Emily Grace

Inland Bali

2012-01-20T00:28:00.000-05:00

The transportation was really inexpensive in Bali. I could have rented a motorcycle for the day for about $5 or a car for about $25, but it did not make sense when the cabs were so reasonable. There were free-lance drivers where you had to negotiate your price each time or BlueBird Taxis which were all metered and tightly controlled. Most trips were around $10 and we got taken to exactly where we wanted to go.

We met Made Edy Darma the first day in his BlueBird cab. His English was good and he had been driving in Bali for about 12 years. He took us on our trips to Ubud and to the dance shows and invited us to see his home and parents’ house in the northwest of Bali. He offered to take us on his day off and spend the entire day exploring. Since the Immigration folks were on their second week figuring out how to extend our visas another 30 days, we decided to take him up on his offer. We met him at 9AM at the dingy dock and off we went.

We didn't see any forests, per se, but the rice fields stretched for miles without stopping, green as far as the eye could see, interspersed with crude scarecrows and little huts where rice-watchers stayed.

Even on hills that seemed impossibly steep, rice grew on long, contouring terraces that looked beautiful (but seemed too much trouble for the amount of rice they produced).

The Balinese religion is called Agama Hindu Dharma, and is a unique blend of Hindu, Buddhist, Javanese and indigenous beliefs. The first thing you notice is all the offerings. Fire, water and flowers are all the basic components of an offering and once you know what to look for you will see them everywhere. The most common are small offerings placed in front of shops, driveways, and even on the motor scooters. They are made with small woven baskets of palm leaf, and are usually filled with flowers and a small piece of food (rice or Ritz cracker). Other small offerings are presented after cooking or before eating. It is hard to walk more than a couple of minutes without noticing some sort of offering or small temple.

The most noticeable offering is called a penjor and is a large decorated bamboo pole. They are intricately decorated along the entire length of the pole, which gentle curves down at the top end and is finished with a beautiful palm leaf creation that hangs off the top. We saw several on our drive and made told us they mark important events like wedding and temple anniversaries.

I felt rather strange when I first noticed the Swastika in a couple of very religious places. Little did I know it was the original Hindu swastika, which has been their symbol for safety, peace, happiness, and blessings for thousands of years. It was NOT the Nazi swastika, which is a rotated version of the same symbol.

We saw cages by the road each containing a rooster for their cock fights. We were told that they were purposely kept by the busy road so that they would be accustomed to the noise and confusion during the fights.

Many of the villages specialized in either stone carving or wood carving and we would pass 30 or 40 shops side-by-side displaying their specialty. Another 10 minutes of winding roads and we would see the next village. It’s hard to believe that they all can make a living since the supply of quality carvings is so big.

We saw the twin lakes area and finally met Made’s boyhood home and met his parents and extended family. They raise coffee and rice and have some fruit trees. We were graciously served hand ground, wood-roasted coffee and tea and offered to stay in their home for free on our next visit to Bali. Emily made a few more Origami flapping birds and we had a grand time.

The coffee was quite good and asked if we could buy some roasted beans. We paid them a small amount for a bag of raw beans that we brought to a small business that ground and roasted the local coffee crop. The established deal was that they weighed the raw beans and we received ½ of the weight in roasted and vacuum bagged beans without any money changing hands. We wished we had bought more.

We saw wild monkeys on the side of the roads and several approached the car looking for food. We were also amazed at how much the Balinese can carry on a motorcycle. We saw one guy with about 100 dead, plucked chickens all stacked behind, around and between his arms. He had so many in front of him, he could barely see over them. We missed getting that picture, but captured another fellow with 21 live chickens in cages on his bike!

It was a long day when we returned to the dock after dark and we were glad to have seen some of the countryside outside the tourist areas and had some personal contact with these kind, gentle people.

Tom

Balinese Dances

2012-01-11T18:12:00.001-05:00

Balinese dancing is world renowned and we decided to make an effort to see quite a bit in our short time here. We traveled north to the Batubulan village to see our first dance performed in a dedicated theatre. We had front row seats for the princely sum of $20 each for the hour long Barong and Kris Dance show.

Barong is probably the most well known dance. It is a story telling dance, narrating the fight between good and evil. This dance is the classic example of Balinese way of acting out mythology, resulting in myth and history being blended into one reality.

The barong, mystical dragon-like creature, is portrayed by two dancers wearing a huge sway-backed body with trailing hair and a curved tail. He is a symbol of good, associated with the right and white magical powers. His counterpart is Rangda, an evil panged which with long fingernails, pendulous breasts and a long flaming tongue. She is queen of evil spirits and rules the graveyards and the darkest night, specializing in black magic and evil. The Barong and The Rangda are parts of an eternal pantomime that represents the conflict between good and evil, and the symbolic play they enact is part of a purification ceremony that is designed to restore the equilibrium of these two forces, a means of strengthening the spiritual resistance of the village; maintaining the good health, physical and spiritual, of the community.

Here's a short video clip to give the essence of the movements.

We called around and found that the Grand Hyatt hotel hosts several buffet dinners with a dance show. Our first one there was…

Legong Dance
In legends, Legong is the heavenly dance of divine nymphs. Of all classical Balinese dances, it remains the quintessence of femininity and grace. Girls from the age of five aspire to be selected to represent the community as Legong dancers.

Connoisseurs hold the dance in highest esteem and spend hours discussing the merits of various Legong groups. The most popular of Legongs is the Legong Kraton, Legong of the palace. Formerly, the dance was patronized by local rajas and held in e puri, residence of the royal family of the village. Dancers were recruited from the aptest and prettiest children. Today, the trained dancers are still- very young; a girl of fourteen approaches the age of retirement as a Legong performer.

The story derives from the history of East Java in the 12th and 13th centuries: when on a journey the King of Lasem finds the maiden Rangkesari lost in the forest. He takes her home and locks her in a house of stone. Rangkesari's brother, the Prince of Daha, learns of her captivity and threatens war unless she is set free.

Rangkesari begs her captor to avoid war by giving her liberty, but the king prefers to fight. On his way to battle, he is met by a bird of ill omen that predicts his death. In the fight that ensues he is killed. The dance dramatizes the farewells of the King of Laserm as he departs for the battlefield and his ominous encounter with the bird. It opens with an introductory solo by the condong. She moves with infinite suppleness, dipping to the ground and rising in one unbroken motion, her torso poised in an arch with elbows and head held high, while fingers dance circles around her wrists. Slowly, her eyes focus on two fans laid before her and, taking them, she turns to meet the arrival of the legongs.

The tiny dancers glitter and dazzle. Bound from head to foot in gold brocade, it is a wonder the legongs can move with such fervent agitation. Yet, the tight composure of the body, balanced by dynamic directive gestures-the flash of an eye, the tremble of two fingers blend in unerring precision.

We spent another whole day enjoying the Hyatt pool and shops and later enjoyed their buffet and saw 5 different dances in one evening.

Sekar Jagat Dance

Sekar means flower, and Jagat means the world. This is a newly created Balinese Dance which means: "The Flower of the World". It is performed by a group of girls, carrying a bowl of flowers called "Canangsari". The happiness in welcoming the guest is presented through the graceful movements of the young Balinese Dancers.

Teruna Jaya Dance

This dance originated from North Bali area (Buleleng) which describes the moods of a young man as he moves from childhood to adolescent. In this case, the performance was done by a lady.

The Cendrawasih Dance

This dance represents the freedom enjoyed by the beautiful peacock of the forest while they fly and splash in the water spring. Cendrawasih means 'Bird of Paradise', and the dance depicts the atmosphere surrounding the birds’ courtship display.

Oleg Temulilingan Dance

This is a story of bumblebee male and female falling in love.

Satya Bhrasta Dance - This warrior dance is performed by a group of young male dancers, which illustrates a warrior’s prowess in battle. The theme is taken from "Bharatayudha", a Hindu Epic, in the scene where Gatotkaca is killed by Karna.

Along with the green layered rice paddies and cheap food, we will certainly remember the unique dancing as one of the highlights of visiting Bali.

Stay with us and we will show you some of the countryside we found by car in a later blog…

Tom

Bali-Ubud Crafts and Monkeys

2012-01-07T07:10:00.001-05:00

Bali was so different from the rest of Indonesia that it could easily be its own country. It has by far the most vibrant economy we have seen in Indonesia, and a very different, predominantly Hindu, culture. Fields were cultivated instead of the lying barren or burned off like the hills we saw in Nusa Tenggara. Roads were good, the infrastructure all worked, and the people didn't look at us like we were some kind of gods who'd arrived in our space-ships. The Balinese people had their own lives to lead and, while polite, didn't really need us, which was nice. Prices were so good on local furniture and crafts we might have to fly back to Bali and fill a container with all the furnishings and artwork we will need for our house.

Color seemed to be everywhere, even in the little offerings people left in personal shrines or on the sidewalk in front of their homes. The traditional dress of the Balinese is layers and layers of ikat and songket in every color imaginable.

Ubud is a remarkable town in the middle of the island of Bali. For more than a century, it has been the island's preeminent center for fine arts, dance and music. We headed there first to see the craft market and the Monkey forest. The Ubud Monkey Forest is a nature reserve and temple complex. It houses approximately 340 Crab-eating Macaque monkeys. There are four groups of monkeys each occupying different territories in the park. The forest comprises approximately 27 acres and contains at least 115 different species of trees.

We fed the monkeys bananas and peanuts and had them climbing all over us. Kim thought that putting the bananas on top of her hat would be safe…and arm wrestled with one that climbed up her back and saved most of them!

The Monkey Forest contains the Pura Dalem Agung Padangtegal temple as well as a "Holy Spring" bathing temple and another temple used for cremation ceremonies. We gave a $2 donation for sarongs and sashes to be dressed appropriately for the temple. The stone carvings were nice.

They had really nice hand carved wood and bone pieces and we bought a few souvenirs. Kim did not like the haggling but Dad really had the hang of it. We bought a 10” (water buffalo?) bone that was completely covered in intricate Balinese carvings. It had to have taken over 1 month to carve it. It started off at 800,000 Rupiah but after haggling and walking away 3 times (with him chasing me down the sidewalk), he parted with it for 50,000 Rupiah, which is about $5.50 US.

We ended up with Batik pillow cases, bone and wooden chess pieces and some carved wood items for the wall before we had to turn back to the boat. We needed to rest up to see some Balinese dancing. But that, Dear reader, will have to wait for another post…

Tom

Merry Christmas from Gili Air

2011-12-31T20:51:00.000-05:00

We moved fairly quickly west from Komodo based on the limited decent anchorages on the North side of West Nusa Tenggara. We did one overnight passage and all of the shrimp boats, fish traps and unlighted small fishing boats made for busy watches. We stopped at a fancy resort on the west side of Moyo Island and visited a resort that charges $850 US per night. The bungalows are all air conditioned and have fabric tent roofs and are very plush inside. We did enjoy lunch there but it was waaay overpriced and after taking our money, we were relocated to a distant mooring.

We made a few more stops before arriving in the Gili Islands. One anchorage was near a factory and a horse-drawn cart was shuttling huge piles of hay back and forth along the beach. He was working fast to beat a rain storm that was coming.

The 3 Gili Islands just off Lombok give the locals a place to get away from city life. No motorized vehicles are allowed and all travel is by bicycle or horse-drawn carts. We enjoyed a Christmas sleigh ride complete with jingle bells all around Gili Air for $10.

There were numerous laid back restaurants and massage places and enough white folks that we blended in for the first time in Indonesia. Full lunches with appetizers, multiple drinks, and deserts for the three of us were consistently around $30-$40 US. We ate out every day for lunch and one day we all enjoyed 60 minute massages for less than $10 each.

They had a few unique craft shops and we bought a coconut that was hollowed out and the entire surface was carved by hand in dolphins and swirls. If it makes it home in one piece, I’ll put a light in the base.

