October and November's cruising expenses

I missed October's months budget because of my parent's visit, first of all because they were here during the end of October and the beginning of November, and also because their visit kind of screwed up those two months' budgets. We were recording costs before and after their visit, but we totally stopped while they were with us as we were spending a lot more money than we would if we were alone, particularly on alcohol and eating out, but also somewhat on groceries. Another reason is they kindly paid for all those extra expenses.

Anyway, here is both October and November's cruising expenses. It's not 100% accurate, but I still think it's a pretty reasonable reality of what we spent, if we had just been the two of us alone. Overall the countries have been pretty cheap for cruising, although food (besides fruit, veggies and a few staples) is still more expensive than NZ, but then it's also quite limited what you can buy in the first place. Solomon Islands is quite expensive for clearing in and out of though. Interesting is also we haven't spent anything on mooring fees (haven't been any) or water (we have almost exclusively caught it all with our rain catchers). Drinks out has pretty much merged into eating out, I may delete it next month if we don't start going out drinking a lot. It's also mostly a night activity and we have spent pretty much all nights on Sophia for security reasons.

Rolly nights sleeping on the floor

From Gaua we went up to Vanua Lava, the main island of the Banks Group. Our first stop was Waterfall Bay. It's about on the middle of the west coast and has, as the name indicate, a twin waterfall that's visible from way out. Ashore it's only one (big) family living there, although there are more settlements further down the coast. We were welcomed by chief Kereli and taken to the small yacht club (a leaf building with lots of flags from other cruisers). Here we got the most thorough and formal welcome we have received anywhere, it included a welcome song and flowers put behind our ears.

The waterfalls were super cool and provided a lovely fresh swim. Apparently the snorkeling is also good there, but we didn't have time, as we had to keep on going over to the other side of the island to Paterson Bay to Sola to check out.

Here we are now and we're officially cleared out and we'll hopefully leave tomorrow morning, weather depending. It's not exactly a big passage to Solomon as the Santa Cruz islands are only two days away and there are actually a few islands on the way where we can possibly stop.

Every single anchorage since Port Peterson has been rolly, this now being the fourth anchorage in a row. That means I'm sleeping on the floor in the saloon as that's the least rolly place, although all is relative, rolly is still rolly and annoying. It's also getting still hotter and hotter and we have experienced our first squalls. Squalls are little rain and wind clouds that travel quickly through, varying in strength, some can bring lots of wind, rain and even thunder. The first one we saw happened to be when we were about to put up the main. I said it was going to blow, but Phil was sure it was only rain. I was right, although it was only a little one with winds up to 20 knots. I'm sure we'll get to experience many more to come.

Moving north and catching up

We ended up staying a whole week in Peterson Bay, mostly because of too much wind and a fair bit of rain. Another reason we weren't moving was because of other cruisers: Sagata (Phil and Leslie from Wellington), Proximity (Elizabeth and Rod from California/Germany), Maia (Fran, Mark and Matthew from Dunedin) and Blue Bie (Phil from Switzerland). It's the most socialising with other cruisers we have done since Tonga. This is very nice, but it also means we don't get much interaction with the Ni-Vanuatu people, so it's nice to have a balance of both, which I think we have managed quite well so far (easy when we have often been the only boat in our anchorages).

Peterson Bay is one of the nicest places to be stuck, especially when it blows, as it's an extremely protected anchorage, so absolutely no rolling. It has the two beautiful blue holes I already wrote about, two resorts and it's a easy ride into town. One of the resorts (Turtle Bay) has a circus show regularly, or they do when the owner is around anyway. It was really cool, very low key and casual, but still really good and perfect for island circus. Phil learned to do Devil Stick on fire when he spent a year at polytech in Nelson, and he brought them along and was allowed to do a little show afterwards. It's the first time I have seen him do it, and he wasn't bad at all, only dropped the fire stick a couple of times and almost lit up a couple of kids sitting on the ground, but, never mind, it was pretty cool, see facebook for photo proof.

