"Mr John VI"

Australia - Nov 2012

2012-01-29T20:56:00.000-08:00

Getting close to nature in the wild.

AUSTRALIA

Waiting for a weather window in Noumea became a little boring after a while, we decided that what was once ‘chic’ had definitely lost some of it’s lustre in places and the expense of just about everything was off-putting; however this may not have been due only to the local economy, it was at least in part, due to the British Government devaluing the pound by almost twenty-five percent and reducing the spending power if it’s citizens.

We took off up the coast to the north and re-discovered some more of WHAT WE DO LIKE ABOUT NEW CALEDONIA and that is the huge cruising ground that they have in (relatively) protected waters; there are a good thirty miles of interesting coastline and dozens of offshore islands to the north of Noumea that can be explored without going outside of the main “barrier” reef and most of this is rarely visited by cruising yachts. We only had chance to sample a couple of anchorages and wished we had more time available however we were now into November, hurricane season was upon us and we needed to focus on getting a good weather window for our passage across the Coral Sea to Australia.

New Caledonia is unfortunately a little behind when it comes to offering mobile communications to tourists, SIM cards were expensive and data severely restricted, we went with a local WiFi company and whilst that worked well whilst we were in Isle of Pines, it was limited elsewhere; even inside of Noumea harbour! So, with the need to watch the weather we were forced to return to Noumea and spend our mornings sharing a cappuccino in McDonalds whilst using the free WiFi……it was an indication of how bad the communications were, that McDonalds would be flooded with yachties from the Marina every morning, all of them on their computers and most of them looking at the weather.

Our window arrived, at least according to the forecasts, however we decided to delay a further twenty-four hours as there were white water downdrafts where we were anchored in the harbour and the wind generator was going into over-speed (which it does at 30 -35 knots of wind).

We departed Noumea at first light on the 8^th of November in light conditions, by 1000hrs we were clearing the reef and had a good sailing breeze from the ESE; by nightfall we were pressing on in 20 -24 knots and a lumpy sea which was enough to warrant three of our four hatch boards in the companionway. The boat however, seemed to be happy and we didn’t ship any significant water on board as we averaged a steady six knots directly down the course line; after two days the sea and swell seemed to become more uniform in direction and the ride became easier. It was a good window, we were lucky and we covered the eight hundred miles in six days with an average of 135 miles per day.

On the passage across we’d had regular contact and weather forecasts from Fred, who was running the Bundaberg Rally Net and we were impressed by this and the organisation behind the Rally; we are not ‘big’ on rallies in general but this one just happened to be most suitable for us as it was very open about departure and arrival times, the only requirement being that you actually arrive in Bundaberg sometime in October or November, which we had intended to do anyways….

There is some financial incentive to do the rally, in this case a saving of about $130 on the Clearance Fee’s; they also put on some nice functions at either subsidised prices or for free. It was a nice warm welcome, we got information packages and our mail was well taken care of; the Marina co-ordinated berthing space on the Quarantine Dock and in some cases in berths, for the many boats that had arrived. Unfortunately for us, we were not the only ones who had spotted the good ‘window’ and our Monday arrival proved to be popular with more than a dozen boats showing up, many of which had come down from Chesterfield Reef; we were just about the last to arrive and had to wait our turn to be cleared. There have been some negative stories floating about the Pacific regarding clearing into Australia, I have heard them but never actually met anyone who had a hard time; it seems likely that one or two instances are just blown out of proportion in the telling. I would have expected that as last boat in, at well past ‘going home time’, after a pretty tough days work, we would have some grumpy officials to deal with. Far from it, they were as nice a bunch of people as you could wish to meet; friendly, courteous and understanding; my impression was that you’d have to be incredibly stupid and obstinate to rub these guys up the wrong way!

We spent two nights in the Marina then went up river to take fore and aft moorings off the town, this was considerably cheaper than sitting in the Marina and got us directly into Australian Society; Marinas are pretty much the same where ever you are thus we like to get away from that atmosphere and closer to where the local people hang out. Bundaberg is a real Australian town set in beautiful farmland around the Burnett River Basin, there are some tourists but it is not a ‘tourist destination’; the downtown area has retained many of the buildings and much of the flavour from its history. We enjoyed a very fulfilling week on our moorings there, exploring the town and the many beautiful parkland’s that were only a short walk away.

Although early in the season, we were however, mindful that this was hurricane season and we didn’t have far to look to see the damages caused by the horrific floods which swept through this area with a terrific wave of destruction just the previous Christmas, at which time boats were swept from their moorings and even out of ‘dry’ storage ashore at the local boatyard; many of these boats were never found! It was our intention to remain in the area for the ‘End of Rally Dinner’, which was held at the end of November, thinking this would bring us into contact with many other cruisers who would be heading north for Indonesia in July of 2012. Whilst we did meet a handful of really nice cruisers, some of whom we look forward to meeting again later, it was not a great success in this regard and in fact it proved to be a very bad decision on our part as we failed to appreciate that the ‘Wet Season’ was almost upon us and that this would have a major impact on our intended cruise.

Notice the stairway up to the boat!

Whilst waiting for the dinner we put the time to good use and pulled the boat out for antifouling, the paint we’d applied in Fiji was no longer working and between the sharks, the crocodiles and the stinging jellyfish, I was not too keen on spending time in the water scrubbing the hull; regulations here anyway prohibit that so you are forced somewhat into a corner. We came out at the Port Bundaberg Marina and although it was a little EXPENSIVE, I have to admit that it was a first class yard, with great facilities and they took great care of our boat; the weather co-operated and we were only ashore for three days. It was quite a joy to be having morning coffee in the cockpit whilst watching Kangaroos hop across the adjoining field, indeed as soon as we arrived we noticed the phenomenal diversity of the wildlife and how much of it there was to see; if this were the only reason for coming to Australia it would still be a good reason to come!

Kookaburra

After our haul out we went around to Burnett Harbour Boat Basin where we were fortunate in finding a very nice anchorage but only because our shallow draft permitted it, other cruisers were forced to anchor out in the river where wind against tide situations made life very uncomfortable. We did several walks from this location and much enjoyed the ambiance of the place, for the most part we were blessed with quite good weather although we did have a few south-easterly blows go through, one of which was enough to see us lying on three anchors!

Galah's in the wild.

Once we were over the Dinner we headed south at the first opportunity but as it turned out, not quite fast enough, the ‘Wet Season’ suddenly arrived in southern Queensland, the North-easterly winds practically disappeared and the South-easterlies set in with vengeance; in Queensland’s wet season, any wind from the north brings very wet tropical air and “Tons of Rain”, this reaches way south down the New South Wales coast, almost to Sydney! Whilst the floods of 2010/11 were considered a ‘one off event’, as I write these notes in late January, thousands of people are again cut off or made homeless by torrential rain and floods in SE Queensland and New South Wales with apparently more rains to come, many of the rivers (including the Burnett River) are again in flood with riverside properties being evacuated. On the other hand, for those that are in the south and west of Australia, there has been wall to wall sunshine and blistering heat……….It’s weather, go figure!

Our route south took us through the Great Sandy Strait on the inside of Fraser Island, we had explored Fraser Island on our previous visit and had a wonderful time doing a land tour there; it is a truly remarkable island (dubbed ‘the biggest sand dune in the world’) and has a unique diversity of both flora and fauna. As we pushed down to Tin Can Bay, we didn’t realize that we had just missed by one day, the last decent window of the year for getting down the coast; we only knew that we were due for Southerlies the next day followed by thunderstorms. When we had last visited Tin Can Bay, we’d anchored in Snapper Creek, now, due to the amount of boats and the restricted mooring area, this is no longer permitted and you are forced to find a spot somewhere outside where local craft have already taken the prime locations with moorings. The none-prime areas are again subject to the wind against tide waltz which can become uncomfortable and even prevent dinghy operations. The thunderstorms arrived and one particularly nasty cell gave us a blast in excess of fifty knots for a good twenty minuets, it was quite exciting for a while but I had veered more cable as we saw the squall line bearing down on us, so the anchor held; not so for many of our neighbours who rapidly dragged across the channel astern of us!

Due to the shifting winds we moved several times around the bay and always it was quite a long dinghy ride to get ashore, none the less it was quite an enjoyable visit; we were most impressed by the local wildlife (in particular the plentiful Rainbow Lorikeets), the well laid out paths and nature walks. Another feature was the Dolphin Feeding, this is one of the few places in the world where wild dolphins come into the beach on a regular basis to be hand fed by anyone who has a couple of dollars to buy the fish to feed them…… It was a truly remarkable sight and Paula took the chance to get ‘up close and personal’ with one them.

Hand feeding the dolphins.

From Tin Can Bay we had to exit to sea over the renowned Wide Bay Bar, we caught this in probably the most idyllic conditions but still found it somewhat hard work getting out through the lumpy bits and fighting the tide which must (should?) be on the flood (preferably in the forth hour) when crossing any of the coastal bars. The north-easterly breeze that we required to take us south was right on the nose for most of the bar crossing but once we got clear we were able to ‘free off’ and had a lovely overnight sail down into Moreton Bay. We were off Tangalooma on Moreton Island by sunrise and decided to continue on towards Brisbane, this because we could see no weather window that would allow us to get down to Sydney for Christmas and by now were less than a week away from that event and hadn’t even done any shopping yet (and what would Christmas be without Christmas Shopping???).

Rainbow Lorikeet.

The tide was definitely wrong for going up the Brisbane River but we went anyway, what should have taken us two hours with the tide, took us four hours against it and when we arrived off the Botanical Gardens in the ‘downtown’ area, the current was ripping out and there were no pile moorings available. We hunted around for an anchorage but I failed to find one where I could feel confident about leaving the boat unattended. I had in fact thrown in the towel and we were leaving when we spotted some free moorings on the eastern side of the river, after a brief consultation with one of the locals we picked up a buoy with the intention of remaining ‘at least one night’ to recover from the trip down. It transpired that we were in luck… the mooring was a good one and we were able to rent it for a very reasonable sum. We didn’t get any of the facilities that those on the Pile Berths had but I much preferred to have the boat only tethered by the bow in this location, for some reason we seemed to get a lot less wake action in our location and the Pile Moorings always got the worst of it beam on. If we had been on the piles, we would probably not have remained the two weeks that we spent on the mooring. By good fortune we found ourselves in an excellent position for both Christmas and New Year, right in the heart of downtown Brisbane with good dinghy landings and only a few minutes walk from Queen Street, the heart of the City; after all our time in the Pacific Islands this was a major culture shock to us…….but it was really nice!

Merry Christmas

We quickly settled in, picked up our “Go Card’s” for easy travel on the busses and trains and started exploring; one of our first adventures was to run out to Australia Zoo, about thirty miles north of Brisbane but easily reached on the train. It was an interesting trip up there as we got a good look at the Glass House Mountains on route and on arrival at our station we were met by a free courtesy shuttle that ran us up to the front gate of the Zoo. Started by Steve Irwin (the Crocodile Hunter), who tragically met his death at the sharp end of a Stingray, the Australia Zoo is now his legacy and actively participates in the conservation of endangered species world wide. There was a good selection of animals and educational interaction with the public was encouraged, not that the animals were set up for us, more that we were set up for the animals….. We came away with good memories, nice photos and a better understanding of some of the animals we encountered.

Just one big baby?

In the park adjacent to our mooring, and only a few yards away, dozens of Sulphur Crested Cockatiels would spend the night in the trees. Feeding on the lawns in the early morning and late evening and making a great ruckus throughout, it was not uncommon for them to visit our mast and rigging; late one evening we were vandalised by one of these cheeky characters and Paula actually managed to capture the moment on Video….. you can actually hear the distinct “crack” as our ‘Windex’ was broken in powerful, if misguided, talons.

The Botanical Gardens was another surprise, it was one huge, open air, uncontrolled Zoo…..So many animals had decided to make this green-belt in the city centre their home and share it with all the other Brisbane residents; despite the occasional out of control dog and the more common, out of control child, most of the animals showed little if any fear of humans. The highlight of this area was to be able to hand feed some quite large eels that shared the ponds with the ducks, the terrapins, the iguanas and much more; it was whilst we were feeding the ducks that the eels showed up.

One of my most enjoyable occupations was riding up the many escalators about the city, the ‘mini’ is very much in fashion here, the thong also from my observations…….it was enough to put a grin on any old seafarers face and a very uplifting way to start the day!

Christmas came and went quickly; we had a quiet day with a nice walk along the embankment. New Year’s Eve was a big fireworks event and we had front row seats as one of the barges that they used for the display was moored quite close to us.

It was certainly an awe inspiring sight to see so many colourful fireworks going off with their light reflected in the plate glass of the towering office buildings that surrounded our anchorage.

Paula’s birthday falls hot on the heels of New Year making it a rather full and festive two weeks…. by the time it was over we were both in need of a vacation and I tempted Paula with the offer of a ‘Cruise’. Thus a couple of days later we slipped the mooring and took off south, down river and into the Broadwater, an expanse of shallow waterways between Brisbane and The Gold Coast..

We arrived in Southport on the 5^th of January with the hope of finding a weather window that would get us to Sydney and beyond, it is now the 27^th January and we still have not seen any suitable window. Our thoughts have turned to hiring a car to drive south and do some camping along the way; however the weather has been so bad that both Camping and Driving have been off the menu for quite some time. Much of SE Queensland and Northern New South Wales is under water, with rivers in flood and thousands of people displaced, we have been well drenched but did well to miss the many powerful thunderstorms that have passed by north and south of us. We have been anchored in ‘Bums Bay’ all this time, just in front of a notice that says we are only permitted in this location for seven days in any sixty day period…….. The police come by on a regular basis, they wave, we wave; so far so good!

Surfers Paradise is a nice long walk away down a beautiful, golden beach; we are getting plenty of exercise, doing lots of work on the boat and catching up on projects whilst trying not to spend vast amounts of money……the latter seems impossible given the exchange rate we are currently suffering. It is a good anchorage and with the wild weather that has been going around, we are lucky to be here!!

We have been fortunate to be reunited with some old sailing friends, whom we met twenty years ago on our first visit to this area and crossed paths with all the way to the Med., then bumped into once again in the Pacific a couple of years back when they were sailing a new boat from the U.S. home to Oz. Geoff and Karen now live at Main Beach here in Southport, just a short walk down the road; they have kindly taken us under their wing and shown us a bit more of the area than we would otherwise have seen. This included a visit to Tambourine Mountain, where we spent a day walking the trails, checking out a really quaint Botanical Garden and wandering through the Boutique Tourist Trap of a Main Street that draws all the punters up for day trips from the Gold Coast…… It was a lovely day out.

What next…… we’ll see!!!

Baie du Prony - New Caledonia

2011-11-06T14:34:00.000-08:00

Back to Noumea via Baie du Prony.

Getting back from Isle of Pines was a great strain….down wind in ten knots of breeze, the Chute went up thirty minutes outside of the anchorage and came down as we entered Baie du Prony six hours later; blue sky and sunshine all the way. As we had wind but little time left in the day to embark on any shore-side expeditions, we forged on down to the head of the bay and anchored in the Eastern arm of the Carenage; a delightful spot and one of the local ‘hurricane holes’, being well inland and well sheltered. That night the wind died away completely and we sat on a plate of glass, we don’t often hear our electronic clock ticking away but here it was quiet enough to do so!

The Captain relaxing......

The Eastern Arm has a great little dinghy expedition that takes you first to a ‘Hot Spring’ where a pool has been created in which you can sit and ‘take the waters’; we were impressed with the way it had been done, a small jetty had been provided for access and a place to leave the dinghy. Further up the river was a series of ‘not so impressive’ waterfalls, however these did create a whole load of cool fresh water pools which local boaters used to escape the heat of the day…….

Waterfall Pool.

There were also some walks from this spot, one of which was an eight kilometre hike to a beautiful lake. The track was carved out by a bulldozer and still be passable with a 4WD; however being exposed, it’s a hot and thirsty trip and takes the best part of a day.

The Carenge W arm after a sun shower.

After we’d had our fill of the eastern arm, we motored the fifteen minutes around to the western arm where we anchored in twenty feet on a mud bottom, there seems to be a little more room here and again it is considered a ‘hurricane hole’. We found a spot to get ashore but used an anchor to keep the dinghy afloat when the tide went down; there are some nice trails that run from this bay with many hours of walking, we went off on a ‘loop’ trail which kept us away for most of an afternoon and provided some great views across the anchorages and into the interior.

View over the Carenage W Bay.

The Carenage in general, would keep a hiker well occupied for many days and we were surprised by the good standard of most of the trails. We were also surprised at the amount of water flowing in the many rivers / streams, lots of places to cool off and lots of places where one could ‘take on washing water’ and so make the drinking water on board go further. New Caledonia is truly blessed with a great cruising area and it is a shame that by the time most cruisers arrive here, the season is closing and its time to rush off to Australia or New Zealand. North of Noumea, whilst remaining inside the same reef system, there is another forty miles of good cruising ground with bays and rivers galore to explore; what’s more, this coast has a reputation for very light conditions, even when the trades are blowing hard. Compared with many other places in the Pacific the New Caledonia cruising area is quite benign, with peaceful and secure anchorages, lots of all round protection and interesting things to do ashore.

On route to Ile Casy.

We left the Carenage reluctantly; I had been particularly impressed with the water temperature which I noted was almost ten degrees higher than Bay du Kuto in the Isle of Pines! Our next stop was Ile Casy, a marine reserve and designated parkland centred on a small island in the middle of Baie du Prony; they have two moorings on the north coast and eight moorings in the main bay which is protected from the SE trade winds. It was a pleasure to take a mooring and it gave me chance to clean up the foredeck and anchor well from all the red mud that comes aboard in these anchorages.

Ashore, we were met on the dock by a really great dog…. friendly and very willing to accompany us on our walk; we were awed beyond belief when this overgrown ‘Lab Cross’, after standing on the dock studying the small fish swimming below, went head first in a dive to get his breakfast…….

When he surfaced, he was chewing on something and looking decidedly pleased with himself, so I guess he was successful……..

There are numerous tracks on this island and they are well laid out and well used….however the island is small and not so high…. this is a great place if your years have exceeded that of your pacemaker battery! Still it was very nice and we enjoyed it until a frontal rain cloud arrived and sent us scurrying back to the boat.

The view from one of the many paths.

We sailed from here directly back to Noumea and it was a lovely day in very light conditions, we were overjoyed to be blowing off the big cats and the heavy steel cruising boats that were all going in our direction at the end of a ‘long weekend’ for the locals, the only disconcerting note was a Young 8.8 that slipped by us using a very flat cut tri-radial. We may have held him had we found the effort to dump our 100% and move up to the 155% , which I have been hanging on to for use in Asia….. Umm!

Back in Noumea we did the rounds and discovered a little more of what we DO NOT LIKE about New Caledonia…..

I went to the local boat yard… A beautiful place with lots of space, mainly empty, all the nice gear; travel-lift, stands, tie downs but very little going on… when I asked about a quick ‘out and in’ to do an antifoul job, they said they were full and were full for at least four weeks…….I was flabbergasted, couldn’t believe it……they weren’t even the slightest bit interested in my business. Next I asked about Lay Up during the Hurricane Season….that question was answered in short order… “NO… we’re full, we only have five spaces and they are already taken”!

There was no question of the size of the boat, or even that I was not talking about this Hurricane Season but the next…. the answer was firmly “NO”. This has to be a government operation…. no private organization could stay in business with this attitude!!! But when I talked with a friend, he said “Oh Yes they can…here in New Caledonia”. WOW……

What are we getting into down here??…. I sent eleven e-mails to Australian Marinas the other day, also asking about a haul out…..I got three replies.

