Vanuatu – The Reunion Tour

We were unaware of the Fijian tradition to sing good wishes and safe travels to departing yachts and were pleasantly surprised by the serenaders at Vuda Point Marina.  It was a heartwarming moment.
We then anchored near Fiji’s reef exit for ships, setting ourselves up for a classic Jason departure. As soon as the faintest glimmer of light appeared in the sky, we scurried on deck to ready Two Fish and weigh anchor. By the time we reached the channel, the sun was fully up and we were ready for our four day passage to Vanuatu. Four days and just the two of us on board. As we tried to adjust the chartplotter screens to our usual passage settings, we noticed that our radar didn’t seem to be showing obvious land features. Seems that the magnetrons in Furuno radomes have a limited life and my perpetual insistence on having radar on at all times while on passage had meant that we reached 3000 hours in just 3 years. Maybe the 20,000+ miles traveled had something to do with that?

Our destination was Vanuatu.  We had never heard of it a year ago, but after being with coconut milk runners (nickname for Pacific cruisers) for so long it now seems like common parlance.  Our Pacific Island geography has certain improved, but Africa remains a sore point when playing TravelerIQ.  Vanuatu has Melanesian roots and was colonized by the French and the English.  They agreed to share it, which they thought of as rather sporting, however I suspect the Melanesians were not too thrilled.  Today, English seems to be spoken widely.

We had a fairly kind passage. As we approached Resolution Bay, we could see the smoke from the Volcano that we were hoping to visit.

Jason donned his scuba gear to check that the anchor was set and then raised the Two Fish flag. We knew the real fun would not start until Two Fish veterans from our 2014 French Guiana trip arrived. Salwa and Darren first boarded Two Fish in Fortaleza, Brazil for our sail to French Guiana and Trinidad. Darren could probably single-hand Two Fish and Salwa was the first winner of the crew Small Footprint Award.  My mantra for the previous two months had been, “when Darren and Salwa join, I don’t have to do any more work.” (note: Jason didn’t debunk that opinion until the day before they arrived.)
We were trying to keep a low profile as we hadn’t cleared customs and immigration yet, but that didn’t last long as a neighboring boat alerted immigration to our presence. Thank you busybody boat. Actually, it all worked out well as the immigration rep was in the bay for someone else and was happy to meet us ashore. To give some scale to the fortuitousness of the presence of immigration, one must understand their closest office is a two hour drive away.  The Vanuatuans seem similar to the French, relaxed about checking in. The Brazilians, Americans and Australians could learn a few things.

The next hail for Two Fish was not by radio but via the local communication service: Head to a hill top and yell.  A resident of Tanna was trying to tell us that Salwa had arrived .“Hey, Two Fish, someone has been yelling for you from onshore for the last ten minutes,” our neighbor radioed. Salwa, having survived the 90 minute ride from the Tanna airport to our bay, quickly decided that accommodations on Two Fish were superior to the mosquito cabins onshore. The cabins had received very high scores on Trip Advisor, but were just thatched huts with no screens, a bit too open in a sometimes malarial zone.

Darren had a bit more of a challenging approach; he had missed his second flight in a series of many. So now he would be delayed a couple of days and have a large layover in the Vanuatu industrial core, Port Vila.   The final salt on the wound was a five hour car ride with stops for taxi repair and picking up a new beer fridge.   He took it in good spirits but the effects showed up as he was first to bed that night.

The next day we tackled the volcano. We could see the tell tale sign of venting gas from the shore near the anchorage. We traveled by pick up truck (men outside and women in the cab) for the nighttime trip to the Volcano at Mount Yasur, but it was well worth it.

The village at Port Resolution has suffered much damage from cyclones and we had brought some nails across from Fiji to help in the reconstruction. The village is remote and is a bit stuck between a traditional way of life and the pull to modernization. The fishermen using canoes in the bay have cell phones but now they need to worry about electricity for charging them.

To our delight, we managed to catch up with fellow Antares Field Trip in Port Resolution. The previous time we had seen them was when they visited our NYC Apartment a few years ago. We watched Field Trip sail down the East River in 2013, only imagining that we might be doing the same at some point. It wasn’t all “delight” as one night we returned to the boat to find some bugs both on our table and next to the winch buttons. I shrieked and panicked until I realized they looked dead. Michael, on Field Trip, had dinghied over to play a trick on us with his plastic replicas.

Field Trip has impressed us with their slower paced voyage, as they have been able to spend more time in ports and have gotten to know the local residents. On their sail around Tanna Island, they gave a ride to friends from one of Fiji’s remote islands who happened to be in Vanuatu and they have immersed themselves in the local communities as they travel.

Jason and I prepped for our next trip while Salwa and Darren explored the island a bit more and then we were ready to set sail. It was sad to be leaving friends that we had been with for the past six months.  Our friends on Wishanger sent us off in proper style with three blasts from the loud ship horn.  To a sailor, that was a tearful moment.  Our friends were continuing on their circumnavigation, while we were off to New Caledonia.

Photo credits in this post go to Salwa, Darren and Mark.