Cruising Blogs from Vanuatu

This one was rough! Big seas and 30+ knots of wind for 470-odd miles.  Early on Monday morning the skipper was woken by a loud bang and a shout from Colin in the cockpit, "Martyn, Martyn, we've lost the rudder", "We're all going to die". Maybe the last one was me. Maybe it was just in my head. One of the two ships wheel was spinning and Colin was fighting the other one while everything was bouncing around. It turned out that 'Otto', our trusty autohelm, had broken a control wire during a particularly nasty gust. It was impossible to repair at sea so we had to hand-steer from then on. "So what?" I hear you say. Everyone has seen films with some unfortunate lashed to the wheel, rounding the Horn. It needs to be said that I rarely touch the wheel on this boat. She can be told to go in a certain direction come Hell or high water by pressing buttons which leaves plenty of time to go below and darn socks or whatever. Standing in the cockpit fighting a wheel through the troughs and crests of waves is not normally what it is about these days and the uncomplaining crew member Otto usually handles it all.

Graptolite doesn't have the best keel design to be hand-steered anyway and in Force 7's or 8's it's not easy. Colin and I did 2-hour watches around the clock with aching arms and shoulders wearing full wet weather gear. Another two or three crew would have been more than useful.

Is that all? No it isn't! Our spinnaker pole (the one already snapped in the Caribbean) broke an end-fitting and is now completely useless, the anchor windlass and radar are still waiting on spare parts and worst of all, an old gremlin, the salt-water cooling system on the engine died. It seems like an old story but here we are again hurtling towards an unknown island in what might well have been a bathtub.

The entry to Port Resolution was under sail with a few minutes of un-cooled engine at the very end to help anchor. Port Resolution is very grandly named after Captain Cook's ship but is in reality just a pretty inlet with only one or two grass-roofed huts visible in the trees. A dinghy ride ashore got us cleared-in then back to Grapto to repair the engine and then a long sleep. It's now Tuesday evening and I'm sore but wide awake and ready to party.

M

Yacht Graptolite

19:37.57S 169:29.79E Port Resolution, Tanna, Vanuatu

The Vanuatu Cruising Yacht Club was the venue for a lunch party today as the yacht fleet met up in Port Vila, Vanuatu’s capital before continuing their cruise of the islands. Ross Wilson, Commodore spoke welcoming the yachts and mentioning the seamanship of the crew of Calli Due who double handed brought their yacht to safety with the rudder stuck at an angle. The French yacht Williwaw III were also commended for standing by Calli Due in some very rough seas to facilitate communication and provide moral support even thought attempts to board the yacht and help with repairs proved impossible.

Prizes were awarded for recent legs and Wizard and Tallulah Ruby won awards for offering rides to villagers from Port Resolution who wanted to get to the capital. Commemorative plaques were presented to the Yacht Club and Elsie from the yacht service company Yachting World who provided berthing for the fleet.

A representative of the Vanuatu Tourist office also welcomed the yachts and introduced a group of tribal dancers before an excellent BBQ was served. The relaxed casual atmosphere of the club provided a great chance for the crews to sit down with a beer, get together and say goodbye to the yachts that are leaving the rally as we approach the halfway point.

Some of the more energetic crews from Onelife, Akoya and Asolare had spent the morning abseiling down the Cascades waterfall, on an adventure tour run by Aussie expats Troy and Zeak. Their company EDGE has been running this tour since 2005; the guys showed a slide show of the morning’s trip at the Yacht Club and signed up another group willing to jump over a waterfall tomorrow. The length yachties will go to get a good fresh water shower is amazing.

The fleet will continue to explore Vanuatu for the next few days before meeting up in Espiritu Santo for the start of the next leg.

- World ARC

Yacht Lady Kay - Hair-raising Arrival

Hi
We are here in the bay in Tanna, and very glad to be here. The last day we still had the near Gale force winds, but the seas became rougher and rougher so it was not very nice. However, Lady Kay performed brilliantly, we rocketed along reaching 10kts at times and bounced along on the large waves, in good spirits and not even feeling seasick. Unfortunately we were still not able to get to our destination while it was still light and the approach to the bay (Port Resolution) was very nerve-racking. The seas got even larger as the water got shallower and there are no lights or anything to guide you in until you reach the waypoint where you turn into the bay and can then see the other boats. The one high spot though was that we had some spectacular fireworks from the volcano to enjoy while battling in. (We are going to visit the volcano today, it is the world's most accessible active volcano).
The cliffs got closer and closer as we approached our waypoint and it required steady nerves to keep going. We were rewarded by the sight of boat lights and people flashing torches to guide us in. Once round the corner the sea was relatively flat and we just had to creep in using flashlight and help from other boats. Anchored and opened a bottle of Malborough Sauvignon Blanc. It tasted wonderful!
We had a good night's sleep, first for several days and woke up to this beautiful bay, no signs of civilisation, but smoking vents and smell of sulphur from time to time, and rocky cliffs and pretty sandy beaches. We have a busy day planned, exchanging gifts with chief, trip to village and volcano, ceremonial feast tonight.
Enjoying not sailing for a while.

