The six of us from the three boats spent six days together and had a great time. 

Mary and Vivienne with a Ni-Van woman, on our way to the village market in a “bus”.



This is how gasoline is purchased by the litre in a town on Malakula.  It was first poured from the drum into a 5-litre container.  Then poured into a one-litre container before being poured a third time into Paul’s black jerry jug. The price of this fuel was 210 vatu per litre. That equates to approximately $2.10 US. OUCH!





Russ and Shirley left on Sunday to continue heading south and, sadly, Tom and Vivienne left on Monday.  They are going on to New Caledonia again and then crossing to New Zealand, where they plan on staying for 18 months (Vivienne is from New Zealand and her mother will be 80 years old in April).  We don’t know when or where we will see Imajica again but we sure do hope that it happens.

We leave on Tuesday, September 26 for Luganville on Espiritu Santo Island

 

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