Earthquakes, Tsunami, Diving, Caving, and Canyonning - Another week in Vanuatu.

River of Prehistoric Time

Latitude:      S   15 32.231

Longitude:  E  167 10.830

Sunday,  August 21, 2011

We have been in Luganville environs for the last week.  It is Sunday afternoon as we lounge around resting our tired bodies after an extraordinary adventure yesterday.  I have a pumpkin cake in the oven, and I think a tsunami may have just passed under us.

Earthquake and Tsunami

On the net this morning we heard that there were two earthquakes in the islands near Tanna.  No one knew much about them.  We had felt an earthquake five nights ago while we were on our boat.  A loud rumble came up the mooring chain and vibrated the boat for several seconds.  We thought at first it was a nearby boat motor.  When we went outside, we saw nothing and all was quiet.  The following morning, some of our shore companions asked if we had felt the earthquake?  At any rate earthquakes are quite common here in the Pacific Rim of Fire.

No one gave much thought to the earthquake report this morning.  I was sitting on the back deck with some iced tea at 2:30 this afternoon, and I heard a breaking wave noise coming from behind Worrall Wind.  We are moored in 98 feet of water along a coast line of Aore Island and tucked behind a point that protects us from the prevailing southeast waves and winds.  There is a deep water channel that runs from east to west between us and the main island of Espiritu Santo a couple of kilometers away.  For the most part other than some tidal currents, Worrall Wind is resting in calm waters, so this noise was unfamiliar.  The boat was facing the Aore shore with her stern to the channel.

I turned around and saw what appeared to be two very long waves, no more than a few feet high, resembling the wake from a large tanker (but there was no large tanker).  It looked like the waves were rolling down the channel and had curved around the protected point.  It was curious, but not scary as the waves were not very big, but they were rolling and breaking in different parts as it came in our direction.  Both rolled right under us in quick succession lifting the boat gently and continuing on to shore.  When the waves shallowed out, we could see them splashing up on shore…then all was quiet.  Gloria on Pincoya yelled in our direction…..I think that was a tsunami!  Sure glad it wasn’t a big one. (postscript:  the Aore Resort confirmed our observation - they just opened their email with a tsunami alert, a day after the fact!  Yipes)

THIS WEEK has been busy.  Luganville was the primary staging ground for Pacific Troops during World War II.  Over 100,000 GI’s were here.  Now a sleepy worn out third world little town, Luganville was once a thriving Quonset hut metropolis with over 50 cinemas to entertain the troops.  In 1942, the SS President Coolidge, came from San Francisco with 5,000 troop reinforcements and medical supplies for Guadacanal, hit some mines in the Luganville harbor entrance, blowing holes in the bottom and sinking the ship within two hours.  During that time, the captain ran the ship with the equipment and the men into shallow water on a reef so that the men could be evacuated and as many medical supplies as possible saved.  There were only 2 casualties and the rest of the men were safely evacuated.  The ship rolled off the reef and sank.  It is now considered the premier wreck dive in the world. 

Wreck Diving

We have taken two dives on the Coolidge, seeing only a fraction of the massive ship.  It is quite interesting and eerie.  Our friends Claudia and Brian dove upward of 30 times while they were here.  They are both dive masters and wreck divers used to going down quite deep.  We explored what we could without descending below 100 feet.  Even that was deeper than our open water certification, but we went with experienced dive masters and extra air tanks.  Our friends Gene and Gloria on PIncoya that did the Puddle Jump with us joined us on the second dive.  

Our first dive was on the outside of the wreck, where we examined the coral encrusted bow, equipment on the decks, barrels with gas masks, shoes, rifles, helmets, artillery canons and ammunition.   Our second dive was deeper and in cargo holds and latrines.  It was weird to see rows of toilets side by side.  The Coolidge was a first class passenger ship designed for 900 luxury passengers in suites.  After being requisitioned by the government, during the war, modifications to the interior had to be made to accommodate 5,000 men.  The rows of toilets in the cargo holds were one of the modifications.

To reach the dive, we had to walk in from the beach then descend.  It was pretty windy and rough on the surface the second day we went out with Gene and Gloria.  With breaking waves, it was pretty challenging and exhausting just getting our gear on.  Gloria had some tank issues and ran out of air.  Fortunately, the dive master had extra so she trailed behind him tethered to his air tank.  We had an interesting time dropping into the holds which were fairly wide open, but somewhat dark and claustrophobic.  We decided that wreck diving is not really our favorite activity.

Between our first Coolidge dive and our second with Gene and Gloria, Russ and I dove in an area called Million Dollar Point.  At the end of World War II, the Americans offered all of their heavy equipment, jeeps, front loaders, trucks, tractors, to the Brits and the French for a price.  The Brits and French decided not to buy the equipment, believing that the Americans would just leave it anyway and they would get it for nothing.  The Americans recognized their strategy and decided to be peevish about it by dumping millions of dollars worth of equipment off the point into the sea so that no one would get free stuff! 

Apparently, some enterprising Aussies were able to salvage some of the big front loaders (how we aren’t sure!) from the sea, and these became the key pieces of equipment that started one of the largest earth construction companies in Australia.  The remaining equipment is a huge surrealistic junk pile with 60 plus years of sea growth.  Corals and sponges have molded themselves around tires, truck chassis and warrior rubble.  It’s quite surrealistic to be 100 feet down looking up at the surface of the water and seeing mauve and blue coral encrusted truck chassis with wheels suspended vertically toward the surface.  Small and large schools of fish call this home, darting in and through the wreckage.  We all enjoyed this dive so much more than the Coolidge.  It was in the open so no one suffered from claustrophobia and the lighting was better.

Caving, Canyonning, and Swimming the River

Our friends, Brian and Claudia, on Skylight told us that one of the best things they did was go on the Millennium Cave Trip while they were on Santo.  While this is an ancient cave, it has only been open to tourists since 2000, hence the name Millennium.   They said the scenery was fabulous. 

Without hesitation or investigation we signed up to go on this “awesome” trek and trudge.  Gene and Gloria came too.  We knew we would be hiking and trekking through a cave with running water and would be swimming at some point.  I wore my hiking sandals as did Russ with swim suits under our shorts.  Russ wore his pith helmet and looked quite jaunty.   I took two trekking poles with pointed tips,  as I suspected it would be muddy, steep, and slippery.  It felt like we were off to find Dr. Livingston.

We expected a certain degree of rigor, but were really not prepared for how rigorous a trip this would be. It took nearly an hour by 4 wheel drive up to a high plateau to the interior of the island before we could actually get started.  From there we were met by our Ni-Vanuatu guide, Christian, whose communal village owns the river and the caves.  We hiked from the lower village to a higher village crossing some bamboo bridges over deep gullies.

Bamboo Bridge

The entrance fee was 2000 vatu per person $24.00, most of which goes towards school fees for village students.

Map of our Adventure

Once we arrived at the higher village, we were met by the chief who assigned to us some additional guides and dry land transporters.  The chief took a look at my two hiking poles (bi-polar, ha ha) or the wrinkles on my face and determined I was “handicapped” and would need some assistance.  At first I was a bit taken back and offended that he wanted to assign me with my own guide.  Little did I know how strenuous a trip this would be and was extremely grateful that I had a strong helping hand along the way.  With two guides, two gear transporters, and six hikers in our party, Russ and I, Gene and Gloria, and another young couple, Laurel and James, we set out on our adventure.

Intrepid Explorers - Russ, Gene, and Gloria

First off, my guide took my backpack so I didn’t have to carry it.  Okay,  so maybe a few wrinkles and hiking sticks have their advantage!  We walked a couple of kilometers through the jungle until we reached a steep drop off.  Before we descended down to the cave, our guides painted our faces with mud as traditional respect for the cave spirits.  We were told to leave our backpacks and anything we didn’t want to get wet (like my camera) with some village guardians who would dry transport our gear to the cave exit.  Again, I was without a waterproof camera.  Drat!

The Descent

After we were properly painted and shed of our gear, we started descending down a series of hand hewn branch ladders with the rungs at least two feet apart, so each step was a massive stretch with one leg and a deep knee bend with the other.  We went down, down, down, down into a canyon, sometimes hanging on ropes down rocky steeply inclined walls.  My guide Sala preceded me down the ladders and the rocky, muddy path.

Guide, Laurel and James descend down, down, down

Where the ladder rungs were broken, Sala would find an alternative footfall for me.  When the track was steep and slippery, he would prop one of his feet next to mine so I wouldn’t slip. When there was a rope hanging down a cliff, he would go down first, stretch out the rope and give me a taut handhold with him as an anchor at the bottom.  Had it been just Russ and me together in terrain like this, I would have been hanging on to Russ and we both would have had difficulty.  Russ was fending for himself and was grateful not to have to worry about me.  

