Aradonna's blog

Yesterday morning we snorkeled in Vanihe Bay and on the chocolate brown sand in the bay we saw hundreds of what looked like plant stems poking out of the sand and waving in the tide. Interestingly, as you snorkel over these stems, they get shorter, disappearing into the sand only to grow again after you pass by. On closer inspection these are not plant stems at all, but Garden Eels. These eels live in burrows in the sand and poke their heads and most of their bodies up into the current to feed on passing plankton, but quickly retreat if anything swims by. A slow careful approach reveals a tiny head on the end of the "stalk" that can grow to 1m long. Further out of the bay around the point, several larger fish were looking for a feed - snappers, grunts, trevallies and scats. Karl spotted a nursery of small stingrays feeding too. An interesting spot! After exploring Vanihe Bay we departed Ambae Island and made the 10 mile hop to Maewo Island. Maewo is a long narrow island running north-south. It is about 30 miles long and only 3 miles wide, but the whole island is a high mountain range, with mountains in the 600m, 700m and 800m range down the spine of the island. It apparently gets more rainfall than other islands in Vanuatu, which is not surprising given the prevailing winds and height of the mountains. Sailing along the coast is a pretty sight, with dense tropical jungle rising straight up from the sea, highlighted by gashes of white water cascading down in massive waterfalls. We anchored in Asanvari Bay, which has a roaring waterfall in the corner, tumbling out into the bay. Ashore, we met the locals. There is a yacht club, or I should say, there was a yacht club. It needs a new roof, and some walls might be handy too! The daughter of the deceased chief is trying to rebuild it, but we are not really sure why. This tiny village of about 100 people also has a restaurant, although there is no menu and no food, but the lady running it said she could probably find us some chicken and some taro if we were hungry. There is nothing to drink at the retaurant, only food, if you give her time to go and catch it. But, she said helpfully, there is a bar at the other end of the bay, if we would like a drink. The other end of the bay requires a 20 minute walk along a goat track through the bush on the side of the hill. Here, we met Alex who has been developing the Sparkling Waters Bar. A fabulous spot, right next to the waterfall, with a patio looking out into the bay. When we asked about beer, he said he could probably go and get some, but it was warm as it was too ex pensive to run the generator. He does not serve food, only drinks, as long as you like warm beer! Alex told us he has been developing his bar for the past 5 years and hopes to have it ready one day for all the yachts that come to visit. We were the 20th yacht so far this year, which is not a lot of customers really. Apparently some aid agency is helping with funding to rebuild the yacht club, but from what we saw they already have far too many businesses running for the number of visitors they get.
We met Justin at the school. Justin is chairman of the board of the school which as 96 children from year 1 to 6. The children come from the 5 villages up the coast and can only get to school by walking through the mountains or by boat. There are no roads or cars as the mountains rise straight up from the shore. Justin is also chief of the council of chiefs for his region and his wife is the principal of the school. We gave him seeds to distribute to the surrounding communities - he was extremely happy and very grateful. We watched some of the local kids playing soccer and Karl joined in the game for a few kicks. Today we explored the bay by dinghy and found a few good snorkeling spots. The coral here is not as colourful as other places, mainly browns, greens and dusky blues, but very pleasant to look at. It is a leafy coral, made up of layer upon layer of leaves forming large rosettes and frills that cling to the side of huge rock faces turning the rocky outcrops into the skirts of Spanish dancers. There were no large fish here, but throngs of tiny ones. Another enjoyable day, swimming in clear warm water and reading books in the sunshine. Ahhh!

