Our last evening at Aore was very sociable. My birthday treat was a hot shower in one of the bungalows at the resort. The anticipation was delicious…I clutched the key for the bungalow until I could wait no longer. The shower was perfect and I even rivaled Angus in the length of time I stayed in there. The final treat was the brighter than white, thick, fluffy towels. Heavenly. I have never been one for expensive presents..500 vatu was enough for me! We joined Anne and Eric and Michael and Isa from Tasmania (resort guests) for an entertaining evening.
A much better day, wind and tidal conditions took us to Pelikula Bay on the South Eastern corner of Santo. It is a beautiful spot and we were glad of some waypoints in the guidebook, as we picked our way in and out of the coral reefs to a perfect anchorage. Chrystal clear water, coral sand beaches and many turtles. A great time snorkeling. A spanking sail to Ambae the following day – skipped one anchorage we had thought we might go into, easily covering another 10 miles to Vanihe Bay. The anchorage has a huge cliff on one side with large trees overhanging, several of which were filled with large flying foxes, who took turns in doing Batman impersonations as they circled around, leading to screeches from the others. Slightly eerie to say the least. Ambae, at 15 degrees South, is the furthest north we plan to go for our entire trip…south all the way to Bluff now!
We had been advised to get an early start to cross to Maewo and our destination of Asinvari. We headed upwind and ended up tacking slowly towards our destination….no matter where we pointed in the bay, it was always dead upwind. We nearly changed plans, but decided to persevere as so many people had recommended Asinvari as a destination. They were right, and we were very happy to pick up a mooring in front of a coral beach with a fantastic waterfall cascading at one side of the bay. Rowing ashore, we met Alex, who has built a restaurant at the waterfall. A payment of 500 vatu gave us unlimited access to the waterfall for the duration of our stay, including swimming, and doing laundry and showers in the river below. We had a leisurely swim and clean up before having delicious dinner at the restaurant.
The 30th July is Vanuatu Independence Day and we were invited to join in the local celebrations on their 34th Anniversary. We had been advised that there would be some long speeches, which it may be better to avoid, and that these would all be over by lunchtime. We got there around 12, to discover that nothing had started yet, so were there for the raising of the flag, singing of the national anthem and the speeches. The speeches were obviously very important, but when you don’t speak the language, seemed a little long – and there were lots of them! However, lunchtime arrived and we bought some pork, veg and rice wrapped in a banana leaf, which we ate with our fingers, with predictably messy results. We washed it down with a drink of fresh coconut and accompanied by figure-of- 8 bread (which is a bit like a doughnut) we were quite full!
The afternoon’s entertainment included football games (the school was displaying its new football kits, donated by an Australian Doctor), volleyball and traditional dancing by Alex’s female dance group, The Fantastics”. They were really good, with beautiful costumes, singing and dancing with bamboo tubes of various lengths. More speeches seemed about to take place, so we made our exit and returned to the boat around 5pm, for a beautiful sunset.
31st July – my birthday. Leisurely start, then cleaned the galley before helping Simon fix a leak in the skylight windows. This involves using black Sikaflex…the messiest substance known to man, and so it wasn’t long before both of us and various parts of the boat, were black and sticky. However, job done! We went ashore and had a really nice walk, looking out towards Pentecost across a very rough piece of water with a large breaking swell, which we had to cross when we left. More swims and washing in the waterfall and had a couple of beers with Alex, as we collected a huge pile of freshwater prawns that we had ordered. I rowed over the village to collect fruit and bread and Simon created a delicious birthday dinner, washed down with the last of our Nelson wine.
Slightly anxious about the crossing to Pentecost, we left early and had a very calm and enjoyable sail, with none of the huge surf we had seen the day before. We zoomed on and headed right to the bottom of Pentecost and Londot village. A dugong surfaced next to us as we arrived and we have seen several pods of dolphins. We are about to go ashore as it has been pretty wet and windy since arriving. Pentecost is famous for it’s land diving, but the season is over now, however there are some lovely villages, including one called Hotwata, where the spring water is so hot that the locals dip pigs and chickens in it to scald them before removing hair/feathers!
Thought for the day…why does one glass of wine not go very far, when the equivalent spilled volume of Lea and Perrins Sauce/ Betadine/ Coconut Oil go for miles??!!