The Cave

Finally we reached the bottom of the cliff where there was a rocky crevice that we squeezed into, and we were inside a mammoth cave, 20 meters wide and 50 meters high with a river running through the center.

 We waded in knee to hip deep water with a mild to moderate current.  Once we turned the bend from the entrance crevice, it was pitch black.  Everyone had torches.  My guide had a big torch big enough for the both of us so that I could use my trekking poles.  He shined the torch upward so that we could see the beautiful water carved limestone walls and hanging bats.  Sala walks this cave everyday barefoot and knows every crevice and footfall.  We were at the end of the pack.  Russ was just in front of us, then Sala, and me.

For quite a while we were altogether, but eventually the front group disappeared into the dark.  Our torches only illuminated the immediate area in front  of us.   Russ had no one to follow, so Sala asked him to drop back behind me which helped Russ better navigate the dark river bed.  Sala by this time had taken one of my trekking poles so that he could grab my hand and better assist me.  He preceded me and then would shine the torch in the inky water where I was to place my foot or my fanny and slide down a boulder into a pool.    One step would be ankle high, the next might be up to my thighs.  Russ was able to watch our path and the depth of the water so he too had a better perspective of where to place his feet and his fanny.

We proceeded this way for about half a kilometer, wading, boulder hopping, and enjoying interior waterfalls that showered down upon us.  The water was probably about 65-70 degrees F, pretty chilly.  Eventually we could see some natural light in the distance through a 50 meter crevice.  The slit of light reflected down the length of the river illuminating the rest of our group who were just ahead of us.  We all exited the cave pretty grimey and wet.

The cave waters joined another small river perpendicular to the cave, but it was spread over a shallow rocky base, so the last wade was only up to our shins, but moving fairly swiftly.  The village chief spotted me coming out of the cave and guided me across the last stretch of the river.  I think he was relieved to see me come out.

Lunch and Bail Out?

Once we were out of the cave, we spotted our gear on the bank of the river.  Another huge group must have exited the cave only a few moments before as they too were picking out their gear and looking for their lunches.  We rested on the grassy slope across from the cave and I was able to retrieve my camera for a few pictures.  Fortunately, Gloria had taken her waterproof camera, so we do have some additional photos of the trek to share.

One of the village elders came and sat down beside me to assess my stamina and willingness to continue.  There was a dry escape route alternative if I wanted to opt out.  No, I told him.  I was doing fine and yes I could swim which was the next part of this iron man adventure.  There was one lady who was celebrating her 45^th birthday.  She was pretty hefty.  I think they advised her not to continue as we never saw her or her group again.  Given some of the very tight boulder bridges we had to squish down, through, and under on the next part of the trail, I think she simply would not have fit.  Once again, I had to abandon my camera and our gear would be transported back to the base where it would stay dry.

Canyonning - I thought it said canoeing trip!

After our lunch, I was looking around for the canoes! Ha!  We were each given these little kiddy pink, orange, and yellow blow up rings that we were to wear around our necks while canyonning and then as an aide while swimming down great lengths of river. They were definitely not US Coast Guard approved personal floatation devices, but they did relieve a little anxiety in that we would have something to hang on to as we died of hypothermia.   For the next 30 minutes, where we walk in the water when we could, but more likely than not we couldn’t as the drops through the canyon were big and the water would disappear into big holes, pools, and over cascading waterfalls.

We canyonned (climbing up, down, over, around and through) huge one and two story high, slippery moss covered boulders and deep crevices.  The village tribe had carved out footholds and installed chains and knotted ropes from which to hang and belay backwards.  Again Sala was indispensable as he lead the way, showing me the notched handholds, footholds, and carrying my little floaty for me.  There was one part of the trek where we dropped down into a boxed crevice.  It looked like there was no way out until you were at the bottom and discovered a rock you had to slither under in a doubled over position so that you could get your legs in front of you to stretch over a bottomless hole that you could hear the river rushing under.  We referred to this tight bend afterward as the pretzel.  I jokingly asked my guide if we had completed the “easy” part of the trek.  I couldn’t imagine it getting any rougher.  He smiled and said, “yeah, yeah.”  Oh great!  I could only hope that his “yeah, yeah” was the typical response of islanders who always wanted to agree with their guests and not really mean that there was harder stuff to come.

The Big Swim

After 30 minutes of dropping down the river canyon, we reached a more level part of the river. Finally, we would get to float.  My legs have not ever had a work out like the one we had just gone through.  The air temperature was pleasant and we had worked up a sweat canyonning to the river basin.

The walls of the canyon were vertical and now hundreds of meters high, and overgrown with moss and jungle foliage creating the atmosphere of a soaring arched cathedral with stained glass windows of green and blue filtering the sunlight to the canyon floor.   Still pools of deep green flowed quietly through this prehistoric cathedral.  The only sounds were the occasional birdcalls resonating against the canyon walls. 

Float through Time Forgotten

The limestone carved by millions of years of water flow and dusted with a fine moss was an amazingly beautiful sight.  Waterfalls trickled and cascaded down the sides and free fell from the overhangs showering us with crystal cold water.  This is a place where time stands still, and we wouldn’t have been surprised to see a dinosaur drinking where the river widened out over shallow rocks.   This is truly one of the most inspirational and beautiful places on the planet.

Our float experience was 45 minutes long of float, swim, get out and trek a few hundred feet, then float some more.  By the last float, our teeth were beginning to chatter.  Getting out of the water felt good, but now our muscles were cooled down and our legs felt tired and heavy.  The hardest part was yet to come. 

The Ascent

It was now time to deflate our floaties and ascend out of this canyon.  Those 100 meter walls aren’t so beautiful when you are going straight up them.  The tribe had picked an ascent route up through a waterfall where they were able to notch out handholds, footholds, ropes, chains, and bamboo ladders in some solid bedrock.  Trying to hang on to these holds with cascading water numbing our hands and feet added to the challenge.  By now, my legs were really, really tired as were my arms.  When going up these inclines either by notch or ladder the steps are deep.  When your quads start giving out, you have to pull with your arms.  When your arms start to give out, your stuck.  I had visions of dying on these ladders withering like a hanging vine.

The Last Ladder!

Fortunately, Sala was like a monkey.  He would scamper up a few steps through the bed rock barefoot, grab my hand and give me an assist up some of the steepest parts when I simply thought I couldn’t go any further.  I could hear everyone ahead of me groaning and grunting as they pulled their way up the cliff…. only a couple more ladders. … only one more ladder.  Huff, puff, pull, push, groan, moan,  and we had made it!  If only we had the strength to do a happy dance.

There were successive victorious but feeble whoops when each person reached the top.  We trudged another kilometer or two back to the village along the high plateau through the jungle.  Villagers who saw us coming nodded and smiled at us acknowledging our accomplishment.  If there had been a tattoo artist at the top, I would have gotten another right of passage tattoo on the spot.  Fortunately, Mom, there wasn’t a tattoo artist there.  I think I would have liked a volcano and a waterfall on the back of my right shoulder or a big heart that said “I love Sala!”

When we reached the base camp at the top village, there were jugs of hot coffee, tea, and sweet and juicy pumpelmus waiting for us.  We changed into dry clothes had some refreshments and still had a 30 minute hike to the bottom village where our driver picked us up and took us back down to Luganville. 

This was an extraordinary adventure.  Had we known the difficulty beforehand, we may have opted out.  Not knowing however, we went with it, and don’t have a single regret.  It may be a couple of days before we can walk, sit, or go up stairs again without our muscles and joints screaming out in agony, but the incredible beauty, viewed only by a handful of people on the planet was well worth the effort. 

Monday, August 22, 2011 – Waiting for a Weather Window

We are now recuperating and sitting out some stormy weather.  Last night a rainstorm filled our water tanks while we played cards with 2 G’s on Worrall Wind.  We taught them how to play Fiji Rummy.  Gloria is quite the card shark and blitzed us. 

We had hoped to leave for New Caledonia sometime this week, but it’s looking doubtful wave wise, so we may be here another week even though the skies are lighting up.  Last night we had gusts of 40 knots through the channel and the boat rocked more than normal.

We have learned that whatever our weather forecast predicts, we add 40% more to the average.  Right now the average is for two to three meter seas in terms of wave height and 25 knots of wind speed with a trough (unsettled weather) running right through the middle of the Coral Sea between Vanuatu and New Caledonia.  We interpret this as three to five meter seas with 35 knots of wind…pretty ugly and possibly chaotic.   The wind direction looks good, but that’s the only positive attribute.  So for now, we are being patient and waiting.  We may go on a few more dives and land expeditions while we wait for a tolerable passage window.

We will be parting company with Gene and Gloria today as they rejoin their rally group.  The rest of their group tried to leave this morning for one of the eastern islands with 35 knots of winds on the nose and big seas.  They all turned around because of the conditions.  That’s one of the problems with being on a rally.  The leader has generally made arrangements for the group at one place or another and is often driven more by schedule than weather conditions. 