More Rock Hopping! Yesterday we started watching the movement of the tide very carefully as we realised that tide times are different here to the tide tables we have. The nearest tide times we have are from Santo Island, but these are not correct for Ambae. To get back over the reef and out of the lagoon we wanted to time our exit for near to high tide, but while the tide was still rising, in case we ran aground. Karl went over to the large supply vessel about 9am to ask them, but no one on board seemed to know. He then asked a local fisherman sitting on the shore and he said high tide was at 10.30 or 11am. We knew this was wrong as the tide was still going out and it was more likely that 10.30am was low tide. So, while Heather baked some bread, Karl put some sticks on the shore in various places and watched the clock as the tide receded - the only sure way of working it out! Sure enough, it looked like 10.30am was low tide, so now it was easy for us to work out that we would need to leave the lagoon a bout 3.30pm. At 10.30am, while we were still watching the sticks to see if the tide would fall any further or start to flood back in again, we noticed that the supply ship started up its engines. We were a little puzzled as to why it would move and watched as it moved out towards us and then turned to go out over the reef. This is a large vessel, about twice the size of Aradonna, with high sides to carry pallets of cargo and enough space to fit 100 or so people. It must have a draft at least as deep as Aradonna, we thought. This vessel comes in and out of this lagoon every week, so we watched its track, thinking maybe they knew a deeper channel than the one we had found. As the vessel steered through the same channel that we had come through,we started to wonder if perhaps this vessel had a flat bottom after all. Then as we watched, the supply ship ran aground! After a while and with engines revving wildly, the vessel moved again, but only for a few seconds before running aground once more. The supply ship became stuck three times on bits of reef, twisting and turning and revving each time, but eventually got out of the lagoon. Quite surprising that they would attempt this pass at low tide, given they have local knowledge, but they did! It made us feel not quite so bad about bumping the reef ourselves on the way in! In the afternoon we went for a long swim, snorkeling further out of the bay. Some larger fish here. There was a 60-70cm Golden Trevally rooting in the sand, digging up food, a couple more groupers, a few large parrot fish and a turtle swimming by. Heather spotted a small crayfish hiding in a hole behind some coral, but it was too far in to reach.
We managed to steer through the pass and out of the reef without hitting anything at all on the way out of the lagoon, glad to be through safely after our previous experience! Last night we were treated to a beautiful sunset, no cloud and no land in the way, just the sun sinking into the sea. later we enjoyed our after dinner coffee on deck under a starry starry sky. A lovely peaceful clear night, just enjoying the world.

We went diving at Elephant Island (Lathu Island) on Saturday, with Sue and Bob from Mawari. We went over in Aradonna together and anchored on a narrow shelf. A quick check of the anchor showed we were perched on the edge of a shelf that dropped straight down to 100m plus! So Heather and Sue went diving together while Karl followed in the dinghy and Bob kept watch on Aradonna. Then we swapped over and Bob and Karl went diving while Sue followed in the dinghy and Heather kept watch on Aradonna and made some lunch. All went well with no dramas, but prudent to have been keeping watch as if the anchor had shifted into deeper water we would have drifted out to sea very fast! The visibility was outstanding. Even at 25m depth we could look up and clearly see the dinghy above us. A wonderful view of large coral formations and plenty of sea life. Nice to dive a drop off with such good visibility.
