Vanuatu: the islands of Ambae, Maewo and Pentecost.
08 September 2010
Photo: Melsisi Bay, Pentecost Island
Getting out of Oyster Island did not pose any problems, with Gail on the bow looking for coral and with Brian following instructions from Gail (yeah right!!!) We left at midday a week to the day from when we arrived. Brian did mention later that he saw 0.00m on the depth gauge coming out of Oyster!!, which technically meant we were on the bottom. We spent the night at Palekula Bay, 5 miles further down Espirito Santo. There was the biggest turtle we have seen so far in the bay, he must have been 100yrs old.
The following day, Friday, we left Palekula and sailed or motor sailed in winds from 8 to 30+ knots from every direction. The destination was Lolowai Bay, Ambae Island. The bay is a drowned extinct volcano with the northern edge washed away; it has leading marks to get across a coral shelf and into a beautiful, enclosed bay with a small village. On Saturday we went for a walk with several friends along the ridge and visited the local hospital, where one of the local boys climbed the "pamplemoose" or as we know it, "grapefruit" tree to get fruit for us. Later, we left the inner anchorage and re-anchored in the outer anchorage to allow us to leave Sunday for Asanvari on Maewo Island without having to wait for high tide late in the afternoon, to get across the coral shelf at the entrance to Lolowai.
We had a good sail to Asanvari on the southern end of Maewo. The anchorage was calm, with azure blue, crystal clear water; we anchored in 18 metres of water on a sandy bottom and could see the anchor. The anchorage also has a magnificent waterfall where many of the cruisers took advantage of the fresh water and did their washing or had fresh water showers. We stayed 3 days at Asanvari and enjoyed the hospitality of the locals, guides took us on walks through wooded areas and across planted terraces to the local villages, they told us how they cooked and built their houses and we helped the locals get their hydro generator running again. Each morning we were woken by a knock on the hull from Christopher Columbus, yes that is his name, in his outrigger canoe selling freshly baked bread. Asanvari has a yacht club, a hall, where we had dinner the first night and attended a feast put on by the locals on the third night. Asanvari has a close association with the Island Cruising Association and the rally boats, us included, were all "adopted" by a family from one of the local villages. Our family, Naomi, Charles and their one year old daughter, Casey, exchanged gifts with us and we shared stories of our life and their life on Maewo, which was difficult as we did not know any Bislan and they had very little English.
Loltong at the northern tip of Pentecost Island was our next stop, a very pleasant sail 12 nm from Asanvari. Loltong was the first place we have seen a dugong, a large seal like animal that lives in the water and feeds on sea grass. That night it was drinks and nibbles on Dol in Loltong with 15 people on the back deck, it was a great night. Penticost is the island where the land divers are, however land diving occurs in April/May for the yam harvest so we were not fortunate to see any.
The following day we sailed down to Melsisi or Waterfall Bay and anchored off the beach in crystal clear, blue water. You can probably guess by now that Vanuatu is very lush green with waterfalls a plenty, this must mean they have good rainfall, although to date we haven't seen any. Brian and I both agree Vanuatu is a wonderful cruising ground; the more we have seen of it the more we love it. It is larger than we realized, didn't do our homework, with many large and smaller island groups, plenty of anchorages more than we could ever explore. We were joined in the bay by Cheryl, Duncan and the kids on Catina and Bob and Kim on Northern Winds. The walk to and the swim in the waterfall where well worth stopping for and the day finished with a BBQ on Catina.