Vanuatu ( Leg 21)

October 2023

At 9am on Sunday 1st October, Shawn went across to the Hideaway Resort on Mele Island to pick up Sue and Jeanine. Sadly, John had decided before travelling to Vanuatu with Sue that he would not join us due to a recent knee injury that was continuing to cause him problems. It was very disappointing for all, but we are thankful that Sue had decided she would still come with us. As well as being friend of ours, she and John had crewed onboard Imagination with Jeanine in French Polynesia last year and they also know Jane and Andy after we introduced them a few years ago in Carriacou, Grenada. As soon as cabins were allocated and luggage stowed away, we moved back to Port Vila where we went shopping at one of the best stocked supermarkets we have experienced in a very long time. It was the usual disorganised choas, but we managed to get the vast majority of what we needed. On Monday morning, Shawn and Ally went back to Customs, after a sneaky trip into town, to pick up our next cruising permit whilst everyone else went shopping for their personal bits and pieces, drinks and snacks. We met them once Customs was done and bought the last few items we needed before we sailed up the coast in overcast conditions for a couple of hours to a bay with no name on Lelepa Island ( forming part of Havannah Harbour, mentioned in the last blog). We caught a barracuda en route and also had dolphins on our bow for a few minutes which is always a welcome treat. After dinner that evening, Ally appeared in the cockpit singing through a karaoke boombox ( hence the sneaky trip into town earlier!!). Andy LOVES a singsong and his eyes lit up as the other microphone was handed to him. Much hilarity followed over the next couple of hours – thank goodness we were the only boat in the uninhabited bay!! The following day Andy prepared bread dough before he and Shawn worked on repairing a fishing reel while Ally, Jane and Sue prepped salads etc. Jeanine went snorkelling with Shawn and Andy when they had finished with the reel and we then all went over to the beach for an afternoon BBQ. It was overcast, but still a warm and pleasant few hours.

We moved 2nm up the coast to Moso Island ( another one forming part of Havannah Harbour) where everyone except Ally went snorkelling on the point that we had been to with Katie and Mark last month. After an early lunch, Andy who wasn’t feeling too great having picked up a cold since arriving in Vanuatu, and Jeanine stayed on board while the rest of us went to explore the interesting and very pretty beach area where there were caves with little rock tikis in them. We all returned the next morning where we freed a gheko we had found on board ( probably came on board in someone’s bag!) enjoyed snorkelling and shell collecting for an hour or so before setting sail for Nguna. It was rather a choppy, windy 2.5 hour sail, but everyone felt ok for the duration. We tried to find Shem in the village the next morning, having had such a wonderful experience with him last month, as we wanted to gift him some equipment but sadly he was off island, so instead we walked along the corally beach for a while and the next day the anchor was up at 05.30. We had a great 8hr 50 minute sail up to Lamen Bay, Epi. We saw turtles coming up here and there, but we were all hyper alert, keeping an eye out for Dugongs which live in this area. On Sunday 8th, we were visited early on by 4 kids on 2 canoes who came across to say hello. We had a little chat with them and gave them a handful of sweeties each and they went away happy. Jeanine remained onboard while the rest of us went ashore to walk along the edge of the friendly village where we given bananas and mangoes. During the afternoon, we visited another beach for shell hunting and snorkelling. Shawn had now contracted Andy’s cold, as had Jane – it definitely wasn’t Covid because they did rapid tests, but it seems the first couple of days were the worst, causing fatigue and then an irritating chesty cough. Jeanine went ashore for a while but the rest of us remained onboard for a relaxed day on the 9th and whilst chatting in the cockpit the following morning, Andy spotted a Dugong tail. Suddenly there was much excitement and everyone was up, watching and waiting. Everyone except Ally ( goodness knows why!) saw it come up several more times before we all jumped into the dinghy to try and closer, but it wasn’t seen again. The dinghy was lifted up again and we left straight away for the 4.5 hour sail over to The Maskelyne Islands, arriving at 14.30. We were the only boat anchored in a small lagoon amongst mangroves – ideal for Dugongs. In fact Shawn spotted one as we were coming in but the rest of us didn’t see it. Soon after our arrival, we were visited by Steward and Edward on a small outrigger. They had come to welcome us to Uliveo Island and to give us some information. Steward was a registered guide and told us about a couple of activities available before explaining that today was a holiday for his village as they celebrated Provincial Day. They were hosting a get together this evening with residents from the other 2 villages joining in the festivities and he told us we would all be very welcome to go ashore and watch the dancing and singing. Shortly after he left, Tom and Alex came across from another village. Again, we were welcomed and after general chit chat for a while, we arranged for Tom to take us Dugong spotting the next morning and gave him some Bonito that we had caught on the sail over as he departed. It wasn’t long before Dugongs were spotted in the lagoon and this time Ally saw them too. There were two of them, a mother and a baby, and they swam across in front of Imagination about 50 metres away – we could just see their snouts as they came up to breathe. Funny creatures.