One of the locals needed some rope to tie up his cow, so we gave him some spare rope and he presented us with a sack full of coconuts, pomplemousse, grapefruit and passionfruit. A great exchange! In the afternoon we picked up our laundry from the resort only to find it was still very damp - in fact some of it was still wet! They had our laundry for two days and had hung it out under a large roof to protect it from passing drizzle showers, but it felt like it had been left sitting in the rain. The inside of Aradonna quickly became like a Chinese laundry with limp clothes hanging from every conceivable hooking point. Luckily we were invited to Mawari for dinner so we escaped having to sit amongst the damp clothes all evening! Yesterday we got an early start and motor sailed across to Ambae Island, also known as Aoba Island. Our destination was Lolowai Lagoon, which we knew had a reef in front of it and a tricky entrance, but once inside it is a very protected spot. As we approached the reef we were not entirely sure if we were in the right spot. We could see one triangle marker on the beach but could not find the other one to line up with. We thought we had the coordinates right and so moved in very slowly. Karl was on the bow watching for obstacles and Heather was on the helm watching the depth sounder. The first part of the reef went OK and according to the chart we should be almost through, when suddenly the depth went far to shallow and - bang! We hit the reef! Heather reversed hard - we were stuck at first but with some graunching noises as the motor revved, Aradonna started to move off the reef. Then Bang! We hit another rock! The next thing, the rudder angle instrument stopped transmitting the rudd er angle, so Heather had to guess the position of the wheel as she turned left and right trying to follow the hand signals Karl was giving on the bow. The bow thruster helped, but we were in a tight spot. Next, everytime Aradonna was put into gear, there was an ominous clonking noise on the prop, conjuring up images of all sorts of damage!!! Eventually, with several bumps, knocks and scary scraping sounds, we were once again in deeper water, clear of the reef, but still outside the lagoon. We were just about to head around the corner to another bay when a man in a dinghy approached from the catamaran already anchored inside the lagoon. "Follow me!" said the man, so we did. The channel through the reef into the lagoon was further to the left of where we had tried and once we were lined up we could just see the second triangle peeping out between the trees on the hill - so hard to see! Once safely inside the lagoon and at anchor we snorkeled under and checked for damage. Apart from a couple of new scratches on the keel, all looked in order. We had picked up a small piece of rope from the reef on our prop which was easily cut away (this explained the clonking) and all was well! Phew! A very picturesque spot and some lovely neighbours who had clearly earned the fruit cake we gave them to say thank you.
Today we awoke to blue sky and sunshine, such a welcome sight after a few drizzling days. By 8am Aradonna was festooned with fluttering laundry hanging from every rail and every line we could hang from somewhere outside - at last we could get the washing dry! We went ashore and met Ronan who took us for a walk to the crater lake and showed us where they grow their vegetables. The lake is a bit of a swampy area or wetland, so no good for drinking water but perfect for the gardens. In the village we were able to buy freshly baked bread along with some eggs. There is a hospital here that services all the villages on Ambae as well as people living on the islands of Maewo and Pentecost. To supply clean water to the hospital the Japanese have donated a solar powered desalination plant which was commissioned earlier this year. We gave a few watermelon seeds to some of the locals here as we have so many of these seeds left over.
This afternoon we had a snorkel on the reef, not as clear as Hog Harbour but still plenty of nice things to see. A large carpet of unusual soft corals in dusky pinks and mauves, a huge grouper lurking in the rocks, and a pair of blue fin unicorn fish along with the usual selection of pretty reef fishes. Later as we were drying off on board Aradonna, we spotted a whale cruising by the mouth of the bay. A real surprise to see this large creature blowing and diving - and quite a thrill! Later, a sizable ferry-come-cargo vessel motored in through the reef and over to the village to drop off supplies and people. A busy little bay in a remote island, full of surprises.

On the way north yesterday, we were farewelled from our anchorage by turtles popping up their heads and diving down as we passed by. Then as we headed further up the coast, we were in the sunshine but a rain band was chasing us. This created an intense rainbow that seemed to follow us for miles. We have never seen such intense colours in a rainbow before, so close and the full bow right beside us. Awesome! When we arrived into the bay, we went for a snorkel, as usual, to check the anchor. When we got to the anchor we discovered a large and very curious turtle was investigating our anchor. He hung around on top of the anchor for quite some time before slowing swimming away. It is so nice to watch these ponderous creatures! We had a look at Champagne Beach with its brilliant white sand. A pretty place to be, with turquoise water and plenty of coral reefs to explore.
Along with Bob and Sue from Mawari, we enjoyed dinner at the resort here last night. Woke up this morning to a dawn chorus from the birds in the jungle. Life is good! Went for a dive today at Malvoror Reef in front of Champagne Beach. Visibility was 25m plus, soooo clear! Plenty of colourful corals - intense blues, pinks, purples, yellows - and pretty fish, including a Clown Triggerfish - these look like a plump fish wearing clown pyjamas!