From Vanuatu

Thankfully, the no so great time we had at Uliveo Island has been replaced by many better ones since and it seems like that was just a pocket of people with very high expectations for cruising boats. We are sensitive to the issues, seemingly getting more so every day, but that place really bugged us.

From Vanuatu

We've moved around a bit exploring different spots- including the town of Norsup further up on Malakula where we had high hopes of getting some produce and cash. It was a little frustrating since it took us three tries to find a good anchorage around there and we finally ended up anchoring behind Norsup Island itself, not even listed in the cruising guide. But the following day when the 4 of us headed in to do errands, the shelves were bare, the cash machine broken and we came back empty handed except for some gas. No ice cream either. The town of Norsup is basically a huge coconut tree plantation and there's a street of plantation housing for the workers. Not much else stood out. Back at the anchorage, we did a good exercise swim & a few boat projects. Aside from a couple of people passing by in a canoe, everyone pretty much left us alone which was much appreciated! While cruising with Mark & Anne, we just leave the VHF on channel 17 all the time. That way we can talk whenever we want and not have to hail each other. So if Anne sees a canoe approaching us, she alerts us that we "have an incoming" and we do the same. We'll often let the other one know what this canoe is looking for, if anything. It's just so funny. We haven't had to be from Jabooblia yet but we feel armed & ready in the event we need to use it. Mark even made us an emblem to represent it so it feels even more official.

When we left Norsup to head 5 whole miles up the coast to Wala Island, Jon tossed a line in just for the heck of it. We were motoring since there wasn't any wind and it seemed unlikely that we'd snag a fish but... we got a 30 pound wahoo! It bit the pink squid. It was easy to maneuver the boat so Jon could pull it in and the timing was perfect because we were just about to head into the anchorage. When we arrived, we cleaned it, we gave some to the Blue Rodeo's, kept some for ourselves and then parceled the rest out to the people of Wala Island. It was accepted with thank-you's and people would ask us if we wanted limes, grapefruit, pamplemousse, cucumbers- whatever they had to exchange. Now THIS feels right & yes, we were desperate for produce! At one point, there was a bit of a line of canoes pulled alongside our boat waiting for a slab of fish. A nice man named Charlie gave us a tour of his village, set on a very small island with an unusual wooded interior. He'd just planted a new crop of yams & watermelons. A couple of people stopped us to ask if we had any spare line to tie their cows with and another asked if the guys could fix his fiberglass water tank. Yet another had a solar light that needed soldering. Each person approached us in a friendly manner. Since we'd come to Wala to dive the north wall, we got permission to do that the following day, then we could do the fix-it projects afterward. We did the dive but we didn't see a wall proper and given the topography of the area including the island shore, we wonder if there really was a wall or if it was the slope we dove on. Either way, it was a nice dive with some pretty swim-through canyons and varied coral. It's so fun to dive with Mark & Anne. We all know that when you're finding your own sites, not every dive is going to be a 10. But it doesn't matter because we always see something interesting anyway. We like the same kind of profile (looong) and there's no stress. It has made this season for us.

After the dive, we gathered up supplies so that Jon & Mark could go ashore to make the repairs. And Anne & I both made chili on our respective boats. A couple hours later, the guys returned & the thank you produce began showing up again and we were quickly assured plenty of vitamin C!

The generator gave us some issues when the exhaust elbow corroded through one evening as we were running it, spewing salt water all over the engine compartment. Fortunately, Mark had the parts Jon needed to fix it, but we lost a day there doing it. It wasn't a bad place to be hung up though.

From Wala, we sailed 57 miles to the southern end of Maewo- getting more remote as we go. Anne caught a big mahi on the trip over, along with a barracuda, so once again, we could share fish with the people that live there. Asanvari was a very wild & beautiful anchorage with high mountains above, clear green/blue water below and a waterfall tumbling into the anchorage. I really enjoyed hearing this waterfall from the boat the whole time we were there. The snorkeling was just OK but we did do a pleasant dive around the corner from the anchorage. Ashore was the Asanvari Bay Yacht Club, but just like Tanna there wasn't much going on at it. Up until a couple of days ago when a French boat pulled in, we hadn't seen any other cruising boats in quite a while. Aside from a nice man named Columbus who came out to the boat to sell us some bread, we hardly saw anyone around unless we went in to the village. We did meet some really nice people when we went ashore and some of the ladies wove colorful handbags that we couldn't resist buying. Yesterday, we did a hike up to a bat cave with a man named Barry and it was nice to get inland some to have a look around. The cave probably had about a million bats in it but they just fly by you, occasionally gracing you, but they're not a problem.

And today we moved over to Ambae island, sort of as a stepping stone to Espiritu Santo where we plan to finish out this cruising season. It has a gorgeous anchorage with big, black volcanic formations, black sand beach and bright, turquoise water for contrast. We'd planned to do a dive at Ambae but we couldn't find enough coral to make it worth it to do one. Even the snorkeling was just OK until we saw a most curious octopus. Jon first spotted him swimming and I caught a glimpse. Then he hid under a piece of coral but he was so curious he kept poking his head out from under it to see what we were doing. If you dove down he would come out a little further to see even more of you, so we of course could see all of him. We've kind of noticed that they can't stand to hide for very long; they're way too curious. They can morph their head into various profiles to assure they can keep an eye on you from wherever they happen to be. They're fun to watch. We went ashore to check out a most sleepy village- more like comatose actually. After seeing so many traditional houses in the other islands, the concrete buildings here made the town much less cute. It also seems like the people just have nothing to do. It's really sad in a lot of ways. To have such little opportunity. One thing this trip does is make you think.

Tomorrow we'll be off to Santo. It promises blue holes, wall diving, bike rides, trails, WWII wreck diving and hopefully a couple of meals out, reprovisioning opportunities and just some civilization after a few weeks of none. We're definitely ready for it!