Asia, here we come…….!!!!!

John and Paula

Isle of Pines - New Caledonia

2011-11-06T14:04:00.000-08:00

October 8^th 2011 Isle of Pines.

The next day (8^th Oct), we departed early for the Isle of Pines; this time I probably was too cautious with the weather (after our previous attempt) and due to that we had a lot more motor-sailing than sailing on the way down. This can be quite a ‘windward slog’ when the Trade Winds are blowing but at least once, every ten days, some sort of frontal activity moves across and at least takes the edge of the wind; more often than not it will swing into the north and go light for a day or so. Thus patience is justly rewarded and whilst waiting one can find plenty of exploring to do in Baie du Prony, which is the best departure point for the forty mile run. We started at 0600hrs and had our anchor down in Baie du Kuto by 1500hrs, apart from it being ‘windless and no fish’, it was a nice trip; we were very impressed with our arrival in this beautiful bay, the water was clear and blue, there was a white sand bottom and lots of relatively shallow water (Posn: 22 39.551S 167 26.479E in fourteen feet)…….It reminded us of the Bahamas (one of our favourite places)!

Baie du Kuto

Our ‘parking space’ was right in front of the Hotel and front row for the Wi-Fi on the I-net system; it was the perfect spot to relax, catch up on maintenance and take care of a few ‘on line’ chores. The signal was, for the most part, good; however it had some bad moments, probably due to heavy usage and also when there was rain but that didn’t happen very often. Unfortunately there were almost thirty boats in the bay when we arrived, the Rally was in…..They did not stay for long however and after a few days we were down to just a handful and this idyllic spot just got better and better!

The horseshoe beach is over a kilometre of beautiful white sand fringed with park land, it is all well ‘manicured’ and tidy; a great contrast with much of what we’d been seeing in the islands a little further east. The hotel has its restaurant on the beach whilst its accommodations are across the road and out of sight; it is tastefully done, almost unnoticeable and caters for the ‘high end’ tourists. Most week days the beach is almost empty, weekends and Wednesdays there are a few more bodies due to the ferry arriving from Noumea. Just about every night, the people in the restaurant get to see “Mr John” framed in a beautiful golden sunset…..they are truly blessed!

Looking out to sea from the anchorage.

We remained in Baie du Kuto for three weeks, somewhat of a record for us! The reasons for this were various, it was a lovely anchorage and there seemed little reason to leave it, we had been awaiting for a nice spot to catch up with some interior varnishing and this was a convenient spot; mainly though, we had the Wi-Fi, which we had paid for in Noumea and decided to milk for all it was worth. We had been deprived of the possibility of ‘surfing’ for over a year and we both had things we wanted to look at, to catch up with civilization, news and finance; I took the opportunity to ‘Google’ the east coast of Australia and most of what we would cover in Indonesia, then I downloaded a ton of Blogs and other information all of which had to be sorted and stored in a way that it would provide ‘value’ to our cruise. Paula was fully engaged on the financial front, this was a period of turmoil in the Markets and due to a lot of hard work on her part, often late into the night; we managed to come out of it ‘quite nicely ahead’!

Every day we walked to the little store for bread, extending the walk in various directions to see a little more of the area, we also hiked to the top of Pic Nga, the highest point on the island; from here there were beautiful views over the lagoons and right across to the mainland. Our other activity was to lie on the white sand beach admiring our boat or splash around in the sea behaving like tourists. This was truly a beautiful spot to hang out!

Views from half way up to Pic Nga

View from the top. Baie du Kuto on the right

New Caledonia - Noumea

2011-10-19T19:50:00.000-07:00

September 25th 2011

Leaving Vanuatu

We departed Port Vila for Noumea on Sunday the 25^th September and it was a good trip; apart from the first five hours out of Vila; which is known to be a lumpy bit of water at the best of times. Having just cleared Pango Point and Mele Bay, we were listening to the reports of other boats ahead of us on the net; we were drifting along under full sail in ten knots but they were all reporting 17 – 20 which I thought was a bit odd, then all of a sudden, we got the blast and had to go to a double reef in double quick time; by the time that was done the net was over. Not that it was a whole load of wind, just that the sea was so lumpy that you had to slow down and adjust course to make the boat comfortable. Never-the-less, we did scoop up a small lump which deposited itself in the cockpit causing Paula to take issue with the departure weather forecast…and the forecaster; oooops. I was in trouble again!

Fortunately I wasn’t fixated with the idea of going to Noumea, anywhere in New Caledonia would do nicely! If we had been fixated on Noumea ‘direct’, then it would have been an unpleasant trip!

By late afternoon we had one of the reefs out and a full Genoa, the sea was smoothing out and coming ‘almost’ from one direction (as much as it ever seems to do in the Pacific). It was a good night, although both wind and speed were dropping as we moved south; the next day at noon we’d done a respectable 116 for the 24hrs. That afternoon it went calm for a while and we did two and a half hours of motoring, after which we could just make out the island of Lifou up ahead before it went dark. We picked up 3-5 knots of SE to SSE’ly breeze which carried us through the night, slipping along nicely on a calm sea; with the vane gear managing to steer in some sort of SWly direction between Lifou and Uvea. By 0630 the next morning we were becalmed and forty miles from Passe de Touper, about half way down the east coast of New Caledonia; we both voted not to have a third night at sea and started the motor. A few knots of SSEly breeze sprang up during our run in, not enough to sail with but enough to steady the boat and add half a knot to the speed.

New Caledonia was visible from forty miles distance; it is rugged and mountainous, in a ‘small mountain’ sort of way. It seemed odd that we could see the peaks; the few clouds seemed to hang above them rather than shroud them as in our previous island groups. They were rugged and russet brown with a slash of green vegetation around the shoreline, reminding me much of Venezuela and ‘Laguna de Obispo Grande’.

Port Bouquet.

By mid afternoon we were at anchor off Ile Nemou in Port Bouquet (21 40.445S 166 22.888E) in 18ft of water, mainly sand with scattered coral on the bottom…… much of it was ‘stag-horn’ and we had to be careful not to damage it with the chain. Wow but this was a really neat place…. we were MOST impressed; it was so peaceful and quiet, so remote. The island had coconut trees along the beach and pine trees rising up behind on the lower slopes……there was some sort of a ‘camp’ ashore and a sign with information about the reefs to the east of the island; said to be fantastic snorkelling and from what we saw, they probably are! Calm night, great anchorage, listened to the birds….good night’s sleep….welcome to New Caledonia.

Unfortunately we did have some concern about not being ‘cleared’; otherwise we would have enjoyed staying (for at least a week!)….. but we were grateful for the taster! We were a little late in leaving the next morning as I had to re-align the Engine, having discovered a loose mounting on arrival….I’m getting good at this now and it only took an hour, practice makes perfect. By 0800hrs we were under way again and had a lovely offshore breeze to take us down the coast…. nice sailing in smooth waters.

The navigation was very easy…this is obviously a first world country as they have all the navigation marks shown on the charts AND they all have lights that work….. in fact, there were more navigation marks than what was on my chart! Sailing close past one of the Buoys, we hooked and boated a four foot Spanish Mackerel, it was the nicest fish we’d caught in a long while…. Now, I wasn’t minding the odd hour or two of motoring when it was called for as we could run the fridge and keep our fish cold.

We made the best of the wind we had and sailed south passing lots of interesting bays AND SEEING NO ONE! IS THIS THE WORLDS LAST REMAINING GREAT CRUISING GROUND…..????????

We were so glad that we made this detour, even if it was a trifle illegal…..

We got as far down the coast as B.de Quinne and decided to get the hook down before the sun dropped below the mountains….. it is noticeably cooler down here when the sun goes in!

The anchor went down in another beautiful spot at 21 57.801S 166 41.887E and we had yet another fantastically calm and peaceful anchorage….And this coast seems to be FULL of anchorages like this.

Next morning we were off again, just as soon as we’d got breakfast and the financial report out of the way….

We started by reaching in another offshore breeze, making best progress where the valley’s disgorged the south-westerly breeze, at which time I had to spill wind from the over full mainsail. Progress was rapid as we were reaching south inside the reef, with no swell and an offshore wind…it was NICE sailing. No rain, no sign of rain and not much sign that there had ever been rain! We had clear blue skies with maybe one or two fluffy white things hanging over the peaks. WHY DIDN’T WE GET HERE SOONER?

Of course all good things come to an end and as we got south of Port Yate (which looked like a great place to stop) the wind shifted Sly and came on the nose at 16-20kts…. We had a little current with us but were ahead of schedule to pick up the Flood in the Havannah Passage, so we just went down to a double reefed mainsail and motor sailed at low revs close up the shore. This was OK until we rounded the lighthouse on the SE of the mainland, at which point we turned right to go west down the Havannah Passage; then we ran into the last of the ebb and our speed dropped to 2kts for a while….. “Mr John” hugged the reef edge and managed to escape most of the adverse floe, the speed steadily increased…not greatly however. Maybe the SW wind was causing a longer and greater ebb than normal…. certainly it seemed that way as the Flood was definitely late in coming.

There were certainly plenty of tide rips and boiling waters…. and in the middle of all this we had a couple of whales performing, heads popping, tails thrashing and waving about…what a welcome and all this on top of seeing big turtles, more Spanish Mackerel jumping 10ft out of the water (chasing other fish) dolphins and……well the list goes on.

With the current only just slacking and the wind still fresh, almost on the nose… we decided not to push on and took shelter in Port Boise….GOOD MOVE. Another beautiful anchorage to ourselves (well almost, they keep a Pilot Boat here on a mooring but we saw no one during our stay).

We went up the west end of the bay and anchored in 20ft with soft, red mud… a lovely spot (22 21.220S 166 57.197E).

Motoring round to Noumea.

We had a flat calm night in Port Boise and left early the next morning to catch a favourable tide which carried us through Canal Woodin at eight knots….unfortunately we had to motor-sail this leg as there was little wind and we wanted to get ‘cleared in’ before the weekend and before our Outward Clearance from Vanuatu got too ‘dated’…..

We were on the dock at Port Moselle Marina shortly after Noon and all ‘Cleared In’ soon after….No one said anything about how long it took us to get here and I didn’t expect them to. Whilst the requirement is that you “proceed directly to ‘clear in’ without stopping”, I seriously don’t think they expect you to endanger you life in so doing. It is reasonable to anchor at night in a safe anchorage when proceeding in an area where there are many reefs…. Between sunset and sunrise it is highly unlikely that you would ever get an ‘official visit’ and during daylight hours one should be underway towards the Clearance Port. I would not recommend that anyone should not do what is officially requested of you in any foreign country but I do think that one should exercise a little common sense where the official line endangers ones safety. Whatever, I don’t sail around reefs at night!

Clearance in Noumea would be difficult unless docked in the Marina, fortunately we had been warned about this…….it can be done but arranging for all the officials and then moving them around in the dinghy would be a severe test, even if you spoke fluent French! Thus we opted for a night on the dock and this worked out well as we were able to wash the boat down, fill up with Fresh Water, take showers and Fuel etc. We also discovered that the Marina Staff were exceptionally helpful and knowledgeable, much more so than the City Centre Tourist Office where we had a few sessions of ‘pulling teeth’, trying to get information.

On arrival one gets a berth allocation on the Visitors Dock, which is well marked and anyway they send the Dockmaster down to direct and take lines; the pontoons / fingers are a little short but adequate. For ‘Clearance’, just the skipper goes ashore to fill in a few papers at the Marina Office, the Office then notifies the relevant authorities and they come down as soon as they can. The Customs may do a ‘no show’ if they are not concerned about you, however you have to remain on board for a period of two hours after your official arrival time, so as to give them chance. During our waiting period we got the boat hosed off and the tanks filled so no time was wasted. Immigration was three minutes and Quarantine maybe ten, they were all very polite and efficient. The only thing that surprised us was that the quarantine took our Pop Corn……. The Customs chose not to show up, which was fine by us and we hurried ashore to the Market and the Supermarket before they all closed.

The Fresh Produce Market is a few moments walk from the visitors dock on the Marina situated in a couple of prominent octagonal buildings along the waterfront, it is mix of part French and part Pacific, we were impressed with the quality of what was on sale; true the price seemed high but comparing most items we purchased, there was much less waste than when we went shopping in Vanuatu or Fiji. There seemed no way that a roach could appear from the lettuce or an earwig from the cabbage, everything was top class, clean, polished and fresh.

Vegetables galore!

We had been overwhelmingly impressed with the Bon Mache in Port Vila but it was nothing compared to Casino Johnston in downtown Noumea, again the prices were generally on the high side but there were some bargains to be found; we even found some wine at a decent price, our first for a long time!

Getting communications sorted out was another matter, they have the dongle system for internet on the lap top via a SIM card; however the dongles are locked into their own system and require a contract.

They have a ‘Liberty Card’, which is where you buy a SIM card for your mobile and get a set amount of free minutes, valid for 90 days….This seemed expensive, especially when compared with Fiji and Vanuatu! So… we bought a phone card from the OPT (Post Office) and used a phone box….the rate was better than we expected and we had good clear communications into Europe. For the internet we went with I-Net, the local Wi-Fi provider… whilst we had some problems getting on line in the Marina we did get very good performance anchored out, off Kuto, in the Isles of Pines. We went to I-Net’s office, just round the corner from Casino Johnston, to get set up and this worked well as otherwise we would have had difficulty getting our access codes which are sent to your ‘Mobile’ after purchase.

With all our containers and buckets filled with water, we left the Marina and went looking for a spot to anchor, this is not so easy as they have dedicated areas where anchoring and mooring is allowed; needless to say, the locals have completely filled all this space with their own moorings and there is little room if any for visiting yachts. Being small and shallow draft we did find a spot but it was still a long dinghy ride into town; the Marina will let you use their dinghy dock and facilities but that comes

at a heavy cost, alternatively there is a section of the harbour wall reserved for visiting dinghies to tie up and we used that. Not a place to leave the dinghy overnight and an area where all the floating rubbish in the harbour congregates….A weight (anchor not recommended) and some line off the stern of the dinghy will keep it off the wall and away from the ‘interest’ of the young kids who sometimes hang out in the area.

Noumea is not as ‘Chic’ as advertised, maybe it’s suffering from the world financial situation…..it may have been really nice but now it’s starting to show signs of wear….. Still, it has some pleasant parks, nice buildings and a little of that French Colonial character. I was a little surprised that with the amount of Australian tourists visiting, little effort had been made to provide news and information in English so that the tourists could take advantage of whatever was on offer around the country. A good place for them to start would be for the country wide VHF service to give just ONE of its many daily forecasts in English!

Once we had done all that we had to do, we moved off to the south coast where we were sure to find some nice bays and a sheltered cruising area; some sort of frontal system passes by just about every week to ten days, so you don’t have long to wait long in order to pick up a favourable wind that will take you anywhere you want to go.

We left Noumea with a lovely westerly (20kts) which took us all the way to Baie du Prony at good speed, we even managed to get the tide right as well and saw seven to eight knots for most of the journey. Unfortunately the Westerly wind was honking around the southern end of the island, not as portrayed by the ‘mild’ forecast; the way the island lies NW / SE tends to funnel the breeze to the south where it swirls around the Cape’s and streams through Canal Woodin……thank goodness we were going the right way! Thus we had a limited choice of anchorages in Baie du Prony, especially as we were late arriving, so went to Rade du l’Ouest where the pilot book / guide indicates an anchorage in ten to fifteen meters…….Well we tried their spot and it just didn’t work for us so we steamed in close to shore and found a great spot in less than twenty feet of water in the Northwest corner of the bay. This spot also removed us from the down-drafting that was occurring further out and was well and truly ‘pleasant’ (22 21.513S 166 48.624E). Unfortunately we did not have time to go ashore, however I did spot a notice board which seemed to indicate that there may be a walk and something to see.

We would have remained longer in this really nice spot but that the forecast was indicating west to southwest winds of ten to fifteen knots and this would be perfect for a reach down to the Isle of Pines; a picture postcard island some forty miles to the south. Thus the next morning we left at the crack of dawn with great intentions, the forecast however was again far from accurate as the wind, once clear of the bay, was twenty plus knots and almost from the south…..We went a little distance along our track in the hope that it would change but it only got worse with some very heavy squalls coming through. In the end, we were forced to drop the mainsail and run off under a pocket headsail in the direction of Port Boise.

A breezy day.

On route we encountered two yachts plunging over the waves, trying to motor into it; they must have left Port Boise that morning with the same forecast that we had. It didn’t take them long to turn back and soon all three of us were rushing into the Pass at Port Boise and looking for a bit of protection; having been here before we had a good idea of where to drop our hook and were soon well anchored in fourteen feet of water close off the beach (22 21.220S 166 57.177E).

This is a nice thing about cruising New Caledonia, when things don’t quite go the way you expect; there is always another nice anchorage just a little distance downwind!

It was still not 0900hrs when we got anchored so we had the whole day ahead of us and nothing had been lost so we launched the dinghy and went off to explore.

Our anchorage, for the south-westerly wind, was off the western shore and there are two small rivers that come out here; the one in the centre of the beach was wide but shallow once we’d negotiated the sand bar at its entrance, there wasn’t a lot of interest here. The river in the SW corner however, was very pretty and quite interesting; once over the shallow bar (only possible +/-2hrs of HW), it took us about thirty minutes to paddle up to the head waters where it became a small stream gurgling over rocks; it was none the less very pleasant and picturesque.

The next day, the wind had gone down a little but had shifted to the east of south so we decided to move before the wind forced us to, our anchorage becoming a lee shore. The southerly was no good for getting out to the Isle of Pines so we heaved up and motor-sailed around to Bonne Anse in Baie du Prony fishing like crazy the whole way but with no success. We took anchorage in the bay (‘G’ in the guides…22 22.946S 166 54.900E) where the walk to the lighthouse is indicated as we were both keen to visit this vantage point; this was a beautiful, quiet and secure anchorage where we could hear the birds calling throughout the day. The walk was a little more energetic than we would have liked as we had not done any tramping for quite some time but after much huffing and puffing we made it to top; from the lighthouse there are beautiful views over both Baie du Prony and the reefs to the south; all the way to Isle of Pines, which was visible on the horizon. It took about an hour including photo stops to get there and a little less coming back, mostly on a 4WD track; however it is steep in places and the surface demands good footwear.

We took a swim when we got back and the water was fairly clear (but not crystal) down to about thirty feet; the anchorage area is mainly mud but with some small loose coral, however the corals get larger and more prolific in depths less than fifteen feet. We didn’t see many fish and there wasn’t much colour ….. not a lot to see!

View from Bonne Anse anchorage

Mr John at anchor in Bonne Anse (Bay G)

View from the lighthouse overlooking Baie du Prony.

There were a couple of other bays in Bonne Anse giving plenty of room for a bit of privacy yet shelter from the prevailing Trade Winds, it would be a nice place to hang out for a while but we decided to use our time to check out Rade du Nord, only five miles further north and still inside Baie du Prony.

We anchored on the eastern side of the bay where the guide books indicate a river that runs up to a small waterfall; there is what looks to be a free mooring in this bay, however we took anchorage just a little inside of it at 22 20.024S 166 52.681E. It seemed like it was all mud and about fifteen feet of water in our area, however when it went calm in the evening I noticed there was a large coral head close by with only eight feet over it at low water, we didn’t move but I heaved in a bit of line so that my anchor wouldn’t foul it when we swung.

Small waterfall at the top of the river.

It was a lovely dinghy ride up the river to the waterfall, meandering passed the ruins of the early penal colony where they had done a lot of work in bricking up the embankment, thus increasing the water depth in the river. It took me about twenty-five minutes to paddle up and most of the way there was a reasonable depth of water; I didn’t think the river was a scenic as the one in Port Boise but the little waterfall was impressive with a small Fresh Water Pool above it where you could have a dip or bring the washing, should you have a load and a lack of fresh water. It was nice to drift back down river and

watch the birds swooping close over the surface, taking a drink as they went by.

