Maw of the Beast

Now I’m not one for keeping any sort of Bucket List, but if I did I would have had near the top of the list going to the edge of an active volcano and peeing in. So, in that vein we headed to the tour up Mount Yasur here on Tanna Island, Vanuatu.

At the base of the low mountain they do an introduction to the volcano trip and have the local village group do a ‘kastom’ dance asking permission from the local gods for a safe voyage to the volcano. Kastom means customary or tradional culture in the Bislama langauge. The scene is a little contrived with each tourist group holding a sign indicating what country they are from, but the dance is real.

The 30 or so of us jumped on the trucks at the base camp and had a fast ride up the mountain in the late afternoon. Then a brief hike to the rim for a safety briefing from our guide which consisted of the advice if there is a big bang and a lot of lava bombs coming your way, do not run. You can see the smoke and steam rising here in the back ground as our guide gives us the low-down.

As you walk up to the edge of the crater rim in the day light you start to see the red glow from below. There is a muffled roar coming out of the crater that sounds like continuous surf breaking. The sulfuric smoke comes and goes as the wind changes. There are occasional loud explosions.

The explosions shoot lava bombs hundreds of feet into the air.

As the afternoon gets darker the crater turns into a glowing fiery pit

Sometimes you feel just way too close to this energy. A quick look at the two guides we had was somewhat reassuring as they didn’t seem to blink, even when the bombs were landing high up the crater edge. They did mention something in the briefing about safety being the most important thing.

As we watched new vents would start up and blow hot holes into the crater base. We could see the molten lava churning inside them.

Think of Roman candle fireworks the size of a a very large warehouse building (just oneof the vents) early on a 4^th July evening.

When we were on this edge of the crater the wind was probably gusting to 30kts. The fine lava sand was brutal on the eyes, hence the safety goggles. It was cold on the edge, even though you had a direct connection to the heat of the central earth.

The Yasur volcano is a ‘stratovolcano’, one built up from many layers of hardened lava. When we dinghy around the anchorage at Port Resolution you can clearly see the stratification along the north bay edge which is the volcano side.

This is the birthplace of all the Pacific islands, along the edge of the Ring of Fire. The Hawaiians say the angry goddess, Pele, inhabits these volcanoes. Thanks to our friend Mike up in the San Juans for letting me borrow his phrase, we were truly gazing into the ‘maw of the beast’.
Paul

Port Resolution, Vanuatu

This pic was taken as we arrived in the early morning hours to Port Resolution on Tanna Island. The cloud you see drifting toward the north is volcano dust and steam being ejected by Mt. Yasur. I suspect it looked similar to this when Capt. Cook arrived in 1774 and named the bay after his ship, HMS Resolution. With a name like Port Resolution you’d figure it was a port town. Nope. Over the years the bay has gotten shallower. It is has a few very small subsistence villages around it, no stores or docks or really anything.

Now you don’t have to feel uneducated or non-worldly just because you have less than a vague clue as to where Vanuatu might be. Prior to getting to the South Pacific I wasn’t sure if it was a country in the SP or an imaginary location from a Michener story. (You can click on the maps to biggerate). Vanuatu was previously known in its colonial days as the New Hebrides islands. The French and English took joint control of the islands from the local Melanesian population and ran it as a Condominium form of gov’t. Not sure what a government Condo really is but they setup duplicate ministries and officers for all government posts and jointly governed in that remarkably inefficient way that only Colonial gentlemen can govern. They made some historic decisions while presiding over the islands, such as what side of the road to drive on. The Brits were driving on the left and the French on the right. Even with almost no traffic in the early 1900’s this situation couldn’t last long. They met and discussed. And met again and discussed again, resolving the issue in a Solomonesque bureaucratic way. The next vehicle to be imported into the country would decide which side of the road all would drive on. A new carriage came in on a ship from French controlled New Caledonia and the country drives on the right side of the road ever since.
The closest village to the bay has a Yacht Club, an open air structure on the cliff overlooking the bay. They offer this as a service to cruisers – who then use the villagers to get rides into town, setup tours, etc.  The village is very possessive of the ‘rights’ to do business with the cruisers and don’t like it when cruisers deal with the other smaller village at the head of the bay. Customs and Immigration came over from Lenakel, the main town and official port of entry, to clear us in. Lenakel is on the east side of the island and has what I would describe as an anchor eating, rolly, barely protected anchorage. Much better to come into Port Resolution than to try and anchor on the Lenakel side. Clearing in costs about $120(US) including a $50 fee for a biosecurity check. No actual Bio-security agent or on-board inspection. It also included the checking in fuel charge for C&I to drive across the island, shared among cruisers.
The village houses are pretty basic and you can see how the cyclones can wipe them out pretty easily. The good news is that they rebuild quickly.