This will most likely be the last time we see Gene and Gloria for a while, unless we are still in New Caledonia when they arrive around September 24.  Slowly but surely our Puddle Jump 2010 group is dissolving.  We’ll have to schedule a reunion in 2020 for all of us in Puerto Vallarta Mexico, when we all have RV’s, live aboard sailboats, or condos, and the biggest adventure of the day is opening and closing the little umbrellas that come in our drinks.

All is Well with the 2 Sail R’s on Worrall Wind

Worrall Wind Update - Malua Bay to Aore Resort - Espiritu Santos

August 12, 2011

Latitude:     S    15 32.231
Longitude:  E  167 10.830


This morning, August 12,  2011 at 10:15 we tied up to a mooring at Aore Resort across the straight from Luganville on Espiritu Santos, the big island of Vanuatu.    We had traveled just a little under and hour and a half from our anchorage on Ratua Island.  With a strong east setting current we flew down the channel towards Luganville at 10.5 knots!

Here’s our Vanuatu week in Review.

Monday,  August 8, 2011 – Malua Bay, Blue Hole and Workshops

On Monday morning, we went into the Malua Adventist School about 10:00 a.m. in the morning.  It was a sunny, beautiful day.  Gerry the headmaster was waiting to take us for a hike up to the blue hole.  It was a short walk of only 15-20 minutes through the jungle passed his personal garden.  He said that family members of the students helped to take care of his relatively large plot so that he could conduct his work at the school.  By the time we reached the blue hole, we were ready for a dip.

The hole was a beautiful deep blue green with a small waterfall cascading into the pool.  Unfortunately, we had left the camera on the boat so we didn’t get any pictures.  Russ and I enjoyed a cool swim.  The water was a bit chilly but incredibly refreshing.  Close to the waterfall, it felt as if we were swimming in champagne bubbles.  It was quite lovely.  On our way back from the swim we passed a garden where there were three teenage girls from the school clearing the jungle for a new garden.  They had huge bush knives and were whacking away at the vines and trees.  The headmaster said these girls had broken some rules (skipped classes) and were doing some hard labor as a punishment.

We returned to the school house about 11:30.  School was out at 11:45 and the workshops were supposed to start at 1:15.  Men were already milling around the school yard with generators, chain saws, and weed eaters waiting for the workshop. 

They were eager to start.  Word had spread about our workshops.  Turned out that in addition to the teachers at the Malua school, five other schools were sending teachers for the professional development workshop I was to conduct. 

We had a hard time getting away and back to the boat for a little break and to pick up our gear.  We had promised one of the teachers Mr. Isacc and his son Joses a trip out to the boat, along with a couple of other young ladies who had enquired.  One of the girls was an eighth grader (class 9).  Viana said she had to get her other friends.  Turned out they were the ones up in the jungle doing some hard labor punishment.

We told Viana she was welcome to come, but we didn’t think it was appropriate that her friends who were being punished should have the opportunity.  So the five us, Russ and I and our three visitors went out to the boat.  We had just enough time for a quick tour, pick up our gear, and pack a lunch to go before heading back to shore.  As soon as we got to shore, we were escorted to our rooms.

We each had about 15 participants in our workshops that lasted until 4:15.  Russ gave both a lecture about electricity and then guided the men with the broken equipment through a troubleshooting and fix it process.  All of the participants, with the exception one of the men with a chainsaw, got their equipment in working order, and were delighted.

I arranged my room in a big circle so that participants could see and talk with one another.  This in itself was a learning for them, as they never have the desks arranged except in a face the blackboard arrangement.  These teachers face the same classroom discipline problems as in the states (bullying, fighting, disrespect of property, blurting, being noisy, walking, talking, etc.) and have only a few rudimentary techniques at classroom management and student motivation. 

Most of what I taught them was pretty standard in America but very non-traditional here in rural Vanuatu.    They seemed to be very receptive, but without on site guidance I would be surprised if more than 10 percent of what we talked about is implemented.  I showed them how to arrange their seating for classroom management, teacher proximity, group work, planned walking, talking. 

We talked about the need for young people to talk, walk, move around, learn by doing.  For those of you who are teachers, Vanuatu students rarely get beyond the second level of Blooms Taxonomy.  Knowledge and comprehension are about it.  We talked about the importance of the teacher to walk around the room and not sit at his/her desk.  We talked about corporal punishment and discontinuing its use.

Vanuatu has quite a bit of domestic violence in this male dominant, kava drinking culture and corporal punishment seems to confirm that violence is an acceptable means of discipline and making people do what the bully wants them to do.  The bully could be the father or the mother, or the older sibling, anyone bigger holding the switch.

I showed them how to play some active learning games, pattern clapping to gain student attention, caught you being good incentives, etc.  By the end of the day, Russ and I were exhausted and exhilarated.

We were invited to the principal’s house that evening for a thank you dinner.  Actually, the principal’s wife Irene prepared the meal but it was served on the minister’s front veranda spread out on woven mats on the floor.  Irene had hoped to come to the workshop herself, but cooking a feast over an open fire took the better part of her day.

On behalf of the school and community we were presented with beautiful lays made from frangipani, and a very old, handmade traditional tom-tom.  One of the teachers told us that he believed we were sent to them as a blessing from God.  We were warmed by their acceptance of what we had to share with them, and never let on that we were just every day Americans who happened to be atheists.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011 – Happy Anniversary Snorkel

Originally, we planned to leave on Tuesday, but decided to spend our anniversary just relaxing and doing some snorkeling.  Russ’s skin infection on his shin was finally under control and the water clarity was incredible.  We had a great afternoon snorkeling and just hanging out. 

We did have one visitor.  One of the young men from the Joe family, and his little son paddled out to the boat in their dugout canoe.  He had a converter that wasn’t working and asked Russ if he could see if it was putting out a charge.  It wasn’t, and he couldn’t fix it.  In so many ways, these folks are caught between the old world of their agrarian ancestors and the new world of technology that they do not really understand.  Before he left in his dugout, he took a picture of our boat with his cell phone.  What a kick!

Wednesday,  August 11, 2011 – Goodbye Malua Bay, Hello Ratua Island

We were on our way out of Malua Bay by 7:30 in the morning.  As we left, there were several school children on the beach.  Russ blew our horn a couple of times, and the villagers rang their bell.  This will be remembered as one of our favorite places.

The sky was a bit overcast as we left and the sea was like an undulating grey satin ribbon without a single wind ripple.  We motored the entire way to Ratua Island which is on the south eastern side of Aore Island.  As we came into the straight, we spied a couple of large turtles.  The tide line was filled with bobbing coconuts, but every once in a while one of the coconuts turned out to be a turtle head popping up for some air.

The bay we anchored in is pretty small and there is probably only enough room for one or possibly two boats to anchor safely in deep water without bumping into a coral head.  Fortunately we were the only boat in the bay.  We dropped our anchor in about 40 feet of water, around noon, ate lunch and spent the afternoon snorkeling on the reef.  The soft coral and tropical fish were beautiful.  There was just enough dappled sunshine coming through the high overcast to see the rainbow of colors.  We looked for the turtles, but didn’t see any.  Maybe tomorrow.



Thursday, August 12, 2011 – Diving with Rays and Turtles

We had a leisurely morning.  I made some papaya/blueberry coconut milk pancakes for breaksfast.  Yum!  Afterwards we took another snorkel and look around, but still no turtles.  By this time, another boat Riga II from Switzerland with Richard and Gabby aboard had come into the anchorage.  We stopped by to see them.  They looked pretty close to some of the coral heads.  Turns out they have a swing keel and could raise it out of harms way.  We invited them over for some sundowners around 5:00 p.m.

After snorkeling in the morning and still not seeing any turtles, we decided to dive down off the reef where they reportedly hangout.  We got out the dive gear and dinghied over to a buoy marking a huge coral head.  During our dive, not only did we spot a huge turtle, four-five across, but we also saw a large ray and a cuddle fish.  Mission accomplished!  Sure wish we had an underwater camera.  Without our friends Brian and Claudia taking photos, we can only tell you about these fish stories!

We enjoyed our evening with our anchor buddies from Switzerland.  They too are traveling around the world.  They left from France four years ago across the Atlantic to South America and 50 miles up the Amazon, through the Panama Canal, South Pacific, New Zealand, and are heading to Australia, Indonesia, and Thailand, then probably around the cape of South Africa over to Brazil and complete their journey in the Caribbean.  It is amazing how many people are out here doing what we are doing.  We look forward to seeing them again as at this point they too are planning on the Sail Indonesia rally next July.

Friday, August 13, 2011 – Moored at Aore Resort

We left this morning from Ratua Island and came around the corner to the west side of Aore Island across from Luganville on the south end of Espiritu Santos.  This resort has moorings in 98 feet of water, so we don’t need to worry about our anchor.  Or so we thought! 