After about a week, we moved two miles over to Lombok and took on 1000 liters of diesel to top up the tanks. They brought it out in 33 jugs and poured it right into the tanks for about $2.49 per gallon. We only had about two weeks left on our 60 day visa and wanted to move on to Bali before the new year, so we decided to make the one day trip southwest. We were told that the Bali marina power was so bad, we decided to go straight to a nearby anchorage behind Serangan Island.

Follow along, dear reader as we move on.

Tom

There Be Dragons Here!

2011-12-18T08:07:00.000-05:00

Once the galley was loaded, we headed first to Loh Buaya which is still inside the Komodo National Park area on Rinca Island, but is not as commercialized as Komodo Island. It is located inside a deep protected harbor and we anchored right off the ranger station. We had to buy a 3-day pass, so we waited until 7AM the next day to go ashore. They hit us with all sorts of fees including the park fees, anchoring, bringing our camera and our tour guide. I started to feel like I was being fleeced until I calculated that all the fees added up to about $28 US. We were told that most of the wildlife including the dragons are more active in the morning and we were not disappointed. We were assigned an English-speaking guide and we proceeded to go on about a 4 hour hike.

We saw many of the big dragons and much of the food that they eat roaming free. The dragons’ food include the Timor deer, the main prey of the Komodo dragon, water buffalo, wild boar, and long-tailed macaques. The water buffalo were lying in the streams keeping cool and were unafraid of us. We learned that Rinca Island has many more dragons than Komodo Island.

The Komodo dragon (Varanus Komodoensis) is a giant lizard that is only encountered at Komodo National Park. The species is the last of its kind and it will be of no surprise that because of this they are protected by law. The Komodo Dragon - or ora as the locals call them - can grow up to 3 to 4 meters in length. Its ancestors roamed the earth up to about half a million years ago. Although these lizards are considered to be harmless, it is advisable to keep them at a distance. Our guide carried a forked stick to fend off a charging dragon, but we were not threatened by the dragons.

More of a threat to us were the villagers trying to sell us carved wooden dragons, pearls and tee shirts. We ended up buying some of all three during our two weeks roaming the park islands. We also had an encounter with a coast guard official on Rinca who insisted that we needed to officially check in with him for another $10 worth of forms, paper and stamps.

Next we moved over to the main anchorage of Loh Liang on Komodo Island and did a similar (but shorter) tour of that island. On this island we saw many more of the Timor deer and they also seemed to be unafraid of man. From the rangers here, we learned where the public moorings are located. Using the moorings made our anchorages more secure since most are quite deep and with the reversing tide/currents, we are always worried about dragging. The winds have been light, but with a 80 foot deep anchorage, I would put out about 320 feet of chain which makes quite a big swinging radius!

We stayed next at pink beach and enjoyed fine pink sand and clear water for snorkeling.

Next we went to what we thought would be a peaceful spot on the west side of Rinca, but the roll was really bad from swell. The next day we dropped to the very south of Rinca and found a mooring behind Nusa Kode that was delightful. We saw wild dragons, deer, boars and eagles right from the boat and no rangers or villagers were there. It was so nice and peaceful here that we decided to spend three nights in this area.

We did see a couple of live-aboard dive boats and Emily and I did a SCUBA dive one afternoon with them. It cost me one pack of cigarettes to get our two air bottles refilled. This is where cruising on your own boat is really nice. These dive boats have to cram in 6 dives per day and then they leave at 5AM to the next spot. We can linger where we like and leave when nothing holds our interest.

Next we crossed over to the very south of Komodo where we hoped to see large manta rays again. Because we did not know exactly where they were and it was rolly there, we quickly moved around a protected point and found a quiet mooring for the night.

We stopped one night on Padar Island and found a delightful white sand beach and fair coral. We took the machete ashore and had a couple of drinking coconuts while Emily built elaborate sand mazes for the hermit crabs.

We have shared most of the anchorages with Indonesian fishing boats and have bought lobster and fish from them and even given drinking water when asked. They typically come in about 4PM and leave at about 6AM for more fishing. They rarely come by our boat, but always wave excitedly when we shout hallo.

We tried to visit Sebayur Island, but by the time we arrived, the wind had shifted and the anchorage looked rough and undesirable. The captain immediately headed west and we found a better mooring on the south side of Lawadarat that had good snorkeling and another nice beach. That mooring was a little rolly at night, so after a morning snorkel, we moved ½ mile south and grabbed another mooring. The next morning we were joined by another dive boat so Emily and I did a nice dive with them. Saw a turtle, 9 scorpion fish and plenty of life while the captain of the dive boat circled above us in my dingy.

As our time in Indonesia is limited and the rain storms are becoming more numerous (but quick), we decided to re-provision once more in Labuan Bajo and start heading further west towards Bali.

Tom

Underwater Indonesia...so far

2011-12-05T03:03:00.000-05:00

Here is a sampling of what we have seen under those calm Indonesian seas so far. We are now in Labuan Bajo filling the galley so we can explore the Rincon and Komodo Islands for a couple of weeks. We were told that we will see the best diving there.

We shall see...

Tom

Indonesia (East Nusa Tenggara)

2011-11-27T17:11:00.000-05:00

Spread across a chain of thousands of islands between Asia and Australia, Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population.

Ethnically it is highly diverse, with more than 300 local languages. The people range from rural hunter-gatherers to a modern urban elite.

Indonesia has seen great turmoil in recent years, having faced the Asian financial crisis, the fall of President Suharto after 32 years in office, the first free elections since the 1960s, the loss of East Timor, independence demands from restive provinces, bloody ethnic and religious conflict and a devastating tsunami.

Sophisticated kingdoms existed before the arrival of the Dutch, who consolidated their hold over two centuries, eventually uniting the archipelago in around 1900.
After Japan's wartime occupation ended, independence was proclaimed in 1945 by Sukarno, the independence movement's leader. The Dutch transferred sovereignty in 1949 after an armed struggle.

Post-Suharto Indonesia has made the transition to democracy. Power has been devolved away from the central government and the first direct presidential elections were held in 2004.

Lying near the intersection of shifting tectonic plates, Indonesia is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. A powerful undersea quake in late 2004 sent massive waves crashing into coastal areas of Sumatra, and into coastal communities across south and east Asia. The disaster left more than 220,000 Indonesians dead or missing.

Our entry point into Indonesia was Kupang. This large city is in Timor which is part of Indonesia. Our original CAIT or cruising permit was sent here and we were forced to battle the corrupt officials and greedy ship agents and both did not disappoint. With much smiling through gritted teeth, we managed to get all the correct forms and stamps and left as soon as possible. The harbor was filthy and Kim and Emily had no desire to go ashore.

We left there for an overnight trip to a more remote area on the southwest tip of Kuwala Island known for whaling. Here we were alone and swam in clear water and strolled the beach. We wound our way counterclockwise around Andura Island using the tides to push us at 10 knots and stopped wherever we saw an interesting spot. We anchored directly offshore of a Catholic Friary and figured that was as safe as we were going to find.

The next morning we pushed around the northeast tip of Flores and anchored in Teluk Hading. It was pretty there, but the wind shifted and we decided to move along after a bumpy night’s sleep. Most days there has been little wind (less than 5 knots) and the seas are so flat that the stabilizers have been turned off even during passages.

Flores is an exceptional scenic island, located east of Sumbawa and Komodo and west of Lembata and Alor. To the southeast is Timor. To the south, across the Sumba strait, lies the island of Sumba and to the north, beyond the Flores Sea, is the island of Sulawesi.

The name Flores is Portuguese and means 'flower' as the Portuguese were the first Europeans to colonize East Nusa Tenggara. They eventually sold it to the Dutch.

Flores measures 17,164 square kilometer, is heavily treed with forests and is mountainous, rising to 2,399 m. above sea level. The island is divided by strings of volcanic mountains into several regions with distinctive languages and traditions. The largest town is Maumere.

The western part of the island is mainly of Malayan origin whereas the eastern part is mainly inhabited by people of Papuan origin.

We spent two nights at Palu Besar and had our first interactions with rural Indonesians. We found two villages and gave one headman a USA hat and another headman received 3 pairs of reading glasses. Both gifts were well received and the kids were given a brand new soccer ball and could not have been happier. We got coconuts, bananas and mangos in return and really felt welcomed into Indonesia. We did some snorkeling and the water was clear and too warm for wetsuits.

We were running low on fresh vegetables, so we moved further west on Flores near the large city of Moumere. We anchored off a small hotel and decided to make the trip to town to buy some fresh vegetables. The town was about 20 miles away, but quite an adventure.

We walked about 10 minutes in the 95 degree heat to the main road to catch a "Bemo". They are like minivans but people cram into them. Since this is the off-season here, us white folks stand out like aliens. This morning it helped us at first, because a Bemo saw us coming and waited for us to walk the last 300 feet to the road. Although most speak no English, we managed to convey our destination and climbed on board. Kim counted 17 people mostly in the van. About 3 or 4 boys were hanging out the open door as we sped along. 30 minutes later, we stopped at a bus terminal still 4 miles out of town. There we were fought over by many Bemo drivers who all wanted us on their Bemo . We were rushed into the “winning” Bemo and proceed to sit in the heat for another 20 minutes while the driver waited for it to fill up. Finally, I looked up the Indonesian words for "let's go" and after several requests we pulled out. Unfortunately, he did not understand where we wanted to go because we drove around in circles for another 20 minutes and he tried to leave us in the middle of nowhere a couple of times before we landed in the right place. Those bus rides cost us about $2.25 total so I should not complain too much!

The town is absolutely filthy with garbage lining the streets. No one even considers using a trash can here. You can imagine the smells as we walked through the fish mongers. Kim will soak EVERYTHING we get in a weak bleach solution to kill any vermin before it goes into the galley. We are bug-free and have discovered that is unusual among cruising boats.

We started walking through a maze of small booths selling all kinds of jewelry and trinkets and wound our way to the food area. We were soon met by a local 20 year old boy who introduced himself and simply wanted to practice his English. He came with us and helped us both identify the local foods and get the right prices. We found most everything we needed and filled up 5 canvas bags for about $20.

We ate at a local restaurant recommended to us and had chicken, rice and local fare that was marginal. The girls thought it was too spicy. We each had two bottled cold drinks each and the total bill was $5.20 US.

We also found a shop selling the locally woven cloth made here called Ikat and bought two for about $20 each. The hotel where we are anchored was selling similar ones for about $60.

Our ride back was less eventful and we came back in record time. We rewarded ourselves by having two (quart-size) Bintang beers, a frozen pineapple drink and three mango ice creams at the restaurant by the boat.

This morning a local man brought out some diesel to the boat by dugout canoe. I don't really need it now but wanted to see how it all goes. He came on time and used his own five, 5-gallon containers. I poured it into my tanks thorough a special filter that removes dirt and water. This hundred gallons cost me about $2.52 per gallon US delivered and was very clean.

Another man came by canoe at 10AM with an octopus for us to eat that we had ordered. We have eaten octopus before and it was good. We were wondering how he could promise an octopus since we rarely see them diving. Sure enough, he showed up and it was fresh and enormous. We had him clean it for us on our swim platform because that is the hard part. Kim made Nasi Gooring with it using a recipe we got from good friends on Sail Away.

We met a third man here who came out to the boat with the entire bottom of the boat covered in exotic sea shells. He wanted a swimming mask and Emily had pulled one from a dumpster in New Zealand being thrown out by another cruiser. He was thrilled and we received 10 shells that we would have never found on our own. He has since come by just to talk and told us that he would trade all of his other shells for another mask. Unfortunately, we only had one to spare.

Tomorrow we head only 4 hours west for a quiet anchorage and maybe some diving. Come along with us for the trip…

Tom

Across the Top and into Darwin

2011-11-13T04:49:00.002-05:00

We had a nice trip around the top of Australia and bypassed famous Thursday Island for the aboriginal town of Seisia. We went ashore and found a well-stocked grocery store and added a few fresh things for the galley. We had a calm crossing of the Gulf of Carpentaria which we were told could be like a washing machine. We had 10-15 knots of following wind and seas less than about 1.5 meters and we all enjoyed the calm conditions. So we rounded the tip of the Wessels and anchored for two nights at Two-Island bay. Again it was glassy smooth there and we explored the beach. We found armies of small crabs that emerged from the beach at low tide and marched by the hundreds across the sand. We have pictures and videos, but poor internet availability on the boat prevents posting pictures in this country.