We went ashore for 5pm as arranged with Steward and he welcomed us and took us straight to the Kava bar where we all had a shell, some of us for the first time. Vanuatan Kava has a strong flavour and although not pleasant, as long as you drink it the way you should ie within 2-3 gulps, it’s not so bad, but a couple couldn’t finish it having taken a sip. Andy, Shawn and Ally went on to have another cup full ( in fact Shawn finished Ally’s as Andy had done with Jane’s earlier)before we were lead by Steward to the church grounds where the celebrations were taking place. By now, Shawn and Andy were feeling the effects of the Kava and we all spent time saying hi to everyone and gave in our donations to the fundraiser for the school and watched some dancing and singing. Andy went forward to talk to the compere and suddenly he was taking his place within the dance group and started to copy the dance moves as the music started. Oh my goodness…..the laughter and claps from the watching locals was amazing and they all thoroughly enjoyed the entertainment as Andy tried to keep up with everyone and gyrated his hips. Absolutely priceless. A few songs later, we all joined in with the dancing, copying the moves from the people in front as we were photographed and videoed. Afterwards, we said our farewells and returned to Imagination for dinner. It was yet another awesome, unique experience, not put on for tourists, but a local event we were privileged enough to be able to participate in. When Steward came on board the following morning to catch up with Tom before we went off on the Dugong trip, he thanked us for taking part so enthusiastically and told us his community had very much enjoyed our willing participation and presence and said that not many yacht crews are so friendly. He told us he had many good photos and videos of us with everyone smiling and so he has happy memories to look back on. Shortly after he left, we went off for our trip with Tom along with Alex and Richard in a local boat. After about half an hour, 3 Dugongs were spotted so we all very hurriedly got our gear on and slipped into the water. Unfortunately we were unable to swim with them and didn’t encounter them again despite snorkelling around for about an hour. Trying to get back into the local boat was a challenge with it’s hard, high sides and Jane bruised her ribs on the way out.

At 9.30am the next day, 12th, we met up with Tom who was taking us on a walk through the 3 villages on the island. We had a great morning walking through some gorgeously lush areas between villages as Tom told us about local life, the flora and the fauna and we met and chatted to several locals. After lunch on board, we went in the dinghy across to a sandy island a couple of miles away – it was a bit of a wet ride over, but we had a great hour and a half or so walking /beach combing/relaxing in the water. Friday 13th, we sailed to Sanko Island still within the Maskelyne Islands. We reached the gorgeous anchorage by 11.00, but there was so much coral in the anchorage we struggled to find somewhere to drop. There were some local guys in their boats that came over and told us we could take up the one and only buoy that was good for boats up to 200 tonnes, so we thanked them very much and took it up. We soon realised that we had probably taken up the buoy that the small cargo boat just arriving takes when dropping stuff off. Although this is an uninhabited island, it is central to many other smaller inhabited islands and so cargo was dropped on the beach here to be picked up in smaller boats. Today they were delivering the last consignment of Australian Aid following the cyclones last season. The boat hovered as it offloaded into smaller boats taking it ashore and a couple of times they seemed to get awfully close to us, with the friendly crew and passengers chatting and waving to us. Andy and Jane went for a snorkel and walk on the beach once the cargo ship had left and the next day, having asked the guys yesterday if it was ok, we decided to do another beach BBQ. So, food was prepped before we all went ashore to explore and relax. When it was time to build a fire etc, Ally and Shawn nipped back to Imagination to pick up all the food and utensils etc. Jeanine went back with them and remained onboard when Ally and Shawn returned to the beach, saying she would swim back over when she was ready. Lunch was great and we had a wonderfully chilled afternoon shell hunting, dipping, snorkelling and enjoying the environment. Jeanine swam back to Imagination and the rest of us packed up and dinghied back ready for another evening of bad karaoke!! On the 15th, we had a full day of sailing to Port Stanley, Malekula and by the following day, it was Ally’s turn to feel wiped out and so she spent the day onboard whilst everyone else went ashore to explore before moving to another area a couple of nautical miles away. Jeanine went in for a snorkel and reported back that it wasn’t great so noone else went in. We had a surprisingly good, comfortable and sunny under 8 hour sail up to Luganville, Espiritu Santo, considering the forecast had said it would be very wet with thunder storms!