We went ashore to register and enjoy some pool time.  We were keeping an eye on Worrall Wind as she seemed to be dancing all around on the mooring and stretched a long way from the mooring ball, coming dangerously close to another boat.  Was she untied?  We made a dash for our dinghy, hopped in, started the engine and gunned it for the boat.   The two boats were only 5-10 feet apart, stern to stern.  Yipes!  Normally, boats swing on a mooring like synchronized swimmers, bow to stern, but the current in the strait is swirly and the long ends of the boats were nearly touching.  Too close for comfort.  Worrall Wind was tied securely, but the mooring was line was stretched way out from the original position.

We quickly turned on the motor, disconnected from our mooring buoy and found another one further down the beach where we have no close neighbors.  Fortunately, we had a choice as there are only four mooring balls in front of the resort.

The resort here is quite lovely, with a scheduled taxi service back and forth to the mainland.  On the mainland at Luganville, there is only an anchorage that can get pretty rough with easterly winds.  The moorings in front the Aore are better protected and guests can take advantage of the resort amenities.  The only draw backs from our perspective is that there is no wireless Internet and our dancing partners might get a bit close. 

We heard from Brian and Claudia on Skylight on our 6510 0700 UTC Friends Net.  They are leaving Port Vila for New Caledonia tomorrow morning.  They had some news to share with us.  Brian proposed to Claudia while they were on a deep dive.  He used sign language.  Of course, she said Yes!  Woohoo!

Tomorrow, we’ll take the water taxi across the strait to Luganville where there is a coffee shop with free WiFi.  Yes!

All is Well with the 2 Sail R’s on Worrall Wind

Worrall Wind Update

Worrall Wind Update from Malua Bay, Malakula, Vanuatu

Latitude: S 15 59.499
Longitude: E 167 11.033

We've been at Malua Bay now for five days having arrived on Wednesday, August 3. We are the only boat in the anchorage of this nicely protected little bay on the northeastern tip of Malakula. For the most part we have been protected from the raging winds and large swells that have been passing through. Here is a recap of our week.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011 - Arrival

After our arrival after a pretty wild ride along the coast from Southwest Bay, we were tuckered out. We did have some visitors though late in the afternoon. When we had first arrived Chief Don came out to greet us in his dugout canoe. We told him that we had some school supplies and were hoping to make contact with Issac, a name of a teacher given to us by Claudia and Brian on Skylight.

Two men in a dug out approached the boat about 4:00 p.m. and introduced themselves as Issac and Gerry (headmaster) of the school. We introduced ourselves and told them we would like to visit the school the following day. We made arrangements to arrive at 10:00 a.m.

Thursday, August 4, 2011 - Meeting the School Leaders.

The school here in Malua Bay is a Seventh Day Adventist School. It is a cinderblock school with openings for window and doors, but with no windows or doors. It's very open. There are cement floors, rustic desks, and beatup old blackboards. Students do a considerable amount of copying from softbound curriculum books into their exercise books (small notebooks with staples).

The Adventists established a mission here and are the guardians of the Bay. Unlike other villages where we seek permission from the Chief to go ashore, snorkel on the reefs, hike their trails, etc., here in Malua one seeks permission from the school leaders.

We arrived at the school at 10:00 a.m. and met with the head master, deputy headmaster, and French teacher, Mr Issac. We delivered the school supplies we had brought from Port Vila. The school leaders were thrilled as this school like most of the island schools we have visited is in desperate need of materials, reading books, supplementary instructional materials (maps, globes, charts, number lines, alphabet posters, etc.

We made ourselves available to the school should they wish to take advantage of any of our teaching skills. We indicated that Russ had a background in engineering and optometry, and I had a background in teaching, administration and professional development. We could do our standard geography lesson and related earth science lesson or something of their choice. Well, that jumped at the chance to have us do some teaching, particularly in classes 7-8-9 which are comparable to grades 6, 7, 8. The school only has a total of 120 students, so classes are small.

They asked if I would teach some social studies on world governments and economics the following day. They asked Russ if he would teach some science and geography. Russ had mentioned that he had helped to fix some generators in Southwest Bay, and would the school want to organize a workshop for some of the local people to learn how to maintain their generators and troubleshoot electrical problems with solar panels?

Why yes! What a great idea. The school leaders decided to make Monday a half-day session for students and workshops for adults in the afternoon. They inquired if I could work with their teachers while Russ was in the workshop. They wanted to know if I could help the teachers with classroom management skills……right up my alley!

After our meeting, it was decided that I would return that same afternoon to observe teachers in their classrooms and get a feel for what help they might need. I observed lots of seatwork, teachers sitting at their desk, kids in the back of the room drawing and goofing off. In the primary grades, students would scream out answers, and the teacher often did not have much control of student behaviors as they jumped around on their seats and desks. I asked one teacher what his response was when a student consistently failed to follow the classroom rules. He said he took a switch to them. Ok, so my ideas about classroom management might be a tad different.

We returned to school after lunch to gather some curriculum supplies to plan our lessons for the next day and do some observations. Later in the afternoon, we visited Chief Don in his village so that Russ could take a look at a solar, electrical problem the chief was having.

We spent the rest of the evening working on our lessons. You know what they say about teachers. We never die, just lose our class!

Friday, August 5, 2011 - Back to School - Love em and leave em teaching....nice!

Since this is a Seventh Day Adventist School, Friday is a half day. Students and teachers return home to prepare for their Sabbath which is from dusk on Friday to Saturday night. This was an unusual weekend however, in that the teachers were heading off for a retreat in a village several miles away.

Russ and I taught our respective classes and exchanged students midway through the morning. It was a very interesting experience in that these students are very shy. Getting them to speak up, ask questions, or answer questions was next to impossible. Their usual curriculum is very structured and both Russ and I were giving them more experiential experience with hands on, mind mapping, etc. The kids seemed to enjoy it, as did the teachers who commented that they too had learned some new techniques of teaching. It was insightful for me in preparing for my workshop on Monday afternoon and made me realize how much I miss being in the classroom. It was fun preparing a lesson and teaching again. But glad I'm not doing it day in and day out. Love em and leave em is pretty nice.

Because the teachers were off to a retreat in the afternoon, they had made arrangements with the pastor for us to go to church the following morning. When the final bell (several hammers on the large welding cylinder) rang, everyone left leaving the beach and school area completely deserted.

I returned to the boat and baked some bread and an apple pie. Russ visited the Chief and did some laundry in the local stream. We spent the evening beginning to think about and plan for our Monday workshops.

Saturday, August 6, 2011 - Church, Lunch, and Lots of Visitors

It was our understanding that we were to come ashore at 11:30 for church. We saw activity starting around 8:30 and by 11:00 we decided to go in earlier than our understanding so that we could change into our going to church clothes…..i.e. Russ zipped the bottom part of the legs of his shorts on to make full trousers, and I pulled a skirt on over my shorts.

Properly attired, we entered through the back of the open air church and were immediately shown where to sit. It's a good thing we went earlier than asked or we would have gotten there just as it finished at 11:35 which may have been their intention. Our 15-20 minutes of the service was in Bislama. The men and boys sat on one side of the church and the ladies, girls, and small children on the other side. When we sat down where we were guided, the ladies side did a little giggling. I wasn't sure why, but I think it was because I was the only lady sitting on the men's side.

After a little preaching that we didn't understand, Bible reading, singing, and prayer, the service was over. The Minister and assistant leaders came down the center aisle from the pulpit and indicated that we should follow their procession outside where they set up a receiving line. All of the church members came out, said hello, shook our hands and headed home.

We sat with the church leaders and few curious parishioners answering questions about our voyage. One of the families invited us to lunch with them. We accepted their invitation and followed them down the road to their home a few hundred yards away. The family has a lovely little compound with several small houses/huts for their sons and families and an open shaded area covered with purple flowers and vines.

They had bench seating around the edges of the arbor. When it was time to eat, the ladies spread out pandanas woven mats and brought out on a large cloth, a bundle of charred taro leaves with the meal waiting inside to be eaten. The women had started the meal at 1:00 p.m. the preceding day, starting the fire, wrapping the foods in the leaves, waiting for the embers and hot rocks to be just right, then dropping the taro bundle on the coals and covering with hot rocks. By the time their Sabbath began, the meal was already cooked for the following day after church.

We enjoyed yams, a huge pumpkin with coconut cream, island cabbage and sweet potatoes, fresh pamplemoose, nuts, laplap (Kasava, banana and some chicken molded into dense slabs that is eaten like a pizza). Everyone ate with their hands and just dug into the bundle of unwrapped food. As their guests they had provided each of us with plates the size of serving platers filled with food and a large spoon. The food was delicious and incredibly filling. I felt bad for leaving nearly half on my plate, but honestly it was a gigantic portion. Because these folks work so hard in their gardens and walk everywhere, even with the huge portions they eat, few if any are really overweight.