On our way north we stopped at Hog Harbour which has one of Vanuatu's most famous beaches, Champagne beach. Some cruise ships stop there, so there was fancy toilet buildings again, just like Mystery Island and Wala Island. It is a really pretty beach, it has the most amazing fine, soft and white sand and super clear turquoise water. Phil's Dad, Ron, cruised through the Pacific 12 years ago and also anchored at Champagne Beach. He fixed a radio and installed a switch for one of the local guys in the village and told us to go look for him. Armed with his name this was very easy, but the cool part was he still remembered Ron. One of his daughters showed us where to get bread and meanwhile they set up a table for two. When we returned, Phil and I were placed there as guests of honour, while the family sat on a bench across from us and just watched! The daughter had also bought a bread, and so we had tea and bread. We saw the radio and the switch that Ron installed inside the house and were gifted two beautiful Lava Lavas that they make (to sell to cruise ship passengers) and of course coconut and banana. They were just super nice people. They were probably also the most well off of Ni-Vanuatu people we have met, the house was made of concrete and had proper floors and they had a car. It it only half and hour or hour's drive into Lunganville and I guess cruise ships generate a good way of income. Cain and his wife walked us back to the beach and came out to Sophia for a quick visit (it was now dark) and we found a few gifts for them also.

We have now sailed further north to Gaua which is part of the Banks groups, the most northern part of Vanuatu. Here we were greeted by no less than 5 canoes that came out even before our anchor was down, all young people and kids just curious to check us out. Depending on the weather tomorrow we may go into the village in the morning. Next we're going to Vanua Lava from where we're going to clear out of the country.

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September's cruising costs for Vanuatu

Another month has ticked over, so it's time for another cost sheet. Phew, this one isn't looking as good as the last two months. Total spending cost was almost $2400!

There are several reasons why we spent more than in Tonga. Entry, immigration and exit (already paid) fees are much higher than in Tonga. We had to get a visa extension because we're here longer than one month, and it's only one set fee for up to 4 months, $85 per person. Although food is cheaper than Tonga, there's a much better selection here and we have used up some of our NZ stores, and we're also stocking up for Solomons and PNG, so all in all that means we have bought quite a lot of food here. We have only eaten out for dinner once, but ice creams, cheap lunches etc all adds up as well. We have added two new categories, transport and sightseeing and have spent some money on that like seeing the Yasur vulcano. There is some over-lap between the two, because some sightseeing includes transport cost.

Anyway, enough explanations/excuses, here it goes:

Fun and beautiful blue holes

We have now spent almost a week in Espirito Santo, first in Luganville (second biggest city in Vanuatu) and now in Peterson Bay.

Santo was a major American military base during the WWII when fighting the Japanese invasion of the Pacific, though most of the fighting and losses were up in Solomon, where we're heading next. Aparently 100,000 American servicemen were stationed here for several years and it obviously had a major impact on the locals and the environment. They did bring a lot of jobs and economy with them and to the Ni-Vanuatu people the Americans seeemed very wealthy and generous.

When they left they dumped a whole heap of equipment into the sea, aparently negotiations with the French and/or locals fell through, and it was too expensive to transport back and they didn't want it to fall into wrong hands, so into the sea it all went. The place is now called Million Dollar Point and is a great snorkel attraction, as you litterally step into the sea from the beach and can see trucks and all kinds of things scattered on the sea bed, though some things need a fair amount of imagination to recognise after almost 70 years in the sea.

Peterson bay is an extremely protected bay just north of Luganville and we're enjoying a completely roll-free anchorage for a change after the rolly Luganville spot. There are two blue hole up two rivers from here and we have now visited both. Lovely amazing fresh and very clear water, beautiful green trees, a rope swing at each hole = we had a ball.

Another impact we saw from the Americans is the camouflage vine that was introduced to hide military equipment. It sure was effective as camouflage, but it now continues to smother the native forest in this massive green blanket. Kind of pretty, but also kind of not.

