19:31.493S    169:29.762E

 

Having stayed almost two months longer than we originally planned we have finally managed to drag ourselves away from the simple pleasures of cruising in Fiji.  We have visited some wonderful spots over the last couple of years but the sheer white sand and blue sea beauty of these islands combined with the wonderfully friendly locals made it a tough place to sail away from.  Neptune clearly thought we had been having too much fun and made the three day passage across to Vanuatu a miserable, wet, bumpy trip.  We left Lautoka in perfect conditions sailing towards a beautiful sunset but sadly it did not last.  At around midnight the full moon disappeared behind a bank of clouds......it was the last we saw of it!  After all that flat water sailing inside protecting reefs it was a bit of a shock to be back out on the ocean and soon, with the wind rising, an uncomfortable and confused sea developed.  We spent the next few days wondering why on earth we had left! 

 

Fortunately, the mind is quick to forget these discomforts and having anchored safely in Port Resolution on the island of Tanna all it took was a decent breakfast and a good sleep before we were again looking forward to the excitement of a new country.  First job was to check in with Customs and Immigration which would normally involve hitching a lift for two hours on the back of a pickup truck on unsurfaced roads across to the main town.  However, we were in luck and, as there were a couple of other boats wanting to check out, the Customs men made their way over from the other side of the island to see us.  They arrived only 24 hours later than expected which by local standards is apparently pretty good.  This meant we got to complete all the tiresome bureaucracy in the pleasant surroundings of Port Resolution Yacht Club (see photo below).  It is not the most formal establishment in the yachting world and it is described in the local guide as "just a grass hut with a flag pole in front" but it must be right up there amongst the nicest!

 

I think from the little we have seen so far, Vanuatu is going to be an interesting place to visit.  Much of it is still very traditionally Melanesian (penis sheaths and pig tusks through the nose) while Port Vila about 120 miles north of here is an regular Aussie holiday destination complete with modern hotels and casinos.  The 83 islands are home to an extraordinary 115 different indigenous languages along with the more widely spoken English, French and Pidgin.  Two thirds of the population are still illiterate but while impossible to measure, they may well be a lot more content than much of the "educated" population of the world.  This is despite a colonial history that is almost unbelievable in the "cock ups" (sorry, I really can't think of a better way to put it) imposed on these far away islands with a national story that swings between the comic and the tragic.  The population fell from around half a million at the time of the first European contact down to around 40,000 by the 1920s. The French and the Brits decided to share The New Hebrides as it was then called, so set up two independent governments governing the same country at same time (I'm not making this up!).  It was called "The Condominium" and the result was pandemonium which surprisingly and chaotically survived until 1980.  

 

Christian Missionaries of various denominations were responsible for "civilising" much of the Pacific (mainly by stopping them eating each other) and in much of Polynesia Christianity is now almost universal.  Here in Vanuatu however, much of the population viewed the religion introduced by white men with some scepticism and since WWII there have, in some areas, been mass conversions away from Christianity.  Some of these people have returned to "traditional" religions but many more have adopted an unlikely range of local cults.  One quarter of the population of Tanna are adherents of the Jon Frum cult who believe that one day their saviour will come from overseas bringing material wealth in abundance for all.  Even more bizarre are the inhabitants of one village on the island who actually worship Prince Phillip (I am not making this up either!).  This seems to stem from a visit he made to the island in 1974 and believers are convinced that Prince Phillip originally came from Tanna in another form and one day will return to rule over them.   

 

As you can tell, this does not seem to be a country that is entirely in step with the rest of the world and will I'm sure throw up many surprises during our stay.  Here is just a little vignette to finish.  We were visited early this morning by a local fisherman in his outrigger canoe.  We sat chatting and after a while he kindly gave us a papaya for our breakfast and I in turn gave him some large fishhooks (always supposedly popular in these subsistence communities).  I then complemented him on his fine canoe (pictured below) which he told me had taken two weeks to carve from the trunk of a breadfruit tree and he asked if I had built our yacht (I think he was serious).  Finally before he paddled away he rather stumped me by asking if we had any good DVDs he could borrow!?!