Russ asked what they did after such a huge meal. They laughed and said they often just relaxed on their beds. I bet. I was ready for a nap! We thought this might be our cue to leave so they could get to their relaxing. Wanting to reciprocate for their hospitality, we asked if anyone would be interested in visiting the boat? We thought we might get a few takers. Turns out we got the whole family plus some. No nap today!

We spent the rest of the day ferrying the Joe Family of 12, mother, grandmother, father, sons, wives, children, aunties, and cousins out to the boat for a tour. They were fascinated with everything from the stuff we consider high tech to stuff we take for granted like running water in a sink, flushing toilets, cushions on seats, raised sleeping beds, refrigeration, cooking stove with gas, microwave, binoculars, mirrors, and hot water shower. Everyone seemed to have a good time.

Belden, the family elder, asked us to stop by the following afternoon. He wanted to give us some produce. We said we would come by.

Once we had the boat back to ourselves, we enjoyed a glass of wine, a green salad for dinner, a hot shower and a video.

Sunday, August 7, 2011 - Laundry and Workshop Prep

The wind was gusting up to 20 knots in our bay today. The direction had shifted just enough that it was coming directly through a saddle in the mountain range behind the bay. We had taken some laundry ashore and washed it in the river that flows to the sea. Once we got it back to the boat, the wind was blowing so hard it was a fight to get it pinned to the clothes lines. The sheets, we pinned on the jib lines. It took several attempts and we had to use almost a dozen clothespins per sheet. The sheets flapped, spun, and snapped at us. Russ commented that in 10 minutes the sheets would be dry or in Australia!

We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon working on materials for our adult workshops the following day. About 3:00 p.m., we went ashore for a walk and stopped by the Joe family's home. They were just returning from working in the garden all day. We had brought them an assortment of herbal teas and ginger snaps. They loaded us down with pamplemoose, limes, and fresh eggs.

On our way back to the boat, we stopped to visit a new neighbor in the bay. The boat Kakadu that we have seen in several anchorages in Anatom, Tanna, Port Vila, and Awei had anchored on the north side of Malua Bay. As many times as we had seen the boat, we had yet to meet the cruisers. We met Ann and Graham from Nelson, New Zealand. They are on their way to Southwest Bay.

So tomorrow, we plan to hike to the blue hole on the river and conduct our workshops. If the wind continues to calm down, we plan to leave for Santos on Tuesday or Wednesday. We've had a fine time here.

August 9, 2011 will be our 42 wedding anniversary. It hardly seems possible that two years have flown by since our retirement and bon voyage party at the Berkeley Yacht Club.

All is Well with the 2 Sail R's on Worrall Wind

Worrall Wind Update - Arrived and Anchored at Malua Bay, Malakula

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Latitude: S 15 59.496
Longitude:E 167 11.035

After looking at the grib (weather) files, it looks like the wind and waves really pick up on August 5, 2011 for several days. We decided to leave Southwest Bay and make it as far as Malua Bay where we will hang out during the blow. We decided not to stay for the "cultural festival" advertised for August 10-11. No one including the chief of Limpinwen village seemed to know much about a festival. It may be happening and then again, it may not. There are other villages around the bay and maybe one of them is planning it. Nevertheless, we felt it was time to move on.

The gribs said we would have 15 knots of wind and 2 meter seas. When we started in the morning this was true, but by noon we had 25-30 knot winds and 2-3 meter seas. We were glad to tuck in, and are now anchored in this bay. It's a bit rolly and overcast, but we will be protected from the increasing southeast winds and building seas. We were greeted by Chief Don in his dugout as we came into the bay. He immediately asked us of if we have a light for his solar powered battery. Ugh!

I think that the villages we just left was one of the best. No one asked us for anything. They were just genuinely welcoming and giving. Not one dugout approached our boat the entire time we were there. It was a refreshing experience. There is a school here and a man named Issac that is a teacher here. We have some school supplies and a hammock from Brian and Claudia to drop off to him.

All is well with the 2 Sail R's on SV Worrall Wind

Worrall Wind Update - August 2, 2011

Southwest Bay, Malakula Island, Vanuatu

Latitude: 16 29.523 S
Longitude: 167 25.887 E

On Saturday, July 30, after a great week visiting with friends Brian and Claudia on Skylight in Awei Bay in the Maskelyne Islands just south of Malakula Island, we headed north and Skylight headed south. Once we left the protection of the anchorage, we encountered a mild sea 1.5 meter swells, and no wind. We motored about 30 miles north to a Bay called Southwest Bay. The bay is about 5 miles across and there is a lot of room for boats to anchor both on the north and south sides. Directly in the middle of the bay close to shore there is a reef. Most boats from what we understand, drop anchor in about 30 feet of water. Boats are well protected from the south and north winds, moderately protected from south east winds, and slightly protected from westerlies. The bay is open to the west and there is some reef along the outside of the entrance points that modifies the ocean swell.

There are several villages around the arc of the bay with stretches of sand, cliffs and jungle that drop right to the water. We anchored off the island on the south side called Limpenwen. To the left of the village there is an estuary that leads in to a huge lagoon. Limpenwen claims ownership of the Tisri Lagoon and visitors must receive permission from the chief to enter the lagoon area.

We arrived in the Lagoon in the afternoon. There was only one other boat anchored in the entire bay. We decided to stay on board and relax. Sunday morning, the weather was a little rainy after thunder and lightening most of the night. Fortunately, the weather was around us and not on top of us. Nevertheless, the first two nights in the bay, our computers, sat phone, etc. lived in the microwave and oven. Sunday is church day in Vanuatu with family gatherings. Our boat neighbors had left early in the morning. We finally heard from our friends Ken and Lori on Trim. We knew they were leaving Fiji, but hadn't heard from them. Apparently, they had a horrific crossing with very unstable weather conditions, 30 foot seas, and 40 knots of wind. Now they are in Tanna, sitting out the rain. Glad to hear from them and that they arrived. Brian and Claudia on Skylight are in Havannah Bay just outside of Port Vila.

We didn't want to impose on the locals on a Sunday, and since the weather wasn't great, we stayed on the boat and reorganized all of our food supplies, in preparation of entrance to Australia in a couple of months. Since there are many foods that are confiscated in Oz (grains, flours, egg products...even egg noodles, freezed dried meats, frozen meats, etc.) we need to be efficient about what to use up and eat. By consolidating all of the food, we have a better idea of what to power eat before we lose it. We handed off some food to Brian and Claudia before we left Awei Bay and now for the first time our food lockers are beginning to look reasonable. For a while we had enough to supply a fleet of ships!

Monday, August 1, 2011 - Funeral today

We went ashore around 10:00 a.m. on Monday morning. The village was quiet, there were only a few families around. We met a man named Harry who was about of our age. When we asked him to show us the way to the Chief, he informed us that there was a funeral in a neighboring village and the chief and most of the villagers were attending. They would be back in the afternoon sometime. Harry gave us a tour of the village. He is one of the deacons of the Presbyterian church and was especially proud to show off the well kept and newly constructed church. We had an opportunity to meet his daughter Helen and her son Joey. Harry told us that if we wanted to see the lagoon, we would need to come back and meet the chief. We indicated that we would probably come back the following day.

The weather on Monday was lovely. Blue sky and hardly a ripple on the water. We took the opportunity to buzz around the shoreline. Just off the southern entrance point of the bay is a reef that we thought would be fun to snorkel, but we would need permission from the village on the southern tip. We thought this might be a good place to go at sunset and were planning on eating lunch, hanging out on the boat, and going out to the reef as the sun dropped lower into the sky.

About mid afternoon, Russ was reorganizing our backpack and realized that our hand held radio was without its antenna. To keep the antenna safe from being bent in the backpack, I had unscrewed the antenna and put it along with the radio and my camera in a waterproof ziplock bag. Apparently, when I had pulled the camera out of the bag, the antenna had been a hitch-hiker and jumped out. We remembered that I had pulled out the camera shortly after we had beached the boat at the village.

Without our backpack or any of our gear, we jumped in the dinghy and went ashore to look for the antenna. We just pulled the dinghy up a little ways onshore without an anchor line. Russ spotted the runaway antenna within 30 seconds and we were just getting back in the dinghy when two men with big smiles came out of the village and hailed us down. They introduced themselves as Collin and Chief Cedric. They heard from Harry that we had visited in the morning and wanted to know if we wanted to go for a ride into Tisri lagoon. The time was good right now as the tide was coming up and the river into the lagoon more passable. Sure, but first I wanted to get my camera which I left on the boat.