Windmill sunset.

View of Baie du Kuto on the right from the hill stop cross.

More to follow........

John and Paula

Luganville, Palikulo Bay, Peterson Lagoon, Surundu - Espiritu Santo - Vanuatu

2011-09-13T17:28:00.000-07:00

Wednesday24^th August 2011

Wewere not going to hang around at Wala for further rolling so took off early forEspiritu Santo Island and Luganville, a rain squall arrived just as the anchorcame up and off we went into twenty knots of wind, lumpy seas and almost novisibility. When it cleared enough for us to see anything at all, Croydon reefseemed deceptively close and there was a strong tide setting us in thatdirection; we passed clear but were grateful for the modern technology of GPSand that little black line we are supposed to follow, without which, we maywell have had a problem there!

Aftera few hours the rain moved on but both wind and sea increased as we passedacross the Bougainville Strait, the passage between Malakula and EspirituSanto, where the trade wind and a huge amount of surface water squeeze into anatural funnel with the resulting increase in velocity. On top of this theuneven bottom contours kick up some steep seas and overfalls, so it can be abit trying for a small boat. Once we got clear to the north, still about eightmiles from Luganville; the wind and sea died down very quickly and the rest ofthe trip was in much improved conditions.

Luganvilleanchorage was surprisingly busy with about ten boats at anchor of the‘Beachfront Hotel / Resort’, never the less we did manage to find a spot quiteclose inshore and with good holding in sand; there was still a little swellthat rolled down the Segond Channel but for the most part we lay facing into itand conditions were tolerable.

The‘Beachfront Resort’ was very welcoming to the yachts and we could leave ourdinghy in relative safety on their beach, it was however a ‘beach landing’ andyou had to be quite smart about getting in and out of the dinghy unless youwanted a wetting….. We picked up a Taxi outside the resort for 200Vatu and thistransported us down town, it was actually quite good value for money and allthe Taxi drivers seemed both cheerful and helpful. We didn’t really get to knowthe town that well but I do believe that if it had a better anchorage it couldbe quite a good spot to hang out. Prices seemed generally better than in PortVila and whilst the supermarkets were not as extensive there seemed to be muchmore in way of hardware stores and motor parts. Our most important errand herewas to extend our Immigration Visa’s further and I’m very pleased to reportthat the Immigration Officer looked kindly upon us when I explained that,extending one month at a time was a considerable problem for us due to oursmall size and inability to get to a clearance port each month… so he gave usstamps that would take us through to the end of our four month period and thatwas a major weight lifted off our shoulders!

Thenext morning we went ashore early, completed all our shopping and picked upfive gallons of diesel whilst returning in the taxi; I didn’t like the idea ofbeing stern-on to the beach with less than a couple of feet of water under thekeel at low tide and we were keen to get somewhere ‘nice’. We left at middayand were safely anchored in Palikulo Bay by mid afternoon having had a nice littlesail on the way. Palikulo Bay has an inner and outer part and we were fortunateto have enough sunshine and a shallow enough boat to wiggle our way through thecoral heads into the inner basin. Here we found perfect tranquility, beautifulclear water for swimming with a shallow, white sand bottom; this was a really‘NICE’ anchorage and a great place to ‘hang out’ whilst attending to things onthe boat or just resting up.

Therewere a couple of walks ashore, enough at least to get off the boat and takeexercise; Paula even managed to get back into Luganville after a couple of dayswhen another yachtie managed to get a minivan driver to do a return shoppingtrip for half a dozen of us at 200Vatu per head each way. There were severalyachts in the bay but only two of us that made it into the inner basin; we werevery Happy to make the acquaintance of Mike and Chris with the ‘Cat’“Shekinah”, they were heavily into doing the good deeds of the church, helpingthe islanders out where ever possible and in particular had recently beeninvolved in a special mission bringing medical treatment to outlaying villagesnot generally covered by the small clinics run by the government. Even wherethere were Clinics they were not able to offer the treatments that had beenarranged by this small group of specialist, Doctors, Dentists, Opticians andthe likes who were all doing voluntary service at quite some personal expense.

Aswell as helping set up and assist these mobile clinics, Mike and Chris had beenusing ‘Shekinah’ to transport the volunteers and their equipment to some reallydifficult anchorages whilst maintaining a really tight schedule which had beenset down weeks before. The villagers had to know well in advance when and wherethese Clinics would happen well in advance as many of them would journey manymiles on foot over difficult terrain to be treated for all sorts of ailments. Ido take my hat off to all those involved in this sort of work, its somethingpositive in this negative world and we never seem to hear all that much aboutit.

Onething I learned from Mike and Chris, Malaria is now a treatable disease…. bywhich I mean they have a test kit and three day course of tablets which, if thetest kit says you have it, will kill off Malaria. The test kit and tablets areavailable for free in Vanuatu from any of the Island Clinics and from theHospital in Port Vila. This is a major advance in medicine as it means that wecruisers no longer have to worry about taking long courses of unhealthysubstances to ‘maybe’ prevent catching the dreaded bug. Unfortunately this drugdoes not cure Dengue Fever or several other nasty things that can be acquiredin the tropics, so normal precautions to reduce contact with Mosquitoes arestill required.

Outside toilet I believe!

Ireally liked Palikulo Bay, it would be a great place to hang out and get workdone on the boat, no swell but exposure to the breeze as much as required, itwas a shame we had to leave but with so much to see we decided to move on andhad a nice sail up to Peterson Lagoon about two hours to the north and thewhole way sheltered by outer islands. Oyster Island is a favorite hangout withthe yachts and after negotiating the entrance, made a little easier by somelocal navigation marks, there is a sheltered inner Lagoon with plenty of anchorspace and a resort that is welcoming. We did enjoy the WiFi at the resort andwere very glad of it as Digicel was none existent here…….Well perhaps you couldget a phone link if you stood on the chair at the back of the Bar, which wasstrategically located there just for that purpose! The idea is to buy somethingat the Resort in exchange for this service but there were a lucky few thatmanaged to anchor within range of the signal and could do their internet onboard.

Theresort has a track around the island and this was good for a walk ashore asthere is lush vegetation and many huge trees in what is almost virginrainforest; it takes about two hours for a leisurely stroll round.

Areally interesting outing is to the Blue Hole laying up the river just acrossfrom the resort, the Bar and lower reaches (between the Bar and the Bridge) canbe a little trying at low water (got to watch the prop!) but once into theriver it is fairly deep and dangers obvious. It is a beautiful run and a mustdo if in the area; the river comes to an abrupt end at a blue hole which isjust to tempting not to swim in and there is a rope for children of all ages toplay ‘splash’ games with. We discovered a neat hanging vine over the riverwhich made a convenient swing and a place to dry off after a nice fresh waterswim.

Having a swinging time in Vanuatu.

PersonallyI found little to hold us in the Lagoon and I’m not so sure about the claimsthat this is an excellent Hurricane Hole…..who ever said that has obviously notsat at anchor through some of the Hurricanes that I have…..Too much fetch intoo many directions, too deep and very slippery mud unless your anchor haspenetrated well down; you may get away with it if you stay aboard and areprepared to shift positions, or if you are lucky!

Thewater in the area of the inner anchorage is murky and I do not swim in murkywater….ever! Of course it wasn’t far to dinghy to much better spots and therewere a few WWII relics to be viewed, however these required a more substantialdinghy than ours.

Ihad a good look at the passage from the ‘waiting area’ outside, to the innerlagoon, I reckon you could get six feet through at low water but there weresome shallower spots to be missed on the way; whilst we were there an eightfoot draft boat got in at high water without touching however, as thespring(ish) tides were rapidly falling, they felt compelled to stay until thenext lunar cycle.

Surundu Bay

FromOyster Island we went south again, it was blowing outside but inside the protectivebarrier we had an easy beat down to Surundu Bay where we found shelter andshallower water. This was a very nice setting, quite opulent in many ways witha swish Florida style waterfront property or two and probably more in theoffing as the remainder of the land is sold off. Unfortunately these waterfrontdwellings have fencing down past the low water mark and ashore there are allsorts of ‘Tabu’ signs so that even though they don’t seem to worry about usyachties going ashore, you still feel a little uneasy.

Wehad a walk and discovered a lush Coconut Plantation, and again that distinctair of wealth drifting over the land…..somehow I didn’t think that second handclothing from New Zealand was going to be that well received here!

Themain road goes past Surundu Bay (and it’s a nice road!), so it is supposed tobe a better place if you want to get a ride into Luganville or to the airport,the swimming is good and the water fairly clear though far from crystal.Unfortunately the bay is not deep enough to stop the swell from getting in whenthe trades are honking outside and whilst it’s never bad, it’s enough to beannoying at times.

Wemissed the festival at Waterfall Bay in ‘The Banks’, the more remote group ofislands to the north, this was in part due to the weather which promisedtwenty-five knots of wind and rain for the event but mostly we didn’t go as wecould get no confirmation that the event was taking place; we tried the touristboard several times and phoned all the numbers at our disposal, all to noavail. Later we were told that we should just have gone anyway as the localchief there is most reliable and has never failed to produce this festival.Having missed out this time, we examined our options and decided to use a weatherwindow to visit Ambae, Asanvari onMaewo and Pentecost; unfortunately the weather did not quite go as planned andwhilst we did get to see all these anchorages, they were all inaccessible to usand we had to be content with a ‘fly by’….. To say the least this was somewhat disappointing andprobably influenced our next decision, we decided to use this period ofsustained northerly winds to

returnus to Port Vila where we would conclude our Vanuatu experience and have a muchimproved angle of sailing to do our next offshore passage, which would take usto New Caledonia.

Whetheror not this was a smart move will no doubt come up again later, when we are along way down the track from Vanuatu however, in the meantime we had a greatsail south, first to Ranon, then onwards to Port Sandwich using the Chute muchof the way.

Sailing off Ambrym

Thefinal leg from Port Sandwich to Vila provided us with beam reaching conditionsin fifteen to eighteen knots of breeze and we were clocking around the sevenknots for much of the passage. This was somewhat miraculous sailing conditionsfor moving south and we made the very best of it; the day after we arrived inVila, so did a frontal trough and the weather fell to pieces with rain andsqualls!

Wesettled down to work on the boat, catch up on correspondence and see what we’dmissed in the Port Vila area whilst awaiting a weather window that would takeus to New Caledonia without getting our heads blown off; meanwhile there isalways plenty to do and time always passes far too quickly.

John and Paula

Port Stanley, Norsup and Wala Island Vanuatu

2011-09-13T16:57:00.000-07:00

Friday19^th August 2011

FromPort Sandwich our next destination was Port Stanley, about half way up Malakulaon the eastern side; we had a great sail up the coast and carried the Chute forfive hours in perfect conditions. On arrival we anchored on the west side ofTaitaka Island where the Admiralty Chart showed a sand spit running more orless east/west; we went over the spit (12 feet), anchored on the uphill anddropped back in a very secure position but with some exposure to thesoutheasterly breeze. This was a good position to ‘dinghy’ to the dock atLitz-Litz from where we were able to walk into Lakatoro, which is the maincentre for Malekula; our main reason for doing this was the pursuit of DigicelTop Up, this was becoming part of our way of life, everywhere we go we walkmiles and meet lots of people asking for the illusive ‘Top Up’ only to bedisappointed, “Sorry no credit”! The walk is a dusty thirty-five minutes andthere is not a lot to Lakatoro when you get there, a couple of stores sellingbasic necessities; most of which were available in a store just a few hundredyards from the dock where we left the dinghy. There was also a small Market butproduce seemed to be in short supply….maybe it was because it was late Fridayafternoon

Wemoved on to Norsup, just a couple of miles north; we’d been told it was quite anice little village and that there was a market there on Saturday Mornings. Theanchorage is a little ‘open’ and as the wind was certainly east of southeast,the swell was getting into the bay; a shift to the east here can producebreakers from one end of the beach to the other and it becomes very unsafe veryquickly. So we headed for the shore with one eye firmly on the boat!

Therewas a small dock in the SW corner which gave a nice lee onto a sandy beach forgetting ashore and we soon came upon the remnants of what was once a thrivingCopra production plantation; it was still in production but in a limitedmanner. We visited the ‘Copra Kiln’, a large drying shed with several furnaces,most of which were lighted and being attended; the old husks used as the fuelsource.

Theold ‘foreman’s office’ stands close by but has now been converted into ageneral store, however there were no signs to indicate this, it was just abuilding we walked past on our way to the Market and on our quest for the‘dreaded Top Up’. In fact, we were directed by the first young lady we met, toa small store almost behind the school and, indeed, it did have the “Top-up”sign outside….. Not that this made any difference as we soon discovered theywere also out of credit “come back Monday”!

TheMarket was just a few of the local women with a little produce sitting in frontof the school just a little further along the road, not a great selection butPaula managed to pick up a few vegetables at a very fair price. It was coincidence that after the Market,whilst we were exploring a little further along the road, looking no doubt alittle lost; we encountered a helpful gentleman who informed us that he’d justtopped up his phone at the store near the dock and that this was the place weshould go to…Great!

Withnew directions and the sure knowledge that we had already been at and walkedpast this store, we retraced our route to the dock; once there we not only wereable to top-up but also discovered a lovely ‘oldy-worldy’ general store and avery helpful shop keeper.

Norsup Island Beach

Withan increasing swell and deteriorating weather we left Norsup in a hurry andwent across to Norsup Island where we had noticed a nice beach in a ‘hook’ format the western end of the island, we anchored there in beautiful clear water inwhite sand and almost calm conditions….. Almost was the magic word here as oncewe set into our lunch we noticed a little rolling and seeing as we expectedconditions to worsen further we decided that, although this was a greatimprovement on our last anchorage; we’d go back into the Port Stanley Lagoonand seek out a better spot to sit for a couple of days. Eventually we anchoreda little ways to the southeast of Uri Island, it was a little isolated but wegot our chain over the top of a shallow patch and felt secure; also we were farenough into the bay not to be bothered by swell. Here we stopped for threenights whilst the wind howled through the rigging and the surf pounded theoutside of the reef that was protecting us, we caught up on some jobs, caughtwater when it rained, watched movies and relaxed whilst greeting the steady streamof visitors who paddled by, inquisitive at our presence in such a remote partof the bay.

Wedid manage to trade for Bananas and Coconuts from a nice couple that came byloaded down in their canoe having had a hard days work on their plantation andwe had a phone brought out to be charged for one of the village ‘elders’, wewere promised Mud-Crabs for this but the weather had driven the Mud-Crabs deepand seeing as the guy had only produced two small specimens; we told him tohang on to them and feed his own family…..

Sunset in Port Stanley Lagoon

Oncethe weather seemed anything like settled we moved off northwards; in this wewere probably a little hasty as there was still quite a swell outside (2.5 –3m) and the wind was still eighteen knots, it was a lumpy and boisterous sailup to Wala Island where the book had promised us a nice anchorage off asheltered beach. Whilst we did loose the wind, the swell still got in; therewas quite a commotion going on in the channel between Wala and the mainlandwhere it was wind against tide and some of this came our way. We were however,stuck for the night and would have to make the best of it!

Severallocals came by with various problems, the most prevalent of which seemed to beleaky canoes; they were all in search of some magic compound that could beapplied and would stop their leaks, I guess at some point a yachtie showed themthe joys of epoxy! I don’t carry enough of that stuff around to hand out andanyway it is unlikely to fix a hole in a soggy wooden canoe. What they neededwas a tar based product and some sheet copper and some copper tacks to nail itall down; all things that are unavailable to them; I made a note to see what wecould get to help them in Luganville at one of the hardware stores. Anotherrequest was ‘doable’, and that was to down load someone’s digital camera andput the contents on a CD; unfortunately when we were done with this wediscovered that there was also about thirty minutes of video which needed to becopied, a much larger and different problem as they wanted it in a format thatcould be seen on their TV. So the videos had to be rendered and copied to a DVDand …… half an evening and half a battery later we managed that but I’m surethat they think it all gets done instantly at the press of a button!

John and Paula

Port Sandwich Festival including a Circumcision Ceremony. Vanuatu

2011-09-12T21:08:00.000-07:00

Port Sandwich anchorage

We had a great sail back to Port Sandwich in Malekula Island where they were holding another Festival; this one produced more yachts, probably due to the security of the harbour. There were eleven boats in attendance and the Photographers that were in Ambrym showed up on the second day after a grueling truck ride (4hrs) from the airport up at Norsup. We had a couple of days to spare before the festival began and used these to look around and meet some of the locals; we treated ourselves to a meal ashore at the Rainbow Restaurant where ‘Rock’ is the interface between the yachties and the local community.

The generator was out so it was a candle light affair we shared with Pete and Sue off “Nightcap”… Dressing for dinner here does not mean a Tuxedo and that ‘little black dress’; more that you cover bare skin and bring your own mosquito coil to slip under the table! For 400Vatu each (about US$5) we had a really great dinner with a dessert of fresh fruit salad and jug of Juice (beer wasn’t available); it was brilliant value for money and we had a great time with good company.

The first day, events took place in and around a Nakamal (meeting house) close to the beach where we pulled our dinghies ashore; the villagers decorated the place and put seating in for lunch, the dancing was a little different from what we’d already seen and it seems that every island, if not every village, has different twists and innovations to the theme. Lunch was great and we were able to sample all the various local foods cooked up in the traditional manner, this was followed by more dancing and in the evening they brought in the local ‘String Band’ and opened up the Kava Bar.

Nut Bells

Eating food the local way!

Cooking and displays of local foods

Preparing Laplap

Sang like pros, played like pros, instruments held together by duct tape, possibly been watching too many videos..... but they were great.

Day two: CIRCUMCISION CERMONY

The people of the village, always smiling, happy, and welcome visitors.
It's no wonder Vanuatu has been voted the happiest Islands in the Pacific.

Next day we were all loaded into a French Army Truck and transported to a nice village close by the Maskelyne Islands, which lay a little distance off the south coast of Malekula. Here we attended a Circumcision Ceremony, a major event for the village, for the boy and for the family of the boy as he passes into ‘adult life’. Again we had excellent translation of the events taking place and whilst it would probably take years to understand the complexity of family life and social responsibilities amongst the Ni-Vanuatu, we did get a glimpse, which was helpful. For sure, the Family Unit is strong here; there is no Welfare, Social Security, Old People’s Homes or Orphanages….. The Family and the village take care of everything.

Passing into adult hood.

Part of the ceremony.... exchanging gifts.

One of the Uncle's

Lunch was also provided

The village laid on a really nice lunch and the lady’s sang grace before we started and burst into a spontaneous chorus after we’d finished, they all seemed so happy and the village was in a beautiful situation with what we in the west would term “Million Dollar Views”; its not that they don’t have problems, more that they have found a way to live with those problems and remain cheerful.
Don't miss this event. Find out from the tourist board when you arrive in Port Vila.

Life doesn't get any better than this.

John and Paula

Ranon Bay Ambrym Vanuatu

2011-09-12T18:57:00.000-07:00

Ranon Bay Ambrym

The day after Back To My Roots Festival closed, we shifted back into Ranon Anchorage and went ashore for a look around; luckily for us we bumped into Rachel, a New Zealand lady who had spent some years in the village writing a thesis on some aspect of village life (something to do with the effect of the absent men that had gone to work in New Zealand as part of the Pacific Island Agricultural Laborer scheme. Where New Zealand (and Australia) allow a certain amount of islanders in each year to do temporary (none skilled) work in the agricultural industry.