Best wishes
Jackie & Michael

Yacht Andante of Mersey - Fiji and Vanuatu

I hauled out at Denerau. A new marina just south of Leukata Fiji. They refixed my anode, pressure washed  cleaned the prop, and polished the topsides. He would have done the varnish if I had had more time there. We enjoyed the two days at Musket Cove but had to clear out for the Blue Water Rally. It is a lovely resort and we had a great meal paid for by the WARC with all the other boats in Dick's restaurant. I had a good massage there to relieve the strain of boat management and filling in inbound and outbound papers in triplicate. We were supposed to start on Saturday but a trough of bad weather came through with thunder and lightening. Half the fleet started after a delay and a change to sailing instructions to allow the fleet to follow a local boat out through the reefs in what was a virtual whiteout. I stayed behind with about 9 others and have left this morning in glorious sunshine and we are romping along between 7-8 kts on a broad reach. She is going at least a knot faster now she has been cleaned.
These conditions were not to last as the wind built up to gale force on the port quarter. The seas were very confused giving a bumpy ride. No one felt like eating so we snacked most of the way. The second night we managed to warm up a couple of cans of sausages and beans and the following night some packet pasta.
We got into Port Resolution at first light yesterday morning after running with bare poles before a force 7 and 8 for 3 days. We were very glad to get in. The highest wind speed recorded was 44.7 kts and the highest speed was 10.1Kts. If I had kept the speed up we would have not quite made it before dusk and so I had to waste 12 hours. This meant that I had to slow the boat down which eventually was down to bare poles and we were still doing 4kts.
We met all the villagers and the chief at a reception party with much dancing and exchanging of gifts. They gave us baskets of fruits and handicrafts they had made out of plants. Unfortunately we will have to dump it in the sea when we leave as we cannot take any plants into Australia. They made all the skippers wear funny hats made of palm leaves.
We then had the opening ceremony of a new hut which had been built with money provided by the WARC. Later on in the evening we went back ashore for a pig roast. Taking our own beer and wine. Gerry from South Africa gave me a bottle of Red Label for my birthday. One of the locals saw it and wanted some!
Today we are booked in on a trip up to the volcano which I could see as we approached at night. A fantastic sight of this deep red glow ahead. All for now. Bob and the crew of Andante

Yacht Lady Kay - Wonderful village welcome

Hi folks
We had such a event-packed day yesterday that I'm going to divide the day into two and do it in two consecutive days.
There is a village of around 200 people, 8 extended families, by the bay in Port Resolution. The villagers live very simply by growing their own produce, fishing and hunting pigs. They rely very heavily on visiting yachts for other basic essentials such as clothes, fishing hooks, cooking pans, paper, pens etc. For this reason they built Port Resolution Yacht Club to encourage visitors. The Yacht Club is basically a large open building with some basic cooking facilities, three guest huts, and a separate toilet and shower hut. The Yacht Club building also serves as a centre for the community, a meeting, cooking and feeding place for all the villagers. The village share all tasks and have communal meals.
We were very lucky to be formally, ceremonially welcomed to the village at 1pm yesterday. We gathered on the beach below and were led to a ceremonial meeting place where we were treated to dances by first the men and boys, and then the women and girls. All the villagers were involved. Our picture shows mainly the women dancers. We were then led by a John Frumm (info on this later) band in a procession up to the Yacht Club, passing under an arch of flowers to all have a garland placed around our necks. There was then some more ceremonial dancing performed by the women which was followed by the exchange of gifts. For the exchange of gifts the skippers were all given hats made from palm leaves and decorated with flowers and we then brought forward our gifts to them and placed them in the centre. The villagers then laid their gifts in a pile in the centre. Their generosity was humbling. There were large baskets made of palm leaves filled to the brim with fruit - one for each boat, hand-woven baskets and mats, decorated sticks and a live small pig. Everything was beautifully presented - unlike our plastic bags of goods, and had been made or grown by the villagers whereas we had just bought our gifts from a shop. In our basket we had a whole hand of bananas, aubergines, spring onion, christophenes, papaya, limes and two different unidentified roots .
Rest of this day will be reported tomorrow. Too much text for email otherwise.
For info the villagers believe in John Frumm. This is one of several cargo cults in the Pacific and are thought to originate from the Americans dropping supplies by plane. They are waiting for John Frumm to arrive in the air and shower gifts from the sky. John Frumm is thought by some to be a corruption of 'John Come'.
Read tomorrow's exciting episode to hear about the amazing volcano and the village feast.
Best wishes
Jackie & Michael

Port Vila is the capital city of Vanuatu, economic and commercial center of Vanuatu, and is Vanuatu's largest city.