Both Collin from a neighboring village and the Chief, got in the dinghy and returned to Worrall Wind with us while I picked up the camera. In all the years that these men have been in the village, this was the first time they had ever boarded one of the yachts. They were thrilled we had invited them and were of course interested in our Honda generator, solar panels, flush toilet, etc. Russ showed them a few of the projects he was working on. One of the projects was repairing our converter. He explained that you had to be a good fix it person if you lived on a boat because anything that can break down usually does.

After a short tour and a camera grab, we were off to the lagoon. Collin and the Chief really knew their way through the lagoon and all of its coves and islands. The lagoon is all sea water, but does get some run off from the steep mountainsides. The water clarity because of the rain was not real good so we could not see the bottom. With both men frequently pointing this way and that for Russ to follow, we were able to navigate this extensive inland body of water without running aground or hitting any rocks. I think both Russ and I anticipated a 1/2 hour tour. We spent the better part of the afternoon in the lagoon.

We asked the chief if we could buy some pampelmoose (huge grapefruit, but sweeeter), limes, and island cabbage. The chief wouldn't hear of us buying anything. He wanted to give us the produce. He directed us to little cove dotted with palm trees on the south bank of the lagoon. We climbed into the jungle where he and Collin found the cabbage trees. They harvested a huge amount of leaves, wrapped them in a big banana leaf and tied them with some natural vine fibers.

By the time we left the lagoon the sun was just setting. We dropped of Chief Cedric and Collin (who is a nurse at one of the local clinics in a nearby village)on the shore. We think Collin has family in this village and was spending the night here. Collins wife whose name is Roselyne is a school teacher and lives across the bay where the school is. During our lagoon tour conversation, Russ had mentioned the fix it workshop Brian had conducted in the Maskelyne Islands. Collin lamented that his generator wasn't working well and was wondering if Russ might take a look at it. We told him that if he could take us over to meet his wife at the school in the village where she lived the following day Russ would take a look at it. Collin had the day off because of the funeral and had to return to work the following morning, but said one of the men from the village could take us to his wife's house the following morning. We said our goodbyes and promised to return the next day. Chief Cedric said they would have the limes and pamplemoose for us in the morning.

Tuesday, August 2 - Rainy and windy again!

We returned to the village in the morning, but it was too rainy and windy to find anyone who wanted to go with us (and we didn't want to go either!) over to Collins village on the far side of the bay. We had kind of figured that we wouldn't be making the trip, so Russ had left his tools on the boat. Not to disappoint us though, the chief had lined up a few other generators that needed fixing! Great!? But first he took us to the pre-school that his daughter had established for the children 3-5 years of age. Russ and I spent about half an hour singing songs with the children and teaching them a few new ones. We had peaked in the windows of the school the day before which had been closed due to the funeral. It is quite ramshackle and dilapidated. At one point I believe it had been a malaria control clinic funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, but was no longer used as Malaria is pretty much under control here now. It's amazing how the happy little faces of children brightened up this dim, dilapidated building.

Russ spent the rest of the morning and the afternoon, looking at generators. Just before lunch, we returned to the boat laden with about 20 pampelmoose, ate lunch, Russ to collected his tools to return to shore. I stayed on the boat to do some baking (part of our power-eating strategy) and Russ went off to fix a large generator that was refusing to start. His plan was to guide one of the handiest men in the village to fix it and who would then have the knowledge to help get Collin's generator going, if it had the same problem. Just as I was pulling a papaya coconut cake out of the oven, Russ returned trimuphant. The generator's carburator was dirty, air filter oily, and spark plug needed some clean up. Tim, the village handyman, with Russ's guidance got it fixed and promised to look at Collin's generator when the weather got better. Russ suggested to the chief, that he might want to send one of the men to a technical school in Villa to learn how to fix all of the technology that villagers are acquiring. They use their generators to charge their cell phones and run their DVD players in these remote little villages that would otherwise be considered just a step above the stone age.

When Russ returned from the village, we loaded the dinghy and decided tomorrow would be a good day to leave. The winds are supposed to really pick up in two days from now, and we would like to be in a more protected bay when that wind event occurs. There is supposed to be a cultural festival here the end of next week, but Russ wants to move along and hopes to be in Luganville on the Island of Santos by then. This is where we will check out of Vanuatu before heading to New Caledonia. Our plan is to get to NC by early September, and we've learned that we need to start watching for good weather windows sooner than later. They seem to be few and far between. So when the going is good, we're leaving.

We'll see what the morning brings as it seems to me that the wind is blowing pretty good right now (wind generator is spinning), and this is a protected anchorage. The clouds are beginning to disappear behind us, and we might have a nice sunset.

All is well with the 2 Sail R's on SV Worrall Wind

Worrall Wind Update - July 26, 2011 from Vanuatu

Latitude: S 16 32.046
Longitude: E 167 46.167

Wednesday, July 20, 2011 - Goodbye Port Vila

We left Port Vila early afternoon for an overnight sail to Revelieu Bay on the Island of Epi. We had a chance to connect via Skype with Garyn, Ted and Marian, and Mom and Dad during the morning before we left, letting everyone know that we would not have Internet for a couple of weeks.

Our trip to Epi was uneventful (just the way we like it!). The seas and the wind were so calm, we ended up motoring most of the way. The mainsail was up but it really didn't do much good. The moon was late coming up around 10 p.m. and on the wane. Nevertheless the moon is such a great friend on the dark sea at night even when she is only a quarter.

Thursday, July 21, 2012 - Hello Epi

When I woke up around 6:00 a.m., we were just lolling off the entrance to Revelieu. As soon as the sun came up a little more and my eyes were focused, we headed into the Bay which is protected to some extent from swells because of a horseshoe reef just under the surface of the water.

Our friends on Skylight, Brian and Claudia, had stopped at this bay and had given us the name of a lady with whom that had become friendly. They asked if we would say hello to her from them. Armed with her name and a bag of school supplies, we headed into shore around 10:00 a.m.

We met some children on the beach and asked why they were not in school. They told us that the teachers were in a workshop and they had no school today. We asked if they could direct us to the lady named Lucy. One of the boys said that Lucy was his mother, and he ran off to get her.

Within a few minutes, Lucy came down from the village. We introduced ourselves and she asked us to follow her. We spent the morning at her house meeting her children and some of the neighbors. Her eldest daughter Alex about 10 years old was peeling and washing a stack of manioke (casava root), with a huge bush knife.
Her brother Ben had a sling shot and was trying to find fruit bats to kill.

Once the roots were peeled and washed, Lucy got out a huge grater and grated the white roots into a gooey mound. This mound is actually what we think of as tapioca and can be used to make puddings, thicken soup or stews. Her plans for the manioke was to mix it with chicken meat and stuff cabbage leaves. Then it is baked, loplop, in the ground with hot stones. The chicken already had its neck wrung. It would be thrown into a boiling pot of water to loosen the feathers from its body, before being butchered for the loplop. Growing and preparing food is an endless cycle for the women in the village.

Lucy told us that the school was an hour's walk from their village. Her children got up at dawn each morning and walked to school so they could be there for the 8:00 start. I was a bit reluctant to hand over the school supplies to her as the children were clamoring all over me for the contents when I pulled out the backpack that had Nemo the fish on the front. I explained to them that this was not for them, but for the school. Lucy promised to give the bag of supplies to the head teacher, but I'm pretty sure the school would receive the supplies in a plastic sack or basket and one of her five children would get the backpack. No worries, the supplies are for the children so however it worked out, it would be okay.

While we were visiting, Russ fit two of the older ladies in village with reading glasses, and we blew up our globe to show the children and neighbors where they were and what our route was from California their little village. We gave out a few balloons and lollies (hard candy) to the children and the adults. They seemed to enjoy our visit as they continued their work preparing loplop.

One of the visiting neighbor ladies had two children that both had some deformities. Perhaps their genetic pool was too closely related. Her one son of three or four years of age had six fingers, one poking out of his thumb like a chicken claw. Her youngest son, between ages one and two, had huge testicles (the size of grapefruits) and another appendage that looked like a second penis. We only got of glimpse of him when he took of his shorts to go to the toilet. The mother kept him covered while the older son was not wearing any pants at all.

Before we left, we were given limes, pamplemoose, and, kasava root. We took two of the children out to the boat for a visit, Ben and a bright little girl named Namba. They were incredibly tactile on the boat touching the fabrics, running their hands over the wood, picking up and examining objects. They noticed some children's books I had in the v-berth. They picked out one that neither of them could read and could have easily been read by children of the same age in America, so I read it to them and gave them a little reading lesson as we went. Neither of the children had honed prediction skills, even though the picture book was written in a way that begged the question, "what do you think will happen next?" Namba was better at reasoning than the boy. Critically thinking is not something that is either taught nor practiced. We enjoyed our visit with the children and took them back ashore and said our goodbyes as we would be leaving early the next morning and heading to the Maskaline islands at the bottom of Malacula Island, where we were looking forward to meeting up with our friends, Brian and Claudia on Skylight.