Rachel showed us around, explaining procedures, events, and protocols; it was a very informative tour but I got the impression that Rachel was just glad to have someone around to hold a conversation with. We were most impressed; it was all very clean and tidy, well laid out and with a certain air of well-being (relative wealth?). We met a couple of locals and they seemed to be hard working and happy; at the East end of the beach was a small resort with some basic accommodations, a large group of Italian Photographers that had attended the Festival had been staying there but were now packing up and preparing to move out. Their journey would begin with a two hour boat trip; as there is often no other transportation on these small islands, the boat trips alone can be quite an adventure, especially when the weather is adverse.

From the Ranon Bay anchorage, you can look inland over the beautiful, lush vegetation which stretches back to the two active cones of Ambym’s volcanic peaks, steam and a volcanic plume billow skywards and cover the lee side of the island. The molten cauldron reflects off this cloud at night giving an eerie red glow which is the local landmark (navigational mark) and visible for many miles.

I’m told that when it rains, the natives that live under this plume run for cover as the acid content of the rain can be quite high causing severe irritation and sometimes burns! The plume is carried along way downwind and covers a large portion of the cruising area and whilst the acid effect is diminished with distance and we had no personal discomfort; we noticed that our Stainless Steel on deck was requiring a lot more attention than usual!

Kava Bar!

Tam Tam waiting to be transported to Port Vila via the local ferry.

Sunset at Ranon

John & Paula

Back To My Roots Festival Ambrym Vanuatu

2011-09-12T18:24:00.000-07:00

Tam Tam drums

August 5th 2011

Arriving at Ambrym, those same lumpy seas were making the anchorages uncomfortable if not untenable; Craig’s cove was not inviting, Dip Point Anchorage was full of multi-directional swell right up to the beach and with the sun low on the horizon we were in a bit of a fix, like the last person standing at Musical Chairs. We managed to make contact on VHF with a boat at Ranon anchorage, about twelve miles up the coast; they reported one boat off Ranon and themselves in Hot Water Bay, which is part of Ranon….. Apparently it was quite calm there, so off we went in that direction; motoring with some assistance from the Mainsail. We had an almost full moon and I had several anchorage directions so the night time arrival in a strange bay didn’t worry us too greatly; we had more problems with the adverse current which, for the first hour or so, was quite strong. Ranon has a nice, black sand beach which gently shelves and has few if any dangers; we arrived a little before 2000hrs and anchored in fifteen feet. Next morning we heaved up the anchor shortly after breakfast and moved a couple of miles further along the coast to Rodd’s Anchorage; this was actually the place we needed to be for the North Ambrym Festival but it was not an anchorage I was prepared to do at night due to a certain lack of information. As it was, I couldn’t find the depth promised in one of the Pilot books and as the sun went behind a cloud, closing down visibility, we were forced to drop anchor in the first safe spot we came to whilst I went off with snorkel and mask to check out the anchorage area. The first thing I noticed was “Chameleon’s” anchor somewhere under our keel so it was a no-brainer that we’d be moving again; it turned out that Rodd’s has mainly Coral down to about 32 feet of water, after which it is mainly clear with nice white sandy clay; very good holding but a little deeper than I like, we had a little chat with Patricia and David and then shifted a couple of hundred yards West.

It was the day before the festival was due to take place and we were the only two boats in the anchorage, further, Patricia told us they would not be attending as they’d done it the year before when there had been something in the order of eighteen boats in there! The low turn out could have been due to festival date overlapping those of South West Bay, Malakula, however there were only half a dozen boats over there from what we could gather so maybe it was down to the weather.

We decided to walk through to the village where the festival was due to take place and get a firmer understanding on what was taking place; it was a good 35 / 40 minutes walk and one had to allow a little extra as the ‘ni-Vanuatu’ all expect you to stop, shake hands and have a little chat when they meet you along the road…..it’s amazing how many people you can run into this way! We managed to overshoot Chief Sekor’s village which is a neat gaggle of huts just before Olal where we ran into the wife of one of the events organizers. Chief Sekor, who is the Primary Contact for the event, was away picking up tourists; however we were warmly received and shown where the event would be taking place and confirmed the time. By the time we got back to the boat, our legs were telling us we were out of practice with the walking so the next three days of walking there and back to the event was going to be good for us! It is possible to arrange transport and when there are a couple of yachts together for this, the price is quite reasonable; we committed ourselves to walking but were grateful that we had a nice bay to swim in and cool down each afternoon we returned on board!

The ‘Back to my Roots’ Festival in North Ambrym has been ongoing for a few years during which it’s popularity has increased to the extent that it is close on becoming ‘a bit of a tourist attraction’. Would be ‘National Geographic’ photographers from all over are closing in on what is (once was) one of the last great, authentic cultural experiences. Ummmmm

It was good, and certainly an experience not to be missed however, if the numbers swell too much more than when we attended (sixty/seventy), then most of the authenticity would be lost… As it was, we had some difficulty shooting video due to the continuous hum of tourist chatter and had to ditch quite a lot of photo’s which revealed, or always seemed to reveal, a certain portly Italian gentleman with a large camera and an even larger lens! Paula however, got some great shots and we were well enthralled with what we saw.

Rom Dance Masks

Explanation of events were supplied in both English and French by a ni-Vanuatu in a Penis Sheath and a few feathers….it seemed incongruous to me, that this Pagan Ritual taking place in a jungle clearing where only a short time earlier tourists (mainly missionaries) were regularly eaten for lunch; could have most of its participants tri-lingual. The bit where Chief Sekor had to exit the dancing to take a call on his mobile phone was just another of those jigsaw bits that never quite seemed to fit….. I’m not going to try and describe the dancing or even the setting, it was something you need to experience first hand. Our pictures describe it best, the video even better but none of that can convey the atmosphere; the rising dust or the earth trembling, and the stomping of the feet to the rhythm of the Tam Tams echoing around the clearing.

The Rom Dance

The best carvings in Vanuatu are sold in Ambrym at the 'Back To My Roots Festival'

We were lucky with the weather, I had asked Chief Sekor about this earlier and been informed that they would make magic to keep the weather fine for the event and I must say their magic was stronger than Passage Weather and the WMO, who consistently got it wrong (I’m glad to say!). We did get a front going through on the last day and the wind went around to the north but only very light; it was enough to give us a few hours of bouncing about in the anchorage but it was never unsafe and it proved to be a really good anchorage. If it were much over twelve knots out of the north that situation would have changed rapidly, as the Coral leading up to the beach tended to refract the swell and not absorb it (as would be the case at Ranon anchorage); this would make life aboard quite miserable.

Another good thing about Rodd’s was the number of Dugong’s that we saw swimming about, there was a mother and calf pottering about in the anchorage every day we were there and “Chameleon” also reported a pod of Dolphins passed close by whilst we were ashore.

John and Paula

Havannah Harbour to Port Sandwich - Vanuatu

2011-09-02T20:26:00.000-07:00

We scooted out of Port Villa on 28th July and moved round to Havannah Harbour on the North West coast, it was a good down wind sail for the most part and we especially enjoyed the bit off Devils Point where we went through some impressive tide rips; we considered “Devils Point” well named!

The forecast had been for rain with thunder storms moving in, so we picked out Esema Bay as the best anchorage for the conditions and sat there for the next five days; four of which it rained, heavily at times, with thunder. We caught plenty of water, filling our tanks, all the containers and even the buckets so that when the rain abated Paula was able to do a big load of washing. The anchorage however, remained flat calm and it was quite relaxing in a wet sort of way!

Not much happened at Havannah Harbour, getting ashore required some thought to avoid a muddy dinghy drag. The small river, which was said to be an ‘expedition’, turned out to be a short flop. There was lots of activity with canoes going back and forth from Moso Island to the mainland, where most of the Islanders seemed to have small plantations where they would spend the day working; a few would stop by and talk to us. From Esema Village, Frank and his three children, Justin, Andrew and David visited us many times and on one occasion, during a rain shower, they sang to us as we were rowing back to our dinghy after trying to find away ashore to stretch our legs.

They were a very nice family but unfortunately, we were unable to help out with a few of the problems they had, like fixing a portable video screen that had a double image or helping out with oil for his two stroke generator. It’s all very well having all this stuff, which they work so hard to get, but at the end of the day when things go wrong, their only help is when yachts visit the anchorage and even then, not all can help (as in our case).

One day we took the dinghy around to Port Havannah and walked into the small village, which is the main settlement in this area; on the way in we passed many small stalls, where the locals would sell produce to people passing through on the road.

We picked up a few vegetables for ourselves and admired some of the Mud Crabs that were strung up. There was also a small Museum displaying and selling WWII momentous left by the American Forces that were once based here. It would seem that the Americans had little thought about dropping their garbage overboard when anchored in the harbour and it is now that garbage that the locals are selling to any passing tourist who shows interest.

On our last day in Havannah Harbour I went into Port Villa on the bus whilst Paula remained on board, we had discovered that the events which we had planned to see up island were going to cost more than we had budgeted for so I had to raid the ATM before we departed to those parts without ATM’s or Banks. After almost two hours of waiting by the roadside, a minivan (bus) showed up and twenty minutes later I was in town; just in time for most of the shops to start closing down for the long lunch break. I checked for more mail with Yachting World but the package from England, which had been on route for over a month, still hadn’t arrived! The bus back to Moso Landing was not easy to locate, in fact….few of the locals seemed to know where I’d get one! Fortunately a friendly minivan driver picked me up and delivered me to a Service Station just outside of town where he managed to hook me up with a pickup going in the right direction. It was all a bit of an adventure but for 400Vatu each way it was still easier than sailing it; especially when I thought back to that little race off Devils Point!

In the evening we were fortunate to have Paul and Gina Rae come over for a coffee; not only were they great company but they also brought a fantastic Lemon Meringue Pie with them, we are working hard on getting them to revisit us often!

Leaving Havannah Harbour

After our restful stay in Havannah Harbour we headed north for Lamen Bay on Epi Island, with the hope of seeing the Canoe Race on the 4^th of August. We left just after 5am in the morning, motored through the Northern Entrance, and were soon sailing goose wing with the pole out, in winds from Zero to 15 knots in a very confused sea. The swell was coming from two directions between half a meter to over two meters high and we did nothing but roll from one side to the other for most of the day. The last couple of hours we went on a fast reach in 15/20 knots of wind and this took us almost into the anchorage; unfortunately, whilst the wind died before arrival the swell did not and it wrapped around the headland causing us to roll heavily once we got the hook down. It was a rolly night and we were not impressed……..Morning did not improve the situation and with a forecast of worsening weather (and larger swell), we decided it would be a good idea to leave and move to a safer, calmer place. So we heaved up anchor and sailed the twenty seven miles across to Port Sandwich on Malakula Island. Later, we heard that the weather caused the cancellation of the Canoe Race and the planned festivities that would have gone with them; the boats that remained were left rolling heavily and unable to leave due to the strong winds…..It seems we made a good strategic move (for once)!

Two puffing volcanoes on Ambrym.

It was a great sail, with a deep double reef and a full No.3 Genoa we reached across the straits that separate the two islands in 20/25 knots of wind and some short, steep and breaking seas in the 2 -3 meters range. I was surprised that we didn’t take any water aboard but despite carrying a full load of water containers the boat performed well and I enjoyed it; Paula wasn’t so favorably impressed but coped well and had a go at steering for a while when she wasn’t taking video footage; trying to capture a big wave or two!

We anchored some way south of the dock at the Planter Point, Port Sandwich in about twenty four feet of water; the anchor was holding well in a mixture of coral and mud but I wasn’t too sure it was well set. I would have gone over and checked it but there are warnings all over the place here about the consequences of leaping into the water, a few years back a small girl from a yacht was taken by a shark whilst swimming near the dock and there have been several other attacks since; at least we were not rolling even though it was quite windy and through the night we had some strong gusts.

Next morning we moved further up the bay in search for a better anchorage with less wind, we tried the anchorage our Guide Book suggests is a ‘Hurricane Hole’ but found it more of a ‘wind funnel’ than anywhere else, with gusts in excess of 30 knots and white water squalls; not our idea of a Hurricane Hole!

After a bit of exploration we found a spot that had less downdrafts and great holding in soft mud, located in the next bay over to the west; it was still however, quite windy…and we still got occasional heavy downdrafts which healed us over from one side to the other and reminded us of the last Hurricane we’d had to ride out in Horn Harbour, back in the Chesapeake Bay. We took off our awning, put out a second anchor, put extra ties on our sail cover and settled down to relax a little after two days of fairly intense sailing.

The strong winds, which were caused by an intense high pressure area to the south of us, began to subside after about 30hrs and we were soon able to launch our dinghy and take off to examine the bay and some of the rivers / streams that lead into it. One of these, known as Murder Stream, has a history dating back to when the first white people settled in the area; due to certain tensions between the settlers and the indigenous people there was a bloody battle close by the banks of this stream which was said to have ‘run red for many days thereafter’. We were a little disappointed that our exploration of the stream was halted by a substantially constructed road bridge; it did however provide a landing place from which to explore the northern shore.

As soon as the weather allowed, we returned to anchor off Planters Point and went for a morning walk ashore, not too far as we were out of condition again! We made it to the store where we bought eggs and some bread before retuning to the boat and getting underway for Ambrym Island, only fourteen miles distant across the small strait which separates them. It turned out to be a boisterous trip with the wind funneling between the islands and the ‘left over’ sea, from the previous days bad weather, gave us a few ‘lumps’ to try and get around.

Next Stop Ambrym for the 'Back To My Roots Festival'.

John and Paula

Vanuatu - Port Vila

2011-07-26T22:26:00.000-07:00

Port Vila

Tanna to Port Vila – Efate Island - Vanuatu

19th July 2011

With a double reef in the Main and a well furled Genoa, we surfed northwards up the east coast of Tanna in lumpy seas; Yasur, the Volcano, puffed little clouds of farewell to us as we went.

We had written off Dillon’s Bay but we still had to get through the lee of Erromango which we knew would have quite a large foot-print. As we were passing it during the night we laid a course well clear but it didn’t help; as we sailed into its shadow the wind collapsed leaving us crashing up and down in a very lumpy and confused sea. To make matters worse there was a strong Sly set to the current here, maybe a big eddy caused by the island, whatever we suddenly had three knots on the nose. Even surfing down the fronts of the ‘stand-upish’ waves under power; we were only making two knots for an hour or so, until we managed to break free. It was a frustrating night and we had to use the motor and hand steer for almost four hours before I could get her back under sail with the vane gear in control, the wind however had died away somewhat by morning and our speed was down.

As we crept away from the Island the seas settled and at first light we went to full Main and Genoa and I got the staysail out to windward on the pole. It turned out to be a beautiful day, even if a little slow and we arrived off Port Villa on Efate Island just as the sun was setting; our anchor went down a hundred yards NE of the Quarantine Buoy in fifteen feet of water and promptly got well wrapped around a coral head…….well, at least we knew we were not going to drag off and we slept soundly.

It was over twenty years since we had last visited Port Vila on our previous circumnavigation, things had changed considerably! Vila is now a throbbing tourist hub with all the Boutiques and Coffee Shops that go along with it, there is a strong French influence left over from the Colonial Days when the group was governed (or misgoverned!) jointly by the French and the English. They have the old British bureaucracy and the new French Pacific prices, which unfortunately is one hell of a combination!

Raspberries!

The Market

The people however are smart and friendly, smiles come easily and they are always most helpful. I went across to the Customs (down at the Container wharf) to complete my clearance inwards, after which we went exploring down town. There is a big Market which has quite a collection of vegetables, some of which we wouldn’t have a clue what to do with; they also have the “Au Bon Marche” supermarkets, with a really nice / modern one about a quarter of a mile south of the Dinghy Dock; well within walking distance. Here they have nice Cheese and Meat counters presented in a civilized French sort of way…unfortunately there are some rather chic prices to go along with it! We thought we might find some cheap wine here but nothing doing…..we are going to be very dry for the next couple of months; probably it will do us some good!

The big marine organization here is the Yachting World Marina, who run the moorings (about 35 of them); they have a great web page full of good information for visitors although I have to say that several bits have been skewed to favour the use of their services. The moorings all seem to be quite good and there is no doubt that they help accommodate a greater number of boats in the harbour area, which is just as well as we have noted that many of the Australasian yachties coming up have even less idea on how to anchor than the…..oooop’s I’d better watch it here!!!!

A Very Windy Day in Port Vila.

We got to test a mooring for two nights when

the wind went westerly and the outer

anchorage became untenable; in fact the swell

even found its way into the mooring area which

is normally well sheltered.

The sea wall, where we had been tying our

dinghy, became a jumble of breaking waves and

at this point the only available place to land was

at the rather crowded Yachting World dinghy

dock. As soon as we could however, we moved

off and found an anchorage within the harbour,

it wasn’t one that most keel boats would like but

for us it was fine and I do like to make the most

of our shallow draft and small physical size to get in places where others would fear to go.

The Cascades.

We decided to take in a couple of the local attractions whilst here and took a local bus out to “The Cascades” at Mele, this impressive twenty meter waterfall has created a lovely swimming hole and as the river courses further on it does so creating more swimming holes and small falls with water shoots (great for the kids) all enclosed in botanical garden……. it was lush, effective and neat, for some reason it’s not slippery under foot so you walk up through the water guided by a few posts and ropes.

In side one of the local huts.

Another place we visited was the Botanical Gardens, also out at Mele and a short walk from the Cascades; sometimes called the Secret Gardens I preferred to think of it more as ‘The Cultural Gardens’. There were not that many flowers or trees of note, however they had laid out typical village huts and tons of information sheets on the history of the islands and the culture, which is still very much in evidence as you move out into the islands away from the tourist centres. Unfortunately, with the amount of tourists that are now visiting and all wanting to see a slice of the ‘old culture’; it won’t be long before the old customs change. ‘Culture on demand’ becomes a ‘presentation’, then it becomes a feature and eventually it’s Hollywood all over again!

We were waiting on some mail and the weather was taking a turn for the worse so we remained in Vila for just over a week. On what was supposed to be our last day, Paula noticed that there had been no fresh mail in the Yachting World Office for some time so she asked about it….. the girl thought for a while and admitted that she had not been to collect it from the Post Office for over a week!....She was going to pick it up during her lunch break (just for us), so we decided to remain another day to see if we could get lucky.

All things considered, Vila is a nice stopover, however a week on a mooring here would be almost one hundred dollars (US), the clearance charges for a boat making just a couple of weeks visit would be over two hundred dollars (US), so anyone on a tight budget may want to consider their options!

Having decided to remain over one month we had to get visa extensions (US$58 each) and we will also incur Light Dues of US$1.20/day for the extra period we remain (above one month), payable when we clear out. Our feelings on all these expenses are as follows…..We are here now, we will most likely never be here again, we’d better get out there and see the most we can whilst we can and we’ll just have to sort out the budget later! No Christmas presents this year!!!!

John and Paula

Vanuatu - Yasur Volcano Tanna

2011-07-21T17:39:00.000-07:00

13th July 2011

Early the next morning (13^th July), just as it was getting light, we departed Aneityum for Port Resolution on Tanna, the next Island north and about fifty miles distant. We wanted to be sure of getting there in daylight, especially as the guide we were using had a fairly obvious mistake in one of its coordinates. As it happened we need not have worried as there was plenty of breeze and a big southerly swell running, which we surfed down at times. There had been a gentle roll in our last anchorage but it had not been serious and we considered our selves lucky as their were, at this time, warnings of ‘damaging’ swells from New Caledonia to Tonga with a lot of islands getting well hammered.

