More on Vanuatu

1 November 2010

Vanuatu is an amazing cruising ground and the people still live in their traditional villages. We fell in love with these fantastic friendly people last year when we cruised New Caledonia and Vanuatu on our J130 “Ragtime”.  

The town of Luganville on Espirito Santo is the 2^nd largest in Vanuatu after Port Villa. Even in the 12 months since we have last been here we can see major changes in the town. The hardware store would do any city or town proud and there is a new Bank in a lovely new building. Aore Island is across an approximately 1 ½ mile passage from Luganville. The passage is very deep and protected which makes it safe from a tsunami accept perhaps on the eastern end of the island, although this is also well protected from the surrounding islands.

Chart plotter showing where Salacia is moored.

Expect a warm welcome from The Aore Island Resort. They cater for cruising boats and have convenient moorings for rent  in front of the Resort. This is extremely convenient because the water is deep and most vessels don’t like to anchor in 30+ metres.

The jetty is situated such that a yacht can tie up to load water from the resort, provisions or for repairs.

The Resort ferry takes guests and sailors over to Luganville 6 times a day by timing your trip you can provision and be back on your yacht in 2 hours. There is a good fresh fruit and vegetable market in Luganville as well as a number of well stocked supermarkets.

All of the resort facilities are open to yachts including the laundry service and the 4* restaurant and bar.

The diving in the clear water is fantastic and there are well equipped dive shops. Dive on the legendary ship “The Coolidge” and also the famous “Million Dollar Point” where, at the end of the war, the Americans drove all of their tanks, jeeps, trucks and other equipment into the ocean. Snorkelling on the sight is almost as good as diving on it.

Aore Island Resort

31 October 2010

We had a great night at the Aore Island Resort last night good friends and 2 wonderful people people who are over on the island building a new school pro bono.

We met Lee and Geoff this morning to walk our block of land and for me to ear mark the trees that are to “go”. I am getting rid of the native Hibiscus trees and the breadfruit trees. Both have shallow roots so I was not going to risk them falling and causing damage.

There is a track cut right down the side of the block which was done by the Americans in WW2. It will be great for access to the beach from the road and will provide access to storage under the deck of the potential house. It would have been a lot of work cutting it to the water line so we are very pleased with this.The proposed holiday house site is high, will get breezes from both directions and will have remarkable views.

Walking the block led to a trip in Geoff’s WW2 jeep to the other end of the island looking for engine blocks for the mooring . The boys are loving this -  the Huck Finn and burning around in the jeep. WW2 Jeeps are the preferred transport on the island and Stephen’s eye’s are lighting up!!

We looked at the rear end of a Massey Fergusson tractor to see if it would be suitable for the mooring. We passed a number of WW2 buildings sprinkled around the jungle which were used to store ammunition and which were camouflaged by soil and grass. They were not built in a line to stop the Japanese from doing a bombing run. There was even a small one used for storing detonators.

We have just finished a 1^st pass at the waterfront to see what the depth profile will be for the new mooring. Ross is plotting the data as I write.

We have just had word that the Profke’s (whose mooring we are on) will let us have the 2 engine blocks that they have. So that means that to date we have a tractor rear end and 3 engine blocks and we are waiting to hear about the other tractor rear end.

There is a new development proposed for the eastern end of the island and it will include a 6* hotel, a 200 boat marina, golf course, 200 house sites and a hospital for plastic surgery.

Arrival in Vanuatu

28 October 2010

The wind has settled down to a lovely 20 – 25 knot trade wind and we are  sailing along with a poled out jib and full main. We are getting into the passage making routine. We have been having lovely meals of the Wahoo that we caught.

 Stephen enjoying the sail

 29 October 2010

The wind went gone easterly and we couldn’t make our original course to the north of Ambrym Island – Vanuatu. We then decided to shoot for the passage  between Ambrym Island and  Paama Island.

We made this course and had a pleasant sail with the wind still 18 – 20 kts and running with a normal jib (not poled out). Cyndy noticed that the tang on the boom is moving more than it should so Ross rigged a preventer around the boom in case it does break.