On the 18th, we left the dinghy on the beach and walked through the pretty Beachfront Resort grounds to the road – this is the norm at this anchorage. We started to walk toward the town centre, but when a taxi driver stopped asking if we wanted a lift, Jeanine and Jane opted to take him up on his offer. The rest of us had a sneaky ice cream as we walked the 20 minutes to the meeting point at the SS Coolidge museum where we spent a surprisingly interesting 40 minutes or so learning about this luxury liner that was converted to a US troup carrier in WWII which met it’s fate when it sailed into friendly mine fields. Thankfully, the captain was able to ground the ship to allow the majority of crew and troups to escape and survive. It is now a famous and very popular dive site. The museum had many relics from the ship including menus from it’s time as a cruise liner, the ships bell and reconditioned and working horn. Afterwards, we found a very nice restaurant, Tu, where we had a lovely lunch before heading back to Imagination. We were all hot and sweaty on our return so all but Jeanine grabbed a couple of beers/drinks and returned to the beach to wallow in the warm shallows for a while. Over the last week or so, John’s knee has been much improved and so he decided to fly up and meet us here on the 19th and join us on board for the last few days so that morning, we moved around to Palikulo Bay where we had arranged to pick him up from. During the afternoon, Shawn, Ally, Sue, Andy and Jane went across to the beach to await his arrival and Jeanine kayaked over a little later. Not long after we got there, Sue had a message saying that John’s flight had been cancelled due to bad weather and low cloud in Port Vila – we were all so disappointed, but his flight had been rearranged to arrive late evening on the 20th so he would come on board on the morning of the 21st after overnighting in a hotel. On the 20th, we moved around to Surundo Bay where we all snorkelled on some gorgeous, very healthy reef where we saw a sea snake, blue puffer fish, giant clams and oysters. Shawn also later saw an Otter from the deck of Imagination and we all saw several turtles. After dinner, we had half an hour or so of a great bioluminescent light show caused by huge shoals of fish swimming near the boat.