The kids seem happy and healthy, love the beach and are always playing with each other somewhere.

We joined a group of cruisers (all Ozzies) who needed to go into Lenakel to exchange money, get a SIM cards for their phones and checkout the market. The road trip across the island takes about two hours- one way. The first half or 2/3 is rough dirt road. The next third is graded dirt road with about 0.1% concrete or asphalt. We picked up locals on the way. If you were one of the unlucky cruisers who got space in the back of truck it was one dusty ride. Being old and whiny about my sore back I got to sit in the cab.

On the way we stopped at the side of the road to pickup some fresh bread at the Bread and Benzine stop. Benzine being what they call gasoline or petrol. (Masui is diesel in the local language). The Ozzie, Mike, in the blue shirt facing Chris in this pic, promptly pulled out his little plastic bag with butter and, of course, Vegemite to put on his fresh rolls!

After exchanging cash at the bank, where there are no ATMs that accept international cards, we headed off to the nicely stocked vegetable market. The couple of general grocery stores around the market had very little unless you needed packaged Asian noodles (think Top Ramen) or breakfast sweet biscuits (think saltines with more body, much less salt and a dash of sugar).

While the store doesn’t have a lot inside it it did have this remnant huge Giant Clam shell outside, unfortunaely it had been painted.

Speaking of shells, it was overcast the other day and we did a short shell hunting adventure. Pretty good haul, including these pristine cowrie shells.

There are giant banyan trees all over Tanna. Apparently they use the roots of female banyan trees for construction. The male trees are reserved for sitting around and drinking kava. This tree is in town and the spot to stop when you need to get some kava to take home on a Friday night. Our taxi driver pulled over here so some of the excess passengers could get their liter water bottles filled with the mud-colored liquid kava. By the time we got back to the village the taxi, a Toyota 4-door cab pickup Hylux, had 14 people in it (or on it). I, fortunately, was sitting in the front seat and had the single seat belt.

The scale doesn’t show too well in this picture. This is the backside of the Mt. Yasur volcano showing its acres of volcanic dust that we drove across.

We went to the village in Sulphur Bay on Friday night to see the Jon Frum Friday night ritual. The Jon Frum culture was a response to repressive European missionary practices (msome of those guys were eaten). It is part of the Cargo Cult religion that believes all needs will be provided to them as cargo showing up on their shores. The name Jon Frum derives from the phrase “John, from America”, as in, “Hi, I’m…”. During WWII the US brought previously unknown and almost unlimited material stuff to these shores, along with black American soldiers. Priests, known as messengers, now prophesize the return of ships laden with cargo to Tanna escorted by Jon Frum, the reincarnation of an ancient deity. The movement declares money must be thrown away, pigs killed and gardens left uncared for as all material wealth will be provided in the end by Jon Frum. Hmmm…
Tanna is the main island for Jon Frum practices. In WW II about 1,000 men from Tanna went to the island of Efate (where the capital of Vanuatu Port Vila is located) and worked on US military bases. The village that we went to see the celebration raises an American flag each day on a flagpole.
The evening is oriented around ‘bands’ of maybe 8-15 people who belt out spiritual songs that came to the band leader while dreaming.