Ambrym is a live volcano and the ash and smoke are amazing.

Ambrym’s smoking caldera

 As we sail past the west coast of the island the yacht was covered with a fine film of volcanic ash.

The Volcano cast a bushfire like haze over the western side of Ambrym Island

 The wind dropped out and if we wanted to get to Luganville, Espirito Santo in time to clear immigration, customs and quarantine we needed to start the motor. Fortunately with the prop on the motor working efficiently we can motor at over 9 knots.

A tropical down pour greeted us in Luganville as we anchored Salacia on the western side of the customs wharf and even the locals were laughing at us looking like drowned rats as we cleared with authorities.

Vanuatu flag and the quarantine flag flying

We tied up to a friend’s mooring on Aore Island and had a great evening catching up with Geoff and Lee, and Roger and Mandy.

Lee had prepared a delicious three course meal and we were entertained by the waterfalls of the torrential downpour pouring off the roof of their beautiful house.

  

30 October 2010

The morning was perfect with no wind, the rain had also washed Salacia clean of the ash from the volcano and the landscape smells fresh, clean and perfect.

View west down the passage between Aore and Espiritu Santo

 We shopped at the Hardware and went to visit Roger and Mandy’s block of land where they are building a house and poured the slab yesterday.

Stephen and Ross off the jetty in Luganville shopping by dinghy

Thankfully, the slab survived the rain last night.  Stephen and Ross were enthralled by Roger's "Willies 1942 WW2 Amercian jeep". Both boys took it for a burn and one is now at the top of Stephen’s wish list. When Roger was restoring it he was delighted to find a genuine WW2 American Hard hat under the back seat.

Ross playing in Roger's "Willies 1942 WW2 Amercian jeep"

Departing Fiji for Vanuatu

We have had fun hanging out with Don and Devon from "Liquid Courage". Ross arrived back on board on Sunday evening while we were all having drinks. He was an hour early at the marina gate because we didn't know about Daylight Savings in Fiji which started at midnight on Saturday.

 24 October 2010

Cyndy, Stephen and Ross joined Don and Devon aboard Liquid Courage for drinks Sunday evening, then a delightful meal at the Fiji Restaurant, with a local band and vocalists.

 Monday was provisioning day before our departure Tuesday, so Shalen from Yacht Help drove us up to Lautoka, to provision.

We went through the formalities of adding Ross to the crew list with immigration, aided by Shalen's friends, in record time, then Customs and shopping.

The Supermarket and the Markets were clean and well stocked and provided us with all the necessary provisions.

Even the Liquor Stores had a good range of wines.

Visited Port Vuda on the return journey and lunched overlooking the Marina entrance and ocean in very pleasant surroundings.

Quite a few yachts were laid up on the hard in the marina grounds for the cyclone season.

They were sitting on tyres on the ground with their keels in a trench, and looked secure enough to ride out the storms.

Drinks at Lulus in the evening where we met Ursula again, and weren't Don and Devon surprised to see their past crew member on Liquid Courage. Ursula now has the diving bug and is working on her instructors accreditation.

We joined Don and Devon for dinner at the seafood restaurant for our last night in Fiji.

There is a very good choice of eating places within a short walk from Salacia in Port Denison, and Cyndy and Stephen have tried most of them.

Departed Port Denarau at 0900 Tuesday morning bound for Luganville on Espiritu Santo in Vanuatu, and motored until 1500 when there was enough wind to sail.

Tuesday night was squally with showers and Easterly winds in the low 30's, so great progress was made.

27 October 2010

 Wednesday turned into a sparkling warm sunny day with ESE winds in the low 20's, so we are cruising at about 10 knots downwind and on course.

Cyndy and Stephen cooked a beautiful mushroom omelette, which was just about to be served when Ross hooked a fish. The metre long Wahoo was quickly landed and Stephen attached the tail rope so that we could bleed it while we were enjoying the omelette.

The fillets are safely in the freezer and a fish meal awaits tonight; great life this cruising.

