Pos 19:31.48S 169:29.76E

Port Resolution, Tanna

 

Saturday 12/10

We left Port Vila after breakfast to sail to Tanna 125 NM SE. Tanna is famous for it’s live vulcano that is supposed to be one of the most accessible vulcanos anywhere.

We had the 25 knot SE tradewind straight on the nose with quite big waves. This caused us to tack against the wind for approx. 36 hours.

 

Sunday 13/10

We arrived to Port Resolution an hour before dark.We had some problems when taking down the mainsail. Lowering the sail the halyard suddenly came to an end and half the sail was still up the mast???

I had to on a thin lead line to the end before we could get the sail down. It turned out that the 16 mm thick halyard had been chafed off about 10 meters from the end. I think the halyard got washed overboard through one of the holes in the foot list and got chafed off on the sharp edge.

Port Resolution was named by Captain Cook, after one of his ships

 

Monday 14/10

In the morning we met Stanley that paddled out to us in his dugout canoe. He asked us to charge his little portable DVD player. He also told us about the “Yacht Club” which he was managing and he also arranged trips to the Vulcano. We booked a trip for next available time.

Later in the day Mark and I went in to explore a bit and visit Port Resolution village. The village turned out to be very nice and it is clear that they are better off than they were on the islands in the north of Vanuatu. They have a good income with taking tourist up the vulcano.

 

   

 

In the village we met Dixon that took us for a long walk around the village and down to the beach. We walked a trail along the beach and through the wood to the Yacht Club.

In the evening we celebrated Diegos 22nd birthday. The girls had cooked up a fancy dinner and the wine was flowing. We had a good night and did not hit the sack until 2 am.

 

   

                           Birthday present.                                                                             

 

   

 

Tuesday 15/10

In the morning we went to the nice beach we found yesterday. We needed a long swim to clear our heads after last night.

At 16.00 we met up at the Yacht Club for our trip to the Mt Yasur Vulcano. We all sat in the back of a 4 wheel drive pick up truck.

After a very bumpy ride we got to the entrance to the Vulcano only to find that it was closed. There was a “strike” by the locals and they had blocked the road and nobody was let in.

It was just for us to turn around and bump back (1 hour) to Port Resolution. We decided to have a go the next day if the strike was over.

The reason for the conflict was that the government had taken over the selling of tickets to visit the vulcano and the income there of. This used to be a good income for the locals.

The vulcano had in a recent big explosion damaged some of the surrounding farm land and the locals demanded compensation from the government.

 

   

                          The white beach.                                                                                             You are not coming in!

 

Wedensday 16/10

I had booked our driver from yesterday to take us (Lars,Mark and Sanna) to Lenakel on the other side of the Island. The Customs and Immigration offices are situated in Lenakel that is the main village on the island. The trip takes about 2 and a half hours on a very bad road. There is no way you could drive that road with an ordinary car, a 4 wheel drive is a must.

The trip was beautiful (and bumpy), we passed through many villages on the way and picked up and let off passengers many times along the way. For a while we were 11 people in the back of the pick up.

Having sorted our buisiness with customs and immigration we headed back to Port Resolution.

When we got back on board we had about one hour to wash the dust off before heading out to see the vulcano.

 

    

                    Dusty trip                                                                                                      One of our fellow passengers.

 

    

                        Mt Yasur volcano                                                                                                      Tree House

 

The trip up the vulcano was an awesome experience. We could drive all the way up on the mountain and only had to walk a few hundred meters up to the edge of the crater. The vulcano put on a nice show for us with lots of explosions throwing molten lava high up in the air. As the sun set the experience got even better.

 

   

                       Almost there                                                                                          You have to walk the last bit.

 

   

                   Big show                                                                                                             Waiting for the perfect shot     

 

  

                    The sun sets                                                                                                   and the show goes on.

 

   

 

Thursday 17/10

 

We left Tanna in the morning for the 250 NM sail to Noumea in New Caledonia. New country, new adventures!

 

Lars