Wala Island guest house

OK, so as described in the last blog post we had a great time on Wala island. It's located just north of Port Stanley. George, the village chief's nephew, has build a guest house and he welcomes visitors. We can wholeheartedly recommend a visit and we can guarantee it would be a very unique and different experience. You would experience real Vanuatu village life.

The guest house is right in the village which sits right on the beach. The beach too is lovely, beautiful sand and very clear water and we found the snorkeling just off the coast great. Everyone in the village are super friendly and were very interested to learn where we were from. George's wife cooked us a lovely meal and I'm sure she look well after visitors. We had a tour of the island and saw these ancient sites that were used for pig killing ceremonies. Big stones are arranged into tables and there were so many of them, very impressive. Wala also has custom dancing and we have hear it's the best place in Vanuatu to see it. We were there at the end of September which is dry season, so they didn't have any mosquitos which is always a bonus.

So, how to you get there? You fly into Port Vila, then fly to Norsup, the main town in Malekula and from there George will come pick you up. Easy peacy. George's contact details are:

George Enson
Wala Island
Malekula
Vanuatu
Cell phone is: +61 5626527

Either write him a letter or simply give him a call to get more info. You may be able to google more info, but it definitely won't be well publicised! Phil and I hope one day to be able to go back and visit Wala Island and George.

Meeting the lovely people of Malekula

We left Maskelyne islands and sailed up the east coast of Malekula. Our next stop was Banam Bay just north of Port Sandwich. It was quite a nice place, big sheltered bay, which is nice because it means we can anchor far away from the shore and be further away from flying bugs and have more privacy.

We happened to arrive late Friday afternoon, so it meant the kids didn't have school on the Saturday and came out in their canoes to fish and check us out. We first spoke with two kids in one canoe and later more boys arrived. We invited them onboard for popcorn, an offer they more than happily accepted. Two more arrived with some fish and I made another pot of popcorn, as there were now 10 boys onboard. They chopped up a couple of the small reef fish, head, tail and all, and gave to me to fry up and that was just a quickly devoured as the popcorn. Some of the boys went ashore and got us a couple of coconuts to drink while others stayed onboard and had fun playing with the binouculars and checking out Sophia. She did need several buckets of sea water after the visit to clean up popcorn and fish bits!

Later in the afternoon Phil and I went ashore to have a look around and find the shop. Some girls showed us the way, which was great, because there was no way we would have found it ourselves. Shop is generous word for a tiny hut with a few cans  and not much else, but we got some more 2-min noodles and met some nice people on the way. On the way back the girls giggled and asked if they could also come and visit Sophia, they must have heard from the boys about their visit, despite the fact that it was quite a big village. Sure, no problem, we arranged they would come the next day after church and lunch.

Sunday morning we had a good snorkel on the reef where we saw lots of Nemos, a black-tipped reef shark and some pretty big groupers. I baked a cake and we started waiting for our visitors. At 4.45 we had almost given up and were about to eat the cake ourselves, but they finally turned up. Three girls were escorted by one boys and two young men, so it wasn't the all girl visit I had hoped for, but it was OK. The girls had fun playing with my hair and were just as interested to see Sophia as the boys had been. They were all very polite, dressed in their Sunday best and we weren't at all worried about them nicking anything. The best part was when we asked them to sing for us. They sang beautifully, mainly hymns in bislama and songs about Jesus providing vegetables for us.

Next stop was Port Stanley. We first went to Norsup, Malekula's main village. It was different to the other villages we have seen because the houses were actually concrete and corrugated iron and not just wood, wowen and tatch. The people were still just as friendly, everyone says hello, smiles and waves. The anchorage was pretty rolly though, so we went further into Port Stanley to Sauro to stay the night.

