Bye Bye Fiji - Hello Vanuatu

Who says tomorrow never comes?  We were minding our own business, sailing along quite nicely and all of a sudden, in a second, it was tomorrow.  We went from 11:30 Tuesday morning to 11:30 Thursday morning in a heartbeat.  Wednesday never came but tomorrow was there for an instant as we crossed the international date line.  Another give away, experienced by at least a third of the boats in the WARC fleet was our chart plotters did all kind of crazy things.  Our chart plotter is part of Alice’s, our auto pilots, home.  It is where all of the charts for places we have been, places we are going and places we will, never visit reside – in great detail.  It is where our navigator, Eilo, plugs in courses we will travel from to the next harbor.  It tells how far we must travel, how far we have travelled, the exact course we have taken, how long it will take to get to our next destination, how far we are off course and exactly where we are on the planet (to name a few of its features).  Without it we would need to pack it in, jump overboard mid-ocean, or just give up… so when the chart plotter started acting up Captain Ken was visibly concerned; aside from uncontrollable shaking, soaring blood pressure, the need to consume a massive quantity of alcohol in a very short time (not under sail!), red faced, etc . he was thinking – of all the things which could die on board AURORA the chart plotter is one of the most critical systems.  So when islands started disappearing from the plotter, parts of our course stated disappearing randomly, the extreme digital detail started randomly disappearing into pixilation, parts of the screen flashing, some of the screen going blank – Captain Ken was thinking this would be a good time to shoot himself.  We crossed the date line and with-in another 20 miles the whole thing was over and Mr. chart plotter was back on his game and so were we.  We have never heard of this phenomena before and neither had the other sailors; as I found out over drinks at the Paradise Resort, discussing this phenomena with the other skippers – who had chart plotter issues, and were contemplating various easy ways out of this thing called life.   None of us know why it happened but in my opinion the Chart Plotter Manufacturers should issue a warning with their instruction manuals that one should be wary as one approaches the date line – but have no fear – your fear will be short lived.

Another funny thing about the date line.  On Taveuni some genius decided, a good while back, that the date line should run right trough the island of Taveuni.  A local entrepreneur has built a shrine to the date line so tourists can stand with one part of their body in today and the other half in tomorrow.  Here is Eilo doing just that:

But the practical side of that geographic over lay is that line runs through a village.  Let’s look at Sunday.  On the west side of the line all shops and businesses are closed (In Fiji it is illegal for businesses of any kind to be open on Sunday) – everyone is at church or at home with their family having a Sunday feast – nothing is happening – it’s a day of rest and relaxation; but on the east side of the line all the kids and teachers are at school, businesses and shops are open, you can buy gasoline, you can take money out of the bank, you can go fishing, or hang out and watch tourists stand on the date line.  The village is completely out of sync with itself.  Villagers from the east side of the line who go and frequent shops, on the west side of the date line, with the intention of buying stuff would need to be carted off to jail as it is illegal to buy stuff on Sunday and that’s just the tip of that iceberg if you are in yesterday – hopefully you get the point… So the actual current date line location was finally moved off shore.

Remember the TV series “Ironside” starring Raymond Burr?  Was he really paralyzed from the waist down?  Regardless, he was very fond of orchids and decided to locate his orchid collection on the big island called  Viti Levu.  So Eilo and the Captain got up early one morning and got a cab to Burr’s “Sleeping Giant” garden.  We were the only ones walking the extensive and impressive gardens. 

Burr bought a valley and installed his collection there.  It goes on and on.

We walked it fast and it took about and hour and we did not walk all the trails:

Burr  decided that one should relax as one contemplates the gardens so numerous hammocks in shelters are provided.  It’s a nice touch; this slight departure from our faster paced western civilization.

He mixed it up nicely with what existed in the valley before his collection was installed:

The odd sculptures hidden around the gardens added to the magic of this hidden gem:

A bus load of Japanese arrived just as we were completing our walk – perfect timing in our opinion.  So we went to their pagoda for a complementary drink.  It was by far the best fresh fruit juice I have ever tasted.  A mix of fresh Guava, Mango and Passion Fruit – yummy:

Our driver was waiting and suggested we go a bit further up the beaten track we  were on, but in the same neighborhood, to thermal mud baths.  Up to your eyeballs in hot mud – nice and very relaxing.  First you smear hot mud all over – then let it dry:

After that mud has sucked all the toxins out of your body (we were there for forty five days- haha!) you jump into this pool of hot mud up to your eyeballs – wow:

Then there is a series of 3 pools to rinse off in – the last being a huge swimming pool, filled with crystal clear spring water heated by nature to the temperature of a perfectly heated hot tub.  It’s been a while since we did any tub time so this soak was a real treat.  Then back to the Vuda Marina for another Sunday afternoon of live light rock which was equally as brilliant as the first.  It’s hard to believe we have been in Vuda for over a week.  We got everything fixed which was broken on AURORA so it was time to leave and catch up with the rest of the fleet in Musket Cove for the start of  WARC leg  #6 to Vanuatu.  Musket Cove was the original resort in Fiji and is quite up market now with a marina.  A couple of the less lazy boats (including AURORA) dressed them and that always adds to the ambiance of any place where the fleet parks.

We started Leg 6 amongst the coral reefs just outside Musket Cove and then threaded about ten miles of a Minotaur’s Maze of reefs to get out to the ocean.  Boy – was the Captain relieved when we hit the open water of the Western Pacific or this short leg (3 days) to Vanuatu (ex New Hebrides):

And on to Tanna:  the first of the islands we would visit in Vanuatu.  We sailed into Resolution Bay (yes - named after Captain Cook’s boat  RESOLUTION which did hard time here a few centuries ago).  We cleared into Vanuatu with the rest of the fleet and then had a few beers at the Resolution Bay Yacht Club – Eilo must have put her beer down for this shot:

The folks of Vanuatu don’t have much compared to the western world but they are very happy to have what they have – lots of fish, wild boar,  fresh water, (including hot springs and hot baths), chickens (since Cook visited), natural fibers, exotic woods, fruit, and strange vegetables  and other natural stuff all providing for them nicely.  They were so welcoming and friendly as cannibalism has not been practiced there since 1839.  It was fun to walk to walk their village:

The woven walls of their houses seems as art to us – they do a lot with a little:

Their roads seldom see a vehicle but are park like for walks about:

Eilo was reminded her of her Irish home – see how happy she looks standing in front of the AVOCA restaurant –in town:

… and their beaches are pristine:

As their village and most other villages in Vanuatu were wiped out by hurricane Pam 2 years ago the ARC organized collecting gifts from the fleet boats for their school and village.  A ceremony was held at the school and the kids turned out to be a very talented choir.  We gave them lap tops, wheel barrows, axes, machetes, clothes, school supplies, flip flops, tents, solar lights and all other kinds of stuff they needed and they were very grateful:

They reciprocated with gifts for us.  Vegetables and fruit from their gardens and hand woven items. 

Well – why does anyone go to Tanna anyway?  Is it because of the recently released movie, “Tanna” shot here with locals - no actors – which was up for an Academy award (check it out as it will give you a feel for what the place is and how they are and live).  Perhaps it is the live volcano which is the draw.  You can see it when sailing in at night – it lights up the under side of the clouds with a powerful red glow.  So we go to check out the Mount Yasur volcano.  First things first – you have to have a ceremony and a volcano dance where the volcano gods are hopefully appeased to the point that the tourists who visit will have their lives spared:

Then one of the tourists is selected to present CAVA (yup that comes into all aspects of life in these western pacific islands) to the chief, who seemed to have already done a bunch of cava ceremonies that day.  He gets more cavaed up and asks permission, from a higher authority, for safe passage for this latest batch of idiots to visit Yasur.  Then we have a safety briefing which has 4 parts.  1. Don’t push your friend into the crater. 2. Don’t run when you hear an explosion. 3 Watch for falling lava and don’t let it hit you and… 4. Watch the safety officer.  If the safety officer takes off like a rocket ignore rule 2.  We were told that Yasur was at level 2 that day because at level 3 you don’t go up but watch the action from the relative safety of the village below. I looked around for all their volcano sensing equipment and saw less than none so Ken is thinking how do they know Yasur is at level 2?  Has someone read the tea leaves recently?  Has someone gone to the crater and cast their finger to the wind and judged it to be safe?  Has the numb Cava Chief got a message from above – all is good – have fun!  Anyway we hope they are right and off we go in our 4 wheel drive pickups up the side of the volcano.  Yasur burps on the way up:

I’m thinking – is that atomic looking cloud, just issued from the crater, a greeting of friendship or a warning?   So we arrive and put on our jackets (as it is quite high, windy and cold)  and other anti volcano paraphernalia:

As we walked over the top of the crater we noticed some graves scattered a few meters off the trail.  Later we found out about half a dozen people die each year – cooked or crushed by angry volcano gods – the latest being 2 Japanese tourists videoing falling lava only to find it fell a little too close, a few months before.  Also there was a scary lack of birds, insects or any other wild life on the volcano making us think who is smarter?…   There were a couple of up wind lookout points on top of the crater – so you ‘skinny’ up to an edge of the cone and first thing activated is your hearing sense transmitting the sound of bubbling lava – then the first explosion and gas cloud intermixed with flying lava. Thoughts starts rushing thru your mind – are we going to die?:

Here’s Ken trying not to look terrified:

As the sun sets it gets more specular.  The lava bursts are almost climbing to eye level as the cone must be 1500 deep:

Ken was taking a GoPro video and a huge and very load explosion echoed and the shock wave followed by the heat wave knocked him back – the video is good and gives a great feeling for what it looks like and sounds like so hopefully you can see it some day.  We were getting cold and tired and were anxious to cut our losses and get off Yasur before things changed and then there is a huge burst and lava flies up everywhere – at least 300 to 400 feet in the air above us - upping the game - bringing us all into play.  Ken was near the Safety Officer and looked over to see his eyes bugging out of his head. Luckily he did not take off like a rocket.  He and everyone else was watching the falling lava and getting out of the way as necessary.  We were all lucky. There were 2 large chunks of red hot lava (I’d say one weighed 10 pounds and the other maybe 300) laying in the path way we walked to get to the second lookout point.  The volcano was now at level 3.  After the lava settled we were rapidly ushered off the cone.  All that can be said is wow!

A lot of the boats took off the next day heading a day’s sail away to Dillion’s Bay, which is about half way to Port Villa – the Capital of Vanuatu and the start of the next ARC leg to Australia.  Wind was blowing from 18 to 30 knots right on our beam.  That made for a fast 60 mile passage.  A highlight of Dillon’s Bay, after meeting the chief and gaining permission for the boat crews to explore their village, was a visit to a series of Skull caves.  Their ancestors were buried in local caves until the missionaries showed up in 1839 and started the Christian burial practice.  So a bunch of us got permission and a guide to visit a nearby set of these so called skull caves.  It was a 3 mile dinghy ride to get to the access beach:

We climbed about 20 minutes through the jungle to the sacred caves:

Here’s our friend Louise slithering into one of the 2 caves:

And here is one view of the reward for our efforts:

… And here is another.  This set of bones is obviously a lot older:

Nights and the ocean temperature are both getting cooler and why wouldn’t they?   We are in the middle of winter in the southern hemisphere.  It’s great sleeping weather – around 70F at night.  Port Villa was about 80 miles distant and as we needed to get into port between 8:00 and 16:00, so “the guys” would be standing by to help get AURORA onto the sea wall.   So we, like most other boats, planned a night passage.  We left at sunset and had 6 to 8 knots of dead downwind breeze.  We did 3 knots for 4 hours until we got out of the wind shadow of the island.  Then we heard, over the VHF, one of the boats ahead of us by 4 miles call out the wind had picked up to 20 knots so we waited and they were almost right.  About an hour later the wind started picking up.  Once that happened it never dropped below 20 knots.  Lucky we chose not to fly the main and started sucking in the genoa to slow the boat down to 6 knots.  With about 90% of the genoa sucked in (that’s about 7 feet of the genoa out) we were able to slow AURORA down to 6 to 7 knots as she was blowing up to 34 knots on the beam.  We were flying and the seas were building.  While Ken was resting Eileen reefed the Genoa again and again!  A couple times captain Ken thought we would be swamped by huge stern waves but AURORA just rode up and over them with no bother.  About 4:00 in the morning captain Ken was still nice and dry and noticed a large wave just about to break coming at our windward beam, and she broke, and we shipped about 100 gallons into the cockpit with a little overflow down into the cabin.  Captain Ken was no longer dry.  We got to Port Villa a little after day break and we still made that passage too fast, so we putted around the harbor for about an hour waiting for our turn for assistance from “the guys”.  The guys were brilliant and stuck us on the wall in front of a wonderful, palm thatched restaurant… so we popped on shore for what else?  Of course Bloody Marys and a nice cholesterol packed breakfast.  The land was moving fore and aft – much like the boat had done for the past 10 hours – which is a funny feeling you sometimes get after being at sea for awhile and then stepping ashore – before you loose your sea legs.

We are off on leg 7 across the coral sea (we still hate coral while sailing) to Australia in 2 days - see you there!