Musket Cove

23 October 2010

Next day we left Nabora Point bright and early, south bound for Musket Cove, which we had heard about from a lot of yachts. As you can see from the chart we had to keep a close eye on navigation because of the prevalence of dangerous reefs.

Some tricky navigation required

Wind was 5 – 10 knots and we were expecting it to strengthen over night.  However, as we negotiated the narrow channels around Malolo Island, the wind had strengthened to 25 knots so we decided to anchor off the resort which was very protected. We enjoyed it so much here that we stayed for 2 nights.

 Salacia anchored at Malolo Island

The Resort on Malolu Island

Sunset off Malolo Island

The moon over Malolo Resort

  

This morning we returned to Port Denarau to refuel and restock Salacia for our passage to Vanuatu.

Naviti Island

22 October 2010

After leaving the anchorage we chose to go north on the eastern side of Naviti Island, inside the fringing reef called Cakau Nasau. It was very much “eye ball and seat of the pants” navigation because neither the paper charts or the electronic charts were accurate and polaroid sunglasses saved the day, as we worked our way cautiously through the reefs and shallow water.

We exited the eastern reef just north of the Naviti island where there was a narrow pass. We had two tries at going through the pass. The first attempt was aborted because the depth rapidly dropped to 13 metres and we turned around and regrouped.

Once again the charts were not accurate and we found that according to both paper and electronic charts we actually crossed on top of the reef. On the second attempt we actually went out through a deep channel to the north of the supposed pass and the depth didn’t go below 28 metres.  There were no markers on this passage and we have found that  in all of the areas of Fiji.

Picture of Chart plotter photo of the reef chart

We hugged the reef as we sailed north until we found Kubu pass in the reef to go into the famous Blue Lagoon.

There was a floating mark on the northern side of reef  but from then on there were rusty sticks or tree branches marking reefs. We anchored in 12  metres of water and were very comfortable in the all weather anchorage.

The ferry pictured below, is the main means of bringing people to the resorts on these North Western Islands. It is mayhem when the ferry arrives and there are panga’s everywhere with guests who are departing and their luggage and then the new guests are off loaded.

The ferry  bringing people to the numerous resorts and taking others back to the mainland

You can see that all of this activity was happening very close to Salacia

We heard of one yacht who hit the reef in Blue Lagoon twice yesterday. Fortunately they got off under their own steam but the calls went out to the local boats that there was a yacht in trouble and they were all ready to offer assistance. We have been putting in a waypoint on a known reef and heading straight for it rather than try to find a “problem” which is like a needle in a hay stack.

We were invited to a traditional Fijian feast by the Chief. In this case she is a lady who own the whole of the island. The food was cooked underground wrapped in banana leaves and then covered with palm fronds and dirt and then it is all covered by a tarpaulin. Fish, pork, beef and vegetables were cooked by this method and the banquet included salads, vegetables and fruit. Everything was absolutely delicious and after dinner the Fijians lit a huge bonfire. Two Fijians lads and some crew from a Danish yacht  played guitar, ukulele, mouth organ, and flute and the singing was incredible. It is amazing how friendly and open the Fijians are.

The fire pit covered with tarp and dirt

Removing the tarp from the fire pit

Removing the plam fonds from the fire pit

Removing the food wrapped in banana leaves

Lighting the bon fire

The Danish yacht was interesting in that it had 10 people on board and was owned by 33 families who take turns in passage making and as skipper if they have the required Danish Level 3 Yachting qualifications. They were all very friendly. We had to avoid looking at the yacht though as they were always naked on board.

Sadly we left this gorgeous place after two nights. We motored slowly out the unmarked channel to the western side of the island and picked our way through the reefs, rocks and shallow areas as we headed south. The visibility was very good and there was 5 -10 knots of wind from the east so it was an easy and scenic trip. The scenery on this west coast is reputed to be the best and most spectacular in Fiji.

The west coast of the Yasawa Group is spectacular

We had planned to anchor at Likuliku Bay on the west coast of Waya Island where there is a nice resort. However, when we got there, there was a rolling south westerly swell so we pressed on to a more suitable anchorage. At this stage the wind was 1.5 knots from the NE.