We made a few more stops on the way to Darwin and were flushed around Cape Don at 10 knots by the 24 foot tides here. Our passages definitely required some tide and current planning to keep our 6 knot boat moving forward.

Darwin was OK although we almost did not make it into the locked (they use locks to keep the water in) marinas because of a requirement for $10 million of liability insurance (which we were shy of). After being refused entry by two of the four marinas, we were allowed entry into Bayswater Marina at $60 per night. The good part was a great lockmaster that loaned us his own car for 5 of the 9 days we spent there and the ability to run our A/Cs non-stop to battle the 96 degree temperature.

We made good use of the car to gather bits and pieces and to do a major food provisioning for Indonesia. We had been introduced to an Operations manager at one of the boatyards and he reworked some of the repairs to the dingy that were inadequately done in Mackay and he also helped me locate some engine filters and oil. But even with "the best guy" doing the work, not all was done properly and my running lights that were disconnected are now not working; one more thing for the captain to fix in Indonesia. Overall, we found the prices and workmanship in New Zealand to be far better than Australia.

We did catch up with cruising friends (on Elixer) that we had met crossing the pacific and now have a lovely home on Cullen bay with their boat docked just off their house. They invited us to dinner and Emily got to play again with their children, Hugo and Ethan. It just happened that our dinner invitation was one day before Emily's 11th birthday, so Dad bought a birthday cake and Emily got to blow out candles and make her wish on solid ground for a change.

We made a day trip to Crocodilia Park where Emily got to hold another croc and we saw some monsters leaping out of the water for a piece of lamb. Dad and Emily actually got to feed them with a raw piece of lamb on a "fishing pole". Although we never saw any crocs in the wild while cruising, the sight of the 15 foot monsters and the speed of their attack made us thankful of that! We understand that there are also saltwater crocs in Indonesia, but they are not as numerous as here in Oz.

I write this blog on anchor in Francis Bay. We have full fuel tanks and an appointment with customs in the morning to check out and will start our 3-day passage to Kupang in Indonesia right away. I think that I have all our permits and visas in order to make a simple entry into that country…we shall see.

Tom

Lizard Island and Moving North

2011-10-21T00:29:00.000-05:00

We spent 2 days in the Lagoon at Lizard Island since we had north winds. The winds normally blow from the southeast, so this anchorage on the south of the island is rarely used. We arrived just ahead of the pack of about 20 boats that were coming around from the other (main) anchorage. Near this lagoon anchorage is a marine research facility and we went ashore to enjoy their weekly tour and orientation. They explained that they support reef and fish research and host scientists from around the world. We saw a short film and saw some of their laboratories.

We did some snorkeling on reefs around the lagoon that are rarely dived and the water clarity, reef health and fish life were all really good. We took advantage of the calm conditions and we all went SCUBA diving on one reef here.

The wind veered back to southeast and we moved around to the main anchorage. Here there was an exclusive resort that filled our SCUBA tanks and had a restaurant/bar on the beach. Apparently, this is a $2000 per night place and Oprah had her retirement vacation/party here recently. Emily met another kid boat, but did not find them as friendly as most cruising kids.

We took the big boat 12 miles out on the outer reef to the Cod Hole for another family SCUBA dive. Here we dropped to about 40 feet and swam with cod and grouper the size of small cars. We saw a few sharks too and the water was very clear. We moved north two reefs and spent the night at anchor right behind the Great Barrier Reef. It seemed weird to be anchored in 20 feet of water over white sand in calm water and 2000 feet away, the continental shelf drops off several thousand feet deep and ocean waves crash against the reef.

We stayed at Lizard Island for almost a week before starting the trip north to the Torres Straight and west to Darwin. We were really surprised at how desolate this country and coast are. We bought a cell phone thinking we could use it to access the internet as we moved around. How wrong we were. We never saw any WiFi Internet or cell phone coverage anywhere. Many of the "third world" countries we visited had a better communication infrastructure than Australia! We continued to send in our position reports using the Single Side Band radio, but saw few boats as we headed north. We stopped at Flinders Island, Morris Island, Margaret Bay and the Escape River and did a few overnight trips because there was little to see or do. Salt water alligators inhabit these waters and act as another incentive to keep moving. Some of the trips we had 30-35 knots of wind (on the aft starboard quarter) but little swell due to the protection of the barrier reef. 35 knots of wind in the open ocean would have created 5 meter seas that would not have been pleasant.

We will continue to move toward Darwin as we need to complete our Indonesian permits and provisioning there and leave Australia before late November.

Tom

Bundaberg to Cairns

2011-10-06T04:18:00.000-05:00

Only hours from leaving the dock in Bundaberg, our inverter started acting up. The inverter changes the 12 volt battery voltage into 120 volt A/C power at our “household” outlets. Some A/C lights were flickering and the multimeter showed that I was getting low and variable voltages from the inverter. As we motored north stopping at Pancake Creek and Great Keppel Island, we used our SSB radio to send and receive e-mails with the manufacturer in the USA. We had put in the Magnum Inverter in Curacao based on glowing reports about their reliability and great service support.

It did not take much troubleshooting to determine that it was a circuit board that needed replacing. We found a service center in Australia, but Magnum was unwilling to allow them to send me the part. We moved north stopping at Curlew and Hexham Islands and ultimately hung out at Scawfell Island waiting for the part to arrive in Mackay from the USA. Most of these islands were pretty, but all uninhabited and we saw few other boats at most of the anchorages. We did a few boat projects and homeschooling but were anxious to get the part and keep moving. We finally went into the Mackay marina, cleaned up the boat and did some food provisioning. The part came and was quickly installed by Tom and we headed north the next day. The inverter has been working fine since and seems to be working better (using less amps) than before. Magnum refunded all costs including shipping from the states and other than the time delay, it was a successful repair. We now have unlimited ice again aboard Emily Grace and Kim can run her new cooling fan in the galley.

We were surprised by numerous sightings of humpback whales as we motored through the offshore islands. Many had calves and we saw quite a few full broaches throwing up huge splashes of white water.

One day we saw a bird standing on the water and the captain almost had a heart attack. I was thinking that I had made a navigational error (like Captain Cook) or had found an uncharted reef. It turned out to be a gull catching a free ride on the back of a turtle! We later discovered (from the volunteer marine rescue folks), that some turtles have been getting an ailment that makes them more and more buoyant and eventually they cannot submerge to feed and die. Another lesson in the circle of life.

The tidal range here is enormous (20 feet), so we have been using the kayaks to get to shore. Kim and Emily normally go and spend hours on the beach collecting shells and building sand castles and I go every so often to make sure that I’m not missing anything exciting.

We saw numerous shrimp boats dragging large nets and broke our losing streak trolling by landing two spotted mackerel. These fish are nothing like the fishier Spanish mackerel and their white flesh tastes even better than Mahi Mahi. Each fish produced 3 meals of fillets and the freezer is full.

We had some unusual north winds and decided to stay inside the Nara Inlet at Hook Island as we went through the Whitsundays. There we explored caves used by Ngaro people over 9000 years ago. We saw paintings that they had made almost 3000 years ago with their fingers or brushes made by chewing the ends of sticks into bristles.

We did an overnight passage to Magnetic Island where Emily got to hold a Koala bear, a salt water crocodile, snake and several birds.

We did another overnight into the Moreby River where we looked (unsuccessfully) for crocodiles and did our last big provisioning stop (before Darwin) in Cairns (pronounced cans).

Tom

Emily Grace Makes Landfall in Oz

2011-09-10T05:15:00.000-05:00

Bundaberg is a city in Queensland, Australia and is our first port in Oz. Bundaberg is dependent to a large extent on the local sugar industry. Extensive sugar cane fields are found throughout the area and operations such as the milling and refinement of sugar, and its packaging and distribution are located around the city. Another of the city's exports is Bundaberg Rum, made from the sugar cane by-product molasses. Bundaberg is also home to beverage producer Bundaberg Brewed Drinks. We have been drinking their Ginger Beer since halfway across the Pacific.

We stayed at the port marina and check in went smoothly upon arrival. They took very little since we had eaten all of our meat and most of our other food. We made good use of their courtesy van and even rented a car on one day of our week-long stay. We knew immediately that we were not in Kansas anymore when Emily spotted kangaroos hopping around behind the marina.

We got most of the dingy problems sorted out, replaced one laptop computer that died and re-stocked the freezer and food stores and started planning our trip north. Looking at the charts, it is clear that we are on the same track as Captain Cook. I see Endeavour Reef where he almost lost The Endeavour. Cape Tribulation, Weary Bay, Hope Island and Cooktown, where he repaired the ship, all were named by Cook and document his feelings as he came through this same area. We shall see some of these places, but will be sure to keep water under the good ship Emily Grace as we move through this mighty reef system.

Please join us…

Tom

Chesterfield Reef

2011-09-06T22:46:00.000-05:00

Chesterfield Reef is a big V-shaped reef, right in the middle of precisely nowhere. Being almost exactly half way between Vanuatu and Bundaberg, it made a convenient spot to break up the trip. It tapers out to about 8 miles across at the top, and you can enter there and move down the V to get shelter from the SE trade winds. The water is a stunning postcard turquoise color and there are a few tiny white sand islands which are covered in nesting birds.

We were the only boat there for the two nights and the Chesterfields were just amazing, like something out of a nature documentary. The island we anchored off had a perpetual cloud of birds over it. Going ashore made the cloud even larger as hundreds of birds took wing and squawked at us. A thousand more of the smaller birds stayed on the ground guarding their eggs or fledglings. The small trees stand only 5 to 10 feet tall and are filled with gnarled branches, perfect for the nests of larger birds that fear that the crabs will eat theirs eggs or babies. Frigate birds and boobies nest in the trees.

The rocks and the sand above high tide are just packed with nesting boobies, gannets, terns & mollies, and they have no fear of humans - you can walk right up to them. Emily picked up one small bird that just calmly looked at her.

Frigate birds nest in only a handful of places in the world (we visited their nesting site in Las Aves and Los Roques in Venezuela) and they are incredibly acrobatic flyers. However, it would be easy to despise them. They live only by predation. They cruise slowly at a higher altitude than the boobies and terns, and when the other birds dive into the water and catch a fish, the frigates dive and attack them in a vicious fashion. They go for the wings, forcing the attacked bird to drop its catch and sometimes breaking the wing of the victim. Breaking a wing is certain death. When the victim of the attack drops its fish, the frigate catches the fish even before it hits the ground. The frigates even look evil up close. They have a beak like a vulture and they lack the pleasant demeanour of the boobies and terns. Yet, boobies and frigates nest in the same trees, just feet apart.

We spent most of the first day exploring the island but we had a problem with the dingy motor. It looked like a small clog in the dingy fuel line but the captain was nervous exploring too far from the mother ship. Ultimately, we decided we would take advantage of calm wind to make the final 3-day passage to Oz.

Tom

Luganville, Espirito Santo

2011-08-24T23:03:00.001-05:00

From Vao we headed a short hop up to the island of Espirito Santo and the town of Luganville. We powered through the Segond Channel and hit the tides and resultant currents just right. We normally cruise at about 6 knots but we were seeing speeds over the ground of over 10 knots because of the swift current. We followed our guide book reservations and grabbed a mooring at Aore Resort.

According to the guides, they had about 10 moorings and offered great protection from the prevailing SW winds. The protection was as advertised but the moorings were something else indeed. The resort did not answer our repeated calls on VHF so we motored right up to their small dock to get their attention and get them to turn on their radio. Once we established contact we were directed to their "hurricane mooring" due to our weight. We found that the mooring was all tangled up and the eye to which we were supposed to attach to was 6 feet under water (at low tide). Rather than wait for the inattentive staff, Kim hopped into the water with a line in her teeth (while I motored in circles) and connected our line to temporarily attach the stern of our boat. After about 30 minutes the staff came out, admitted the moorings needed attention and they properly connected our two bow lines to their mooring. We later found out that a smaller boat dragged on one of their lighter moorings and that only 4 of the original 10 moorings were left. Apparently, they are just abandoning them when they break. Not very good service for (about $20 US) 1500 Vatu per night.