Our last stop on Malekula was by Wala Island, just north of Port Stanley. Our guide said it was one of the best places to see custom dance. However, we were the only ones there, so we didn't feel like asking them to put on a dance show for us alone. George, the chief's nephew, rowed out and welcomed us and pretty much immediately invited us to come have dinner with him and he'd also show us around the island. Imagine in New Zealand if people invited total stranger tourists into their homes for dinner. They are just such amazing friendly people here. First we had a great snorkel on the reef. Some cruise ships also stop here, like at Mystery Island where we cleared into Vanuatu, and there was the same kind of plastic floating dock and fancy toilet building! Anyway, George took us on a tour around the island and showed us these amazing clearings in the middle of the islands where many many big stones were arranged like tables. We didn't quite catch the whole story, but there was something about Pentecost (antoher island further east), either the people or the stones were from there or going there or something. The tables were used for pig killing ceremonies. We did understand it was unique and the only place in Vanuatu that has them. It was amazing how they would have gotten all these big stones lifted into the middle of the island and arranged like that. The whole place was thick with culture and traditions.

George's wife cooked us a lovely meal of yams in coconut milk, rice and tomatoe omelet. I had brought in chocolate muffins (again). George also had a visitor book we signed. He has built a little guest house, a proper concrete house with real windows and sometimes cruise ship visitors want to come back and stay and also sometimes cruisers. I'll write a seperate blog post with more info, including his contact details as it would be a truly unique experience to visit this beautiful island and be part of island village life.

We fixed a broken switch on a solar powered torch of George's, gave him some old rope, printed a few photos of his family I took, but in return were give a whole bunch of veggies and the lovely meal. They didn't want any money, but asked that we gave him a donation to pass onto the chief for the tour of the island, which we of course were more than happy to do. The whole village had just built a brand new church and had celebrated its opening. Every morning kids and adults row or boat over the mainland where there's a school and they have their gardens (veggie gardens that is). 

We're now in Luganville on Espirito Santo and enjoying things like ice creams and internet again. I have uploaded a truckload of photos on facebook, so check them out, this is hopefully a direct link: Facebook album: Vanuatu II

Enjoying city life in Port Vila

We have now spent almost a week in Port Vila. We didn't quite intend to stay this long, but the days have just passed by so quickly and there are so many things to do here.

We only stayed the first night on a mooring, then we moved to another area where you can anchor. We don't understand why so many people want to pay $14 a night on a mooring, when it's free to anchor. It's OK though, because it means we have a more room here at the anchorage and it's easy to find room to tie up dinghy onto the main water front wall. Max from the (yet another, they are everywhere) Christchurch boat 'Sunshine' even showed us the showers outside the toilet building near the dive place. There's no privacy, but late in the day or early evening there aren't many people around there, just a few ladies closing up their market stalls and they are used to us now and are very friendly. The water is cold, so Phil isn't as keen on it as I am. I'd rather have a cold shower than no shower.

We have had fun walking around town finding supermarkets. Supermakets here are actually real supermarkets (as opposed to Neiafu's 'supermarkets' which are basically diaries in NZ). We have been able to find almost everything we wanted so we're very pretty happy. Of course some (most really) things are more expensive, but that's to be expected. One French supermarket (Leader) has only French products and there are no English descriptions, so that was quite fun, since neither of us speak French. It had lots of good stuff though. We're pretty well stocked up now and should definitely last another while, of course along with all the NZ food we still carry.

When we left NZ we weren't sure we were going to go to Solomon, so we didn't buy a cruising guide, partly also because it's quite expensive ($107). We are heading to Solomon after Vanuatu, so we needed one, but they are not exactly selling things like that up here. Long story short (crew.org was part of it), Phil ended up working one morning on Sea Hawk, a NZ yawl, (the slides needed new webbing) and in exchange, we got the cruising guide, as they aren't going to make it up there this season anyway. It was such a coincidence, but a lucky one, both for them and us.

