Blogs

Taking the Piss
Of all the recent changes and additions to Navire’s wardrobe, the most popular has been the self-bailing, auto-cleaning, portable urinal. This nifty device, useable by all sexes, allows bladder voiding without leaving the cockpit. Further, and more importantly, its use avoids the risk of the time-honoured lee-rail option which has given us the sobering statistic that more bodies are recovered from the sea with their flies open than zipped.
This clever innovation is purpose built and constructed of high-density polyethylene.

We headed out of our anchorage in Tanna at 7am and had a wonderful sail to Erromango. Flat seas and 20-25 knot wind gave us speeds of 8 and sometimes 9 knots. Arrived in Dillons Bay in time for a swim before lunch and then we set off for the village. David welcomed us on shore and we took our gifts of seeds and fishing gear to the community centre. Everything will be divided up by the committee here for the 500 plus residents of this village. The community council gave us a formal welcome and thank you speech, showing appreciation of our gifts. We then asked directions for the school so we could donate some educational supplies. David offered some advice, he said we should follow the road until we came to the big mango tree and then turn up the hill. I should explain at this point that the island is called Erromango, which translates, literally, to "Land of Mangoes". There are hundreds, if not thousands of mango trees to be seen in one sweeping glance. Still, we managed to find the r ight mango tree, and the school. Pens and books and other materials gifted, we turned back to explore the village some more. We met Donald who has a sandalwood nursery here. He explained the process of planting the seeds and transplanting the seedlings into bigger and bigger pots until they were ready to plant in the fields. Donald had met David and Patricia some years before and was excited to learn that we knew these good people. By the time we had had a tour of the nursery and chatted about David and Patricia we were new found friends. We have been invited to lunch tomorrow, which we insisted will be a "pot luck" lunch so we can contribute to it as well.
The community of Dillons Bay has a very pretty setting, with a fresh water river running beside the village and out to sea. They have rich fertile soil, sandalwood, mangoes, plenty of fresh water and an idyllic bay. Unfortunately cyclone Pam conspired against them, with strong winds stripping all the fruit and all the branches off the mango trees, and, torrential rain causing flooding of the river and the village. All of their crops were destroyed. The people here have been very busy however, and have already repaired much of the damage to houses and replanted many gardens. They take pride in their surroundings here and place a huge emphasis on education. After school, we saw children sitting in the fields diligently doing their homework. The school motto is "Nothing without education and labour" and this sums up the culture we saw in the village. As we headed back to our dinghy on shore, David met up with us again and showed us the yacht club he has been building for the last 7 years. What a wonderful setting and a great facility he is creating! He will have it completed in time for the next cruising season and it will be a popular spot for yachties to watch the sunset over a cold beer. Dillons Bay is a "must do" for any cruisers who visit Vanuatu.

We had an early start yesterday, ferried two dinghy loads of seeds and other goods to shore by 8am and had everything loaded in the pick up truck shortly after. Karl and Heather squeezed into the front seat next to the driver, it was only a single cab ute. A few local villagers climbed on board the tray of the truck to accompany our load of goodies. More items were added from goods previously left in Port Resolution by other yachties and a dead pig was donated from one local village. We set off at 8.30am, headed for what the locals call the 'south island' which means the southern part of Tanna. The road was little more than a narrow dirt track, full of boulders. Cyclone Pam had caused slips in many places and the road had subsided into gullies along the way. Numerous trees had fallen across the road and had been cut to allow us through. The road had been repaired in several places the day before, in preparation for our journey, using hand tools. At one point there was a bridge, with a rusty, fragile structure. As we went across the bridge, the tyres of the truck dipped down into the holes left by missing planks, more revs were needed to get us up onto the next plank and on our way again. I squeezed my eyes shut and waited until we were across the other side before opening my eyes again. For 90% of the journey the truck was in first gear, low ratio. We had a very good driver who was very experienced in driving these local roads, we would not have attempted to do it ourselves. The road wound around the base of Mt Melen, through the undulating folds of the foothills. Every now and again the truck would stop, for a village along the way. Many times there was no sign of a village from the road, but a walk down a bush