We took their small ferry (for more Vatu) into Luganville for provisioning. We found a nice public market and several hardware stores that had some of the items we needed. I even met a local who drove me around to get a board cut to make our very own coconut grater. One night at the Aore Resort we attended a nice buffet dinner with Kastom dancing from the Banks islands and a traditional Vanuatu string band. The ladies of Emily Grace received flowered headbands and we had front row seats for the show.

After about a week at Aore, we took the 3 hour trip up the east side of Espirito Santo to visit a protected bay called Peterson. There is an outer anchorage that is fairly easy to enter but was rolly. There is also an inner anchorage with Oyster Bay resort, but it requires going through a narrow pass in the reef that only has enough water for us to pass at high tide. We anchored the big boat in the outer anchorage and took our dingy to scope out the depths and to locate the pass. We had spoken to several boats that had hit this reef recently and we understandably anxious. There were 4 boats inside and Gisselle gave us waypoints and helped us figure out the times of high tides. The next day we slowly entered the pass and with less than 1 foot below the keel we glided in and found a flat calm anchorage with free (slow) WiFi from Oyster Bay resort.

We kayaked up a small river to see a fresh water blue hole and did some snorkeling around Peterson Bay. One morning we found a small poisonous sea snake crawling around our toes inside the boat. The fearless captain grabbed it with a towel, returned him to the water and asked him to look for another home.

After we were there about 3 days we were joined by about 20 boats from New Zealand on a rally. Two of the boats brought kids and Emily had a few play dates. One day Tom pulled them around the anchorage with the dingy and our tow-toy for two hours.

We attended another buffet and cultural show put on for the rally boats and enjoyed our first "water dance". Local ladies waded into waist deep water and splashed the water to make music and a beat. It was actually pretty good but the pictures were a little dark since it was performed at sunset.

We spent our last few days shuttling back to Luganville to get duty free fuel, checkout and then back to Oyster Island to wait for weather for our passage west. Tom was finally over his cold, so one day the entire crew of Emily Grace did SCUBA dives on The Coolidge and Million Dollar point. The Coolidge was a 600 foot long WWII American war ship that was sunk by friendly mines in about 80 feet of water. Million dollar point is a site where the American's dumped more than a million dollars worth of equipment. At the end of the war, the US authorities asked the returning British and French governments if they would like to buy up some of the road-building and other equipment that they would otherwise have to ship stateside; the British (cannily, they thought) said "No", guessing the American would leave it anyway; they did leave it, but bulldozed it into the sea rather than let the Brits have it for nothing. It was amazing to see such a large collection of equipment just abandoned on one spot, but due to the passage of time, much of it was unrecognizable. We saw a bunch of rubber tires and some tracks probably from a bull dozer but coral and fish are slowly taking over.

After being delayed for a few days by a persistent low pressure system, Emily Grace plotted a course to Bundaberg, Australia and headed west. If weather permits, we may stop at Chesterfield Reef to break up the 1000 mile passage. Wish us well, Dear reader, as we head out to sea again…

Tom

Vao Island, Malekula

2011-08-23T23:43:00.001-05:00

Because we had extended our 1 month visa on the cruise ship in Wala Island, we did not need to hurry to Luganville to meet the Customs and Immigration folks. We had heard that the small island of Vao off the northeast side of Malekula was home to some good wood carvers. Since it was less than an hour's trip north, we headed there and dropped the hook right off another white sand beach lined with dugout canoes.

Since this day was Independence Day celebrating 31 years (since 1980), we went ashore with soap bubbles, balloons and more plastic whistles on lanyards. After we entertained the first few shy kids, we were soon surrounded by kids and smiling parents watching from afar. Many families had come down to the beach to barbeque their food and enjoy the day.

We soon met Juliet, the local kindergarten teacher. She spoke good English and showed us some carvings from one man and agreed to meet us the next day and show us some others. We returned to the boat and had several more locals paddle out to us to say hello.

The next day we arrived with a backpack full of trading goods and canvas bags. She took us through the village pointing out local plants and trees and took us to see two more carvers. We traded some rope and some local Vatu (money) for a nice carved mask with one carver and traded a piece of line for a small old Tam Tam (slit drum)from another.

When we got back to Juliet's home, we sat in patio chairs in her garden while she picked and squeezed fresh pampemouse for us to drink. We chatted a while and she then picked us several more pampemouse to take back to the boat. She also offered to come out to our boat and show us how to make coconut biscuits. She brought her daughter (about 17), some coconuts and a special tool for grating coconuts. She had a board big enough to sit on with a circular serrated metal blade mounted to one end. Once she split the coconut into halves, she rotated the coconut half against the blade and fine white coconut snow dropped into a bowl. Both Kim and Emily had turns and we all agreed to look for this tool in Luganville. Kim supplied some sugar, flour, eggs and the oven and the biscuits were baked and some eaten warm. They were pretty good although Kim thought a little baking powder would make them a little less dense.

We stayed another day and there was a constant parade of kids coming out in their canoes. Mostly they just wanted to say hello, but almost every one thanked us again for the whistles and brought us gifts of one or two pampemouse or beautiful shells they had found. Some brought and gave us shells that we had never seen and were quite lovely. Few cruising boats stop here and again we found that some of the least-spoiled places are our favorites.

Tom

Wala island, Malekula

2011-08-15T13:55:00.002-05:00

The villages of Malekula are roughly broken into two groups, the Small Nambas and the Large Nambas, and are distinguished by the size of the nambas (penis sheaths) they wear. The degree of kastom tradition varies in each village. Some villages in Vanuatu have returned almost completely to their traditional way of life, dressing as their ancestors have. Others, like the village in Wala Island dress in western clothes and attend Christian church, but will perform their traditional kastom dance for tourists and for special ceremonies in village life. Wala Island hosts large cruise ships once or twice a week and we were lucky to arrive as the only boat in the harbor. We quickly met Rubin and he showed us around the island.

There are 5 different tribes here and each has it own special area. These areas are large open and lined with stones and are used for Kastom dancing and ceremonies. We found that the stones on one side of the clearing are for men and the other side for women. The central spot on each side is the place of honor for chiefs past and present. Each time a villager is born, a stone is added. It is said that the elders can recite several generations by name and the stones are used as proof of membership in a tribe or village.

One area of stones mark the circumcision of the boys at about age 12 when they become men. Again a stone is added at the completion of the ritual for each man. Apparently, the ceremony lasts for several days and is culminated by each boy shooting an arrow into a large ancient banyan tree. The arrows are left as a sign of their manhood. We were honored to see the tree and were told that the cruise ship people were not allowed in this area.

We enjoyed our private tour and had good explanations of the local plants, dances, cultural exhibits and the ceremonies we would see on "Cruise Ship" day. We gave Rubin some rope for the tour and received several vegetables and herbs from his garden. We negotiated a price for the entire Emily Grace crew to join the "Cruise Ship" day festivities for about the same amount each cruise passenger would pay.

The next day, the mammoth cruise ship pulled in and anchored further out than Emily Grace and we saw them shuttle past our home in the small lifeboats snapping photos of the American Yacht. We soon joined the 1000 Australians ashore and enjoyed the day. We saw small kids holding iguanas and parakeets, and much dancing. The men wore little except their penis sheaths and many of the women were topless. While now performed for the cruisers, it is still much like what Captain Cook would have seen in his day. Our advantage is that Cannibalism stopped here around 1987 and we had one less worry!

After a couple of dances by the men, the women did a sitting dance that represented the yam picking season. The yam crop is extremely important to the tribes; this is evidenced by many of the dances dedicated to it as well as the tabu of walking through the forest during yam season.

After the dancing by the men and women, they showed us some kastom magic. Two men layered spade shaped leaves and then holding only the stems on each side they carried a young boy around on the leaves. We were also shown how to start fire the traditional way with two sticks. The man had a small bundle of coconut husks blazing in a few minutes. We saw some archery marksmanship and even Emily had a try at shooting a handmade bow and arrow. Another Vanuatu custom is sand drawings. Many of the women practise this ancient art based on drawings many years old. The trick is to make the entire drawing smoothly without stopping.

It proved to be a nice day and a good way to see a lot of the culture demonstrated and explained clearly.

Tom even managed an invite on to the cruise ship to surf the internet for a couple of hours and to check in with the customs and immigration officials that had come specially to check the cruise ship into Vanuatu.

As on Epi, the villagers on Wala Island commuted each day to the main island to work in their gardens. So each morning and afternoon outriggers would paddle to and from the island. They would stop by to say hello and we would occasionally trade for fruits and vegetables. We stayed one more day after the cruise ship left and then headed less than 5 miles north to Vao Island. Stay with us Dear reader to see why that became one of our favorite stops in Vanuatu.

Tom

The Maskelyne Islands, South Malekula

2011-08-14T14:11:00.002-05:00

After about a week, Kim and I were feeling a little better and decided to press north to Malekula Island. The Maskelynes are a group of low lying islands with extensive reefs and mangroves off the southeast tip of Malekula. We had a calm trip and decided to stop in the most protected anchorage behind small Awai atoll. There were two familiar boats there; Worral Wind and Skylight. We visited with them and Skylight had much info to share since they have been cruising Malekula for several weeks. If fact, Brian was repairing his 20th small generator. The locals use these for lighting and changing cell phones and word got out that Brian was handy with a wrench. This particular local had paddled 3 hours to bring the broken generator to Brian. After about 2 hours on the beach, he had it humming again.

Awai- This small atoll had one extended family living on it and the local guided us around the island to show us his lovely home on the other (windward) side from our anchorage. He had several buildings for living, cooking, drinking Kava and even a small church with several ancestors buried just outside. Everything was neat and he had obvious pride as he showed us around. Emily made some origami animals for one young girl.

The local had recovered a transponder buoy that had broken free from a longline fishing rig. Longline fishing is a commercial fishing technique. It uses a long line, called the main line, with baited hooks attached at intervals by means of branch lines called "snoods". A snood is a short length of line, attached to the main line using a clip or swivel, with the hook at the other end. These lines can be miles long and left to drift. Hundreds or even thousands of baited hooks can hang from a single line. At each end of the longline, they place the transponder buoy. When they want to locate and retrieve the longline, they get the exact location from the GPS and when they get within 1000 feet, they remotely turn on the LED lights so that they can find the buoy and pick it up. They cost several thousands of dollars and this was a lucky find!

This one contained a battery, solar panel, LED lights, regulator as well as the transponder and GPS. We all discussed if we could re-wire some of the parts to give him his first solar light. We disassembled the buoy and found that the battery was still working. We hauled the buoy back to our boats to tackle the project. I donated some tinned wire and a toggle switch to the project which was completed by Brian. In the end, we had the LED light mounted inside a half coconut shell with my on-off toggle switch mounted to the half coconut. This all hung from the house roof by my wire which led outside to the solar panel and battery still inside the waterproof buoy. During the day, the solar panel charged the battery and at night he could turn on the light whenever needed. It was hard to tell if the local family or the clever cruisers were more proud at the completed project!

Avok Island and Children's Day- Each day we were greeted by locals in their dugout canoes wanting to say hello and to trade or sell fruits and vegetables from their gardens. Two young girls came one day from Avok island selling mangrove oysters. We were a little hesitant until we saw them and they looked big and fresh. We bought two dozen for about $5 US and they were indeed delicious. We also made arrangements to visit their village on Children's Day which is a Vanuatu Holiday.

The three cruising boats emptied our lockers of give-away items and we headed in with our dingy flotilla for a day of fun. We were met by the entire village and welcomed by the elders. Emily and Kim blew soap bubbles for the kids and Emily had more than 20 kids gathered around while she had them making some origami. Watching the concentration on the faces of the children (and a few adults) was neat.