Friday, July 22, 2011 - Goodbye Epi, Hello Manacula

We pulled up the anchor around 9:30 on Friday morning and once again found ourselves motoring north towards Manacula. We were going to an anchorage off of one of the Meskaline islands at the bottom end of the larger island of Manacula. Our weather files indicated some strong winds were coming that would be shifting from all directions so we wanted to find an all weather anchorage well protected from wind and waves. It turned out that our friends were in just such an anchorage.

We arrived in the anchorage between Awai and Avok Island around 1:30. We had our anchor down less than two minutes, when Brian and Claudia jumped in their dinghy and came on over with big smiles and huge hugs. Oh how wonderful to seem them! We last saw them in Fiji before we left for New Zealand last November.

As the wind kicked up we settled in for a great afternoon of visiting and sharing dinner together. I made a shrimp and papaya curry. Claudia brought the rice, some pan fried fish she had caught earlier in the morning. It was a feast!

Brian has become known as the generator fixer here in the area and has gotten four of the twelve broken generators working. These people have so little money but they save up to by generators so that they have some electricity. The generators they are buying are from China and while the generators are still basically "new" they break. The metal in the generators from what I understand hasn't been tempered correctly and the fittings are blowing apart. Perhaps these are seconds from China, but it is terrible that these folks are throwing their money away on these junk generators.

To make matters worse, the Ni-vans here in these remote islands are clueless about how things work and have few tools even if they did know how to make things work.

The main technological tools the people in these villages have are the big bush knife, some pots and pans, a few fishing hooks, rakes, and some plastic bottles. We saw one man with a plane smoothing a dugout canoe and another man with a screwdriver.

The people here in Vanuatu, at least in these remote little villages, are by western standards, are well fed but incredibly poor and lacking in basic maintenance and repair skills for some of the newer gadgets that have come to them….cell phones, generators, solar powered lights. Anticipation skills, much like we learned in Tonga and Fiji to a lesser extent, are not a part of their daily lives. They live from hand to mouth. The people in the remote villages don't even have a money economy although they are forced to do something to collect vatu because they must pay school fees for their children.

The average Ni-vans in Port Vila, we were told, made about $100 a month US. Those who have a skill or degreed may earn $1,000 a month. Just within the last two years, school for children through class six is free. Families with children going to high school and some of the private schools, pay about $300 a quarter per child. For people in the remote villages, even $100 US a month would be considered a fortune as they basically do not sell handcrafts or other items that would generate any income.

Saturday, July 23, 2011 - Preparing for Children's Day

We spent Saturday morning cleaning up the boat and relaxing. Several families in dugout canoes stopped by the boat to trade. They were looking for children's item to give to their children the following day which is Children's Day in Vauatu. While the families went to their gardens to bring back produce to trade, Claudia and I dug through the v-berth on Worrall Wind for kid things.

Our one v-berth locker was filled with school supplies and other stuff we brought from home, paper weights, stuffed animals, ceramic knickknacks, frisbees, mardi-gras beads, wooden ball and paddle, rubber duck, costume jewelry, hair bands and combs, little mirrors, hotel soaps, lotions, and shampoos, small packages of nose tissue. I also had some plastic tumblers and plastic containers with lids, dish towels, balloons, candy, pencils, erasers, stickers, etc. Claudia had some stuff on her boat and another boat Emily Grace came in that also had balloons, whistles, and bubbles.

When the family from Awai island returned, we gave them gifts for each of their five children and received some pamplemoose and bananas. Only two families live on Awai island. Another boat from Avok Island had stopped by and asked for children's items as well which we traded. Avok Island is a larger Island with 400 people and where the children of Awai go to school during the week. It is about a ½ hour dinghy ride from the anchorage.

I have been carrying around from my teaching days, a Bingo game with about 80 bingo cards, waiting for an opportunity to be played. With the huge assortment of "stuff" we had, I decided it would be fun to play Bingo and make the stuff prizes. We asked if we could come to the village the following day which was Children's Day to play the game. It was recommended to us that we come on the Monday after Children's Day, as it would be a holiday and all of the villagers would be available including the children. We were a little disappointed not to come on Children's Day, but apparently this is family day and is celebrated with church activities.

We got together later in the evening with Brian and Claudia for left overs from the night before and I also stir fried up some chicken strips, cabbage, and grated manioke. Both of us had baked brownies too! Another feast. Then we spent the evening teaching Brian and Claudia how to play Baja Rummy! We had a good time.

Sunday, July 24, 2011 - Yipes what is that big thing?

We decided to take advantage of the sunshine to go for a snorkel late Sunday morning. on the reef in the middle of the channel that we had skirted around when we came in the day before. Along with Claudia and Brian on Skylight, and Tom, Kim, and Emily on Emily Grace, we dinghied over to the reef and dropped our anchors. The skin infection that Russ had on his shin was finally clearing up and this would be the first time we had gotten in the water for a snorkel since leaving Fiji. The water was only about 81 degrees and on the cool side so we were all wearing our dive suits. Quite a bit of the reef on top was dead, but where it dropped off down along the sides into deeper water we did see some nice coral and a lot of fish.

At one point I was in fairly shallow water when something huge and grey started to swim by me. I turned my head quickly thinking it was a shark and my adrenalin spiked as this creature swam past me about 10 feet away. It was a dugong! This sea cow was probably 12 feet long and 3-4 feet wide. S/he was swimming quickly and by the time I lifted my head to shout to the others and stick my head back in the water, I could just see her dropping off the shallow shelf down deep and out of sight. Wow! We knew they were about, but it was still a surprise to see one.

After our snorkel, lunch, and a short nap, we visited the little island of Awai with the two families. The families came to the beach to meet and greet us. All were dressed up in their Sunday clothes. We were given a tour of their village which was very orderly and neat, quite a contrast from the one we had visited in Revelieu Bay.

As we were about to leave the village, one of the men showed us fishing buoy that had washed ashore. It looked like a plastic mushroom, little space ship. Fisherman set these out on nets that float about. The units are pretty sophisticated and are costly. When the fishing boats come to retrieve a buoy and get within proximity of where they think it will be, they locate the gps signal it sends off and if they are in range, remotely switch on the diode lights inside the mushroom. There is a solar panel that charges a battery which in turn lights ups the buoy so the fisherman can find the nets.

The guys examined the unit and were asked if it could be converted to a light that would work in a house? Russ, Brian, and Tom said they would work on it and carried the unit back to the boat. Claudia, Kim, Emily, and I meandered back picking up little shells and seeds to use as markers for the Bingo game the following day. We picked up quite a few not knowing how many we would actually need.

Claudia came over late in the day and we made corn tortillas for tacos. We had yet another feast, and played a grudge match of Baja Rummy. Claudia and I lost again!

Monday, July 25, 2011 - Bingo or Bust

We were all in our dinghies at 8:30 and motoring across to Avok Island. We were loaded with prizes and a Bingo game. As we got close to the Avok there was circling reef and the tide was low. It didn't look passable. We waited to see if anyone would spot us and lead us in. Sure enough, a man in a dugout poled his way across the reef towards us.

It was too shallow for us to use our outboard motors without risking damage, so we lifted the motors, stood up and hand paddled and poled the dinks across the reef. We were met on shore by about half a dozen people.

Word spread fast that we had arrived. The men who greeted us took us to a large green area beyond the beach that had a cement stage. The floor was clean and accommodated about 50 children and several adults. Emily from Emily Grace started of the fun, but demonstrating how to make origami "fortune tellers". She had enough origami paper for about a dozen children to fold and participate with her. We used to call them cootie catchers when I was kid.

The kids loved it. When she had finished with her activity, it was time for Bingo, but we had to do some teaching first. First I taught them the song BINGO, only to find out that they already knew a similar version of it and caught on very fast. They wanted to keep singing the song over and over. I quickly lost my voice.

Then we passed out the bingo cards. First I had to teach them the quiet sign and raised my had and explained that I was losing my voice and could not talk over all of their talking. By this time we had 70-80 people on and around the stage. Most of the smaller children were sitting cross legged on the stage with just enough room to put a bingo card in front of them. It was obvious that we did not have enough markers for this huge crowd, so Emily and several of the local men quickly gathered pebbles for the crowd. Some of the older boys chose to play Frisbee with Brian and Russ. Tom was busy taking photos of the whole event.

With some practice we were all playing Bingo! What a sight! Everyone was so engaged and having fun. Even the adults were playing. Some of the men were trying to stand off to the side acting like this may have been a sissy game. There arms were crossed and the bingo cards were on the ground by their feet. The first person to get a Bingo was one of the men, and he was so excited! Russ had brought some D-celled batteries and we had two West Marine over-the-shoulder insulated beer can carriers we had gotten during the Baja Ha Ha. The beer carriers turned out to be perfect sheaths for their bush knives!