We have also been to an outdoor 'museum', Secret Garden. It had a lot of Vanuatu kastom (maybe translated to folks?) stories about all kinds of Vanuatu things, as well as a few native animals such as fruit bats, birds, snakes and iguanas. The two latter we both got to hold, which was very interesting. Check out facebook for photos, as well as photos from Aneityum and Tanna (volcano!). One interesting fact we learned, which we have been wondering about as well, is why they drive on the right side here. Vanuatu got its independence from joint a French/English condominium in 1980, but back when they started having roads, they couldnt' agree on which side to drive on (so horse carts would almost collide). Typically French and English. When no agreement could be reached, it was decided that the next person that arrived on a ship and which ever side that person was driving on would be it. It happened to be a French priest, so right side it was and still is.

We are now sailing north to explore several more islands. We probably won't get internet until we get to Luganville on Santo, but we'll try and post a bit with the sat phone.

Volcano and rain

Still no internet, so still just boring text and no pictures. And this is even a really long post as we have had some really neat experiences.

We made it to Port Resolution last Saturday (1st September), but we arrived in rain and it rained almost solidly for 3 days while we were cooped up on Sophia, passing the time watching Lord of the Rings and baking cakes. Yesterday it finally cleared up, and we have been up at the volcano. It was another most amazing and awe inspiring experience, right up there with swimming with whales in Ha'apai (equal in Phil's opinion, just below it in mine).

After an extremely bumpy drive there in a 4wd, we got to Mt Yasur half an hour or so before the sun was setting. Apparently the volcano's activity level was 2, which is perfect as it is the most active level before it's too dangerous. 5 is full on eruption, 0 is quiet. Another amazing (or crazy) thing is that there is no fence or anything. They built a bit of walkway up to the crater rim and there were a couple of Vanuatu guides (in plain clothes and bare feet) but that's it. We were viewing the volcano right on the rim and could look almost directly down into the volcano's red lava. There was a pretty constant smoke billowing up, but every few minutes it would make a big bang and rumble and lava rocks would be thrown up in the air, some even higher than our level and more smoke would come up. Luckily the strong SE wind blew the smoke away from us, but occasionally you could still smell it. I don't think it would be pleasant to visit it on a windless day!

After initially getting used to each of those 'small' eruptions, suddenly there was an ear-shattering loud bang and simultaneously a massive shock wave and it even felt a bit like an earthquake. It was actually just like explosions in action movies when people are thrown away from the explosion. OK, I don't think anyone fell over, but everyone were kind of pushed backwards, pretty crazy (and a bit scary). The guides even told us to move away from the viewing area that was closest to the rim and we all have to retreat to one that was a little bit further back, as it was too dangerous. That big explosion had thrown one particular big piece of lava rock up towards where we were, and it just kept burning (quite literally) for 10 minutes.

In the dark it got even cooler, because then you could very clearly see all the lava rock pieces as they all glow hot red against the black. It was very impressive and quite a humbling experience to feel the power of the earth and see how little and helpless we are. Total cliche, but it really was.

As soon as we arrived in Port Resolution, actually even before our anchor was down, a local in a dug-out canoe approached us (though he politely waited till anchor was set until he came over). Patrick wanted to see if we were interested in papayas. We were happy to get our first fresh fruit since Tonga. He promised to come back the next day with some kumeras (NZ word for sweet potatoes). The next day was when the rain was the very worst and didn't ease at any time, so it was another day before he came back. This time he brought along an old portable DVD player/screen which was broken. Phil took it apart, although he didn't find anything obviously wrong with it, it was working afterwards, so that was nice. We also fixed the broken zip and strap on his backpack.

The next day in the afternoon when the rain was only drizzling we finally went ashore for a walk. After passing the main village we suddenly found Patrick on the side of the road by another cluster of houses. He had just gotten some more kumera and was about to row out to us but could see our dinghy wasn't by Sophia and then we walked right by. He took us in to meet his three children (2, 5 and 8) and wife and then proceeded to show us his 'garden' which was several large sections with all kinds of crops growing on them. Back by the houses his wife gave us a big slice of some interesting looking (grey!) cake to taste. It was made of tapioca, coconut and other things we didn't understand what was. It was unusual and I won't be trying to copy it, but it was very nice of them to give us some.