The seas were mounting up and breaking in the shallower waters to the north of Port Resolution and we put a couple of extra hatch boards in for fear of taking water in the cockpit but in the end we found our way through without incident and anchored not too far from the ‘Yacht Club’. There was however quite a swell hooking round the Cape and into the bay causing a ‘not so gentle’ roll, we decided to make haste with our visit as any shift of the wind to the north would require an immediate departure from this anchorage.

There were four other yachts in the bay when we arrived, ‘Delos’ had come up the day before and the French charter yacht, who were leaving the next morning, returning to the Loyalty Islands; also two Catamarans who seemed to be less troubled by the rolling. We went ashore and found ‘Stanley’, he was the man who we were told would arrange us a trip to the Volcano…. Did I mention that? Tanna has one of the world’s most accessible active volcanos and whilst it has other fine points and a very interesting culture, it is the ‘Yasur’, the Volcano, which is a MUST SEE if passing this way.

We made an agreement to visit the volcano the next day and fixed a price (5,000Vatu/per = US$50), which included the 3,250Vatu entry fee; Stanley gave me a slightly broken guitar to try and fix for one of the locals and after a brief look at the village we returned on board to work on this and other jobs.

After a short time on board we were visited by Tom in his dugout canoe, Tom was a local with a typical problem……technology overload! He had his favourite DVD with him, music videos featuring Lady GaGa and others…. he wanted us to transpose this onto a 4gb Flash Drive which he’d brought with him. We explained to him that the DVD was most certainly more than 4gb and wouldn’t fit on the Flash Drive without compression and that we could not do this on board….. “Ah”, he said, “my friend can put four DVD’s on this Flash Drive”…. So I explained to him that his friend, probably clad in just a penis sheath, living in a tree house on an island with no power and no (real) roads, must have far superior equipment and technical know-how than what we have! He moved on to the next yacht in the line……

On reflection, yes we could have done it…..but on a small boat this is no easy matter, we have limited power available and we are most reluctant to put anyone’s flash drive in one of our onboard computers….we can’t afford to pick up a virus out here and you can be sure the locals don’t scan for viruses!

Next day, I returned the Guitar… fixed (I hope)….good old West Epoxy Systems! Then we went to the Volcano. It was fortunate that we did a little planning and were outfitted for the occasion, well dressed for the chilly evening breeze (half gale!) on the rim of the crater, good boots, flashlights, some food and water…..This is NOT a flip-flop and shorts expedition!

Thirteen of us (including the driver) piled into Hilux which was well past prime and headed down the main road….well it looks like a main road on the map but most of it resembled a dried up river bed or a section from a motor-cross venue. On many occasions we all had to jump out whilst the vehicle struggled up some incline, we were lucky we didn’t have to push, which I understand is standard practice when it’s been raining. Paula got to ride inside the cab, I rode on the back and was glad to have brought a chunk of HD Foam to protect my bum (somewhat); the ride took just less than an hour and the truck certainly earned its fee!

There was a short trek up the Crater Wall from the ‘car park’ and whilst it is ‘most accessible’ this is no place for the old or infirmed…. As you approach the explosions of molten lava within the crater get louder and the puffs of dense smoke hang menacingly overhead, then suddenly you are looking down at an increasable sight, the sound level increases ten fold and you realize that the natural shape of the cone projects most of the noise upwards, standing on the rim you get full effect and you get to feel the shock waves that come from each explosion, it is truly impressive and awe-inspiring!

Unfortunately the sun was just going down behind clouds when we arrived; it is possible, on clear days to get some wonderful sunsets up here. Still, it was a surreal landscape, the grey smoking crater, the old lava flows and the ash fields; each having its own presence yet combining into one entity. It was one of ‘life’s memorable moments’, to sit and watch Mother Nature in the raw, performing as she had for millenniums, revealing her power and soul, spelling out the insignificance of man and all his achievements on this incredible blue planet.

BOOM

We were not alone, many more tourists had come from the other side of the island, many having flown down from Vila for this experience; few were prepared for the bighting chill of the wind but all were warmed by the experience of ‘being there’.

BOOM

After three hours, we were ready to retreat; one could have sat transfixed for many more hours but we’d taken in all we could absorb, our bodies were ready for food and a rest from the buffeting wind; our cameras were full of memories that our feeble minds may some time forget. It was time to go home.

The trip back was thankfully more ‘downhill’ and we were not called upon to dismount; it was nice, as always to spot our anchor light as we approached the bay and know that our little home was still waiting safely at anchor. Some of the group had arranged a local dinner ashore, to sample Laplap and a little island flavour, we deferred; mainly due to having been ‘cleaned out’ of what money we had brought from Fiji. There are no banks around here so you need to have cash and plenty of it! I have to add that I’m not anyways keen on these night time excursions, the risk of Deli Belly, little protection from the Malarial Mosquito and messing about in a small dinghy in the dark…….these things have never appealed to me.

The conditions in the bay had not improved and in fact, threatened to get worse; the big swell was still running and looked like it wasn’t going down anytime soon so the next day at Noon we heaved anchor and headed out for Port Villa. We had thought of a stop over in Dillon’s Bay on Erromango Island (the next island north), however the swell was so high that we knew that bay would be impossible so resigned ourselves to an overnight passage and off we went.

DOUBLE BOOM BOOM

Next Stop Port Vila

John and Paula

Vanuatu - Aneityum

2011-07-20T20:45:00.000-07:00

9th July Aneityum

Well, we actually had a good trip from Lautoka to Aneityum (the southern most island of the Vanuatu group), having had so much cruddy sailing in the past this was a most pleasant surprise; we actually managed to fly the ‘kite’ for two days! It was just coincidence that we were advised by a French yacht that Aneityum had just become a Clearance Port just a few days before our departure, this was great news for us as otherwise we would have had to clear at Tanna, a process that can be both complicated and expensive.

If we’d been able to clear out of Fiji and depart the next morning (within the usual 24hrs), then we would only have spent three nights at sea; as it was, the Fijian’s are no longer allowing boats any leeway when checking out, you have to leave immediately after receiving Clearance. So this eventually meant we were forced to slow down for a morning arrival and an extra night at sea. I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to arrive here in the dark…..not the first time anyway. Although, I should say that with a ‘Mr John’s Vanuatu Guide’ it should now be possible!!

We arrived on Sunday and did not expect to see anyone until Monday, in fact there were three other boats already there, two of which were flying their Q Flags, one of these was a French boat out of the Loyalty Islands on a Charter and very anxious to get cleared; we watched him go ashore, from where he was sent back to his boat and told to wait on board! On the Monday morning, Colin, the trainee Customs Officer came paddling out in his dugout canoe, it would have been a more incongruous sight had he been dressed in his uniform but it was enough that he had a real ‘dugout’. He was clutching his mobile phone and a small bag for his papers, the mobile phone seems to be a major part the way of life here and no matter where you go there is always someone on a mobile phone.

Custom's Officer Colin.

Clearance was a none event as Colin, being only a trainee, couldn’t take any money and that would have to be paid in Port Villa (fine by us); the bit that wasn’t so fine was that we would have to wait on board to be cleared by Quarantine and that wouldn’t happen till Tuesday……The Quarantine officer had been there up to Saturday but we’d just missed her….both Quarantine and Immigration were flying in on the Tuesday as there was Cruise Ship due on the Wednesday with eighteen hundred people aboard. Anietyum is the home of ‘Mystery Island’, a P&O destination for its cruises coming out of Australia, that island forms the southern barrier creating this anchorage and it is also the airport; being the only flat bit of land around. There are some nice leading marks ashore for the ships to use but they are not lighted and the amount that each vessel gets tucked into the bay depends on the steel nerves of the individual skippers……whatever, they never get to where the yachts anchor!

It was midday Tuesday before we completed formalities, we had been a little unlucky in having to wait around; the Quarantine and Immigration were going to be staying in Aneityum for the next month or more as they were expecting two cruise ships a week now that they had moved into the ‘high season’. The good news is that the cruise ship people do not go onto the mainland, they get to use Mystery Island and that’s it…..by 1600hrs they are on their way again never quite knowing where they were…For sure, they will never find Mystery Island on any Admiralty Chart, it is said that Queen Elizabeth named it when she swam there on a visit with “Britannia”…… more likely it was just the P&O PR department being imaginative and coming up with yet another ‘Mystery Island’ to go with the three in the Caribbean, two in the Bahamas, two in Indonesia, one in Malaysia and another in Thailand……I don’t think Cook or Bligh would have thought it imaginative but there again, they were a bit short in that department also!

Once Cleared we went ashore for a walk and checked out the village, there is a shop but we didn’t ever get to see it open; the people smile a lot and are very friendly, they didn’t seem to mind us walking around and taking photos although there wasn’t an awful lot to see. I got the feeling that most of them were pre-occupied with the Cruise Ship coming and the prospect of making money; this sits very well with their culture which very much revolves around ‘Grade Taking’, a system of proving ones position inside the community by displaying accumulated wealth……This ancient culture and old fashioned little island group in the Central South Pacific is actually a shining example of Raging Capitalism (with a firecracker up the bum!).

Our first introduction to this (apart from the clearance fees, which are NOT cheap) was when we asked about walking to the local waterfall, this is actually, apart from snorkelling, about all there is to see down here. It transpired that the waterfall is on Private land and the owners of which now require 1,500 Vatu (US$16) per person to visit, this seemed a bit steep to us…to visit a waterfall of dubious quality and grandeur…which may not even have any water going over it!

Instead, we got permission to go across to Mystery Island and join the tourists and (wishful thinking on behalf of the locals) spend money at the ‘Handy Craft Market’; we also had an agreement with Colin that we could pick up our Outward Clearance from him at the venue. It wasn’t to far to motor across in the dinghy and there was a beautiful sandy beach to land on, no one seemed to mind that we were there, we mingled but did not fit in due to us being bronzed and them being all white.

As an ex Cruise Ship man I was keen to study the P&O operation so perhaps looked harder than I should and found the whole thing rather ‘tacky’. Security and safety seemed fine but I found the presentation of the island to be one great ‘money grab’, no sooner have the passengers set foot on the dock from their launch, than they are harangued by the onboard photographer who is hell bent on catching each one of them in his lens no matter that he has stopped the cavalry charge for the beach; once off the dock, the track to the main beach is a minefield designed to part the unwary from their money at every step.

If the tourist survives this with any funds, the handy-craft market awaits, full of all sorts of Indonesian imports at grossly inflated prices and very little actually produced in Vanuatu; there were no quality items. I was startled to see they were selling Lobsters, alive or slightly dead, whatever without ice or even water; they were just sitting on a table in the sun with price tags of fifty and sixty Australian Dollars. I can’t imagine what a Cruise Ship passenger would do with one of these!

The beach however, was something else…..it was a beautiful setting, even full of people…..but most important of all, we were welcome to come back the following day and have the whole place to ourselves!

Colin didn’t have our clearance, must have been pressures of work…..he told us to come ashore on the mainland at 1700hrs and he’d meet us on the beach with it…well I was there with Mike off the British yacht ‘Alchemy’, who’d been told the same story. Colin showed up half an hour later having just arrived from Mystery Island (without clearance); he asked us to wait and said he’d return with it shortly. Sunset came and went and we started to loose sight of the markers that indicated the passage through the reef to this beach, at which time we went looking for Colin. We found him on his mobile telephone (surprise, surprise) at his house /office, he had completed Mike’s clearance but mine would be a while longer so I told him we’d deal with it tomorrow (and cancelled my early morning departure plan). I managed to get back to the boat without incident but I noted Mike was having a little more difficulty picking his way out. We were resigned to another day here and that was it, however our Clearance did show up at about 2030 when the young people off ‘Delos’ (an American Yacht), who had just returned from an expedition ashore, delivered it directly to us. It was however, too late, we were not going to get involved with stowing the dinghy and preparing for sea at this late hour, departure was re-scheduled for Friday morning. Having given our selves another day, we used it to take a nice long walk ashore and followed a few of the tracks into the interior behind the village; we were impressed with the amount of cultivation taking place and the curious mixture of the old and new.

There were huts of straw and bamboo for living in…with satellite dishes on the roofs! There were men tilling their vegetable plots by hand…with mobile phones in their back pockets. There was a generator that hadn’t worked for months as no one could fix it and yet there were solar panels and high tech equipment all over; the Cruise Ships had brought them wealth and new toys but their culture and infrastructure were many years out of synch.

We found the river and we eventually wandered into a small village but retreated immediately as we did not want to intrude and we understand they are a little sensitive, if not shy, of foreigners invading their privacy. Back in the main village, on a rather uneven football field, there was a very intense game taking place and most of the village people were in attendance, all the players had good kit and the shirts were obviously supplied by the local Mobile Phone Companies who were no doubt competing for exposure and judging by the cost of calls, were no doubt raking in enough money to participate in this form of advertising. It was rather nice to see that so many were taking part and supporting this game, they were all taking it very seriously and when I looked around, I noted that there were few if any obese people here…..they all looked a fit and healthy bunch, happy in their surroundings.

Next stop Tanna. John and Paula

Rotuma and Fiji

2011-07-19T17:42:00.000-07:00

12th April 2011

Our arrival at Mba Roads from Rotuma also heralded the change of the seasons, it was the end of the Hurricane Season in the South West Pacific and the start of the Cruising Season for Fiji; we were still however, in that time period where the rains had not quite stopped and the Trade Wind had not started blowing.

Our first task was to get ‘Cleared in’ and when daylight arrived we sailed down to Lautoka, Fiji’s second largest city, where we anchored off the dock. Clearance went well, apart from a little delay when we went looking for the Department of Fijian Affairs who were to issue our Cruising Permit; we actually walked past the building twice without seeing ‘the board’, which was discreetly hidden!

We were given a Customs Internal Clearance to Cruise the Nandi Waters area till the 1^st July at which time we would have to return to Lautoka for another Clearance, this seemed fine by us as we were not expecting to be that long in the area. Once cleared, we went shopping and filled our bags with all the fresh vegetables that we had been dreaming about but unable to obtain in the islands to the north; we treated ourselves to Coffee and Cake whilst rejoicing in our return to ‘civilization’.

Our next step was to head down to the Marina at Denerau where we could take on water and wash down the boat, it was also a treat to have access to a washing machine and good communications; it took us several days to get ourselves unwound and sorted out! We anchored off the Marina on arrival however, within a few days the Marina laid Moorings throughout the anchorage and all the boats had to shift onto the moorings; there had been a $F15/night charge for anchoring and this remained unchanged so as far as I was concerned, this was an even better deal. Whilst I do not like having to pay, the small charge for a safe mooring and a safe place to leave the dinghy, was well worth it. We could use the Marina Toilets, showers and Laundry as well as unlimited fresh water, there were some shops and a bakery as well as the usual tourist amenities plus a free dance show twice a week!

Once cleaned up, rested and provisioned we were ready for our next move, and that was to Vuda Point Marina where we made use of the ‘travel-lift’ to take the boat out of the water; we had scheduled a month out of the water to attend maintenance and let the hull dry out a little.

The actual lift out went well but unfortunately there was no space for us to sit in a cradle except in the ‘work area’, which was a place I wanted to avoid as there was little breeze and much commercial activity was taking place, such as grinding of steel hulls and spray painting. We opted to pay for an extra ‘move’ and took a ‘hole’ (in which to sit our keel) out near the point, it seemed a good place and out of the way for us to be able to effect a rigging change and lay out all our wire on the ground besides the boat.

On our second night ashore, it rained….no, it poured, and blew somewhat as well. Unbeknown to us, these are the conditions that, in this locality, at this time of the year; precipitates the ‘flying cockroaches’! We were invaded by them, they were apparently drawn to our light and it was only by good fortune that we had all our mosquito nets in place, we were alerted to them when we spotted them crawling all over the outside of the net on the cockpit hatchway.

I released a whole tin of roach spray into their midst through the net and we barricaded ourselves inside the boat till dawn; early morning light revealed a couple of hundred dead ones in the cockpit but there were still dozens more, most of which were alive, out on deck. We dealt with them as best we could, and spent the rest of the day chasing them off, I even had to hoist the mainsail to get them out of the folds; they were everywhere all the covers had to come off everything, lockers were emptied, checked and then taped up with Duct-Tape; it was a painful process but we think our efforts paid off in the long run.

We had been warned that there were problems with insects, mosquitoes and “crawling things” but we had not been prepared for the all out assault which followed our arrival. A few nights later, when we were just starting to relax a little, Paula disturbed a rat which was chewing a hole in one of our mosquito nets in an attempt to enter the cabin, we chased him off but he was back the next night and actually walked across the net over the forward bunk where we were sleeping; I fired off some cockroach spray through the net at him and he scampered away……Not too far however as there were often the tell-tail signs of his nocturnal visits on the decks in the mornings when I went out for my dawn ‘clean up’.

We purchased an electric fan and would have died had we not, especially as we were closing up the boat with us inside it every night with little in way of ventilation. It was a tough time and having use of the swimming pool at the First Landing Resort was not really compensation for what we were living through. We had at one time thought to leave our boat here for the Hurricane Season whilst returning to Europe to visit family…that thought quickly evaporated and we doubled our efforts to get all our work completed on schedule. The biggest job on hand was the complete changing of all the standing rigging whilst leaving the mast in place, we had done this before in Annapolis so we knew it could be done however it is always a worry working on the top section whilst removing the supporting wires; a bit like sitting on a tree branch whilst sawing the bit between you and the tree! We had brought all the wire and some extra Norseman Fittings down from Majuro so we were equipped for the job, I took the opportunity to replace all the fittings at the Masthead with new and used the old ones (with new cones) to replace the wire lifelines around the boat with the old rigging wire from the ‘Lower’s’ (which were almost the right length for the job). I was impressed with the result of this as our lifelines now look much better, I never trusted the plastic coated ones and I have noted that many offshore racing authorities are now banning them.

There were numerous other jobs which got done and a few that we didn’t due to the working conditions, however a month after we hauled we were lowered back into the water, all polished up and freshly painted. It didn’t take us long to get out of there, Paula was ‘well bitten’ to say the least, she looked like a pin cushion and it took almost two weeks before the last of the bumps and red sores was gone.

Someone once told us that the very thought of Vuda Point made his skin crawl…… now we know what he meant!

We did our cleaning up on a mooring in Denerau, then with our good friends Ed and Ellen Zacko with “Entr’acte” we went out to Musket Cove and a couple of other anchorages in the Mamanucas, we had some good fun and all enjoyed our time in Musket Cove which was very welcoming and just what we all needed for relaxing after our exertions in Vuda; we got back into the ‘cruising mode’ and eventually realized that we had left all the nasty crawly things behind us.

Musket Cove Anchorage

Musket Cove

After a couple of weeks we parted company with Ed and Ellen, they went off to Savusavu and the northeast; we got our affairs in order and then cleared out from Lautoka for Aneityum in Vanuatu. This had just recently become a Clearance Port and it seemed like a good place to start our next cruise from, we were sorry to be leaving Fiji but looking forward to a new cruising ground and some exciting things to see and do.

Dancing At Musket Cove Resort.

We departed Lautoka 10am on Wednesday 6^th July for Vanuatu.

John and Paula

Rotuma - Fiji

2011-06-15T02:42:00.000-07:00

Tarawa to Rotuma, Fiji.

As it turned out, our trip south from Betio was much as we had expected; once clear of the southwest tip of Tarawa the wind increased to eighteen knots and even on a close reach that gave us over twenty knots across the deck. It wasn’t very comfortable and I decided right away that we were not going to try pointing up any higher; we were soon slipping below our course line for Rotuma; getting set to the west. Although the forecasts were continually saying ENE and NE, we never saw it shift much N of E until we were south of 10S and even then there was little in improvement with the direction; just a decrease in strength, which allowed us to point up somewhat more.