John was picked up from the beach at 9am on the 21st and as soon as he was onboard and we’d all given him a squish, we left for another area, anchoring just off of the tiny private island of Malono. We lowered the second dinghy into the water and we all went in both dinghies to visit Riri Blue Hole. We had to motor up a very tranquil, pretty river for around 15 minutes before we reached the clear, turquoise, cool fresh water pool. John had read there was another pool further up and so before we jumped in, we headed off to see if we could find the higher one first. After 20 minutes traipsing through jungle, we didn’t locate it and so headed back to the first one and we were more than ready to get in and cool down when we got there. It was very refreshing and lovely to be floating in fresh water for a change. The following morning, we all went in 2 dinghies again to locate the Matevulu Blue Hole. This river ride was longer than yesterday, but just as tranquil and pretty. This pool is deeper, but absolutely gorgeous with crystal clear deep turquoise water, lush tropical plants surrounding it and it even had a slide and rope swings that Shawn, Andy and Jeanine all tried out. What a glorious time we had chilling out in this beautiful location. Shawn had been watching a weather system over the last few days and by the time we got back to Imagination, the wind had picked up and it was becoming overcast and so we decided to head back to a more protected anchorage near Luganville as it was clear this system was developing into a cyclone. It took us just under 4 hours to get back and we put out all of our 100 metres (330ft) of anchor chain. With no other boats in the anchorage, we were happy that we wouldn’t damage any other vessels or be damaged by them. By the following morning, the system had become Tropical Cyclone Lola Category 3, which is the same strength as a category 1 hurricane, and so Jeanine, John and Sue opted to leave to go and stay ashore in a hotel. We said our goodbyes and Shawn dropped them ashore before we enjoyed a drink and lunch with Andy and Jane who had decided to stay with us on board…that was until we had a visit from an Australian guy, Matthew living here. He told he was worried for us and suggested another anchorage near his property, but when Shawn looked at it on google maps, he decided we were better off where we were…in deeper water protected between the mainland and two outlying nearby islands, with good holding, plenty of room to slip and mangroves all around rather than in a shallow corally area close to a beach. Matthew agreed the holding was good where we were and that it was a protected area and we thanked him for his concern and for looking out for us. He gave us his phone number so we could call if we got into difficulties – what a nice guy! After his visit, the mood on board had changed and Andy and Jane decided they should leave and stay ashore too, just in case conditions meant they wouldn’t be able to leave as planned the following day. So, it was another tearful goodbye as we dropped them ashore not knowing if we would be able to see them again before they were due to fly out. Shawn and Ally returned to Imagination and put out a 2nd anchor on 100metres of thick rope and then began the long wait! At that point, we had very little wind with occasional light rain showers and we had a peaceful night. The following day was almost unbearable for Ally, not knowing how we were going to be affected, although the forecasts were now showing that the cyclone would most likely pass to the South East rather than over the top of us. She got stuck into cleaning the galley and saloon, trying to keep her mind off the fact that Lola was now a category 5. That evening we had winds of 15/16kts and so decided to go to bed to try to sleep whilst we could. We left the saloon lights on and door unlocked and all instruments on in case we needed to get up and out quickly to manoeuvre into the wind and went to our cabin rather than try and sleep in the saloon which had been the initial thought. The wind did eventually pick up but there was little rain – it was a very wakeful night and 3 or 4 times one of us went up to check on wind speeds and the most we saw was 32kts although in reality the maximum was probably more like 40kts. We both fell asleep and woke at 09.30 on the morning of the 25th, grateful that the system had passed us by with minimal effect. Conditions were much more settled but the water was all churned up as we were anchored fairly close to a river outlet. Late morning, we pulled up the second anchor before pulling up the main anchor to return to Luganville. After a quick lunch, we decided to go ashore and head to the hotel where Andy, Jane, Sue and John were staying…Jeanine had moved to another hotel that morning. The staff at the Espiritu were great and told us where to find Andy and Jane. We knocked on their door and they were very happy and surprised to see us. Andy went to tell Sue and John and we had a fabulous post cyclone hotel room reunion! We even bumped into Jeanine as we were walking along the road when we left. We all met up at the hotel again the following late morning after Shawn and Ally had located Customs to hand in their cruising permit. This time it was a final lunch together as 4 were flying out that evening on a rescheduled flight, and Jeanine the next day. It was so nice to spend more time with them all and we are so thankful for those extra moments having believed their abrupt departure from Imagination was going to be the last time before they left the island. It was a tearful farewell, but we have had the best time together over the last few weeks making lots of new memories. We are so very grateful to be blessed with wonderful friends and the opportunity to share some of our adventure with them.

The next few days were spent catching up with laundry, blog writing ( Ally got very behind as she was too busy playing blob and singing karaoke badly!!), itinerary planning and future destination research. On the 30th, we spent most of the day running errands ashore ( refilling jerry cans, trying to change currency, organising diving and a little bit of shopping) and we bumped in to Claudia, Michael and Katie who are joining us next month. Claudia and Katie booked themselves in for diving as well, but Michael was suffering from mild cold symptoms. Shawn and Ally spent a great couple of hours at The Beachfront Resort just in front of where they were anchored, enjoying a few beers and an early dinner. Shawn was off early on the morning of the 31st, ready to be picked up for diving. He, along with Claudia and Katie, did 2 dives on SS Coulidge having all visited the museum and knowing the history of the wreck. Tomorrow, our adventure with our new crew begins. ( Photos courtesy of Michael)

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