After the origami lesson, Worral Wind organized a bingo game. Since the players needed to know numbers up to about 80, it was a little bit of a challenge. With the cruisers and some adults helping, the game was soon underway. We agreed to pool our goodies and make them prizes for the winners. We kept playing the game after the first winner had chosen his prize and soon the winners were lined up exchanging their winning bingo cards for a prize. Almost everyone playing ended up with a prize.

The Emily Grace plastic whistles were popular with the kids while the older ones were eager for small mirrors and costume jewellery.

At the very end, Tom blew up balloons as fast as we could inflate, tie and set them free above the uplifted sea of hands. It was a great day and the entire village seemed to really appreciate our visit.

Tom

Vanuatu History

2011-08-13T17:53:00.001-05:00

Now our short geography and history lesson: Vanuatu is a country comprised of 83 little islands, situated between Fiji and New Caledonia, north of New Zealand, and southeast of Papua New Guinea. This area was named the New Hebrides by Captain Cook and in 1980 the name was officially changed to the Republic of Vanuatu. The total landmass of these islands could easily fit inside of the State of Arkansas but they are spread over 700 miles of ocean. Vanuatu lies on the Pacific Ring of Fire and has several active volcanoes, one of which is located on the island of Tanna which we have already visited.

Vanuatu has a multicultural society. The people are predominantly Melanesian although there are a few Polynesians and whites. Melanesians are black, whereas the Polynesians are light brown or almond-colored. Vanuatu is the only Melanesian area that we will visit. Some of the Polynesians arrived in these islands via outriggers in the 11th century. The first whites to arrive were the usual mix of European explorers followed quickly by traders who realized how valuable the native sandalwood trees were, and blackbirders (slavers) who realized how valuable the native people were. On a few of the islands there is presently an effort to again grow the valuable sandalwood trees. The best sandalwood trees are the old male trees and the smell is only detected when cut deep into the main trunk. I had hoped to smell one but the only ones we have seen are too young to have developed the distinctive scent. By 1839, Protestant missionaries arrived to try to convert some souls. The islanders wisely dealt with this latest threat by eating them. Vanuatu was one of the last regions of the Pacific to accept Christianity. The last officially reported act of cannibalism in Vanuatu was as recent as 1987.
Unfortunately, the explorers, traders and missionaries brought with them a collection of germs and diseases that wiped out whole villages: cholera, measles, smallpox, influenza, pneumonia, mumps, scarlet fever, and the common cold. The population of these islands is estimated to have numbered 1 million in the early 1800's. By 1935 there were fewer than 41,000 ni-Vans left.

Early European settlers hailed from England and France, the latter usually via the penal colony next door in New Caledonia. In 1906, the two countries set up a Condominium government in Vanuatu, which granted both of their nationals equal rights. During the Condominium, there were two sets of laws - one applying to the French, one to the English and both to the ni-Vans (it pretty much sucked to be a native). There were two sets of courts, two police forces, even conflicting rules about which side of the road to drive on. One wag referred to this time as the Pandemonium.

During World War II, 500,000 Allied Troops passed through Vanuatu. James Michener wrote Tales of the South Pacific based on his experiences in Vanuatu during the war. The island of Bali-Hai was entirely mythical but there actually is an island called Vanikolo about 175 miles north of the island Espiritu Santo in Vanuatu, a name that strongly resembles the mythical island of Vanicoro in Michner's book. The Allies hired the ni-Vans to work on the military bases. The disenfranchised ni-Vans were surprised to receive good wages for working on the U.S. military bases and were astounded by the seemingly equitable treatment of black and white soldiers. Not surprisingly, after the troops pulled out, an independence movement developed that resulted in the establishment of the Republic of Vanuatu in 1980.

The population of Vanuatu is now estimated to be around 200,000, fifty percent of whom are under the age of 15. It is a young country in so many ways. But it is also full of people practicing very old ways of life, particularly on the out islands.

Tom

Lamen Bay, Epi Island

2011-08-05T04:09:00.002-05:00

We had a very calm trip north to the island of Epi and we headed into Lamen Bay because this bay was noted for having friendly Dugongs which are similar to our Florida manatees. We had the harbor to ourselves and found the locals to be very friendly. They would sail and paddle their dugout canoes between small Lamen Island where they lived and the Epi mainland where they worked in their gardens. All the people and children were welcoming and seemed intrigued by us white-skinned Americans. We enjoyed one couple that used a large palm frond fixed vertically in their dugout as a sail move swiftly across the bay.

We met a lovely woman who invited us to see their village on Lamen Island on the following day. We met her as she asked and we found the island to be a clean organized village. All the paths were lined with coral stone walls and no trash was seen. She hand picked pamplemousse and tangerines from her yard garden and she introduced us to other families that provided us with fresh snake beans and bananas. She showed us how they dried copra (coconut meat) in special racks and baked bread in large ovens heated by wood fires.

She pointed out several varieties of cotton trees. The tree produces three-to-six-inch long, elliptical fruits. These fruits contain many seeds surrounded by a dense mat of cottony fibers. The tree gets its common name from these fibers which rain from the tree when the fruits ripen. The fibers are almost pure cellulose, buoyant, impervious to water, and have a low thermal conductivity, but they do not lend themselves to spinning. Called Kapok in Asia, the fibers are used for insulation, padding in sleeping bags and life preservers. Here in Vanuatu, the cotton is used for stuffing mattresses and pillows.

She showed us several types of nuts to eat that were quite good. She stood by a stone wall and opened about a dozen nuts with her machete and wrapped the nut meat neatly in a large green leaf and tied the package with a palm "string".

We spent several days snorkeling here and saw lionfish, clown fish and the biggest moray eel we have ever seen. Kim found it and it must have been 10" in diameter and 5 feet long! We never located any dugong but will forever carry the memory of the friendly people we met.

Tom

Efate Island and some sick time

2011-08-03T04:22:00.002-05:00

From Tanna, we had a little rough water on our short passage to Port Vila but we snuggled deep inside Paray bay where we got a mooring and enjoyed the calm conditions. The next morning we dealt with the customs folks without problems and got our passports stamped for the first time in Vanuatu. Port Vila is the capital and largest city of Vanuatu. We found a nice fresh market here and Kim replenished our galley, while Tom hunted for the bits and pieces needed to keep our little ship running. He found a nice machete to replace the one lost in Fiji and Kim made yet another sheath for this one. Emily found a couple of French boat kids to play with for a day.

We found this island easy to get around and we used the public buses to see a few sights. We spent one day at Mele Cascades, which was a nice short walk beside manicured gardens along a series of small cascading waterfalls with a large waterfall at the head. Kim and Emily dipped in while the captain was sporting a fever from a runaway cold. Several days later he broke into the medical kit and took an antibiotic. While it cured the fever and chest congestion, clogged sinuses would plague him for most of our Vanuatu stay.

We also visited the Secret Garden which offered the history of all the Vanuatu islands, native plants and animals and several caged flying foxes, iguanas and also explained cannibalism and many of the legends of these people.

We also noted that several of the paid tours went to the Hideaway Island which offered an underwater post office and an exclusive resort. The world's only underwater post office lets you buy a waterproof postcard on land, fill it out and dive into the ocean to mail it. Since this small island was only 6 miles away, we elected to anchor our home right off the beach to enjoy it.

Unfortunately, Kim decided that she would rather pass a large 75mm kidney stone. We trundled her off to the public hospital on a bumpy taxi to check out the Vanuatu medical system. After waiting a couple of hours, Kim received a pain shot and an ultrasound exam that confirmed that she was passing a monster stone and had 5 or more smaller ones lined up in her left kidney. Her right kidney was clear of stones. This medical care cost us about $3.50 US and we at least felt good confirming the cause of the pain. We proceeded to sit at anchor for about a week while she passed the first big stone later that night and then about 1 small stone per day for the rest of the week. She took a pre-emptive antibiotic once she started to see blood in her urine with a slight fever. She seems OK for the past 3 weeks, but we are unsure whether there are still some smaller stones still there.

We decided maybe if we headed north we would all feel better, so we took advantage of calm seas to head north to Epi Island in search of dugong (manatees)…

Tom

Tanna, Vanuatu - Yasur Volcano

2011-07-14T21:31:00.002-05:00

From Anatom, it was an overnight trip to the next island, Tanna. The GRIB files lied and the trip was rolly with confused seas. Thankfully, it was a relatively short hop and we arrived in early afternoon. This was a unique landfall: although the night was clear, every few minutes there would be deep rumbles and red/white flashes on the horizon ahead. This was not a distant thunderstorm, but Yasur volcano, spectacularly active ever since Captain Cook became the first European to see it. As we drew closer we could see red molten lava being shot high into the sky, and as dawn came up we could set our course on the thick black smoke belching from the 800m cone.

We anchored in historic Port Resolution, a U-shaped cove open to the North, on the windward side of the island. Historic because this was Cook's first contact with the group he named the New Hebrides and also his first certain contact with cannibals. There were volcanic vents actually steaming all around Port Resolution and one boat took their dingy to shore and cooked eggs on one vent.

At the Port Resolution Yacht Club, an open air, thatched roof building set in a garden on top of a bluff overlooking the bay, we met up with some other people who had visited the volcano already but were planning a second trip the next night. We made arrangements to share the same truck. We walked around the local village and met some women weaving palm for a new roof.

We were disappointed that the Customs and Immigration folks had not come to finish our clearance, but we headed back aboard Emily Grace for a restful nights sleep. We found out the next day that it was unlikely that the officials would be coming and the Club made hints that we should probably hire the $45 taxi and spend 6 hours driving to meet them. We have been cruising long enough to understand that we were already officially checked in and would simply finish our check-in at Port Villa where all the officials are located right on the waterfront.

The next night, about 9 of us piled into the undersized pick-up truck that would take us to the volcano. Kim, Emily and I grabbed a seat in the extended cab, while the others rode in the back of the truck bed. For those in the back, the truck ride must have been just as dangerous as standing on the rim of the volcano.

The road to the volcano is a narrow, rutted affair that bears a closer resemblance to a cow path than anything you would think of as a road in the States. The truck bucked and kicked its way along the road as we continued up to the car park. Rounding a bend in the road, a moonscape spread out before us. The car park was a grey ash field, cleared of the chunks of black lava that dotted the rest of the flat and up the hill to the rim. Standing in the car park I was looking around for fences, or warning signs, but found none. But with a boom that rocked our eardrums, the volcano called to us, and we ignored our preservation instincts and climbed up to the rim.

We'd seen pictures of the volcano, so we were expecting a light show, but nothing prepared us for the sound, or the impact of the explosions. We stood on the ridge, looking down into the crater. Below us was a lower rim, scattered with debris from recent explosions. The debris was recent enough to have not yet been buried by ash and some of it was still glowing. Below that was the center of the volcano. Every few minutes the volcano would erupt, spewing out grey-black clouds of smoke and molten red magma and lava. Each eruption was accompanied by a clap of sound that felt like a mini-sonic boom, as it bounced off of our ear drums and compressed our chests.

We found out that the volcano has four levels of activity. Level 1 is the normal level of activity. The danger level is minimal, but there is always a risk that "a bomb may be ejected from the crater." When the activity has reached Level 2, bombs or slivers of lava are thrown up beyond the edge of the crater. During Level 3, ejected rocks may fly several hundred meters beyond the rim of the crater. During Level 3, access is restricted to the car park. If volcanic activity reaches Level 4, then access to the whole area is restricted and the locals evacuate. The night we visited, Yasur was at level 2.

When the sun set at 6:00, the pyrotechnic display really took off. I'll probably never be able to watch a fireworks display again without thinking about this night at Mt. Yasur. There were two separate eruption zones within the volcano, taking turns spewing red molten rock into the air from the glowing red center of the crater. Once they would blow, the whole scene seemed to shift into slow-motion, as the ash and brilliant red magma would float back down into the crater. If there was a long enough delay, the next explosion would be really big, producing a ball of flaming, rolling gas. During the big ones, we could feel the heat against our fronts as the wind cooled our backs, and we would be surrounded by a cloud of sulphurous gas.