We conveniently arrived in Rotuma on Monday the 11^th April at 1100hrs, convenient because we were clear of any weekend overtime charges and we had plenty of day time remaining to get ‘cleared in’ with the officials. The rough weather conditions to the north was sending some swell down and the anchorage was quite sloppy, we moved well in alongside the small jetty, probably further than most other yachts (with more than our four foot draft) would want to go but still we were rolling heavily.

When the Customs, Health and Immigration authorities arrived on the jetty, they tooted to make their presence known and I went ashore in the dinghy to pick them up; this is always a tricky operation as most of the officials in the Pacific tend to be a little bigger than most of us yachties and our dinghy is very low in freeboard. The swell didn’t make anything any easier and I was more than happy when I delivered them ashore again without any of them getting wet. Rotuma has only recently become a Clearance Port and the main reason for this change is to allow the Rotumans to export some of the fresh produce that they grow on the Island, they have a ready market in Tuvalu and even Kiribati.

The Official’s were very welcoming and friendly so we were quickly cleared, however during the clearance procedure we discovered that the local bus service is no more and unlikely to be resurrected as the bus broke down and was sold off island to an Indian gentleman in Nandi. On top of that the Island was short on fuel and supplies, the monthly ferry was due soon but until then, there would be little transportation on the move. Whilst the Customs were aboard we made arrangements to get our coastal clearance for Lautoka on the Wednesday afternoon with the intention of a Thursday morning departure. As we had no means of getting in touch with the customs other than somehow getting to the government station, we felt it best to have a fixed departure / clearance time in advance; as it turned out, this was a very good move!

On the Tuesday we had a go at walking to the Government Station, which is the closest thing they have here to a town. A couple of stores, a Post Office with internet on occasions but not this time as the computer had failed and was in Nandi for repair (that we also discovered from the Customs, who did very kindly say we could use theirs if we were stuck!). From the dock they say it’s nine kilometres to the Government Station, we walked quite some distance before we found the ‘9KM’ sign but in the end it didn’t matter as it was just to far.

Rotuma is undoubtedly a beautiful island, like the islands of Fiji and unlike the islands to the north, Rotuma soars out of the ocean with toothy volcanic peaks and plugs; covered in lush vegetation and a staggeringly picturesque coastline. The coastal road winds along between various properties, gardens and agricultural plots. Maybe it was because we were coming south from seemingly poorer islands but there seemed to be an atmosphere of wealth about the place; if they were not rich in monetary terms, they were certainly blessed with a productive island. We wandered along, trying to knock off one kilometre every twenty minutes, this was a little difficult at times because everyone we met along the way wanted to stop and chat; they were all most welcoming, well spoken in English, having a sense of place and purpose that seemed to
be missing in the islands to the north. The edges of the road were well kept, there was no litter to be seen, the gardens were all well presented and colourful shrubs had been planted. The shoreline was for the most part craggy with indents creating pools and swimming holes although there was little in the way of beach apart from the one at the anchorage. We reached the three kilometre mark having I believe walked seven, we were both worn down by the hot sun and were out of practice, having had little walking for the past six months. I felt, that if we had to walk the whole way back we would be lucky to make it……our feet were already getting chaffed from our shoes, we had not donned walking boots and socks for a long ‘forced march’; we’d seen only one pick-up come past and it had been full of locals. Thus, reluctantly, we turned back.

We had not gone far on the return journey when we were picked up by a nice chap with a 4X4, he was going home and that was three kilometres towards the anchorage…..a good start. We learnt that he was retired from government and although he had spent much time on the mainland, he’d had a Rotuman upbringing. We heard this story, in different varieties from many of the people we met and we got the distinct impression that Rotumans were intellectually ahead of their neighbours and had a different work ethic which put them ahead on the curve…….they all seemed above average in creativity and were obviously in demand all over the world. They all seemed to speak at least three languages, Rotuman, Fijian and English; and that was just for starters!

As we passed through one of the small clusters of houses (not really a village), we were invited to have some Coconut Milk refreshment, followed by lunch, on the porch of one of the houses. Here we met Itu, a younger woman who was living in California, married to an American; another example of a well educated, did well, married well, Rotuman, She was actually back on the island for a funeral but regularly returned to her roots and was intending to retire here. Her husband had fallen in love with the place; they had some land and were looking forward to building their own retirement home sometime in the future. It amazed us how friendly and outgoing these people were, one moment we were just a couple of strangers walking down the road, next we are sharing lunch and chatting as if we’d known each other for years.

Well sustained we ambled the remaining distance back to the Jetty and returned to our unstable platform; locally the wind had decreased, however the swell still got around the corner and would catch us on the beam.

The next day we were resting and decided not to venture far; the supply ship was expected in during the morning but didn’t make an appearance until late afternoon, she’d been delayed due to bashing into the north-easterly swell. The Customs came down to clear her in and brought our outward clearance with them so we went ashore for a short walk southwards with the intention of picking up the clearance on the way back. We didn’t walk far as there seemed little that we hadn’t already seen on our previous expedition, however we met up with a really nice gentleman who gave us a big hand of bananas for our travels. Unfortunately, when we returned to the jetty and were met by

Customs and “Bio-security”, we had to hand over our bananas as we were not allowed to take any fruit from the island as we were proceeding to the mainland; this I didn’t quite understand but surrendered all with a smile and a shrug. I was just ‘oh so happy’ that I didn’t have to take them all back out to the boat again and they gave me the clearance ashore.

We returned on board, stowed the dinghy, prepared for sea, then relaxed in the cockpit whilst watching the arrival of the supply boat, which went ‘stern to’ on the jetty and dropped a ramp from which she discharged quite a number of well loaded lorries and about fifty passengers; all loaded down with suitcases and boxes of supplies. This was how the locals got there ‘stuff’ out; tourists, if any, would come by plane on the twice weekly flights. After they had got the lorries off, there were numerous pallets that had to be shifted with forklift trucks; the operation went on well into the night, well past our bed time…….Sleep however, was difficult, as the stern ramp of the ship, less than a hundred yards away, was making a lot of noise as it ground into the jetty with each incoming swell.

Thursday morning, we had breakfast and departed at 0742hrs; the weather had moderated enough for us to get around the eastern end of the island and we motor-sailed until clear of the southeast tip. In many ways we sorry to be leaving, conditions in the anchorage were improving and the ferry had delivered the much needed fuel….maybe if we’d stayed we would have found transportation….maybe there was more to see. Too many maybe’s, we left and had a good sail down to Round Island Passage; the north-eastern gateway to Fiji; here the wind died leaving us little alternative but to motor the remaining distance to Mba Roads on the North coast of Viti Levu. The anchor went down a little after midnight on the Sunday morning, we don’t often do night arrivals but as we’d come out this way, had our track line and the benefit of a full moon; so we were confident.

It felt good to be back in Fiji !!!!.......................

Butaritari - Abaiang - Kiribati

2011-04-21T16:07:00.000-07:00

Village dwelling.

Wednesday March 9th 2011, marked our return to Kiribati, the trip down from Majuro had been quite good however I had made a mistake when we were just south of the SW tip of Majuro; the wind went very light for a few hours and I failed to use that period to motor eastwards. Thus on arrival off Tarawa, having been hard on the wind all the way; we were twenty miles too far west and spent twelve hours making good that distance against a fresh breeze and strong adverse current. As it was, we entered the Pass at 2130hrs and got the anchor down about an hour later, not a thing I would have done without being familiar with the entrance and having all my old tracks available. It was also a fine night but that didn’t help us spotting the buoys, which were not lighted and were poor radar targets. Having navigational marks is a fine thing but when they are not lighted they become more of an obstruction than a help; I always worry about running into anything with sharp edges during the night!

Knowing that the anchorage in Tarawa is quite awful in anything but the best conditions we had been hoping to keep our visit as short as possible, a sort of ‘get the permit and go’ thing. So the next morning we were raring to go however we were stuck on board until we’d been Cleared In and that took most of the morning. Once ashore, we did the rounds; Bank to get money from the ATM, Post Office to send mail and the Tourist Office to see if there was anything going on that we would regret missing……..After that we went to see the Customs about a permit to go to Abaiang, I had forgotten that on the way north, when we wanted to go to Butaritari, they had asked us to write out a request stating the reason for the visit; now I needed the same thing for Abaiang. Fortunately I had paper and carbon paper in with my documents, so was able to knock up a request on the spot which I left with them for ‘perusal’ over the lunch break. In the meantime we headed out to Bairiki in a ‘Jitney’ bus so we could do ‘internet’ at the TSKL (communications centre). Whilst in Bairiki I decided to call at the Immigration Office, grandly known as The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration and furnished them with my carbon copy of the same request I’d made to Customs; after a short wait they handed me a permit granting the three weeks I’d requested. I was thus a bit flummoxed when the Customs, back in Betio, returned my request with “Approved for one week only” on it. I thought about this for a moment or so and decided we’d better get the situation sorted right away, so I showed Customs the Immigration permit, to which they replied “ Oh that’s OK, its not up to us, it’s a matter for Immigration as you are under their control; if they say three weeks, its not a problem”.
Now this had me worried, as on the way north we had stopped at Butaritari with permission from Customs, I don’t believe Immigration knew about it……if they had known they may not have approved.

Anyway, we now had a permit to go to Abaiang and as it was getting late we decided to leave the next morning and have another bumpy night bouncing up and down off Betio.
We hadn’t been in bed long when we heard Patrick from the yacht “Brick House” calling to us from his dinghy, he told us there was a Tsunami headed our way, possibly a big one. Without further ado we got the dinghy aboard and stowed, heaved up anchor and headed for deeper water. By the time the anchor came up we had got better information off the Radio and knew we had a little time in hand, we were clear of the anchorage by 2200hrs and the wave wasn’t due till 0036hrs; thus we decided to continue on to Abaiang, going slowly so that we’d arrive in the morning. We didn’t see any wave and nor, to the best of my knowledge, did Tarawa or any of the Kiribati islands.

We entered through the Bingham Channel in the early hours of the morning, not good timing as we had the sun right in our eyes; I don’t think I’d do that one again without a bit better visibility! Fortunately it was high water and we didn’t clunk anything, we found a nice calm anchorage in the SE part of the lagoon just north of Tanimaiki Village and “Brick House” joined us there a few hours later.

After a recovery period, we all went ashore and wandered along to the village where we stopped off in the Maneaba to say hi to the locals, here we were lucky to meet up with Esta, a school teacher, and a few others who were engaged in their weekly Bingo game.

Maneaba (meeting place)

After a short course on what was going on in the village, we wandered off up the road, trying to restore our land legs. Everyone we met was most friendly and no one passed without greeting us; Kiribati people must be about the friendliest people on earth and despite the hardships of their way of life, they are always happy and smiling

At the end of the village was a small clinic, donated by the EU, 4
and a rustic “hospital” behind it; fortunately the villagers do not have to pay for healthcare, just as well as few of them have any money. Healthcare however, is basic; not many drugs and no fancy equipment, if you are lucky they will detect an illness in time to have you transported to the main hospital in Tarawa.

Village Clinic

We were immediately impressed by the Taro Pits, which were deep and well tended, also the abundance of Breadfruit trees (which almost made up for the lack of Bananas!). It seemed like the locals here were really industrious; working hard on the Copra, weaving and tending their land. Maybe it was because we were comparing them with the Marshallese, who seemed to do so little.

We decided the next day that we should go north and take anchorage off Taburao, the Government Station; this so we could present our permits to the local Police before they had to come chasing after us to see them. Unfortunately, we discovered that when the wind is in the Southeast, it blows up the lagoon and builds up a greater wave action the further you get north. The anchorage off the Government Station was a little sloppy but we were able to launch dinghies and head ashore to a small beach where there was more coral than sand, we were lucky it was close to high water! Most of the Government Station looked quite new, western style buildings with a sign saying they had been donated by The Republic of Taiwan. One of the sweeteners that secure votes in the U.N. or perhaps just a kickback for all the fish the Taiwanese are taking from Kiribati waters?

At the Government Station we found the OIC (officer in charge) and he welcomed us to the island and proceeded to give us a tour of the premises; he was more than happy to show us his telephone, the main link with Tarawa and the outside world. This was also the Police Station and the Post Office and the OIC was responsible for it all, a man with many hats!

Behind the station was a small village and a school; the children had just finished for the day and were keen to make some contact with us.

We met up with one of the teachers and discovered that most families had six or seven children and this was more the Kiribati norm. I asked where all these children were going to go, as there was clearly not enough land in Kiribati to support that number; the teacher said that many would get to Australia or New Zealand but it was clear, that on a local level, no one was planning for the future.

Back in the somewhat bouncy anchorage we decided to move on, to see if we could find a quieter spot. Once again it was downwind and we were able to sail Anchor to Anchor; this time we found some shelter behind a point, anchored off the village of Tebunginaro. A small swell was sweeping around the point causing us to roll at times but it was certainly less exposed than the previous anchorage. The villagers were holding a dance in the Maneaba that evening but it was modern dancing to modern music and they had a modern stereo to blast it all out into the anchorage…… fortunately the power was closed off around 2200hrs and the rest of the night was peaceful.

Tebunginaro is a neat and photogenic village set around a small inlet that dries out at low tide, there wasn’t a lot to hold us there; especially with the rolly anchorage. So we moved south to Koinawa Village, easily identified by the large Catholic Church which has a prominent bell tower and looks quite out of place set amongst the coconut trees. The bell tower used to be an attraction for passing yachties and the odd tourist, who would climb to the top where there was a fine view over the whole island and lagoon; unfortunately the steps have now become unsafe and the view is temporarily confined to history.

We spent some time speaking with the Church Warden, this is actually a mission and a large tract of land belongs to the church, there are several large Maneaba’s and various accommodations as the church has several big functions here during the year and people come from all the villages to spend time together and participate. It was another neat village and as usual the people were overwhelmingly friendly.

The old Maneaba.

From this anchorage we went back to the southeast part of the lagoon, we were a little fed up with the rolly anchorages further north as the wind continued to blow fresh from the Southeast, setting up a constant swell, which crept into all the anchorages all the way up.

We had intended to spend some time up at Ribona, at the far north of the lagoon; however this would require a wind north of east and that just didn’t happen. On my previous visit I’d spent over a week up there and had fond memories of the place, I have since been informed that it has become quite ‘built up’ and that it is no longer the place that it was. This time we went a little south of Tanimaiki Village and found some quiet and peaceful water to drop our anchor in; it was ten feet of water over a white sand bottom and most relaxing! There is quite a wide interior coral shelf around the inside of most of these islands but further out from the shelf the water deepens only gradually and there is plenty of anchorage room at what ever depth suits your keel. I very much liked this arrangement as we were near enough to be able to row ashore but far enough away that we were not ‘on view’, far enough away to discourage casual visits by both swimmers and canoes; and far enough away to get breeze whilst missing out on the flies and mosquitoes.

We remained in this anchorage for over a week, it was great; most days we would get to have a little swim but on occasions the wind was blowing too strong, kicking up a small sea that was enough to make swimming difficult but not enough to get the boat moving.
“Brick House” was with us for a while and we enjoyed their company however they had secured a Permit which allowed them to visit several islands to the south as well as Abaiang and they were keen to use what time they had available to the best advantage so pushed on to Kuria and Abemama. We were hoping that we would be able to do these islands after clearing out from Tarawa and thus avoid the long trek back just to ‘clear-out’.

Our situation was right at the far south end of the village so that there were no huts to the southwest of us at all, the huts and the local population only swelled as we went northeast. The nearest family to us on shore was Teaoka and Banrenga and we soon made acquaintances with them; we were very lucky as they both spoke good English and we were able to learn much of the way they lived, survived and brought up a family on this way-out but wonderful location.

Teaoka and Banrenga and their two children.

We had many visits ashore with them and always they would offer almost everything they had in a show of generosity that defies description; we had to work very hard in finding ways to refuse things gracefully and without causing insult. We gave them what we could, what we thought they would find useful but of course, they have so little. This is not a materialistic society however that does not stop them being progressive and hard working; the main industry and source of income, is the copra and they toil at this long hours almost every day.

Drying coconuts/copra.

Enjoying coconut milk (Toddy)

Children in school.

Receiving a worming pill from the village nurse.

We were lucky to see the whole process of gathering the Coconuts, through to getting the Copra bagged and ready for export. They showed us how to make the Coconut Oil which they use as a balm, how they extract the Coconut Cream (which goes down so well with Curry!) and we even had a demonstration in rope making from the coconut husk. Whilst all this was taking place we caught up with work on board, I did some sanding and varnishing, Paula caught up on her projects; time passed too quickly and our three week permit was coming to a close.

Before leaving however, we made one last visit to the school; the children were seeing the local nurse and getting their ‘worming’ tablets so we didn’t upset the teaching day too much by being there. We had already learned from Teaoka and Banrenga that the school was under threat of being closed by the government if they didn’t build a much larger school room where they could accommodate all the children together. Teaoka was on the School Committee and active in fund raising and organising. All the villagers were to participate in the building of this new Maneaba at the school and each family was busy producing fifty metres of sennet for the lashings and prescribed area of Pandanas leaves for the roofing. The previous weekend there had been a Bingo Drive at the Church Maneaba and the proceeds would go to other materials; all the villagers would participate in the building.

It was with some regret that we tore our selves away from this anchorage, we could easily have remained for longer but with the expiration of our permit coming close we took the best weather window we could find and made the trip back to Tarawa; we timed it so that we wouldn’t be marooned in the Tarawa anchorage over the weekend.

The trip back down was a little more boisterous than we’d expected….. Those coconut palms break up the wind well and offer quite a lot of protection in their lee! The Tarawa entrance was too rough to motor through into wind and swell so we tacked in under double reefed main and inner jib. We got as far tucked in behind the Betio Jetty as possible but the swell was still rolling in and we were bucking about like a Bronco, almost ducking our bows into the waves; it was most uncomfortable and we had to sleep in the saloon.

The next morning we went ashore and did internet down at Bairiki, then spent the afternoon aboard, bouncing up and down, answering all our three weeks of incoming mail and digesting the weather forecasts etc. Friday morning, having submitted a really good, grovelling request to be allowed to stop at one or more islands on the way south having cleared out, we were given the unequivocal NO from the Immigration Officer in charge…Ioane Anerika…. who told us that “under no circumstances would any yachts be granted permission to stop / visit any islands after they had cleared out, If we wished to visit any outer island we would have to return to Tarawa to take Clearance –out”
So, it seemed that our previous visit to Butaritari had been a bureaucratic error / oversight …..We’ll just put that down to good luck!

This was a bit of a blow as we had thought that, from what we had been told by the tourist office, the government was being more lenient to visiting yachts…..Certainly that is not the case.
I therefore took clearance for Rotuma in Fiji, I certainly wasn’t going to take a clearance to a place I felt I may not even be able to reach and then have to come all the way back to Tarawa’s rotten anchorage (and avoid the weekends) to get a further clearance which would send me off in the direction I’d just covered twice…..NO WAY! We’d had a hard enough job just getting down from Abaiang so I didn’t rate our chances too high at beating out to Abemama, especially with the wind honking as it was; the forecast was not indicating any improvement either!

SO…. with mixed feelings we departed Tarawa southwards on Saturday 2nd April, by the time we cleared the southwest tip, we were hard on the wind in 18 / 20kts of wind and strong west going current. We couldn’t point Kuria let alone Abemama!
On my permit request, I had pleaded that we had sailed half way around the world to visit Abemama and that was somewhat true. I have been at sea long enough now, to know that some goals are best left for another time or just cancelled. Maybe the way I see Abemama in my dreams is better than the reality anyway!