track revealed a cluster of huts nestled in a valley or on a plateau perched high above the sea. These were very isolated communities! We delivered our parcels to 8 villages, but could not go all the way to Green Point. Our driver informed us that the road was too bad to go any further. Having already travelled over roads we thought were impassable, we did not argue with the driver when he said he could go no further. They needed a bulldozer he said, it was too much to fix by hand. We felt very sorry for the communities further south and around the south western shore of Tanna, they are truly cut off from supplies by road. We spent some time at the southern most village we could get to, we were the first visitors they had seen since cyclone Pam. The chief of these 360 people gave a speech in his local language and presented us with some kava, a woven basket and some coloured feathers to say thank you for our gifts. Our driver translated for us and introduced us to one of the two men in the village that spoke English, a young man by the name of Sam. Sam took us on a tour of the village. He explained that there is no school here and the people in the village have no education at all. (More than half of the village is made up of children) He had been sent to Port Resolution as a child and was the only person in the village with an education. He was now back in the village helping them build houses again after the cyclone. The only other man in the village who spoke English was a very old man who had fought in world war two. He still recalled the names of the soldiers he was serving with, but his English w as very rusty.
Evidence of cyclone damage was everywhere, huts destroyed, trees blown over and gardens stripped. Many new huts had already been built and many more were in the making. For the village, it was the first time they had experienced a cyclone and they had been terrified. The people here have strong beliefs in the spirits. They believe they can make rain for the garden by talking to the gods. To get good crops they rub two leaves together and hold their spiritual stone. A little 6 year old girl had gone missing for two days, lost in the bush, she had just been found the day before we arrived. The village people said it was a punishment. If the people do not obey the rules of the gods the gods will take one of their children away. It is hard for us to imagine, but these are deeply help beliefs! We watched some of the local women checking their children's hair for head lice. They stood in a group, sorting through the mass of frizzy hair on each head. With swift movements the women's hands parted hair, sorted though and then darted into their mouth. Back and forth, from their childs head, to their mouth, eating each louse they found. At some point I managed to drag my eyes away from this unbelievable sight, only then did I realise my mouth was gaping open in horror! They live in a different world.
By the time we arrived back in Port Resolution mid afternoon, we were exhausted from our journey, but pleased to have helped at least some of the villages - and happy our bumpy ride was over.
This morning we sailed around the southern coast of Tanna and could see some of the villages we visited from the shore, perched high above the sea. As we passed Green Point we searched the coastline, hoping for somewhere to anchor, somewhere to go ashore. But is was impossible. This is a very rugged coast, with giant waves crashing into the rocks that lie at the foot of high cliffs. The water is over 100m deep even very close to the rocks, so there is nowhere to anchor it is not safe to get close at all. Any vessel that would attempt it would risk being swept against the rocks and smashed to pieces. We had to abandon our mission here, Green Point was just too difficult to reach.
This afternoon, after a swim in crystal clear water, we went ashore at Lononloma Bay. There is a village, a Bible College and several clusters of family groups scattered along the coast here. OUr guide, Clifford, showed us around. We handed out seeds to several family groups and they were very grateful. The Red Cross had visited last week and given them bean seeds. Today we gave them seeds for cucumber, carrot, watermelon, pumpkin and chinese cabbage. All the village huts here had blown away during the cyclone. Village people sheltered in caves to hide from flying branches, coconuts and other debris picked up by the wind. After the cyclone, the whole community lived together in the two concrete buildings in the village for three weeks until they could start building their huts again. The mango trees were still standing but had lost all of their branches. New growth was sprouting out of the ravaged tree trunks, so the trees will survive, but it will be a couple of years before they ge t mangoes again here. The main source of income for this village is Sandalwood. Trees are ready to harvest in about 7 years. They strip the bark and cut it into pieces and sell it to merchants who then take it for processing into fragrances. Luckliy, many sandalwood trees survived the cyclone. Tomorrow we will continue our journey northwards and stop at Dillons Bay - the island of Erromango.

