There could be nothing easy for the early explorers and wooden ship crews who centuries ago sailed and charted these remote Vanuatu islands. It is a myth they could not find longitude without an accurate time piece. They used a method called "lunar progression". Knowing where the moon was in relation to more stable bodies, like the distant stars, they could calculate longitude. But the moon had to be showing, so too the horizon and the stars. Not often was the combination right to work the required sextant sights. The complicated calculations those early navigators, like Captain Cook, used were long in learning and tedious in performing. But the early sailors were making charts as they found their longitude and bumped their way around the Pacific. And what about at night? Certainly many ships found a reef or island shore just as a lookout could hear the waves crashing.

Added to the difficulties was the physical problems of sailing ships that could not go to weather well, or at all. They would tack, not so much to gain ground, but not to loose it. Thinking of those centuries old sailors was my only solace as we left the suddenly rolly anchorage at Anatom into a west wind, which shifted north west, as we steered Brick House to go northwest, just 45 miles to go.

Brick House is a wide boat made to carry weight long distances. But to weather, against 25 knot winds, against 8' seas, we can go much better than old wooden ships, but we do not slice to weather like a Swan 48.

Ocean waves were washing over our deck trying to clear all things secured there. Spare fuel jugs on the lee side deck were taking a beating, their lashings pulling hard at the life lines and shrouds they were tied to. Rather than pound our boat, we steered off the wind a bit to ease the pressures. Running the engine would have helped windward performance but we have lots of time and limited fuel. Here in Vanuatu, diesel and gasoline cost over $7 a gallon in the two cities and $11 a gallon in the out islands.

At the end of a long day, as night fell, the closest we could get to our destination of Resolution Bay in the island of Tanna, was 10 miles down wind. So we reduced sail and tacked, pretty much heaving-to, putting us on a returning track from where we had just come, waiting for a wind shift.

Over the evening, we were pushed 10 miles further southeast, now 20 miles downwind of Port Resolution. How hard can 20 miles be?!! But after being at sea 24 hours, we had made only 20 miles true toward Port Resolution!


But into Resolution bay we finally made it. How could fellow cruisers, who pulled up anchor about the same time we did, have made it to Resolution many hours ahead of us? They motor sailed the distance.

Resolution Bay was named after Captain Cooks ship which anchored here. He wanted to hike to the active volcano but the local natives held him back as there was something spiritual about the lava spitting caldera. Today the money spirits speak to the local natives and to the volcano any tourist will be guided for enough cash. For the truck up and back and "park fee" we paid $55 a person.

In America, it would be impossible to view an active volcano like it is done in Tanna. Riding in the back of a pickup truck would require proper whiplash resistant seats with seatbelts. After being deposited at the base of the cone, rather than a steep black ash path, there would be required 7" rise steps with 12" treads. Of course proper hand rails courtesy lighting and a traversing handicap ramp would be needed. At the cone, warning signs, gas masks and retaining rails would be everywhere. But this is Vanuatu and tourists have to use their own common sense and not step over the edge into the glowing, spitting red pot of thick lava coming from far down in the crater. In Vanuatu, if the spewing lava should overshoot everyone's expectations....run away fast!! Some of the explosions of the thick heavy mass do seem to reach higher than the rim. It is an impressive sight, sound and smell, and way better than IMAX.

There are times when this volcano does become too rambunctious spitting red lava over the sides and down the slope of the cone. Of course in those conditions, viewing from the rim is closed and tourists are kept at a safe distance. But not long ago a tourist and her two guides were warned of the dangerous situation of the volcano, yet they snuck in close and did not return on their own.

Maybe the villagers, long ago, did Captain Cook a favor.