REALITY CHECK: The Kiribati people are some of the friendliest in the world, they have a really neat way of life on the outer islands and it was interesting to experience; this is way off the beaten track and far from being a “cruising ground”. Some of the Lagoon passes are shallow with strong currents and where you cannot get into a lagoon the anchorages may be uncomfortable and exposed, provisioning is very limited and very expensive; good drinking water is difficult to get and expensive (there is very little rain!) and attractions promoted in the tourist literature are somewhat overstated. Until such times as you can clear in/out at the south of the group and clear again at the northern end, this is not going to become an area to cruise. If you are passing through anyway… then it could be worth stopping off….. However, visiting any of the outer islands is subject to an individual permit which may or may not be granted and even if it is granted, there may be time restrictions; there is no certainty and it’s a long way to sail only to find the gates are closed!!!

Village dwelling.

Village School.

The Marshall Islands

2011-03-31T15:53:00.000-07:00

A VISIT TO THE MARSHALL ISLANDS

We are in Kiribati again, having completed our visit to the Marshall Islands; on arrival ashore the major differences between the two island groups was very apparent. Betio didn’t seem half as dirty as it had on our first visit, prior to Majuro; the people seemed to be inordinately happy here and there was a vitality that we never saw in the Marshallese.

Warwick Clay, in “South Pacific Anchorages” (1996), wrote of the Marshallese “they seem unwelcoming to strangers” and of the islands “Some atolls will not permit visits by yachts at all. Some impose a very high deterrent charge which effectively stops visits.”

Fear not….. It’s not that bad; in fact there are some positive points which could make a visit to the Marshall Islands quite worth while, especially if you happen to be going in that general direction anyway.

Appended to the bottom of this newsletter is a list of both Positive and Negative points which should be carefully considered; please remember that these are my personal observations and you may well see things differently. The 2010 / 2011 South Pacific Hurricane Season saw about two dozen cruising yachts visiting the Marshall’s from Christmas into the New Year. Some were headed West towards Asia, a few headed to the northeast for the US, Canada and Alaska; some like ourselves were to head south again for Fiji or thereabouts. This was a fairly strong La Nina year and this may well have affected the weather as the locals kept telling us it was “most unusual” (however we hear that story just about every where we go!).

Our visit was a success in that we achieved most of what we went there for, however we left with a slightly sour taste in our mouths and a feeling of disappointment. I will expand on that within the list below. We were, of course, caught up in the events that captivated the attention of the yachting community during this time; namely the unprecedented acts of piracy that took place within the harbour, directed mainly against the visiting yachts. No other place, to my knowledge, has experienced boarding’s and robberies carried out by SCUBA divers. Never did I ever expect to be chasing trails of bubbles in the middle of the night accompanied by half a dozen inflatables from other yachts…..it was like something out of the movies.

We had some great moments whilst in the Marshall’s but these were mainly due to the good social scene fostered amongst the yachts, helped in no small way by the local Yacht Club, who’s front desk was ably manned by Cary and Karen of the yacht “Seal” (tel.455-3044 / 3346); If you Google the Mieco Beach Yacht Club you will find lots of information on their web site.

There are several yachts which are somewhat semi-permanent in the Majuro having sailed in and found work ashore; there is a limited amount of work available for those with the required skills, in particular for Americans.

Arriving on the 3^rd December, we were just in time to secure one of the last available moorings in the southern mooring field; all the moorings in the northern mooring field were already occupied or spoken for. In the event that all the moorings are taken, or that you don’t fancy a mooring; anchorage is available and in my opinion is best achieved in the SE bight of the Lagoon. If they know you are coming, clearance can be arranged in advance and the Immigration / Customs may come down to the Dinghy Dock (known as ‘Shoreline’) to clear you there or on your boat. Sometimes these arrangements fall through and you have to take your papers ashore and go in search of the officials, it’s all very laid-back!

The mooring we picked up belonged to Matt Holly (tel.455-5567) and he owns most of the moorings in the southern field, however not all as we were to discover later…….thus you really have to check carefully if moving from one mooring to another. Matt’s mooring cost us $1/foot/month, paid in advance……and that’s one of the cheapest moorings we’ve ever been on! The northern mooring field is controlled by RRE (Robert Reimers Enterprises) where the contact is Colette (tel.625-6474); these moorings are a little more expensive but may be better, depending on what you are looking for.

One of the first jobs we did after arrival, was to go to the telecommunications company and get a SIM card for our mobile, it was not too expensive to buy and proved to be a valuable asset although the cost of calls to Europe were prohibitively expensive. Wifi is somewhat available on the Moorings, depending on which one you get, we quickly came to the conclusion that this was a great way to waste time and money and it was better to take our computer ashore. Wifi cards and telephone top up cards are widely available however the local telecommunications company has a strangle hold on supply of service; which means ‘very little service at very expensive rates’! What we spent on internet and phone calls during our visit would have bought us a new computer in the U.S.

Our Mooring seemed to be one of the better ones, it was way too deep for me to check but several friends dived it with tanks and pronounced it very secure; one of the reasons for this and the presence of divers, was that we were attached to a substantial wreck; as were most of the boat moorings. These wrecks, we were told, are quite entertaining for scuba divers so basically you get a free dive site thrown in with the mooring!

I have to admit that we did not go into the water here, as we often saw ‘dead things’ and many well used diapers (and condoms) floating past, drifting off the local beachfront which is nothing more than a rubbish tip. Some friends reported they picked up a nasty infection by just getting splashed by the stuff!

A few hundred yards to windward of us was the not-so-attractive shoreline of downtown Majuro, lining the shore we had the Oil Storage Depot and a handful of rusting hulks which Matt was cutting up for scrap, there was no beach only various forms of rubbish and twisted metal left over from whatever ceased to work on shore and was pushed aside (into the lagoon).

To my delight, only a few yards from the dinghy dock, is a fully stocked Ace Hardware of a size that you would find in the U.S. (Prices =U.S. + 10 to 15% , maybe a bit more in some cases) and only a short Taxi ride away is Do It Best, another big Hardware Store.

Larry, who runs the store, was very good with his E-mail replies when we asked about ordering stuff before arrival, he got us a good deal on 360ft of 1x19 SS Rigging Wire which was shipped in from the US…..( doitbestlarry@gmail.com).

Another good thing about Majuro is that you have access to the U.S. via USPS as it is part of the U.S. Domestic Mail System….needless to say, we had a ton of stuff sent out and Paula made a major effort to boost Amazon’s share price…….All our Christmas and Birthday presents were quickly taken care of! We had no problems with any of our mail, which we had forwarded on to us by friends in Arizona; even when the tracking numbers failed to show up in the system the mail coming from the US would usually arrive in about a week (two weeks max). The guys in the Post Office were most helpful and soon got to know us by sight; it was one of the only places ashore (apart from Do It Best) where we were always greeted with a smile and made to feel welcome.

Transport up and down the main drag through town and to the outskirts, is provided by Taxi’s, these, mostly decrepit old bangers, cruise up and down picking up anyone who needs a ride, you just raise fingers to suit the number of persons wishing to travel and if the driver thinks he can squeeze you in, he stops. Usually we would get in with a cheery ‘Good Morning’ to the other occupants and would be greeted with odd looks and a stony silence; the only time someone ever struck up any conversation, it turned out the guy was from Fiji….Bula!!

We were surprised at the Supermarkets, whilst there were plenty of tinned foods available, the selection of fresh foods was ‘very limited’ and what was there, was usually well past its prime. The Marshallese don’t grow anything….. it all comes from the U.S. and is refrigerated. If you find anything good in the stores, you have to use it right away; nothing much keeps! The selection of Dairy and other refrigerated products is also limited so, whilst storing up is possible, it may also be a little disappointing. Not only but also, there are tons of Cockroaches around (particularly around cash-desks where your produce is bagged). If these little buggers don’t get you in the store; or in the taxi on the way home, they will try their level best to fly out and visit you on your boat. We had two real big ones that came aboard; one at night which dropped onto Paula whilst she was sleeping in the forward bunk ……Waking to a big Cockroach caught up in your hair is not a thing that produces matrimonial harmony!

Looking back, I wonder why we spent so much time firmly attached to our mooring in what would seem to be a far from perfect location……..Then I remember the weather, the seemingly constant squalls, the horizontal rain showers and the uncertainty of the forecasts. Majuro is right in the ITCZ (most of the time!) and no one (NO ONE) knows where the ITCZ is going or what its doing next; they can tell you where it is, or where it was BUT NOT where it’s going next. This is a place where most of the forecasts are mostly wrong most of the time! Whilst on our mooring off Majuro we experienced winds over forty knots on three occasions and winds over thirty knots on more than a dozen occasions. There were very few calm periods, except from those short intermissions caused by a substantial frontal cloud immediately up wind……..working on my hull from the dinghy was a near impossibility (too rough) but we never lacked power, on many occasions when I was not quick enough to secure it in advance, our wind-generator would be pumping in over twenty-five amps and close to going ballistic!

The good news is that water on board is not going to be a problem and you’ll always have a well washed boat….In this respect, Majuro is well placed as the Urban Capitol of the Marshall Islands; there is usually enough water falling from the sky to satisfy the local population. We were there in a drought year (La Nina) and during the ‘dry season’ (Jan & Feb); to me it seemed Humid and Wet, so what the wet season is like I don’t know but one of the locals suggested that the wet and dry seasons are basically the same only during the dry season the rain is more horizontal than vertical and was thus was more difficult to catch! (You can work that out….!).

We decided in February, to go north and look at one or more of the outer islands; permits are required for each island and each island has a fee for the visit. It took a couple of days for our permits to be ready and its worth noting that this procedure costs nothing whilst in Majuro as you get to pay when you arrive at the selected Atoll. Due to the weather, it’s a good idea to have a few more islands covered than you are intending to visit, after all, if something breaks on passage; who knows where you may end up! Most of the Atolls are in the $25 - $50 range but there are some that are considerably more; we picked Maloelap as a first stop as it looked like it would entertain us for a while and would not be too difficult to reach with just an overnight sail from Majuro.

The trip up was actually quite nice and we even ran out of wind for the last couple of hours….. this didn’t prevent us having to ‘heave-too’ off the entrance for two hours whilst a heavy rain shower went through, which totally took out the visibility. Our visit started in Airik at the south, where we paid the local Policeman our $25 and then, after a few days, moved up the Atoll calling at Kumaru and Reuter Islands. Reuter was our anchorage for Taroa as we did not want to anchor off the main village due to privacy concerns (both ours and theirs!). One has to remember that most of these islanders use the beach area as their toilet so anchoring close off the beach in front of a village, just gets you a front seat view of people using a latrine……not so good!

We remained a couple of weeks, however contact with the islanders was limited; we were unable to get much more than a nod out of the adults but were besieged by children when ever we showed up ashore outside of school hours. We explored, we took pictures; fished with some success within the lagoon and snorkelled on some ‘average’ coral with some small fish. I went and took pictures of the remains of the WWII wreckage which litters the island from the occupation by the Japanese; there is still plenty of unexploded ordinance laying about and the locals do not ‘burn-out’ the undergrowth in many areas for fear of what may go bang……

They were building a new school and a small clinic had already been completed, we were told that the new school would have computers however there was no mention of getting connected to the web. Just about all communication to and from the outer islands is by SSB or CB radio. Time passed……..

At the end of our visit to Maloelap, we decided that we’d probably got the whole flavour of the Marshall Islands; I’d visited several other islands on a previous circumnavigation and things hadn’t changed much. We returned to Majuro and checked out for Tarawa in the Republic of Kiribati; our luck with the weather changed and we had quite a good run south except for the last day, which saw us beating into a fairly fresh trade wind against a strong current. It took us the best part of nine hours to make the last twenty miles to windward!

Note: 24^th March, checked in with the Yokwee Net in Majuro (6236khz @ 1945Z) and heard it was still blowing hard with a black sky and heavy rain, it had been raining for almost two weeks and several boats were waiting to get away……

APPENDIX;

POSITIVE POINTS:

Getting to the Marshall Islands from Fiji was fairly easy for us as we were mindful of the weather and arrived before the onset of the NE Trades.

Majuro is sheltered from the East, Very little swell gets in except at HW when it may come over the reef. It provides safe mooring or anchoring in normal Trade Winds from NE to SE.

The available moorings off the town are quite cheap and are aimed at long term rentals.

Whilst there have been some boarding’s and robberies in this area, most have happened to unattended yachts and almost all have occurred at night; by observing normal precautions and not going ashore late into the evening, it is unlikely that any problems would be experienced.

There is actually no need to spend time in Majuro, or at least not moored off the town; there are some very nice FREE moorings provided at two of the outer islands inside the lagoon, one only four miles away. The ambience of these moorings is much better with good swimming, snorkelling and even a walking trail.

The nearest of the other Marshall Islands is only sixty miles north, usually tackled on a slow overnight but maybe possible in a day. There are a good number of islands to the north and NNW of Majuro, which make them a nice reach in the NE’ly trades.

The Post Office is very good and will keep mail for you whilst you are away visiting the outer islands.

We found the mail system first class, especially when having items sent in from the US. Others had items shipped in, sometimes saving a considerable sum by not buying locally. Shipping took two months so would have to be arranged in advance, whilst Priority Mail was always less than two weeks.

The further north you go, the drier it becomes….getting away from Majuro therefore has other advantages but take plenty of water and stores with you as neither are available in the islands.

$50 is not a great deal to pay if you are going to be in a particular lagoon for a couple of weeks. Our $25 for Maloelap seemed reasonable once we found a moderately good anchorage.

It may be possible to stop at some of the islands after you have cleared out for your next destination (although you would still need a permit before going and still need to pay whatever the dues were).

The Lagoons of the Marshall Islands are for the most part easy to get in and out of and have much fewer coral heads to worry about than many other groups.

Fishing, even inside the lagoons, can be very rewarding and there are said to be some world class dive sites available for those with tanks.

There are also some world class Surfing Sites in the Marshall’s, apparently some well kept secrets for those in-the-know in the surfer community.

Apart from the Hardware stores there are a couple of largish Supermarkets in Majuro where there are a fare selection of American tinned goods and food stuffs; it would be possible to store up for an extended voyage here.

It is possible to get flights out of Majuro to the US and it is even better if you are having people come out to join you or visit.

NEGATIVE POINTS:

If the NE Trade Winds have set in, getting to Majuro could be quite difficult, it is best to arrive well before ‘Thanksgiving’.

It rarely seemed to stop blowing and the small sea kicked up made it difficult to work from the dinghy; many times, even getting to shore was difficult and whilst doing so we would often be caught in some drenching squall. There was also a lot of traffic to and from the fishing fleet anchored in then bay, this would cause some quite large wakes.

During our visit the winds went westerly on three occasions but fortunately did not blow with any great force. This is not unusual and westerly winds must be expected on occasions in this area; if they do decide to blow with force the Majuro anchorage and mooring area could quickly become untenable and even dangerous. For this reason alone it would be most unwise to leave a boat here unattended

There are no guarantees with any of the moorings and boats have broken adrift from them before. They are in quite deep water and most of us do not have the ability to check their condition.

In the nine months leading up to February of our visit, no less than ten yachts were boarded, broken into, ransacked or cut adrift. It may well be that Majuro was having a limited period of problems and that this situation is now resolved but history shows that there have been problems prior to this and even boarding’s where the occupants have been assaulted (see Newspaper article posted earlier). This may be a second reason to not want to leave your boat here unattended……

The free moorings at Enemanet and Eneko Islands within the Majuro lagoon are exposed once the wind goes south of southeast and it seems to do that quite frequently with heavy squalls. This then puts you very close on a lee shore and several boats had to bail out, sometimes in the middle of the night and return to the mooring area.

Going ‘out-island’ requires some thought, for instance, a visit to Jaluit ($50) would leave you one hell of a beat back to Majuro……I wouldn’t recommend getting too far to leeward if you are returning to Majuro.

There is a counter-current that runs eastward, usually just to the north of Majuro but it may be experienced as far south as Mili and as far north as Maloelap….. This can cause a very uncomfortable short sea when it stacks up against the fresh trade winds. People have tried to use this current to take them eastwards…..I don’t know of anyone who was successful!

The Lagoons of most of the Marshall Islands are made up of mainly reef and few islands, so at high water the swell gets in and it can be quite uncomfortable for a few hours. Most of the anchoring is in deep water or none sheltered parts. Getting shallow in any lee usually had you much to close to a village, we preferred to take the discomfort and anchor away from the villages.

After forking out my $25 in Airik I was somewhat taken aback that any contact with the locals always resulted in a request that we fix something or supply some part……as they had absolutely nothing to offer in exchange, this seemed a little one-sided.

Getting us to go on a Lobstering expedition was just a ruse to get us to supply batteries, the few lobsters that were found were both small and expensive BUT I have to admit they did work hard for them!

The Supermarkets are full of roaches and any stores taken must be carefully inspected. Fresh vegetables were scarce and mostly in a very sorry condition for a very expensive price.

If you are coming this way from Fiji, you are eating out of tins from when you leave to when you get back. Even if you go west, there is little until you reach the western edge of the FSM.

Solar Panels were cheaper in Tarawa than in Majuro….. the local suppliers of ‘anything’ seem intent of fairly high profit margins…..you have to do your homework.

Haul out is only available by crane and the yard where they sit the boats didn’t look very appealing….not a place I’d want to put my boat ashore but in an emergency it could be done.

MAIL…….

Use Priority Mail only:

Name of yacht

Name of Master

General Delivery

Majuro (Main Post Office)

Republic of the Marshall Islands

MH 96960

That’s it folks….if you have any questions we are here….

Back in Kiribati, we are back into the normal cruising life and things are going much better…..More to follow.

Dinghy dock at high tide.


At almost low water


Pay-less Supermarket.

Ace Hardware.

Christmas.

Handy crafts of very good quality plus baskets etc.

Dinghy Dock on a wet day.

View from cockpit. Rusting old hulks.

Majuro on a bad day which is most days.

Piracy in Majuro , Marshall Islands

2011-02-06T15:35:00.000-08:00

Majuro, Marshall Islands

2011-01-11T18:53:00.000-08:00

There's more to see under the water than on land at Enemanit Island.

This is a 'get away' for the yachts in Majuro. Only four miles distance but a much more relaxing island where the waters are clear enough to swim; away from the jelly fish that roam round the harbour area.

Majuro - Marshall Islands

2010-12-09T15:06:00.000-08:00

We apologize for the long wait in updating our web page and thank you all for being very patient. Please don't give up on us, the problem was due to the lack of internet and/or very slow servers.

John & Paula will be here for Christmas and would like to wish all

our viewers a Very Happy Christmas and New Year.

Merry Christmas Everyone

Paula & John

Kuma Village - Butaritari - Kiribati

2010-12-09T14:55:00.000-08:00

Kuma Village - Kiribati

What should I say about Kuma Village and all the people we met….. well I guess if you have managed to wade through this newsletter this far, you deserve to know the truth; although I’m tempted to lie with the aim of protecting these fantastically friendly and lovely people in there little bit of Pacific Paradise from the onslaught of the ‘none cruising’ fraternity. The Mega Yachts with Hooray Henries on Jet Skis or the ‘Rent a Space’ lets-all-go-together mob who rush from one place to another on the ‘organised cruise’…….. All of which seem to go around the world trying to find one last bit of Paradise to trample all over and destroy. Anyway, this is one of those ‘last bits of Paradise’ and it will be one of our fondest memories of the Pacific Islands; we only wish we could have spent more time but our drinking water was almost gone and we were in need of a few things not available in this out island location.