For an hour we stood awe-inspired as the ground shook and rumbled loudly under us, great clouds of smoke billowed up and - every few minutes - firework-like fountains of red lava shot up directly in front, the prevailing wind conveniently ensuring that they landed on the far rim and not on us. We were warned to keep our eyes on the volcano, in case a bomb was sent our way that required evasive action. It took courage to turn our backs on the monster long enough for a family picture. The display was all the more impressive in that we went as dusk was coming on, and the red glow from deep inside the crater lit the underside of the clouds above.

We were all humbled by the power of Yassur and were a little relieved as we climbed safely down the rim back to the truck. As we headed back, we all agreed that this was once sight that few others would be able to experience and we were lucky to have been here as a family.

Tom

Anatom, Vanuatu

2011-07-13T00:42:00.001-05:00

We had a lovely downwind 3-day passage from Fiji to Vanuatu. The wind was mostly less than 10 knots from directly aft and seas were very calm. Although we fished every day, we didn't get a bite.

As advertised, the Anelcauhat anchorage in Anatom was protected and calm. There is a reef surrounding most of the bay and a sandy atoll on its southern side. The atoll was a US airstrip in WWII and is now called Mystery Island and is used by cruise ships. Once a week or so, they pull in and dump their passengers on the small strip and the local come out to entertain them and sell food and trinkets.

We hoisted our yellow quarantine flag and we soon joined by Collin and Thomas representing Customs and Immigrations. Things went smoothly and soon Thomas and I were strolling up the beach to find the bank. The bank would not take any credit cards, so luckily I had a $50 US bill tucked away that they happily exchanged for about 5000 vatu to cover my quarantine fee.

They had a nice primary school that I stopped and watched the carefree kids enjoying a recess break. I spoke with several of the locals and two teachers volunteered to gather up some pamplemouse for us. We had not seen these large grapefruit since Polynesia and we all love the taste and the fact that they keep a long time without refrigeration before going bad.

We really enjoyed the remarkable change in temperature. Here, the high temps are around 80 and the nights drop to 72 degrees and the humidity also seems lower than Fiji. We were told by Customs that this island was malaria free and later confirmed that fact with a malaria team of doctors that flew in for follow-up testing while we were there. The malaria team also told us that Efate was also malaria free and which islands to avoid on our travels north. Although we have the medication on board, we are not going to take it now because of possible side effects for Emily. We understand that if we feel the sickness coming on, we can use the same medication to cure it. We have very good mosquito screens and nets, good repellant and are normally all sealed up before dusk each day.

We snorkeled for the first couple of days and the coral was very healthy. We saw mostly smaller fish since the islanders had probably already eaten the big ones. We saw a few turtles who also did not hang around to see if we were hungry.

The wind speed started rising and we decided to get off the boat and take a hike to a waterfall. Emily and I had wandered around the island a bit and found that the walking trails were numerous and hard to follow. We stumbled into one village and the fellow agreed to guide us up to the waterfall the next morning.

Kim decided to spend a relaxing day on board and Emily and I headed out at 8 AM to meet our guide. It was a grueling 2-hour, non-stop hike up to Bamboo Falls. We hiked through mud and crossed the stream more than 10 times. Some of the crossings involved balancing on tree trunks, hoping from stone to stone or simply wading in up to our knees in the fast running, cool clear water. We were rewarded by a large fall and enjoyed the fresh water pools below to cool down and wash off the mud. Emily and I both slipped several times, but neither of us was hurt. I took a GPS with us to record the hike but we found that the heavy tree canopy shielded the sky and most of the hike went unrecorded. We did get a fix at the falls and found that although the falls were only about 3.5 miles inland, we probably walked about 10 miles round trip that day. We shared our lunch with our guide (who walked barefoot) and found he makes the hike several times per week. Even without tourists they love to come here for a cool swim.

We returned about 2 PM to the boat, tired, but full of stories of our day in the jungle. The wind stayed up for the next several days and we explored Mystery Island and looked at the weather files for our next window to head north to the island of Tanna.

Tom
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The Yassawas

2011-07-02T19:57:00.003-05:00

The Yasawa Group of islands, nestled in the lee of the large island of Fiji's Viti Levu, arc north-northeast for 56 miles and are surrounded by one of the greatest, most pristine reef systems in the Pacific. Seldom visited, the group consists of four large islands, each with tall summits, and more than 100 smaller islands, rocks, spits, and sandbars. This area still hosts tourists, but mostly backpackers: young Kiwis, Aussies, and Europeans who ride the Yasawa Flyer power-catamaran from island to island, staying at backpacker resorts which offer small bures or tent sites for the guests. No pools, no tennis courts here. These are resorts where the guests make the fun: exploring, hiking, diving and snorkelling.

Navigation is a nightmare. The anchorages are deep (usually more than 50 feet), exposed, and rolly. Basically, the Yasawas are still uncharted and/or inaccurately charted with huge sections marked "unsurveyed." There are thousands of coral heads in the area either not on the chart or wildly in the wrong place. There are no lighthouses, and only a few haphazardly placed marks, which are often missing.

The wind often shifts without warning, forcing vessels to change anchorages to find a lee. This is easy if the sun is over your shoulder but almost suicidal at night.

There are no airports, hospitals, or marinas-not even a dock. Forget about taking on fuel, water, or provisions. ATMs? Hah!

So what's the attraction?

Emptiness.

Modern civilization hasn't quite reached the Yasawas. The marine environment is the same as in Captain Cook's time. Perfect. Untouched. Pristine.

Our fist stop was on Nanuya Balavu island. We anchored off Manta Ray Resort where we were told we may see large manta rays. We were advised by several cruisers that they were more frequent at high tide. Since we had arrived two hours before high tide, we headed off in the dingy. Sure enough, we were soon joined by the resort boat bringing 20 guests at $40 each for the same experience.

The current was swift through a narrow pass and apparently they use the topography to funnel their food and feed. We watched the wingtips of these 12-14 feet mammoths break the water as they moved back and forth. We took the dingy up current, rolled over the side and drifted through the pass and watched these magnificent creatures glide through the water. Some would turn over and over in large backflips with gaping mouths as we snorkelled over them. Others would glide calmly back and forth through the pass. They seemed used to human presence and several passed close enough to touch. Many of them had one, two or even three remora fish attached to them. We stayed for about a half hour and really enjoyed it.

The next morning, we rose early for the high tide and got to the pass before the guest boat and had the experience all to ourselves. Kim and Emily also snorkelled right near the anchorage and reported some of the healthiest reef they have yet seen. The anchorage was rolly there, however, so we all voted to move further north.

Our next stop was at Nanuya Lailai Island, home of the famous Blue Lagoon. This is the area where the Brooks Shield movie "Blue Lagoon" was filmed around 1980. We anchored in a small bay next to where the mini-cruise ships moor every few days to disgorge their passengers on the white sand beach. It was very calm here and we ended up spending the rest of our time in the Yassawas here. There were several resorts here where we could enjoy their restaurants and get dive bottles filled. We did some snorkelling and walked the beaches shelling. After almost a week, we decided it was time to push west and see what experiences Vanuatu had to offer.

Tom
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The Mamanuca Islands

2011-06-13T22:52:00.000-05:00

We enjoyed the Nananu-i-Cake area for 3 days before moving around to the town of Lautoka on the west side of Viti Levu. We stopped about half way and made the trip in two short 4 hour trips. We just anchored for the night and did not go ashore. Upon arrival at Lautoka, we had to check in with the customs folks again and did some shopping at the local market. We only stayed one night and made a short trip out to the Mamanuca Islands.

The Mamanuca Islands are a group of beautiful reef-encircled islands located just off the Nadi coast which is off the west coast of Viti Levu. They are known for their beautiful white sandy beaches and island resorts. The islands of the Mamanuca group have well-known names such as Beachcomber Island, Treasure Island, Mana Island, Tokoriki, Malolo, Matamanoa and many more.

We headed to Treasure Island (Levuka Island) and were greeted with a mooring for $5 Fiji per night which is about $2.50 US. We had the use of all their facilities including several pools. They had some cultural presentations and a killer buffet each day for lunch. We gorged ourselves on fresh lettuce and other goodies that we could not find in the local markets followed by multiple trips to the desert bar for chocolate cake, pastries and ice cream with all the toppings.

They also had a nice SCUBA shop that filled our tanks and we decided to splurge and have Emily get her SCUBA certification. Emily did the classroom reviews and tests while Kim and I dove the reefs. The second day, Emily did two open water dives and passed with flying colors. She now has her certification card and can get air fills worldwide. Yeah Emily!

After 3 days, we moved about 10 miles to Musket Cove Resort (Malolo Island) which is a famous cruiser hangout. The yacht club can only be joined by Yachts coming to Fiji from a foreign port and the cost for membership for the Captain is $1 Fiji. There were almost 30 boats there. We saw cruising friends from Leu Cat and Sea Mist and we all enjoyed a pot luck dinner ashore. The yacht club provides wood-fired grills, free utensils, china plates and $5 drinks at the bar. They also have a nice pool that we used on several days.

Emily met Latisha from a Swiss boat here and after a morning SCUBA dive with Dad, the two girls played in her stateroom and ashore in their days together. Latisha is also 10 years old and speaks Swiss, German, French and English. We went in one morning and all enjoyed eggs Benedict at the poolside restaurant and Kim and Emily had a nice swim afterwards. We also attended a pig roast and enjoyed a Fiji dance troupe afterwards with the crews of Sea Mist, Leu Cat and others.

We stayed here for 4 days and we did several enjoyable dives. The pinnacle was the best one and here is a video of Emily and Roberta (fellow cruiser and dive instructor) diving with a Lionfish. Pretty much everything about the venomous lionfish—its red-and-white zebra stripes, long, showy pectoral fins, and generally cantankerous demeanor—says, "Don't touch!"

The venom of the lionfish, delivered via an array of up to 18 needle-like dorsal fins, is purely defensive. It relies on camouflage and lightning-fast reflexes to capture prey, mainly fish and shrimp. A sting from a lionfish is extremely painful to humans and can cause nausea and breathing difficulties, but is rarely fatal.

Lionfish, also called turkey fish, dragon fish and scorpion fish, are native to the reefs and rocky crevices of the Indo-Pacific, although they've found their way to warm ocean habitats worldwide. Lionfish are popular in some parts of the world as food, but are far more prized in the aquarium trade. Their population numbers are healthy and their distribution is growing.

We really enjoyed the diving and after re-provisioning in Lautoka again and fueling up in Vuda Point, we were off to explore the Yassawas.

Tom

Nikorokula village and our first SevuSevu

2011-06-01T13:43:00.011-05:00

"Na Koro" is the Fijian phrase for "Village". Na Koro is made up from people of the same clan.

Na Koro is ruled by a chief, called the "Tui" in Fijian. We were told that the chief of Nikorokula village was currently in Suva attending a funeral. Next to the Chief is the Chief maker or chief-in-training, called "Bete", followed by the chief appointees called the Mata-ni-vanua and then the rest of the clan as cooks, hunters and fisherman, etc. A former part of the clan, called "Bokola", no longer exists. Bokola were prisoners of Fiji's tribal wars and in former times were considered as a part of the village.

In Na Koro, the village spokesman, Turaga-ni-Koro or Mayor of the village, is chosen by a meeting of all the clan. The Turaga-ni-Koro arranges meetings with the villagers and notifies the Tui of the results. He also notifies the villagers of anything that comes from the Tui.

Cruising and travel guides describe proper village etiquette for visitors to Fijian villages. Dress modestly. Women must cover shoulders and the legs to below the knees. No hats or sunglasses. Bring yagona (kava) as a gift for the chief. Don't aim the soles of your feet at the chief or the kava bowl. Don't touch anyone's head (the head is sacred). And so on. Concerns of offending the chief and the village people with some unintentional slip-up weighed heavy on our minds. This "village etiquette" factor adds a bit of stress for those of us that are trying to be "culturally sensitive" visitors.