We checked out Nabora Point in Yalobi Bay and then went down to Yaobi at the head of the bay. We returned to the much prettier  Nabora Point and anchored in 9m. The roll was very gentle – just enough so you knew you were on a boat.

Cyndy prepared a delicious Carbonara which was very well received.

We also had a visit from a local Fijian who had nasty looking erupting boil on his leg and was looking for help.  Cyndy cleaned and dressed the boil and provided him with dressings, bandages and medications and instructions on how to care for the wound  and advice to follow up with medical attention. We felt we had really helped him.

Port Denarau and the Yasawa Group

20 October 2010

We needed to order a new alternator from NZ to be fitted At Port Denauru and as it was going to take several days for it to arrive.  We returned to Australia for a week to attend to “real life”. While we were gone we arranged for the pitch  on the max propeller to be reduced.  This is a job that Stephen has wanted to do for several thousand miles and Salacia had to come out of the water for this job. We took advantage of having her up on the hard stand to have her anti fouling redone because it had worn through in places. We also had a sailmaker adjust our dinghy cover to fit the new dinghy and made a great sling and cover for the new outboard motor.  We were delighted with the quality of the jobs that were done, and the low labor costs certainly made it economical. The staff are  very efficient and know their job. They also look after the super yachts so we knew that our girl would be in good hands while we were gone.

We arrived back in Fiji in a torrential downpour,  and the Fijians were delighted because they have been experiencing a drought and have very strict water restrictions. As far as the Marina was concerned, anyone at the Marina wanting water has to fill empty bottles. All hoses have been disconnected.

Getting down to Salacia at Port Denarau was hilarious. By the time we took our gear out to the boat on the marina finger we were “squelshing” in boots full of water. We literally had to empty them out. Even Cyndy’s red leather handbag was full of water and the passports were saturated. Murphy was lurking and the torch that we had left at the locked hatch couldn’t be found. Every towel we could find was put into service to mop up the water that we had bought down below on our nice dry boat. We immediately unpacked the bags of “boat things” that we had bought from Australia to minimise damage.

While in Australia we bought a set of Mariner 500 Headset  Communicators which are waterproof, aviation  style “hands free”, long range – 300ft, and full duplex (2 people can talk at once).  This allows us constant communication between the person on the bow and the helmsman when anchoring or in close quarters and they have  been fantastic in Fijian waters with so many reefs.

Cyndy anchoring Salacia wearing  Mariner 500 Headset Communicator

After reprovisioning we left the marina to explore the north western islands.

A voyage to these outer islands offers the opportunity to taste the true nature and generous hospitality of the Fijian people. When visiting a Fijian village, a small offering of Kava roots to the chief of the village is considered polite. This is usually given and accepted at a ceremony called a sevusevu.

The Fijian group is made up of over 300 islands, of which only a third are inhabited. The two main islands, Vitu Levu and Vanua Levu are volcanic and make up most of the 85% of the landmass, whereas the rest of the islands vary greatly in size and are largely coral limestone.

Our first overnight stop was at Nanuya Balavu Island at the south of the Yasawa Group.

Salacia anchored at Nanuya Balavu Island.

To get there we motored Salacia through the Mocelutu Passage in a northerly direction and  up the western shore of Nanuya Balavu Island. We then came south through Qarucuva Passage through water depths as low as 4.5 metres before we found a wonderful 16 metre hole to anchor for the night.

Chart Plotter position of Salacia marked by a red anchor

 The weather was like a mill pond and perfect for exploring other bays in the area by dinghy and there was abundant fish, coral and manta rays. If you look closely at the picture just taken over the side of the dinghy with a small digital camera you can see black and white striped fish, tiny irridencent blue fish and aqua fish as well as healthy coral. Giant clams and brilliant blue star fish were in abundance

Photo of Coral taken over the side of the dinghy

 There were 2 catamarans and another yacht in the anchorage with us and when a 15 – 20 knot south easterly change came in early the next morning we all departed within 10 minutes of each other.