few hundred yards offshore of Espiritu Santo Island. We're about 160
miles north of Port Vila. All is well, so I'll take a moment to catch
you up on our trip up here.
We left off our story with our arrival in Tanna Island in the southern
end of Vanuatu's island chain. We did indeed make the 4X4 trek to the
town on the other side of the island to clear customs and immigration.
It took about 2 hours each way. The standard mode of transport is 4wd
pickup trucks, and everyone rides in the bed in back. There's a little
wooden bench that surrounds the inside of the bed and everyone sits on
that and holds on where possible. We shared the truck with half a
dozen of the villagers from Port Resolution who were going into town
for market day. There was beautiful scenery along the road and we
passed many pretty, very well kept villages. The only downside was the
pouring rain. Luckily we grabbed raincoats as we left the boat, but
the soaking we got was thorough and by the time we arrived at Lenakel,
were all shivering violently. Checking in was easy and we had a couple
of hours to kill before the truck headed back to Port Resolution. We
found a family cooking on a small fire in a hut and asked them if we
could huddle by the fire to warm up.
Sophie got to ride in the cab with the 2 kids on the way back and I
got to enjoy some more rain in the back. We made lots of stops on the
way back. the locals would stop to buy vegetables from the villagers
selling them by the roadside. They told me they do this in order to
spread out the wealth of Port Resolution's village since they have
more money than the mountain villages thanks to the income from the
yachties. When we got back to the boat we made hot chocolate and all 4
of us cuddled in bed and watched Star Trek IV. You know, the one about
the whales. The kids got a big kick out of seeing the Monterey Bay
Aquarium where they'd just spent several days during our last visit to
the States.
The next evening we took the same pickup truck up to the volcano with
another family of yachties that had just arrived in the bay. It was a
45 minute trip up to the top of the mountain. The last 15 minutes of
steep, rutted road we were surrounded by a lunar landscape with no
plants or animals, just black rocks and sand. Once arrived at the
"parking lot" where there were several other pickups from the various
tiny "resorts" on the island, our driver got out, pointed to the top
of the crater and said "go Left, eh? Not Right. Left is good. I will
wait here in da truck." There were no railings, guides, signs, or
waivers to sign. Now this is the way to visit an active volcano. There
was a 10 minute walk up to the edge of the crater and then we could
see down into the bowels of the beast. It was still daylight, but we
could see a deep red glow down there. After about 10 minutes of
waiting, there was big BANG! and lava shot up into the sky right in
front of us. We'd been told to watch the rocks shooting up and coming
back down, and to get out of the way if one was coming towards you.
Huh. No kidding? The wind was howling, and was blowing the molten
boulders away from us, mostly, so we felt pretty safe. Except Massimo.
His two big fears in life are spiders and volcanoes, so he was
terrified. After three or four eruptions–which really were quite
impressive–Massimo screamed, That's it!! I'm out of here! So Sophie
took him back down to the truck. Annabelle stayed with me and we
waited until dark and headed down after seeing several more dramatic
eruptions. A couple of times we had boulders hurled over our heads and
landing less than a hundred yards from us. When we were on the rim, we
were only 60 or 70 yards from the center of the crater where the lava
was coming from. Massimo still talks about his experience daily.
From Tanna, we needed to make our way north to Espiritu Santo island
to meet our good friends' daughter Coralie and her boyfriend who would
stay with us all the way back to New Cledonia. On the way we had to
stop at Port Vila (the administrative center of Vanuatu and it's
largest town) to finish clearance formalities. We did a long day of
motoring and sailing towards Erromango where we planned on breaking up
the trip. About 2 hours out of Erromango, under full sail and going
8.5 knots, one of the fishing reels sang out. We slowed the boat down
a little bit by taking in the genoa, but with the min up we were still
doing better than 6 knots. The reel kept screaming, even with maximum
drag, and pretty soon there was barely any line left on it. I could
see a fish jumping out of the water several hundred yards behind us,
but I couldn't slow the line down. The reel was literally smoking and
smelled of burning oil. I clamped down on the spool with my thumbs and
finally the line gave way, sending me flying backwards on my butt.
About 15 minutes later the second reel rang and this time we made a
bigger effort to slow the boat down. The problem is that to do that
quickly can be a challenge for 2 people, but I was busy with the
fishing pole, so Sophie had to do most of the work. We managed to slow
the boat and an hour later we had a beautiful striped marlin gaffed
and tied to the transom. We gave it to the village at Erromango and
they were VERY happy.
We spent a couple of days at Port Vila, the capitol and main town in
Vanuatu. We found it very charming and enjoyed smoothies and internet
at the Numbawan Café (which took us a while to find since everyone
told us to look for the "Number One Cafe"...).
After Vila we visited Epi and the East Coast of Malekula on the way to
Espiritu Santo to pick up our friends.
More updates soon, hopefully.
