Port Vila and north
NORDLYS
David and Annette Ridout
Wed 29 Sep 2004 01:49
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Vanuatu north of Port
Vila
Port Vila
30th September 2004
Nordlys and her crew enjoyed some ten days at
rest on a mooring in this bustling harbour. Surrounded by cruising yachts
from all over the world we savoured the company of our fellow yachties, not
a word I like but sums us all up very concisely, and also of Katie and Andrew
Dwyer. The latter two unintentionally reminding us how time flies as we
originally met Katie in Sydney back in the '70s when she was a very young
girl. Her husband Andrew is a First Officer with Air Vanuatu. Janie,
Katie's mother who is old friend of mine from University days flew in
from Sydney and a joyous reunion was had by all.
This sailing inactivity came to a stop when Gowan
and Anthea Macalister flew in from England. It is a very long journey both
in distance and time change and so it was two slightly zomboid friends who came
through the arrivals hall at 2330hrs. A few days on Nordlys and the sleep
patterns were sorted and cruising life began.
Sailing north through the islands of Vanuatu is a
relatively easy task. The wind is almost always aft of the beam. The
holding in most anchorages is good and there are few uncharted reefs. The
only real snag is the rolling one experiences in some anchorages. The
thing that struck us very forcibly is that after leaving Port Vila one enters
almost the stone age. Life in the average village is indeed poor.
There is basic health care and in Banam Bay we saw lots of mothers taking their
children to the local clinic to be inoculated. There are also schools but
as these have to be paid for by the parents there was a lot of
absenteeism. Family and personal possessions are few and far between.
When the children are educated there is very little for them to do.
Most of the villages had been severely damaged by recent cyclones and
although running water is usually available there is very little
electricity.
Having stated the above it must not be thought that
one entered a land of poverty induced misery. Far from it. The
average person was a smiling charming individual who was happy to see
us and who was not grasping nor asking for
handouts. Most yachts are however a boon to these people
as nearly all of us were happy to 'trade' in a way which was very much
to the advantage of the locals but because it was trade and not just a hand out
everyone's pride was intact. We gave out tools to mend the village
bicycle, T shirts, plasters, batteries for torches and much else besides.
Nordlys was a lot lighter when she returned to the fleshpots of Vila for two
reasons. Firstly we had given a lot away and secondly our stores of food
and booze were much depleted. We had been unable to buy much and only one
fair sized Wahoo was caught despite hours of fishing.
We got as far as Banam Bay on the East Coast of
Malakula. This anchorage was a delight. The snorkelling was
excellent. The boat did not roll at all and the locals were
charming. It is here that the local 'Kastom Chief' organises dancing
displays. (Kastom is custom in Pidgin). These take place on a
piece of land that is especially for this purpose and is a no go area for local
females and children. Meeting the Chief at the prearranged time he
announced he was off to dress and some time later we were led to the
dancing area. With much ado about twenty or so local men appeared in
startling head gear wearing nothing more than a piece of palm leaf wound round
their penises and tucked up into a leather belt. Every other bit of the
body was exposed. The chief, quite an old man almost looked better thus
attired than when he was wearing an old pair of jeans and a tatty T shirt!
The show went on for some time and we were entertained by about
five or six dances all depicting different aspects of the local life
style. We learnt that at the age of thirteen the young men are taken
away to the hut in the dance area and circumcised. They are kept here
until the wound is healed. After this they are regarded as men and
their mothers cannot chastise them! One of the other customs we have come
across is the pulling of a front tooth from teenage females. This is
done slowly with no anaesthetic and we have seen many young girls in their
twenties around Vila missing one tooth. However on Malakula we saw
none disfigured in this way.
Unfortunately for all our stay in this lovely bay
the sun never shone and it was always threatening to rain. Setting off
back south west we met twenty five knots of true wind on the nose. Hurling
herself at some seven knots into this breeze Nordlys showed what she can do
but what none of her crew enjoys. Our visitors managed just to keep
breakfast down and there was much relief in some quarters when I decided to stop
off just ten miles down the coast in Port Sandwich. This turned out to be
a good idea as the anchorage itself was very calm and there was an excellent
walk ashore through old Copra plantations to a village. Here we met many
of the locals from Banam who had come by ferry and foot to see friends and shop
in the one store. Banam itself has no shop at all. After a day of
torrential rain I woke to find the clouds not racing overhead and taking the
dinghy a couple of miles to the entrance I saw a nearly flat windless
sea. Twenty minutes later we were motoring south east and not daring to
stop on Epi we achieved some fifty miles to windward and came to a stop for the
night at the island of Emae. There was relief all round as the back
of the journey had been broken and our course was now south, not south
east. Several days of pleasant sailing and anchorage hopping ensued and we
were back on time in Vila.
All this has very much wet our appetites and
Annette and I plan on returning to this group next year and continuing on north
up to Santo and on into the Banks and Torres groups. For now we will enjoy
the company of Gowan and Anthea for another two days and Annette is due to go to
the dentist again next Monday as the filling put in by Mr Singh in Fiji
soon came out. After this we plan to sail the three hundred and some miles
to Noumea in New Caledonia before we study the weather with some wariness and
set off for New Zealand.
Happy times to all our readers,
David and Annette
 Hurricane damage and few possessions shown in a typical
village scene
 Anthea uses her medical skills on the chiefs knife
wound. In the UK
age can stop one driving perhaps here the use of a machete
should be given up!
 The Kastom Chief leads his
troup
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