We just kept playing the same cards until all of the numbers were finally called and everyone somewhere along the line got a bingo. Claudia and Emily called the numbers and Kim and I checked the Bingos and helped the kids. It took over two hours! After the first Bingo, Russ set up the prize shop. The excitement was incredible. When someone got a Bingo, they took their markers and bingo card to Russ who let them select a prize.

The ladies wanted to play another game and we had to beg off as we had run through almost all of the prizes and it was after lunch and all of us were getting hungry and ready to return to the boat. As we left the village, there were kids playing Frisbee, blowing whistles, playing with balloons, blowing bubbles, girls with hair bands, ladies with earrings and necklaces, men with plastic containers, bush knife sheaths, and D cell batteries. What a lot of fun we all had.

Russ and I returned to our boats, had lunch, and got on our dive gear. Both Brian and Claudia are dive masters and were excited that we had gotten certified. They wanted to get us back in the water and diving. We went back to the reef we had snorkeled on the day before and took a lovely, leisurely dive. The sun was out and the sky was blue. The colors of the coral were vivid and the water clarity was about 100 feet. Quite nice. We saw a giant yellow nudibranch, a school of something that looked like barracuda, a sea turtle, and two giant clams that were wedged open. The clams were probably 2 feet wide. Each of the clams had different colors of lip from yellow, green and brown to aqua, blue, and black.

By the time we finished our dive, we were exhausted, but decided to dine together again and convert the left over taco fixings into a taco salad. Claudia made sone fresh cornbread. By 7:30 we were all ready to hit the sack. It had been a busy day and we were exhausted. No cards tonight.

Brian had been recruited to do a fixit workshop on a neighboring island the following morning and the boat would be picking Claudia and him up at 8:00 the following morning.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011 - Potluck tonight

The day isn't over as I finish this log, but it's time to get it posted. Brian and Claudia left early for their workshop. I've organized a potluck on Worrall Wind tonight with the four boats in our anchorage, WW, Skylight, Emily Grace, and Karina with Philip and Leslie. Russ is over at Emily Grace doing chart talk with Tom, and I need to get busy making spaghetti sauce and a dessert.

The weather forecast looks pretty dismal for the next couple of days with strong winds and some significant rain starting tomorrow. So we will just hunker down here a few more days before we head north and take leave of our friends. It's been fun!

All is Well with the 2 Sail R's on Worrall Wind

Leaving Port Vila and Internet Land

Looks like we've worn out our welcome.  Little did we know when we were invited for lunch that we would be the lunch!  Just Kidding.

Just a note to let everyone know we are leaving Port Vila this afternoon and heading for the island of Epi.  We will have no Internet service for the next couple of weeks, so please send important correspondence to our sail mail address.

We went on an all day Island tour on Monday and had a great time.  The Ni-vans we have had contacts with are lovely people.  Once we got out of Port Vila, the potholed roads - known locally as corruption roads, turned into a beautiful 2 lane highway all around the island.  Our guide made sure to credit the countries and primarily America for building the road and paying for its maintenance.  We were glad that America's 65 million is actually being used appropriately, but question our foreign aid when we have to borrow China to pay our bills. China on its own is quite an investor in Vanuatu along with Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.

As we leave Port Vila, we will be taking bags of school supplies north that have been donated by a local person.
We'll send periodic updates via the radio.  Follow our track on Find Me Spot.

All is Well with the 2 Sail R's on the Sailing Vessel Worrall Wind

Port Vila - The City

Port Vila is a bustling little capital city here in Melanesia.  Tour boats from Australia routinely stop here, disgorging more passengers than there are local residents.  The Lonely Planet tour book is kinder on Port Vila's appearance than we have observed.  It's not a pretty-well kept city, but a duty free pitstop for large cruising boats.   The mural above is of days past or might possibly still be seen in villages in remote islands.  

Today, the men wear western dress and the women are clad in loose fitting, missionary coverups with some island flare, mostly in the way of fluttering scallops reminiscent of grass skirts.  The seamstress business seems to be thriving.  

The city in general is not well maintained (roads, sidewalks, garbage pickup, litter) and pollution from burning and vehicles is thick.  We have heard the same excuse for litter here as we heard in American Samoa.  "The people are used to throwing peels, skins, etc on the ground after eating because traditional foods are biodegradable." thus it's reasonable for them to continue throwing trash on the ground.  Education and incentive is lacking.

What we noticed is that there are few public receptacles for trash and garbage which would be a real encouragement to locals to properly dispose of their trash.   We tuck our garbage in our backpack and often have to walk miles before we can find a legitimate place to drop it.  The locals just toss it on the ground.   Too bad.  Vanuatu is trying to be very accommodating to tourists, but the lack of good trash maintenance is very distracting.

This is the first city that we have been in since French Polynesia where driving occurs on the right side of the road as we are used to it in America.  After driving so much in New Zealand with the steering wheel on the opposite side of the car and driving on the left, the cars and traffic actually looked a little odd to us.  The roads are potholed and in very poor repair.  We read in the local paper here that America has given Vanuatu over 65 million dollars for road maintenance.  The USA built the first road around the island during World War II.  We're curious where the road maintenance dollars are going now, and think our congressional leaders ought to be as well.  Seems odd that America pays for road maintenance here.

The people we have met are generally friendly. We took the walking tour around town and enjoyed the open market and museum the best.  Yams are definitely a staple of the islands.  Food in the grocery stores and restaurants is pretty pricey.  We've eaten out twice for a modest dinner and it has cost us over $50.00 each time.  Two bags of groceries, mostly perishables from the grocery store was $116.00.  So yams look pretty good, especially if you are on a tight budget.  There is a lot of filling nutrients in a yam for the vatu.

Yams in a Basket, 600 Vatu, about $7.00

We loved seeing the cafeteria style lunches being served in the market.  Cooked food was laid out on banana leaf covered tables then wrapped in banana leaves to go.  Ladies with pandanus and bamboo-like switches swished constantly over the food to keep flies from landing.

Chicken on a bed of taro leaves and yams

Meals wrapped in biodegradable packaging

Vanuatu Kava is reportedly more potent here than in any other island country.  We have seen little root, but a lot of powder for sale, probably for tourist consumption more than anything.

 One of the most interesting items for sale were the fruit bats.  Guess they are good to grill and are inexpensive enough for the locals to buy.  The traditional way of preparing them is to stuff them into fat bamboo shoots and grill over an open fire.  Not even sure they are skinned first.

We preferred the French pasteries.  These could definitely be the end to our waistline!

Breakfast - Better than Bats, but appx. $30.00 (6 bats)

While we eat, we enjoy watching the people and reading the local newspaper which is a mixture of English, French, and Bislama languages.  Sometimes you can almost think you understand it.

Our trip to the museum was very informative.  We enjoyed the music, sand art,

Finger is never removed from sand..one continuous line over line.

 artifacts (masks, drums, statues, pottery, baskets, etc.)

and the hour long video of the land diving (original bungie jumpers) in Pentecost.  Unfortunately, we won't get to see that activity in person as the season for this ritual activity has past.  It looks brutal.  Men and boys dive off of high towers with vines around their legs.  The vines are measured to just stop before the men break their necks.

We applied for our Australian Visa's yesterday at the Australian High Commission.  These should be ready for us early next week.  When we have these in hand, we will be leaving Port Vila for northern islands.  A local donor dropped off a lot of school supplies in bags at Yacht World's offices.  We are taking several bags with us to the northern islands when we leave.

Tomorrow, we are taking a tour via a van around the island to see some cultural activities and do some snorkeling.  Hope the weather gets better.  It's been overcast with clouds and smoke since we have been here.  It rained last night.  Hopefully, the sun will come out tomorrow!

All is Well with the 2 Sail R's on S/V Worrall Wind

Worrall Wind Update - Arrived in Port Vila

July 11, 2011, UTC 0800/1900

Latitude: S 17 44.854
Longitude: E 168 18.263

We arrived safely today in the Capital City of the Vanuatu Islands, Port Vila on Efate. Had a lovely, uneventful sail, and arrived before the big waves that are pushing up from the south. Hope to connect to the Internet tomorrow. We will probably be here for at least 4-5 days, maybe longer. It's a bit of a cultural shock after being in rural islands the past few weeks.

All is well with the 2 Sail R's on SV Worrall Wind

Worrall Wind Update - On the Way to Port Vila

July 10, 2011, UTC 0630/1730
Latitude: S 18 42.049
Longitude: E 168 50.263

Left Tanna early this morning,  Enjoyed a beautiful dawn as we sailed away from Mt. Yasura.  We have decided to bypass Erromango and head straight for Port Vila. The weather, wind, waves are lovely and just want to take advantage of the good sailing under a waxing moon. We should arrive tomorrow morning.

All is well with the 2 Sail R's on SV Worrall Wind