Striking features included the tidy and neat way they maintained the village, the lack of rubbish and the high standard of English spoken by the school children and their hospitality to visitors. We were welcomed at the school where the children put on a show for us and we tried to reciprocate in kind, a great time was had by all and we were very impressed. We got to talk with George, one of the teachers at The Anderson School, and he explained how difficult it was to run a school in such a far out location with the lack of even the most basic of supplies; we handed over what little we had (a few books and packs of crayons, pencils and pens) but it was only a minute fraction of what was required.

George, One Of The School Teacher's

Helping Hands For The Big Day

Inside The Church

Whilst we were there we were all invited to a wedding which took place at the Village Church; it was quite a sombre affair and Paula had difficulty getting a smile to put into a photo……still she did achieve it in the end and we were happy the next day, to be able to present them with prints from the wedding, something they would not otherwise have had.

Phew It's Over

The Happy Couple

They were obviously greatly appreciated and we went away loaded down with bananas….Bananas are just about the only commodity they can give here and we were always inundated with them wherever we went; in the end we had so many bananas hanging around, we couldn’t sail the boat! Needless to say, we had no shortage of wind when we finally departed.

Having Brick House cruising with us was an advantage we had not foreseen, they were able to get some really good weather reports that we couldn’t access without a modem. We missed the heavy squalls that others had suffered and the wind remained abaft the beam the whole way (two days) until it died just as we approached Majuro leaving us to motor the last six hours. We did the pass in the pitch dark but it was wide, had some lights and the other marks were all well visible on our radar. The Open-CPN plot proved to be spot on and we had no difficulties, we’d already established that there was a mooring available on arrival so didn’t have to worry about dropping anchor in coral; on top of which Rick and Sue off ‘Panacea’ volunteered to come out in their dinghy at 0018 hrs in the morning and help us onto the mooring…..now that was nice of them!

That got us to Majuro in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, eight degrees north of the Equator and well out of the South Pacific Hurricane Zone.

Butaritari Village - Kiribati

2010-12-09T14:53:00.000-08:00

Butaritari

Both Tarawa and Butaritari were not charted well, there was an error between the charts and the GPS (WGS84) positions of about 0.3’ and there were many shallow areas not appearing on the chart. In most cases the water is fairly clear and dangers are readily apparent in good visibility; unfortunately our early arrival in Butaritari put the morning sunlight in our eyes and when it was obscured by cloud we couldn’t see much either. On top of this we had fifteen to eighteen knots of wind and a three knot current rushing out of the entrance! Without the mainsail and the motor giving us their best effort we would not have got in, as it was, it took some time and we shipped a couple of green seas over the bow in the process. None of the beacons in the pass area were still standing but they did all seem to be there around the anchorage area off Butaritari Village and as we eventually closed on this area, we gained some shelter. The anchor went down in ten feet of water over a sand bottom a little ways off the Kings Wharf and we were overwhelmed by the sudden peace and serenity; most of all the boat was still and this was the first time the motion had stopped since leaving Funafuti.

Butaritari is the most northern island in the main Kiribati group, it is closest to the ITCZ and gets more rain; thus it is the most productive of the islands when it comes to growing things. Only problem with that, are the locals, having plenty enough for their own needs, are somewhat reluctant to put a lot of time and effort into producing for others……..

We went ashore on the Kings Wharf (which is not much of a wharf) and walked along it towards the village; just before reaching the village is an old Japanese Flying boat which has made many a good photo over its lifespan, I still have the picture I took twenty three years earlier when I passed this way as a single-hander.

The normal Island Hospitality was in full swing and we were invited into the first Kiakia we passed…..it was just a little unfortunate that our host was an ex seafarer who had been on the ‘source’ for breakfast and slurred his way through a greeting offering us Toddy and coconut milk. Moving on, we had a little walk to the east until the village petered out then returned to the boat feeling the strain in our legs which were way our of practice with walking. The next day, after a very quiet and blissful night, we walked the other way, politely avoiding our seafarer friend. The village was notably much cleaner than Tarawa and most of the islanders had planted shrubs around their properties to delineate boarders, it was quite well done and far from the squalor of Betio. The people were very friendly, everyone greeted us as we walked along the road, there were big smiles and many stopped to chat a little wanting to know where we were from and where we were going; as English is their second language, we could only be impressed with the general standard of education.

A lady (Diamond) at the end of the village invited us in for refreshment and a chat and we found a few things that we could attend to which would make life easier for her at little or no cost to ourselves; the most important of these was her solar lighting system, the bulb had blown and her battery was frying due to regulator failure. We returned the next day and fixed it all for her over a little lunch she had prepared for us….. last time seen it was still working!

On the way back to the boats we were tracked down by the local ‘sheriff’ you rode up on his big, white bicycle…….No horse I’m afraid! He wanted us to produce some paperwork at the Police Station in the morning and this I would have already done had I recognised the Police Station when I first walked past it. We attended to that the next morning and he was most happy just to see our letter of introduction from the Customs in Tarawa; we got a tour of the Jail and were surprised to find some gaps in the bars that most adults could squeeze through but on a small island like this I guess there would be little compulsion to escape.

The school at the village on the southwest tip of the island (Ukiangang) was also the home of the Memorial to the fallen US marines (and other service personnel) that gave their lives in the reclamation of the island from the Japanese during WWII and the 20^th of November was their remembrance day so we went along to see the commemoration that we’d heard was taking place. The girls were given a lift to the village in an overflowing truck whilst us guys walked; on arrival we were made most welcome and given seats in the front row, someone cracked open a few coconuts for us and shade was rigged over our seats. Shortly after 10am (as advertised) the demonstration began with all the local school groups and people from various sections of the village doing a marching display.

They were very much in step and it was a first rate event which ended up with them assembled in front of the memorial; there was a presentation of wreaths which were laid on and around the memorial as the US flag flew atop the rather crooked flagstaff, taught in the trade wind breeze. I was personally surprised and had one of those gut pumping moments when the whole group launched into a rendition of The Star Spangled Banner with hands over hearts……it was a really moving experience and I was touched deep down with the sincerity of these islanders.

It occurred to me that back in America close on 100% on school children wouldn’t know where Butaritari was or care what took place here but the Islanders are still grateful for their American saviours and speak glowingly about them. If this were part of the Marshall Islands, receiving fat cheques from the American Tax payers, you might expect a little show of sympathy but these people rarely see an American and receive no support other than through the various churches that prevail; yet every year, without any fanfare, with or without any outside onlookers (us), They Remember………. and a huge American sacrifice is not forgotten.

At the end of the event the children did a little re-enactment of the American Landings using Pop Guns and running around shooting at each other, they seemed to die very convincingly but in a little bit of Paradise that has seen so much death, maybe the act of dying comes easier!

We all adjourned to the local Maneaba for a late lunch and the locals all waited for us to eat before feeding themselves, there was heaps of food to say the least and it was all very well presented. This was followed by dancing, speeches and more dancing…..

One of the speeches was by someone from the Taiwanese Cultural Mission who proceeded to let everyone know about every Dollar the Taiwanese Government was putting into the place and how they were going to change the lifestyle of all the islanders to the better encouraging them all to plant more, harvest more, export more and eat more healthy themselves…….. It was one of those long drawn out speeches that reminded me of Political Officers I’d previously had contact with from both the USSR and China when they were all hell bent on communism and full of…..it! With western civilization going into a tailspin over an orgy of over-spending and outright greed, I’m not so sure we should be trying to get these people into the forefront of the capitalist society. Right now the world markets could totally collapse and many on Butaritari wouldn’t even notice….but once you make them a consumer society; then they’ll notice!

The dancing that took place after the speeches was more of a free-for-all and we were all dragged up on the dance floor…..we’d been warned about the dancing here, it can get a bit ‘raunchy’ and the older the dancers the more raunchy it gets…….I think I got to dance with one of the local tigers and nearly got mauled…..talk about ‘hot stuff on the dance floor’. We escaped to return on board before the sun set….. I wouldn’t have wanted to be on that dance floor after dark!

Wild Thing!

After a day of recovering from our dancing activities, we moved down to the next anchorage, not far from where the new centre of administration has been moved; unfortunately the extent of the off lying reef and the time of High Water did not make for easy access to shore so the next day we gave up on the place and moved up to Kuma Village on the eastern end. We motored up there hugging the shore as much as we could, the wind was honking over twenty knots out of the east and at the points where protection was lost we struggled to make headway. Once the eastern end of the island had been gained there was much better protection and the anchorage, when we reached it, was calm; it seemed that there would be good protection here from NE through SE to SW and again we were in about ten feet of water over a sand bottom. Getting to the shore in the dinghy was only possible three hours either side of High Water otherwise there would be quite a lot of walking over the reef dragging the dinghy……

The People of Butaritari

Tarawa - Kiribati

2010-12-08T19:47:00.000-08:00

Tarawa - Betio

We departed Funafuti on Friday 5^th November; it was rather a hasty departure, we’d planned to have a bit longer to recover from the last passage, however we’d seen all there was to see in Tuvalu and the weather window was going to close on us if we delayed until after the weekend. I went and got ‘Cleared Out’ in the morning and we were underway by noon, reaching towards the northern pass; half way there however, I noted some stitching failure in a seem on the Genoa so we hove-to for about twenty minutes whilst we changed headsails…….it was fortunate that we had another one ready to go up!

We then had four days of 127’/day in near perfect conditions until the breeze started to lighten up, finally calling for twelve hours of motor-sailing before arrival; it had been mainly close-reaching conditions in 8 – 14 knots of breeze, blue sea and sky with puffy white trade wind clouds, we had no room to complain!

I wouldn’t have motored during the last day except that ‘someone’ was impatient to arrive and didn’t want another night at sea…….as it was, we just got the hook down off Betio as the sun dipped below the horizon.

Friday morning we called in on the VHF at 0830 to say we’d arrived and had to wait an hour or so for immigration to come down from Bairiki; I then had to use the dinghy to ferry them all out to the boat; two at a time, two guys and two gals……. They didn’t seem too confident when they were sitting in our canoe with little freeboard and a lumpy sea running in the anchorage. The paperwork however, went smoothly and everyone was most friendly and helpful; it was interesting that they actually had no papers, they explained what they wanted and then we just made it up on the spot. So, it was back to the good old days of Carbon Paper and inky fingers!

I managed to get them all ashore without getting anyone drowned however conditions were, at best, marginal for using our dinghy. Betio never was and never will be, a great anchorage, being very exposed to the prevailing trade winds, on top of this the wind tends to speed up somewhat in the afternoon as the lagoon heats up and sucks in more air; thus, ‘Mr John’ bounced up and down and was most uncomfortable for the duration of our visit.

Friday was written off to the clearance and ‘inter-netting’ but we did manage to arrange a hire car for the Saturday morning and this we did through the tourist office a short distance from the dock. From what we gathered here, the Kiribati Government is very keen to increase the amount of tourists but has little ‘where-with-all’ to do it; the good news is that they are permitting yachts to clear out from Tarawa but make Island calls on route to Majuro. Having submitted a letter requesting a stop-over, we were given a clearance and a permit to visit Butaritari on the way north whilst other boats, following astern of us, managed to secure permission to visit both Abaiang and Butaritari! However, we did hear that the Immigration Office is not quite so keen on letting yachts make stop-over’s so there is room for conflict, thus we didn’t mention anything about our permits when we checked out with them.

The tourist office gave us all the information they had and a list of up-coming events so the next morning we were all ready to see the island, the car was $60AUS and as we shared it with Patrick and Rebecca from ‘Brick House’. The car was waiting for us when we went ashore and it all went smoothly except that there was suddenly mention of a deposit, which was a significant amount, which we didn’t have; after a bit of negotiation the deposit was forgotten and we just paid for the car in advance.

To be honest, there wasn’t an awful lot to see but we managed to pad out the day enough that we didn’t get back till late afternoon. We were not expecting any ‘activities’, the tourist office hadn’t indicated any, so it was a nice surprise to find a school graduation taking place in a large meeting house (Maneaba) and there was a dance performance thrown in. It wasn’t brilliant but it was raw and easy on the eye. I got some enjoyment watching the young ladies who were graduating; it was obvious that poise and deportment were not on the curriculum!

We drove right out to the airport and a little beyond, until we could go no further; then had a picnic lunch whilst some pilot went round and round doing ‘circuits and bumps’. The eastern end of the atoll was a good deal more scenic and considerably less over-crowded than the Betio end where they were shoulder to shoulder in little more than a ghetto. We noted many areas where small vegetable plots were growing and these always had the “Made in Taiwan” label attached, it would seem that the Taiwanese are throwing money at the Kiribati’s, they have quite a high visibility (where as the British have no visibility at all!)……There is of course a reason for this diplomatic courtship and its not just votes in the UN (where the Taiwanese get support from those it assists)…. There is also the fishing and that is a very big prize…..Kiribati may be small in land mass but controls the biggest chunk of the Pacific Basin, its maritime area is greater than the mass of the USA or the Soviet Union; Taiwan like many countries on the Pacific Rim, would like to share in the bountiful supply of fish this area produces.

We stopped and had a look at the Parliament Building, which was very nice but we were informed that it was rarely used; there was a nice little dock and a dredged out basin in front of this area however there was no real channel to the deeper water and the money put in to this development was bringing little or no reward.

Next door to the Parliament the Taiwanese had built an Aquatic Centre, which was closed on the Saturday but security let us in anyway and we got a little bit of a tour……They were breeding ‘Milkfish’ but we were not too sure what they were doing with them, these fish are full of bones and don’t have much taste!
They did have an aquarium of small tanks containing some of the local reef fish and this was very interesting; we got a few good pictures and moved on to the War Relics. There are quite a few WWII relics littering the foreshore and the reefs around Tarawa, it seems incredible to me that any sane government could have let thousands of young citizens be wasted away in an action to take this small piece of Coral Atoll in the middle of nowhere. Having taken out the airstrip and all the planes, there was nothing this island was going to do to threaten the allied advance …..So why throw thousands of young lives at fortified machine gun posts? I guess we’ll never know!!

The War Relics: It was just ‘sad’……..

Sad that it was obviously such a great waste of manpower.

Sad that there were so many blunders that led to an even greater death toll.

Sad that the relics were rusting away and would soon no longer be there to remind us of our follies.

Sad that the bunkers and guns were being used as toilets by the natives and all stank.

Sad, that the war memorials were inundated with litter and refuse.

Sad that we forget so quickly how stupid are those into who’s hands we entrust the youth of our nations.

Sad that thousands upon thousands died here and we have not learnt one thing from it!

The Kiribati people seemed happy and most welcoming where ever we went, everyone waved and all of them had a ready smile, strange thing was that when we spoke to them they could not understand why we would want to come all this way to see their island… They universally thought there were much better places to see than Tarawa…. and I have to admit they may well be right!

Sunday was spent getting jobs on the boat done and getting ready for departure, which we had decided would take place as soon as we could on the Monday morning…… I was so keen to quit this grotty anchorage that I didn’t even care about the weather outside, whatever it was, it had to be an improvement!

The Monday morning Clearance did take a little longer than expected, there was some delay whist they found someone to approve our request to call at Butaritari on the way north and then there was a little extra time involved in getting out to Bairiki on the Bus to see Immigration; we eventually got away in the early afternoon and were clear of the north end of Abaiange by nightfall. It was a nice reach all the way up and we arrived off the main (South) Pass for Butaritari Lagoon a little earlier than expected.

Funafuti - Tuvalu

2010-12-02T17:32:00.000-08:00

On the 28^th Oct 2010 we departed Fiji, leaving from Saweni Bay and motoring to the first available pass into Bligh Water where we picked up a fresh ESE breeze which took us clear of Round Island Passage just as it was getting dark. It had been our intention to call at Rotuma and we had permission to do this from the Customs in Lautoka, however as we moved north a large cyclonic disturbance was moving SE towards Viti Levu and expected to bring northerly winds to Rotuma; this would make the only good anchorage on the island a ‘no go’ area so we were maintaining a heading to the east of north, unsure of what we would be doing. By the end of the second day we had cancelled Rotuma and were headed for Funafuti in Tuvalu, trying to get north as quickly as possible before we got any wind shifts; this good progress soon evaporated as did the wind, which became fickle and then light westerly between periods of heavy rain. We had more than a few hours being hove-to in pouring rain and little or no wind, it was most frustrating; the wind eventually returned out of the East and built up quickly causing us a stiff beat for the remainder of the passage. Our arrival coincided with sunset (of course) and an increase in the wind which honked all night whilst we lay hove-to of the West side of the atoll; getting blown slowly to leeward. The morning of 3^rd Nov found us beating up to the island once more in twenty knots of breeze; the SW Pass was directly into the rising sun and there was quite some current running out, so we tacked up to the Northern Pass which was a little easier. It was 1400hrs by the time we had the anchor down and we were not ‘happy campers’!

On the positive side, the anchorage was flat (fifteen feet, sand bottom), there was a dinghy dock and Clearing-In went without a hitch, despite having only an Internal Clearance from Fiji; more over, we were re-united with our friends Patrick and Rebecca from “Brick House” who had come up from Rotuma and arrived the previous evening. It’s always nice to have friends in an anchorage and as we were feeling somewhat worn, we were especially grateful for their welcome.

I don’t think Funafuti is ever going to become a great tourist destination, it’s rather overcrowded and a bit of a slum, apart from which, they have a rubbish problem that is getting away from them. The hotel by the dinghy dock has dancing and a BBQ meal for $15AUS on Wednesday nights (if they have enough bookings) and we might have been tempted had we not been completely knackered that first evening, there are a few local handicrafts available and some small supermarkets have basic items at rather expensive prices. Diesel was available on the main wharf ($$$) and I did get some water which I was warned to boil well if used for drinking (we just used it for showers and looking at the dregs in my jerry cans it was good that we never put it in our tanks!). Fresh Fish is about the best deal as the fishermen are always landing small Tuna and these are available for just a couple of dollars, however you’d best make sure its FRESH-fresh as they don’t seem to gut it or refrigerate it whilst out on the boats.

The anchorage is good in anything Easterly but would be a worry in anything else; one has to bear in mind that they did have a TRS go through here in October a few years back!

The people are all most friendly and considering the conditions in which they live they are surprisingly happy and contented…… not bad considering that their whole island may well vanish below the waves in fifty years or so if some of the climatologists are correct in their predictions!

Most transport on the island is on two wheels and there are a plethora of motor-scooters and bicycles; there is also a bus service that runs the length of the island, we took a ride in one of these clapped out mini-busses on our way to Customs and discovered that all braking was done with the hand brake; not that there was a lot of momentum to stop as the thing only had first gear! Customs was at the ‘Port’ near the north end of the island so by the time we were cleared in we had actually seen all there was to see. So it was that we arrived on the Wednesday and ‘Cleared out’ on the Friday; the weather forecasts indicated that if we didn’t get away we’d have head winds for most of the trip north for the foreseeable future. In actual fact, the wind did go northerly astern of us as we arrived around the equator and it seemed to stay that was for the best part of a month; so we were very lucky that we got away when we did!

I did ask about stopping at Nukufetau on the way north but was told this was a definite NO-NO and one would need a special clearance and a return to Funafuti before departure onwards…….With this sort of regulation in place it is small wonder that very few (if any) yachts visit Nukufetau or any of the outer islands of Tuvalu; I really don’t think they are doing anything to help their tourist industry…… I’m fairly certain that the people of Nukufetau would love to have the cruising yachts visit and it wouldn’t take much to instigate some sort of ‘Clearance Facility’ which could be handled by the islanders.

If we had stopped in ‘Nuku’, perhaps I would be more positive about the Tuvalu Experience, as it stands I’d say the only reason to stop would be if it gets in the way and you want a little break. Otherwise, I’d give it a miss!

Bike City

Children Say It All

Paula Buying Bananas


The Only Resturant In Town

Funafuti Bay