The men sing and play guitars and makeshift percussion instruments with the women singing backup. This little guy could be heard above the others as he enthusiastically and at high volume sang on. When his little brother got tired of strumming his small guitar and eventually fell asleep in Mom’s arms, he got to take over the guitar to add to his singing duties. Chief Isaac explained that the singing and dancing goes on from about 7-8pm to sunrise each Friday and that they sleep a lot on Saturdays. As typical for cruisers, we didn’t make it anywhere near the close of ceremonies.

Housing with a covered porch.

A little boy and Mom on the side of the road.

The side of the volcano works its way down to the waters edge of the bay we are anchored in. Just to remind us how close the volcano is, this is a steam vent at the edge of the bay, just next to our boat.

The Ni-Vanuatua grow up comfortable in the sea. A young man harpoon gig fishing

Paul

Port Resolution, Tanna Island, Vanuatu

We cleared out of Fiji at Vuda Marina after the standard half day wait for Customs at around noon. There was a very friendly and talkative Immigration officer and a quiet and somewhat grumpy Customs officer. We motored to the Malolo Pass to exit Fiji's outer reef. This pass is right next to the famous Cloudbreak surf spot.

The passage was about 450 miles total. It took just under three days, with the first one being a comfortable full main and genoa sail doing 7-8 kts. For those of you more land oriented, this is like doing 60-65 mph on the freeway and feeling that you are making good time. Next day was bumpy seas and higher winds. We took a reef in the main sail and rolled up the large genoa, and pulled out the staysail. That kept us going for another 24 hours till the winds got light again. Then we did a slow sail till about 9 miles offshore Tanna and turned on the engine just after sunrise. Tanna Island's claim to fame is its very active volcano. From offshore you could not see any red glow at night, but as soon as the sun came up you could clearly see the steam venting and creating a cloud over the volcano.

We are waiting on Customs now. Hopefully we will get cleared in this morning and perhaps do the trip to the volcano crater tonight.

Paul



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End of an interesting Fulanga visit

There are lots of empty, remote and evocative beaches among the islets in Fulanga’s inner bay. No footprints on this one till Chris and I defiled it.

Interesting erosion on the volcanic rocks making lots of mushrooms and arches. That’s Chris standing under the arch in the clear shallows.

The eels like the shallows too. This one had a skin pattern that would sell out quickly on some Texas cowboy boots.

There were a lot of live shells among the corals when we dove inside the passages. We put this marble cone in the catch-and-release category. Although given how toxic to humans they can be with their harpoon it would probably be fair game to take him.
There were a lot of live cowries among the coral. Really beautiful shiny shells. Being defenseless, we also put them in the catch-and-release category.

You can see how big these pretty creatures are.

We did a good snorkel in the main pass. You head out, preferably with two dinghies for safety as the tide starts to turn inward. This clears the water and gives you a good drift dive along the outer reef and into the pass. We saw three black-tipped reef sharks, a decent sized barracuda and a ton of reef fish sporting their usual colors. I’d show you all the schools, along with daring close-ups of the sharks but my underwater camera’s lens completely fogged up. I guess the desiccant I put in the housing was too far past its due date.
The wind finally filled in and we left Fulanga for an overnight passage to Kandavu. It was descent downwind sail but when got near Kandavu it was still very overcast. We decided to continue moving on as the time we have to make Australia this season is getting short and sail to Port Denarau. We arrived at the pass through the reef at about 3am after being hit by the heaviest downpour we have experienced in the Pacific since we left Central America. We have been through this cut before and it is used by large ships. It has a brightly lit and functioning set of red range lights that line up with the pass, so we decided to head in at night, something we rarely do. It’s a little nerve racking knowing that you are so close to the breaking reef while passing in in the dark.
We arrived at the anchorage in front of Port Denarau about 7am and crashed out for awhile to catch some needed rest after the two day passage. Then it was two days of getting ready to sail to Vanuatu. Load up the tanks of fuel for the main boat, petrol for the dinghy and Propane (actually butane) for the galley cooking. Then a couple of big shops for food stores and beer and wine.
With a little bit of luck we will clear out of Fiji in Vuda Marina on Monday and start a 3 day sail to Vanuatu. We emailed Vanuatu Customs to request permission to stop first in Port Resolution on the island of Tanna. This is not normally a port of entry. Tanna has a very active volcano that is pretty easy to visit – we’ll see.
We will probbaly have limited connectivity while in Vanuatu so the blogs will pile up, like they have for the Lau Group.
Paul