The most interesting part was seeing how they lived. There was a whole bunch of small thatched little huts/houses and he said it was all his family living there, obviously a big and extended family. There's no electricity and only a few water (cold obviously) taps were sticking up from the ground, one to maybe 20-30 huts. Patrick pointed to one hut which was their bedroom and another hut which was their kitchen. We had a look inside the kitchen hut. It was maybe 3 by 4 meters big and most of it was made up of a raised bed/floor, in the corner was a fire (on dirt floor) and the other corner held a small table. No shelves, cupboards, chairs or anything. They literally place the pots on the fire, on the floor. Water would have to be carried in containers back from the tap. Sure is a very basic and simple life. The DVD player would have to be charged by someone else who has a generator, but it's definitively was a luxury item. But it was all quite neat and tidy and they had planted flowers around the place.

We left with kumera, basil, spring onion, coconut, arrowroot (it was new to them too, so they didn't' know how to cook it either, just said boil it, we'll have to google it when we get to Port Vila), capsicum, ocra (I think it called, not sure) and I'm sure I'm forgetting something .Oh yes, the DVD player so we could charge it for him. We paid him for the veggies and invited his family to come out to Sophia the next day if they were interested. Only Patrick and one son came, something about the wife having a headache, who knows, she was probably just busy cooking and child minding. We had one empty DVD disk which we copied a movie onto for him which he was very happy for.

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Arrived in Vanuatu

Well, after the last blog post the wind almost died and we slowed right down, so much for hoping for a Tuesday arrival. We could have maybe made it if we had motored the last 16 hours, but we didn't feel like burning all that diesel, so decided just to take it easy. We spent some hours just bobbing around in the swell, but then the wind came up again, then slowed down again. We had everything from 2 to 20 knots those last 24 hours. We hove to most of the night, or more correctly fore-reaching, for we still did 1-3 knots depending on the wind, but it was fairly comfortable, (for non-sailors, we set the sails so they oppose each other and we stay put into the wind only drifting a bit). We arrived in Analgawat on Aneityum (Atamon apparently is the old French word for the island) about 1pm Wednesday, 8 days after leaving Tonga and traveling through two time zones. It was pouring down rain and pretty cold, relatively speaking.

The local police (and customs) officer didn't come out to clear us in until the next morning, but then unfortunately the bank was closed, as it's only open every second day, so we had to stay another day, so we could get some money out and pay our entry fee. Just off the anchorage is a small uninhabited island called Mystery Island. Every month a bunch of cruisie ships stop here and the island is flooded by cruise ship passengers exploring a southern sea 'paradise island. The locals have actually set it up really neat and organised and they make a living of selling crafts, food, entertainments etc to the tourists. I haven't seen so many toilets since New Zealand! We had it all to ourselves and I went snorkeling on the adjoining reef, it was OK, but not spectacular, but I was also a bit limited by a strong current. Phil cut his finger on a fishing knife, so is trying to keep it dry until it heals.

Speaking of fishing knife, we caught no less than three tunas those last 24 hours before arriving here. First two small tunas in a row, we think they were skip jack tunas. These we gave to the customs officer because a little later we got a big beautiful yellow-fin tuna on the hook, yummy, so delicious. Unfortunately we totally forgot to weigh it, but it's the biggest we have caught so far.

Now it's Friday and we got Vanuatu money, paid the entry fee and have wandered through the village. Ni-Vanuatu (as the people are called) are very friendly and smiling, the kids all seem to play soccer, even girls too. Landscape-wise it's very different from Tonga, as here are huge hills/mountains covered in pine-looking trees (as opposed to Tonga's pretty flat coconut islands).

Assuming the foreast we're about to download doesn't come up with any surprises, we're leaving for Port Resolution on Tanna tomorrow very early morning, then it's volcano time! Apparently there's also internet there, so we'll try and get some photos uploaded so it's not just all this boring text.

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