Month: August 2010

I need to get the blog up-to-date on events since I last wrote. On August 7, my sister Fran, my brother-in-law John, Laura and I sailed to Loltong, Pentecost Island from Asanvari, Maewo Island. The channel between the islands typically has big seas and enhanced wind, but this time it was almost gentle. We had good wind on the beam almost the whole way and it was an excellent sail. We went to shore late in the afternoon in order to visit Patrick (actor/politician Patrick, rather than older bearded Patrick) and arrange some kind of trek up to the high plateau. Last time Laura and I were in Loltong, Patrick told us that the high plateau and the east coast of Pentecost were among the most beautiful places in Vanuatu. One needs to charter one of the two four-wheel drive pickup trucks in order to get to the east coast, and Patrick offered to talk to the trucks’ operator. The truck trip turned out to be too expensive and required that two of us sit in the bed of the truck. So we passed.

The next morning (August 8), accompanied by Patrick and his wife Liza, we walked up to the top of the plateau. It is a hot, sweaty trek up a steep path but the views were spectacular. Once at the top, Patrick and Liza took us through a jungle path to their family “garden” — the place where they grow their food. In the garden is a simple hut, a cistern for collecting rain water, and some chickens. Scattered around the extensive property are plantings of taro, yam, chilli, kava, coconut, and manioc. We shared the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches we brought from the boat with Patrick and Liza, and they provided us with coconuts to drink and eat. After lunch we toured their gardens and then visited the agricultural extension station further north along the plateau.

Added on August 15:

The walk back down to Loltong was almost as difficult as the walk up. After parting with Patrick and Liza, we went directly back to the boat to cool off with a swim, and then drank voluminous quantities of water to rehydrate. The next morning, Laura and I left Fran and John on the boat and went back to Patrick’s house with some gifts. Walking through Loltong we ran into Darrel, the bridegrooom at the wedding we had attended three weeks earlier. At the wedding and for two days afterward, Darrel seemed unfocused and disinterested — kava-ed out. But on this day, he was a whole different person. He greeted us very warmly, thanked us for the wedding photos we took, and was alert, focused and congenial. Perhaps his bride has gotten him to spend less time at the nakamal (kava bar).

Later that day (August 9), we left to sail back to Asanvari. We did not go back to Asanvari to visit, we went back because it was the only place nearby that I felt could be safely left in the dark. I did not want to try to navigate through the narrow gap in the reef at Loltong in the 4 am darkness, but Asanvari is wide open to the sea. The 4 am departure was required by a change in destinations. Instead of sailing to Oyster Island as planned, we decided to go to Port Olry, further north on Espritu Santo Island. We learned that the Island Cruising Association (of New Zealand) rally was coming to Oyster Island from Fiji with 25 or so boats just when we planned to go there. That is way too much commotion for us, so we deviated to Port Olry. The extra distance required the earlier start.

As we approached Asanvari, a pod of 20 to 30 dolphins came to greet us. They zig-zagged across the bow of the boat, and leaped into the air. Sabbatical III turned a couple of big circles in the water to keep the action going.

At 4 am on August 10, we left Asanvari for Port Olry. It was a great passage for the first 8 hours, made better by the mahi-mahi that I landed early in the morning. The seas became confused and ugly around noon and stayed that way until we came into Port Olry about 3 pm.

The morning of August 11 was spent recovering from earlier mishaps. The evening before I dropped our boat brush mounted on an aluminum pole overboard into 30 feet of water while scubbing fish blood off of the transom. The next morning, my wet suit was blown off the back of the boat and floated out before sinking in 40 feet of water. I was able to free dive for the brush and pole but 30 feet is the absolute limit of by free diving ability, and that effort hurt my ears. We retrieved the wet suit by dragging a grapnel dinghy anchor until it snagged it. All of this took most of the morning. It was not much of a hardship in the aquamarine water under a sunny sky. In the afternoon we went into the village to arrange a truck to take Fran and John to the airport in Luganville two days later.

On August 12 we returned to Port Olry to drop off some of Fran and John’s luggage with our contact in the village and to have lunch at the only restaurant in town. We were late for lunch and the cook had gone home for siesta, but John, the restaurant owner, prepared an island lunch for the four of us on his own. It was our only meal out for the whole time Fran and John were with us.

On Friday morning, August 13, we took Fran and John to Port Olry in the dinghy. As the truck waited, we said our goodbyes. We had such a great time with them, filled with a succession of adventures.

M.

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My sister Fran and her husband John joined the boat at Lolowai two days ago. We waited at the simple airport at Longana for their 20 seat Dehavilland Twin Otter prop plane from Luganville. The plane taxied to a stop but kept one engine running. Two Vanuatan’s hopped out, but after a few minutes Fran and John had not appeared. I asked someone who was joining the flight (it proceeds on to a number of islands) to go in the cabin and ask for Fran and John. That got results — they jumped out. The captain never turned off the seat belt sign, never announced where they had landed, and did not stop one of the props, so they did not think that they should get off or that this was their destination. If they had gone on to another island, we might never have caught up with them.

We went to the airport from Lolowai in the fanciest pickup truck on Ambae Island. It was driven by Jim, our new friend and a volunteer from New Zealand who, along with his wife Linda, are helping develop tourism in Penama Province. We also became friends with the other white folk on the island — Ed and Beth, a husband/wife team of Peace Corps volunteers, and Billy, another Peace Corps volunteer who works up-island. The people of Lolowai were so very friendly to us. On our first day (before Fran and John arrived), we looked into a little shop run my Rachel. A bond quickly developed that was certainly aided by Laura’s almost fluent French. Rachel gave us gifts, then we gave her gifts, and then more of the same until we said heartfelt goodbyes. On that first day we also went to Celia’s little restaurant next to the John Still store. We immediately hit it off with Celia and had an exchange of gifts. We had Celia, her son Steven, and her little daughter, over to the boat for lemonade and cookies. Celia is such a charming, earnest, and affectionate person. Her restaurant has only one dish on the menu, so there is no menu and no need to order. Just sit down and you get served with rice with susu (a vegetable), beans, and a little bit of minced beef on top.

Her brother John runs the John Still store next door. Outside the entrance are barrels of gasoline, diesel, and kerosine. There is a fence to keep out the pigs. Inside the small dark establishment there is an amazing array of stuff — including bread and sweet rolls, rice, flour, vegetable oil, plastic buckets, cigarettes, Coke, lanterns, rope, and much more. People are constantly coming and going. Lolowai is the provincial capitol (actually Saratamata next door), and has civil servants, a police post, a hospital (with no doctor), and at least a couple dozen motorized vehicles (but no electricity). One has to look before crossing the unpaved road. There is an establishment that calls itself an “internet cafe” but there is no internet (there was some internet for a while more than a year ago) and they do not serve food.

We left Lolowai at high tide yesterday (Thursday, August 5) and went to Asanvari, Maewo Island, one of our favorite places. We came with 10 kilos of flour as a gift for Vivienne, the wife of Nickson, the son of Chief Nelson. Today we walked around the local villages and then snorkeled into the rock fissure nearby (described in an earlier blog). It is one of the most beautiful snorkeling locations we have experienced, and we are glad that Fran and John were able to experience it as well. We then proceeded to the waterfall where we bathed in the cool, fresh water in the pool at the base of the falls. Just before sunset, we returned to Asanvari village to have kava in the nakamal with Chief Nelson and his son Nickson. All four of us drank kava. Chief Nelson and Nickson related to us the creation myth of kava, so now we understand why kava is a “she.” Nickson is a very congenial guy

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