Fulanga Beach Blanket Bingo Party

The village people of Fulanga organized a beach –party to celebrate Fiji Constitution Day. They organized the cruisers to bring food to share and they supplied a pig for a roast. There was about a half-dozen boats in the bay among about 3 or 4 anchorages, including one super-yacht, Antares, a 131 foot ketch with a Hawaii/Vancouver couple and their two younger kids onboard.
The Antares group were very friendly, both the owners and crew. They took some interesting drone shots of the party. I’ll post some links when they send them to me.

All the cruisers brought in their water toys, SUPs and kayaks, into the beach for the party. The local kids spent hours in the water with them.

The biggest treat was this blow-up toy brought over by Antares.

For the smaller kids that couldn’t stay in the water too long, makng giant bubbles filled in the time before eating.

There was a pretty heavy rush for the food once the pork and shared dishes were laid out. Adults first before any kids could start. The kids all waited patiently. Chris baked a chocolate cake for desert. When it went out after the main courses were wiped out I walked over and saw a bunch of villagers staring at it. I picked up a spatula and started passing out pieces. It was decimated in minutes.

One of the patiently waiting kids.

Complimentary beverages were offered on-demand.

And of course Chris never turns down a free beverage.

One of the Dutch cruisers is traveling on his cataraman with his 91 year-old mother. That’s Mom waving in the dinghy. Each morning he would take her to the beach with her big-tire walker/wheel-chair and she would do a beach walk. Now what do you do to train your children to take care of you like this when you’re old? Not sure if this is just the Dutch way or not?

The village has this twin engine landing craft style boat. It hasn’t been operational for awhile due to steering issues. The engineer off Antares spent a few hours and got the steering running. Then all it took was to ‘borrow’ fuel from the cruisers and it was ready to go. This pic is using people power to push the heavy craft off the beach. I don’t think any of the cruisers thought it would be moved till high tide, but the village headman had a plan. All the villages loaded up and got a ride back to town from the sandspit party.

That’s all the villagers except the pig you see on the beach here. He stayed for lunch after a large, sharp knife was borrowed from a cruiser by the party planners.
Paul

Fulanga, Lau Group

We reluctantly left Yagasa to sail into the 20kt winds toward Fulanga. The trip was just long enough to remind us how much we don’t like sailing close hauled into the wind. We had the mainsail reefed down to the first reef point (aka smaller) and had the furling staysail at its double reef point. In the pic above all looks a lot more mellow than it was –--- OK, it was really a decent 15 mile run south, I just don’t like beating to weather. We stalled a bit to kill some time near the entrance where there is a natural cut between the outer reef to await the slack current.

One of the first things we had to do was to walk into the village to present our sevusevu, then we would have permission to anchor in the bays and enjoy the waters. We headed into the village with Tomas and Gaylyn off Qi who had also just arrived. The trail to the village is wide and flat and about a 15 minute walk. The early section of it has a brutal, aggressive, non-friendly, primarily obnoxious, and generally unenjoyable mosquito squadron. You can see the walkers here doing battle with the flying and buzzing creatures. It wasn’t clear to me if I could see any air-borne needles with dengue, chickenguia or malaria but I wasn’t sticking around for these slow pokes to catch.

