Musket Cove, Fiji & Port Vila, Efate, Vanuatu
Marita3
Mark & Helen Syrett
Fri 3 Aug 2012 09:11
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Musket Cove was our last stop in the Fiji
Islands----a lovely spot with a small marina which was part of a resort
complex.
 It had a lovely swimming pool and was very well
run
 There was a BBQ and bar area for d-i-y barbeques
and we had a farewell supper with the two Dutch boats, Seaquest and Luna Verde,
who are now sailing south for Australia and New Zealand out of the cyclone
zone.
 As reported earlier in the blog our
passage to Port Vila on Efate, one of the Vanuatu Islands, gave us no
opportunity for photos! Hovwever once given free pratique, with more form
filling,
 we cleared Customs and moved to a mooring by
the yacht club ''Yachting World'' (nothing to do with the
magazine)
 with a small island resort behind us (Marita in
centre foreground)
 We went into Port Vila, the largest town in
the Vanuatu group of islands, and went to the market----the variety of fresh
produce was amazing and the market is open twenty fours a day for every day
except Sunday.
 We even had lunch there---a beef stir fry for 400
Vanuatu dollars; (1,000 dollars being about £7)
It is a popular cruise ship port of call and
Pacific Dawn (P&O) was in harbour having come across from
Australia.
There are therefore all the usual array of goods
including clothing shops where everything was still in the making
 We went to the local museum which was excellent.
The different islands all used to trade, pigs, shell money, copra, fruit,
vegetables etc etc with each other
 with the goods being transported by canoes of all
different shapes and sizes, including different rigs and sails
 and there was a vivid display of how they
''celebrated'' funerals
 Unfortunately the Europeans came in ships and
rammed the canoes and captured the crews and took them as slaves to the suagr
cane plantations in Australia leaving only diseases behind which decimated the
islands' populations.
They are trying to resurrect many of the old
canoes----we first saw Polynesian canoes in Galapagos which have since crossed
the Pacific and indeed one arrived here just after us
 It is a lovely place and the outer islands are
meant to be spectacular but very, very poor. Unfortunately we will not have time
to cruise these islands.
For supporters of the EC you will be pleased
to know that it is popular with the Eurocrats who are in their 37th year of
''business'' meetings in the
Pacific.
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