We were welcomed by Waisake's into the Kava hut where we sat on woven mats for our presentation of sevusevu. The sevusevu offering is a formal presentation of Kava, or Yagona, which is the root of a pepper plant. The islanders grind the root up and make a semi narcotic drink out of it. You do not get drunk from it just sort of a slight numbness in the gums and vague sleepiness.

Drinking Kava is done ceremonially in many of the Pacific islands and it is sort of like American Indians smoking a peace pipe.

We gave him about ½ kilo of the bare roots and told him where we were anchored and that we hoped to enjoy the beach and do some snorkelling and SCUBA. He made a short, serious speech in Fijian before picking it up which signifies his acceptance of us into his village. He then passed the roots to his assistant to grind up for our drink. In traditional times, Yagona was prepared by young, virgin village girls, who chewed the pieces of raw Yagona into a soft pulp before adding water. I made both of them smile as I reached into my backpack and pulled out a small amount of pre-ground kava in a baggy. This saved them 20 minutes of pounding and saved our bare kava root for their later enjoyment.

The assistant mixed the powdered root with water in a large hardwood bowl, called a Tanoa, straining the root through a cloth to keep out the grit. When it was ready, he clapped with cupped hands to make a hollow "pop" sound.

Sitting crossed legged on the floor, we were arranged in a circle. Each of us in turn was offered a bilo, a small bowl made from half of a coconut, containing the liquid. Honored guests are served first, then others according to their status in the group. Tom was served first as captain.

I had to clap once before accepting the bilo. The drink should not be sipped. It should be drunk in one continuous drink. I did so and returned the cup. The clapping of hands and the word "maca" signifies that you have properly emptied your bilo. The cup was passed to Kim and Emily and both solemnly accepted and drained their cup. Mercifully, they gave Emily only a small amount in her bilo. While tasting and looking like dirty dishwater, Kava has a pleasant calming effect on the body, while leaving the mind clear. Unlike alcohol, there are no hangovers.

Relieved after the formalities, we chatted with Waisake about our trip and life aboard our boat and in his village. Since this was Saturday, we asked if we could attend church services in the morning and they were visibly pleased that we asked and we made arrangements to return. We each were offered and drank one more bilo of kava before leaving the village.

We decided it would be safer to leave our dingy in a resort on Sunday rather than the town pier, so we arrived early enough to speak with the resort folks and to enjoy coffee and hot chocolate before the cab arrived. We struck up a conversation with a vacationing couple from Arizona who were intrigued that we were going to a village church and asked if they could join us. Since we were now part of the Nikorokula village, we thought it would be OK.

We all piled into our cab and the 5 of us soon were enjoying the service and wonderful Fijian singing. I was dressed in a traditional Sulu (skirt), Kim in a ankle-length dress and Emily in the dress given to her by Tiara and we really felt native. The woman from Arizona was an artist and she gave the village many art supplies.

After the cab ride back to the resort, we enjoyed a WAY over-priced lunch and enjoyed a swim in the resort swimming pool before returning home. The artist from Arizona surprised us at lunch by giving Kim and Emily gift bracelets of Arizona turquoise that she had made.

What a rich experience we had, but were grateful to be back aboard with several lazy days ahead exploring this area with the blessing of the people.

Tom

Bligh waters and Nananu-i-Cake

2011-05-29T16:20:00.003-05:00

We spent a peaceful night anchored off Nabouwalu on the southwestern corner of Vanua Levu resting up for our voyage across Bligh waters. This reef strewn area of water was named after Captain William Bligh, the famous Captain Bligh of The Bounty.

The mutiny on the Bounty, you may recall, was a mutiny that occurred aboard the British Royal Navy ship HMS Bounty on 28 April 1789, and has been commemorated by several books, films, and popular songs. The mutiny was led by Fletcher Christian against the commanding officer, William Bligh. Bligh was put to sea in a small launch with some of his loyal men and navigated through these waters as he headed west. A model of the launch is shown in the picture below:

On this voyage, the men in the launch became the first Europeans to ever sail through the Fiji islands. Bligh marked all the islands they passed, trying to chart them and give their positions as best he could; so well did he succeed that his chart of "Bligh Islands," as he called them, could be used for navigation today.

Bligh had heard (correctly) from some Tongans that the Fijians were cannibals, so he did not dare to land on any of the lush, inviting islands. On one occasion, however, the launch was pursued by Fijians in fast sailing canoes and almost overtaken.

There was little talk about mutiny aboard Emily Grace as we were blessed with uncharacteristically calm seas, and puffy white, rain-free clouds for our 6 hour voyage. We did find the reefs and passage into Nananu-i-ra not quite right, but we had planned our arrival around mid-day and navigating through the reefs was relatively easy. The Admiral climbs on the upper pilothouse roof where she can see even better and screams loving instructions to the Captain. We picked our way along the western edge of Nananu-i-ra and found a secluded white sand beach on Nananu-i-Cake where we dropped the hook. Each night at dusk we were treated to Flying Foxes returning to roost in the mangroves nearby.

We lowered the dingy and went over to a nearby resort that was under construction to ask the workers for directions to the appropriate village to ask permission to enjoy the waters. The resort will be called the Dolphin resort when it opens next month. We were told that for a mere $16,000 Fiji per night, it can be yours. They made some phone calls and were guided by their launch to the town dock and a waiting taxi cab. A short 5-minute drive and we entered the Nikorokula village and were met by Waisake, the Turaga-ni-Koro or Mayor of the village.

Stay tuned, Dear reader, to find out whether our Kava was accepted and we were welcomed to stay... or if we were eaten by hungry cannibals!

Tom

Fiji-Vanua Levu

2011-05-28T14:37:00.004-05:00

Bula Bula my friends. Say it. Just once, maybe twice. It is hard to say the words without a smile immediately parting from your lips. Go ahead...try it. The word is heard everywhere in Fiji. Bula originates from the Fijian culture and means anything from hello, goodbye, welcome, love and more. It means LIFE. A blessing of health and happiness to all of you.

We made the passage from Opua, NZ to Fiji is just under 8 days. In fact, we had to slow down 3 days out to arrive at 8 AM on Wednesday morning to avoid overtime fees. We had a few calm days with no wind and a few rolly days and Kim was thinking we had a bad passage until I talked with several other cruisers that came after us. Notoriously fast sailboats took nine, ten and eleven days. Some arrived with broken boat parts and ripped sails and enclosures. One boat came in at night, was holed on a reef and was trying to arrange help to get re-floated. All in all, I think we did quite well.

We arrived in Savusavu and had a hassle-free check in, with polite and efficient officials. Waitui mooring staff brought out all of the officials to our boat since we had tied on to one of their moorings (and one night was free since we are SSCA Commodores). No food or liqueur was taken or bonded which surprised us after what we had read to expect. Within 1 1/2 hours, we were free to go ashore and explore.

We found cheap tasty Indian food and all of us had a nice lunch for about $40 Fiji. Two Fiji dollars cost about $1 US dollar, which was a nice break from New Zealand. We got hooked up with a USB phone drive for internet and got some of the local currency and some Kava (more on that in a later post). Emily went sailing with some local kids at the local yacht club and we did some snorkeling.

We discovered a small problem with our generator, but it was quickly diagnosed by the Captain as a bad capacitor since he had replaced one about a year ago. We found a local guy to have one flown in from Suva and 3 days later we had it running like a top and we moved out to see some of the country.

Our first stop was Fawn harbor on the southeast coast of Vanua Levu. There was a narrow entrance through the reef, but the charts were accurate and visibility was very good. It was nice and calm inside and we dropped the hook in 30 feet of water had a great night sleep. The next morning we took the dingy up a narrow creek at the 8:30 AM high tide to see our first Fiji village. We had to look a while to find the creek entrance but then we enjoyed a long winding ride up through the mangroves with overhanging vines to the village. Along the way, we saw a cage with two pigs on the riverbank and ultimately came to a bridge which we tied up to. We walked into the town and gave one local some powdered Kava to pass on to the village mayor. Because of the tide, we could not stay long and had to get back out of the creek before the tide got too low. We did just that and by 9:30 we had pulled up the anchor and were making the 2-hour passage to Viani Bay.

At Viani Bay, we took the dingy into a school and asked around to find Jack Fisher. Jack's family has lived here for three generations and has been helping cruisers to enjoy this area. Sure enough, Jack was volunteering at the school weed whacking and soon he had agreed to meet us the next morning to take us snorkeling and SCUBA diving. All along Viani Bay, there is a big reef called Rainbow reef that is world famous for diving. Jack drove us out there in our dingy for $10 Fiji and while we are diving, he follows our air bubbles and picks us up when we surface. This is really important since there are strong currents and we can then just drift with the current and not worry about the dingy. While Kim and I explored the reef wall, Emily snorkeled 60 feet above us and looked at the shallow reef. We saw our first hammerhead shark and some beautiful soft corals. There was a bit of surge from an off-shore storm and Kim was a little nervous on this dive. We got back into the dingy and Jack dropped us off at another shallower reef. Tom went with SCUBA again while Kim and Emily snorkeled above. It was very nice and Jack came back to our boat and we all shared lunch aboard Emily Grace.

The next day was Sunday and we asked Jack if it was possible for us to join the village for Church services. He was delighted and agreed to pick us up by dingy in the morning. We were welcomed by all and had a very nice time with them. Emily had really bonded with Jack's 13 year old granddaughter, Tiara, and all of Jack's family was invited for dinner aboard Emily Grace that night. They gave Emily a traditional Fiji dress as a present. While we made arrangements to go on another SCUBA trip on Monday, the girls had other ideas. Tiara convinced Emily to join her in school and she enthusiastically agreed. The next morning Jack rowed out to pick up Emily and we watched Emily put on a borrowed school uniform blue dress on the beach and depart for a Fiji school day.

The seas had calmed down quite a bit and Kim and I had a long, peaceful SCUBA dive at the White Wall. We had returned from the dive and had everything cleaned and stowed by the time Emily returned. She had a wonderful time and told us of the morning prayers and songs, attending 6th grade and already knowing the material, sharing lunch with the other kids and teaching them a few games at recess. She showed the kids on a wall map where we had come from and our route so far. She had a great time and Sofie rowed out with a nice dinner she had cooked and again we enjoyed a shared meal aboard Emily Grace. Emily and Tiara played down in her stateroom and there were long faces when we had to say goodbye. We gave Tiara some of Emily's clothes that she had outgrown and she was overjoyed. It was interesting to note that this Fiji girl was smaller than Emily even though she was 3 years older.

Our next stop was the island of Matangi which has a nice curved bay on is north side. We found it and worked our way into the center and dropped the hook. We had the white sandy beach and cove to ourselves. We saw a small buree (or hut) on the beach and upon further investigation with the binoculars, we saw a white couple lounging around. We later found out that a "couples only" 5-star resort (Matangi private island resort ) was located around the corner and couples were brought here for a two-hour deserted-beach experience. Between couples, we saw the buree up close and were even given a tour by resort staff. Inside included a bed suspended by ropes from the ceiling, fluffy towels, private bath and kayaks and water toys to use. We saw about 4 couples in the two days we were there and wondered if they got a reduced rate since we were spoiling their view (and privacy).

We also snorkeled and walked the beach when we had it to ourselves. We did not eat at the resort since children under 16 were not normally allowed and we decided not to press them for an exception. We had a little roll in the harbor and way too much rain. Almost every day since our arrival, we had experienced rain. It would come fast, last for an hour or two and dump copious amount of rain; and then the sun would blaze. This was good for catching drinking water, but tiring on the crew for opening and closing hatches. It is so warm and humid here, a closed up boat quickly becomes a sauna. Temperatures have been consistently in the upper 80s and it rarely would drop below 80 at night. I had heard that the island of Viti Levu had considerably less rain and the crew was ready for some sunshine. So off we go...

