Kaboom!
09 September 2012 | Tanna
Hugh
Oh what a rough passage we had from Fiji to Tanna! One day of HEAVY rain followed by two days with 25-35 knots of what they call "reinforced trade winds". It was a wild ride with Whippersnapper bouncing all over the place and lots of white water on deck, the only way we could sleep was to wedge ourselves in bed between walls of pillows to stop our body sliding around. At least it was a fast passage with the boat speed averaging over 8 kts for extended periods, a predicted four days was soon three and we'd arrived in Tanna.
Tanna is an island in Vanuatu and special because of Mt Yasur, one of the worlds most accessible and active volcanos. I had actually visited as a young boy in 1982(?) on a family holiday and I was interested to see how much I would remember. On arriving we were welcomed into Port Resolution by a small fleet of canoes happily distracted from their fishing, proper dugout ones made without nails, glue or paint just a hollowed log and other beams held with twine to make the outrigger. We chatted to a few before getting our dinghy down to chat to the other 3 yachts in the bay. It's great to get the low down on a new place from other yachties; who to know ashore, what's good and what's not worth it. Mike's especially good at starting up a conversation with anyone. One interesting couple we met were Amy and Eric (both 30) on their yacht Super Agent Man who sail around offering the villagers their services as handyman and agriculturist.
Ashore we met the village chief Sam and his wife Jocelyn. We were enjoying talking with Jocelyn but were rather taken aback when she started describing how neighbouring islanders had killed her eldest son with black magic because they were jealous of his luckā¦ how do you respond to that? Regardless of their belief in black magic (common throughout Vanuatu apparently) like a lot of the pacific islands missionaries have left behind a strong Christian following. We were duly invited to attend church on Saturday (Seventh Day Adventists). The service was gruelling, it went on for hours and even included two breaks on the grass to digest and discuss the teachings. Along with Eric and Amy we were special guests and asked to speak about the ways God is present in our lives at sea, hmmm... fortunately we were able nominate Eric to speak for all of us and he did admirably. I used the time to mull over in my head why it is that Vanuatu is such a happy place, ranked number 1 in 2007 by an international statistic. The villagers have a real sense of community, land and close family ties, a simple life in an inspiring location. They are extremely poor by our standards but they appear to want for very little either. The villagers sleep in huts made from woven palm fronds, eat locally grown foods and spend much time sitting in green grass playing and chatting with their neighbours and family. Laughter is a constant, a really genuine and contagious laugh. I decided it certainly wasn't because of their church services!
In the bay locals in canoes were always dropping by to see if we could charge batteries, lend some tools, fix something etc. In exchange we were brought whole stems of bananas, baskets of lemons, pawpaws and other veggies. All very welcome though in quantities far greater than we could consume.
Saturday evening we'd arranged a visit to Mt Yasur, there is one vehicle in the village (a 4x4 ute) and it's about a 45 min drive along a dirt road to the Volcano. Mike and I were the only ones going that night but the driver's whole family came along for the ride. It's a steep climb up the side of the volcano but in no we're time standing on the rim looking down, no guard-rail, no safety notices, nothing. Kaboom!!! blobs of red hot lava shoot out of the centre, some flying well above our heads before landing with a pitter-patter, inter dispersed with bigger thuds for the larger pieces, as the newly formed rocks land on the crater. We loved it, the sounds and danger were thrilling. We were also happy because we took the DSLR Tina left with us and next to us on the rim a professional photographer adjusted a myriad of settings to ensure we got some great shots. We also took some video which hopefully I'll be able to upload to the gallery.