The island of Tanna was badly damaged by cyclone Pam. But that was two months ago! The people here have been busy cleaning up, rebuilding houses and getting on with life. While there is plenty of evidence of the destruction, it is also easy to see that the people here are forging ahead. They are certainly not feeling sorry for themselves! They have received a number of supply shipments, including building materials, tarpaulins, tools, rice, cans of food. All of this has been put to good use. Our delivery of seeds was the first supply of seeds that had been able to reach them. They would have liked seeds two months ago, straight after the cyclone, so they could start planting again straight away. But no seeds arrived - until now! Stanley is the 'organiser' in the village and collects all supplies donated by yachts. He then coordinates with the 15 surrounding villages to divide up supplies for the wider community. The seeds were very welcome and very much needed by the people here, but most other needs have been taken care of.
Last night we, and two other couples from other yachts, did the trip up to Mt Yasur. First there is a "road" trip by 4WD pick up truck. I use the term "road" but it takes a lot of imagination to see a road here. The dirt track is full of boulders, you cannot even say pot holes, there are no holes, just lumps and bumps. In fact, if water were to flow down the "road" you would have grade 5 rapids! After somewhere between 40 and 50 minutes of lumpity bumping along, we reached the carpark. Time to walk the rest of the way - up ash laden slopes, steep and crumbling. Ahead we could see tiny stick figures on the ridge way up ahead of us. Eventually we joined those people, up on the ridge. The ridge, of course, is the rim of the volcano. Looking down into the crater was an awesome sight. A bubbling couldran gurgled and puffed beneath us. Every now and then it would rumble and shake, sending hot spurts of lava skywards with an explosive force. We were treated to a volcanic fireworks display as showers of molten rock burst from the crater, hanging in the air for a while before tumbling back down. Steam vents hissed, sparks flew and the ground trembled beneath our feet. Spectacular! After an equally bone jarring ride down the mountain, the six of us went to a local "restaurant". We had booked ahead with one of the locals, Leah, who prepared a meal for the six of us. Chicken, yam, taro, cassava, cabbage and rice. Very tasty! Today we did some odd jobs on board including making some bread. In the afternoon we visited the school, taking some school supplies with us and a couple of frisbees to play with the kids. We watched some of the villagers building a new house using branches of trees. Everyone is active here. Boys and young men play soccer, girls play volleyball, some men fish all day using nets they put out from their dug out canoes, ladies weave pandanas leaves into baskets and mats. Everyone we meet looks fit, muscular and healthy. We learned that here they only have a primary school that serves the surrounding 15 villages. There are well over 100 kids at the school. When they get to secondary school age, they need to go to a village that is 6 hours walk from here. The kids walk to school for the school term, stay with family over there and then walk back home again in the school holidays. They don't think anything of these long walks, it is a normal part of life here.
Talking to the village people here, we learned that there are many villages inland from Port Resolution that have had no supplies or aid delivered to them so far as they are difficult to reach. Supply boats stop at Port Resolution on the east coast and and Lenakel on the west coast, but there are many people living in remote villages in the southern part of the island. It is impossible for boats to anchor on the southern and south western coast so these villages have missed out on much needed aid. So, we have arranged some transport, by hiring a driver of a 4WD, who will take us to the southern part of the island tomorrow. Along the way we will pass 15 remote villages inland from Port Resolution, all the way to Green Point in the south. We will travel for a few hours over bumpy rocky dirt "roads". A couple of locals will join us to help push the vehicle out of difficult spots so we don't get stuck! We have packed up supplies of seeds and other donations into 15 different "village par cels" so we can distribute these to each village along the way. One of the other yachts, ALBA has donated bedding, clothes, rice, buckets, ropes, tarpaulins and handsaws to take with us as well. It should be an interesting day. We will depart at 9am and all going to plan we will arrive back in Port Resolution again and be back on board Aradonna in time for dinner. Wish us luck!!