Friday 14th  June, Pentecote, Vanuatu  16:11.8S  168:10.1E 

Today’s Blog by Terry (Time zone BST +10.00; UTC +11.00)

Wednesday 12^th June:

A leisurely start to the day, we departed Leman Bay at 1030, for the short 25 mile run westwards to Malakula Island.

Wind conditions were light and so David called for the Code Zero sail. We made good progress for an hour, but the wind built up and we had to furl the Zero and revert to genoa and main. By mid-afternoon we were anchored in a well sheltered bay beside Awai Island, one of the Maskelyne Islands on the southern tip of Malekula. This is the territory of the “Small Nambas” - as opposed to the “Big Nambas” a tribe which occupy the north of the island.

Ted, Lenie and I, lowered the dinghy to set off to explore;  we took our mask and snorkels with us, but decided instead to take a look at Aiwa Island.

We waved at several boats in the area including a boat with two women and two children followed by two swimming dogs.

We landed on a small beach, secured the dinghy and set of along the path which lead inland. The initial part of the path was black sand and it was dotted with hundreds of small burrowing holes for crabs. After a few hundred yards we came to a clearing where the two women we had seen earlier were landing their boat. “Gentleman Ted” rushed forward and volunteered our services to assist with their load of shopping. This consisted of two very strong rush baskets, one of yams, another of clams and a large bunch of bananas. Between the three of us we lightened the load for Grandma, daughter and two excited children.

The children, two girls, ran ahead of us shouting and laughing to show the way to their village. It was another kilometre to their village, where after a quick thank you and photo shoot we headed back to the beach, the dinghy and to Serendipity.

Thursday 13^th June:

A longer day’s sailing today (44 miles), we headed north to the island of Ambryn,  this is the most active volcanic island in Vanuatu.  We made good progress until the western tip of Ambryn , here we turned north east along the coast and the wind died for 30 minutes, before coming back on the nose, this provided a pleasant afternoon’s tacking practice towards our destination at Nopul. The clouds over Ambryn had a strange orangey glow around the two volcanic peaks of Mt Marum and Mt Benbow.  Later, after night fall, we were able to see a reddish glow in the sky above the peaks.

The time was now 1600 we decided to leave the shore excursion until Friday……….  So we settled down to watch the sunset with very good rum cocktail courtesy of Ted.

Friday 14^th June:

Washing day today, so as one might expect the rain, came and went all day. After the washing had eventually been pegged out on the line, we all boarded the dinghy and headed ashore. From the beach we passed some huts, then climbed a steep slope to pay our respects to the local chief, his name was Masi.

David and Lenie continued to talk with Masi and his family, while Ted and I went back to the beach to move the dinghy as a local boat had  drifted across our mooring.

After re-securing the dinghy Ted and I met Johnson, a very friendly and fit 71 year old, his son and some other family members.  We re-joined David and Lenie, and Johnson was our guide taking us to the local shop and market in search of a resupply of bananas.

We walked for, perhaps, 2 kilometres along a dirt track meeting and shaking hands with many people coming from the shop, many of these were relations of Johnson. But unfortunately when we arrived, the market was just finishing, only three women left with a small assortment of yams, cassava and onions.

David and Ted visited the shop , coming away with a loaf of bread and a new very bright shirt for David (which, I’m sure will feature in an upcoming photo shoot). Johnson, meanwhile, had been to visit a friend and come back with a large bunch of bananas for us.

On our way back we waved to the children in the school, met several more people and Johnson took us to see the “tamtams”, pictured here.

These beautifully carved drums were situated in a glade where they were used in dancing rituals.

Back to the beach and the boys from the local Nopul football team were preparing the “kava” for their fundraising  event that afternoon.

We made our excuses, made a donation to the club and headed back to the boat.

We all enjoyed meeting the friendly and open people of Ambryn, and wished that we could, perhaps, have stayed a little longer.

1330, anchor up and we set sail 15 miles to the nearby island of Pentecost.  See the next blog for our visit here to see the “Land-diving”.