As you approach the small village you have to take on some of the social mores. No sunglasses, no hats, no bare women’s knees and no backpacks on the back. I’m not sure what the last restriction is all about. In the pic above we are sitting in the chief’s house, the white haired guy in the chair, with an elder holding our kava bundles to present to the chief. It’s a formal, pleasant and thankfully short ceremony highlighted with bass sounding, slow handclaps.

The 96 year old chief was good natured and happy to stand for a picture with us after the ceremony (some say he is 91, others 94). Fulanga is very organized as it comes to cruisers. They request a $50 donation (about $25 US) along with the traditional kava. Kava gifts are a little more important here as the island does not support its growth. As part of the organized cruiser welcome, after the sevusevu ceremony each cruiser boat is assigned a host family. You head back to their house for a snack and basic introductions. They are interested in your life and family and very willing to share information about their family and village life. Anything you want to do that concerns the village you pass through your host family.

This is our host family’s, Niko and Lucy, house. The high roofed area at the left is cooking area, all done on a wood stove. The building to the right was Nikko’s grandfathers – interior pics to come.

Traditional Fijian houses have no sitting furniture, just a small bed and a large, hand-woven mat to sit on. Here is Niko and Lucy posing with Chris after we all had tea and some sweet potato while sitting on the mat. The blue and white soccer ball was a small gift that we gave to the family to share with the village kids. Their children are older with the eldest working in a Musket Cove resort and the younger at high school in Suva. Fijians are extremely giving, always offering things they have made, cooked or harvested. And likewise are happy to accept pretty much anything we have and while feeling very comfortable to ask for gifts.

When Niko found out that Chris was interested in shell collecting the next time we visited the village he gave her this hand carved wood Nautilus bowl.
Latter when we had Niko and Lucy along with their milk consuming nephew out to the boat we gave them some additional gifts. Lucy got some very fine crocheting needles for her fishing-net making projects. Niko got a couple of my old chisels for his carving work along with an old hand drill. Both gifts went over well. The young nephew, Johnny, was split between the milk and the small soccer ball we blew up for him.
This is one of the few villages in the Lau Group that ‘still’ has the sailing outriggers, or waka (or vaka or a host of other spellings). I put still in quotes as this one still floats, but just barely. There was another decayed one on the beach. It’s a shame that this history and talent seems to be fading away here, unlike the vigorous revival we saw in parts of Polynesia further east.

This is the 100+ year old interior roof of Niko’s grandfather’s place. It is hand bent and connected with twine. The roof started out life as palm frond covered and now has a corrugated steel covering. The roof looks as solid as the day it was made, even after having endured countless Pacific cyclones.

This is the interior of the house where Lucy is working on a large woven pandanus (a local plant)mat. These are very durable mats that have an interesting pattern woven into them.

The government in Suva subsidizes a fair amount of the village life including schools, health clinic and some infrastructure like this water container. The containers have recently been sent out to the village as cisterns to collect water off the roof tops. It’s getting near national election time, so reminding the outer villages of the benevolence of the current government makes for useful politics.

The school teaches 47 students with instructors who are rotated through by the Ministry of Education on a five year schedule. The solar powered satellite dish in the background provides a limited phone service for the village and the possibility of an internet connection some time in the future.
The string barricade is a novel use of plastic bottles found on the beach and painted by the school kids.

We stopped by to have a chat with the resident nurse at the clinic and to drop of some of our excess med supplies. The nurse has been at the village for about two months on a 3 year assignment. Any supplies she gets come on the monthly, at least that’s the schedule, ferry that comes in from Suva. Childbirth is no longer done on the outer islands. Instead, mothers-to-be head into Suva to stay with relatives until it is time to deliver in a Suva hospital.
Paul