Tom

A Mauri Farewell

2011-04-22T04:17:00.000-05:00

New Zealand is not cheap. Even though it has only cost us about 73 cents to buy a Kiwi dollar, we have found the cost of most things to be at least as expensive as in the old US of A. But it remains a value based on the friendliness of the people, the beauty of its landscape and the quality of its parks and nature trails. The Kiwi children played freely with Emily and many of the children romped around the parks and play areas without parental supervision; much like Americans may have acted back in the 1950s.

The community put on a farewell dinner for the cruisers and brought in some Mauri singers and dancers to entertain us. We hope you enjoy my video as much as we did the performance. The lighting could have been better, but you should still feel the love.

As you watch, there are certain distinctive traits that mark this as Mauri. The shaking hands on both the men and women (that I explained on an earlier blog), the use of Poi (soft white balls) that are used in one of the numbers, and the Haka (originally performed by warriors before a battle) are all unique to these special people.

Turn your heat up to about 80 degrees, wiggle your bare toes in hot sand, sit back and enjoy…

Tom

Understanding Kiwi

2011-04-21T22:12:00.000-05:00

As a public service to all those wayward Americans who may stumble into New Zealand, I offer some assistance in understanding the Kiwi language. “What?” you say. Don’t they speak English? Well… not really.

After almost 5 months of listening, we think we understand what they are saying and have actually started to speak Kiwi without thinking about it. Certain phrases like ‘No worries’ and “sweet as’ easily roll off the tongue and fit well with the laid back cruiser lifestyle that we’ve grown into. While other terms like ordering a “flat white” or deciding whether ‘petrol’ or ‘gas’ go into the rental car can be life or death matters.

In any event, we do like this country and offer the following in hopes that your first few days here will be less confusing than ours were. Just remember if in a restaurant, don’t ask for a nappy…

Tom

American English Kiwi

Round Trip Ticket Return ticket

Gas Petrol

Propane Gas

Dinner Tea (sometimes used when dining at a person’s home)

Tea A cuppa

Fillet Mignon Eye Fillet (pronounce the final t)

Lobster Crayfish

Local clams Pipis

French Fries Chips

Chips CrispsCookies Biscuits or bickies

Candy Lollies

Catsup Tomato sauce (the New Zealand variety is watery and sweet… yuck!)

Bell pepper Capsicum

Sweet potato Kumara

Romaine lettuce Cos

Café au lait (more or less) Flat white

Black coffee Long black

Appetizer or starter Entrée

Entrée Main

Flip flops Jandels

Girls basketball Netball

American Football Grid Iron

Lots Heaps

Good for you Good on ya

Sweet, or great Sweet as

No problem Good as or no worries

No sweat Easy As

Cooler Chilly bin

The letter Z Zed

Parking lot Car park

Thanks Ta

Hood Bonnet

Trunk Boot

Flashlight Torch

Pharmacist Chemist

Mini-mart Dairy

To go or take out (food) Takeaway

Bangs (referencing a haircut) Fringe

Napkin Serviette

Diaper Nappy

Two consecutive weeks Fortnight

Sweater Jumper

Freeway Motorway

Auto body shop Panel Beater

Slip (in the marina) Berth

The Kauri Museum

2011-04-19T22:31:00.000-05:00

We had worked pretty hard on the boat and the entire crew felt like we needed a break and to enjoy some of the local area. We hopped into our trusty rental car and drove an hour or so south to visit a museum all about the massive Kauri trees that were a large industry in early New Zealand history.

The Kauri Museum, Matakohe tells the story of the pioneering days through the use of kauri timber and kauri gum. There were many exceptional displays and galleries inside the museum, from a magnificent collection of antique kauri furniture and the largest collection of kauri gum in the world, to restored machinery, including NZ’s earliest tractor, a 1929 Cat 60, and a turning steam sawmill. We saw a two story life-sized replica Boarding House, a Pioneer School and the historic Matakohe Post Office with a fantastic collection of telephones.

The size and age of the trees was impressive. The photo below of one 860 year old tree was cut down when Kim and I were 3 years old.

Back in the states making furniture as a hobby, I was thrilled to get my hands on a old cherry board that was 16 inches wide. They had a board on display that was 6 ½ feet wide and over 19 feet long. The photos showed how the men were dwarfed by the large heavy log pieces and told how many had lost their lives as an errant log tumbled down a slope crushing several men.

Kauri gum is a resin which bleeds from the kauri tree. If the bark is damaged or a branch is broken by the wind, the resin bleeds out and seals the wound. This prevents rot or water getting into the tree. Kauri gum can build up into a lump which goes hard. As the tree grows, the bark is continually shed and the kauri gum is forced off and falls onto the ground around the tree. This process has been happening for millions of years, long before mankind began to use kauri gum. Many years ago, there were vast quantities of gum in the ground.

Kauri gum was used commercially in varnish. Kauri gum was exported to London and America from the mid 1840's. It was used to a limited extent in paints during the late nineteenth century, and from 1910 was used extensively in the manufacture of linoleum. Kauri gum was Auckland's main export in the second half of the nineteenth century.

New Zealand has fossil kauri gum in coal dated 43 million years old. More recent kauri gum from 10,000 to 30,000 years old is known as kauri copal (or resinite). Kauri gum was collected from the ground by picking up the exposed pieces on the surface. As this disappeared, gum diggers probed in the ground with gum spears to find the gum, then dug it up with spades.

Trees were also a source of gum. Kauri gum collectors would chip pieces of old hard gum from the branches and heads of trees where it had collected for many years. They also cut the trees to bleed fresh gum. This was collected later after it had developed into a hard lump.

Examples of exquisitely beautiful polished kauri gum were on display. Special pieces were polished and carved to make extremely beautiful collection pieces.

We had a nice lunch and took a circuitous route back to Whargarei to enjoy the country and saw several sweeping vistas. It was a nice day but we were happy to climb the ladder to our “home on the hard” and rest up for the last of the boat work to get back into the water.

Tom

Whangarei Spa Treatment for Emily Grace

2011-04-09T15:16:00.001-05:00

We hauled out in Whangarei for the first time in almost two years. The last haul was in Trinidad in August 2009. She was in need of some attention and we decided to try Norsands Shipyard based on some quotes from other yards, talking with other boaters and the cleanliness of their bathrooms.

The haul out went smoothly enough despite not using a travel lift and slings that we were used to. They pre-measured the boat before we arrived and had the key dimensions and location of the Naiad fins all recorded. They pre-configured a cradle specifically for Emily Grace and were waiting when we arrived. I came along side a small dock and passed four lines ashore and with engine and man power, moved her in between the cradle arms.

Once positioned and tied tightly, we were pulled up the ramp with chain and rolled on massive steel and rubber wheels. Once pushed into a nice spot in the shipyard, the boat is blocked up level and the rolling cart is lowered and removed. The cradle will stay with the boat until we are re-launched.

This boatyard is quite clean and they even have us collect all our grey water (sinks and showers) into 5 gallon drums; which seems a little silly. When anchored in the river right off the shipyard, it is legal and commonplace to dump grey water directly overboard.

For the first time we did not sand and re-paint the bottom ourselves and hired out that work. We had several other jobs to do and frankly that is one of the worst jobs to do. The captain removed and re-sealed two portholes that had slow leaks underway and changed engine, Naiad and transmission oils and all the drive belts. We dropped and cleaned the keel cooler and treated the main engine with fresh long-life coolant to keep her happy.

Rebuilding heads (toilets) and replacing sewage hoses also were done with much grumbling from captain and crew. We removed the 400 feet of anchor chain, remarked our 25 foot markers and rotated the chain so that we will use the relatively unused section for the next several years. Most anchorages require less than 200 feet of chain. Kim did most of the work re-bedding all of the pilothouse windows that had been showing some minor leakage.

I threw a few more parts at the watermaker to keep it working and did a few minor repairs to the air conditioning units. We have enjoyed the cool temperatures here and the A/Cs will be needed in Fiji as we move closer to the equator again.

Kim did a few sewing projects; remade an integrated weight belt for my SCUBA (that dropped off when pulling the rig into the dingy), a cover for the outboard to protect it from the sun and even made a bug screen for our friends on Leu Cat. There is Malaria in Vanuatu and everyone is buttoning up screens and buying repellant here. We have the medication aboard, but the side effects can be as bad as the illness.

We had the paint crew here fix a poorly done waterline and Kim picked a nice red replacement color. With fresh new zincs, special paint on the props and navy blue bottom paint, she looks pretty good again. The Captain waxed the old blue paint above the waterline and she really looks good again. We are trying a special paint (Prop Speed) for the first time on the main and get-home props to reduce growth and improve efficiency underway. It looks gold and almost cost the same!

We rented a car for the entire haulout period since the yard is remote from the main town and we expected to need it for getting parts and re-provisioning the freezer with food. One day we drove 100 Km to the south and visited the Kauri Museum, but that will have to be a future post. We need to get back in the water.

Tom

Tiritiri Matangi Island

2011-04-01T01:34:00.000-05:00

We met a few local cruising boats in Kawau and they told us about an island loaded with birds that should not be missed. Although it meant we had to backtrack a couple of hours south, we had the time and decided to check it out. We were glad we did.

New Zealand Pigeon

Juvenile Tui

Tiritiri Matangi Island (commonly referred to as "Tiri") is a wildlife sanctuary, and one of New Zealand's most important conservation projects. It is located 30 km north east of central Auckland and just 4 km from the end of the Whangaparaoa Peninsula. 120 years of farming had seen this island stripped of 94% of its native bush but between 1984 and 1994, volunteers planted between 250,000 and 300,000 trees. The island is now 60% forested with the remaining 40% left as grassland for species preferring open habitat.

North Island Saddleback

In conjunction with this planting programme, all mammalian predators were eradicated and a number of threatened and endangered bird and reptilian species have been successfully introduced including the flightless takahe, one of the world’s rarest species, and the tuatara. Nowhere else in New Zealand can you readily see and walk amongst so many rare species.

Whitehead

The Little spotted kiwi, Brown teal, Takahe, Red-crowned parakeet, Whitehead, North Island robin, Stitchbird, North Island kokako, North Island saddleback, Fernbird, and the North Island tomtit are all endemic to New Zealand and were translocated to Tiritiri Matangi.

Fantail

Most years Tiritiri Matangi is visited by a pair of Paradise Shelduck who nest and raise their young then disappear again for another year and we were lucky to see them.

A Takahe was wondering around the lighthouse and has brown eyes, a scarlet red bill and shield massive, with red legs and feet. The plumage ranges from an iridescent dark blue head, neck and breast and peacock blue shoulders to olive green and blue back and wings. They do have wings despite being flightless. The white undertail flicked with every step. The bill and shield are scarlet, the eye red and the legs and feet are orange – red.,

The Takahe was thought to be extinct until the rediscovery of 250 birds in the Murchison Mountains of Fiordland in 1948. Since then their numbers surviving in the wild have declined, fluctuating between 110 and 160 birds. The low success rate in breeding is due partly to the high rate of egg infertility, about 40%. Breeding is closely monitored and 'extra' eggs beyond one per clutch are removed and given to another takahe to incubate. Surplus eggs go a Rearing Unit where the chicks are fed by puppets and raised for return to the wild.

New Zealand Bellbird

There were miles of elaborate wooden walkways winding through the forest and several spots with feeding or bathing stations where long, comfortable benches were constructed to sit quietly and watch the action. All along the paths, the native trees and ferns were identified and plaques were placed with information about them and the types of birds that are normally seen nearby. It was really well done and all for free for those of us with boats to get there. The “dirt dwellers” had to come by ferry.

Red Crowned Parakeet

My Uncle Joe would have loved it here. He volunteers at a similar sanctuary on Cape Cod back in the states and would appreciate the wildlife and all the efforts taken to make it accessible to the public. Only one night here and off in the morning to Whangarei where we are scheduled to be hauled out for periodic bottom paint. They will haul us out of the water and up a ramp on a cradle which will be new to us. Normally we are lifted with slings. We shall see how that goes…

Tom