Oyster Island, Peterson Bay, Santo, Vanuatu
15:23S 167:11E
We haven't moved far since last report. Departed Luganville
about a week ago on a flat calm morning with sunshine and sparkling water;
motored due east for about 4nm before turning north. By the time we got
onto the northerly course it was blowing 25knots, we struggled to take down the
awning and then motored into a short steep chop. Gusts to 38knots on trip north
and eventually we made the outer reef of Peterson Bay. Anchored and went ashore
to check depths and tide times to make it through the inner reef which
eventually happened with Southern Princess just touching bottom on the way
through. Inside the inner reef we found a place which had some telephone mobile
signal and dropped anchor with Storyteller about 100m away. And there we have
stayed.
Been having trouble with the outboard which occasioned three
separate trips to Luganville. The local Yamaha bloke, Ralph, managed to scavenge
part of the carburettor from a similar motor and we are just about fixed. The
motor is still missing a beat here and there but we will address that when
next we are in Luganville to pick up Steve & Rhonda.
Oyster Island Resort is a cute place with about 7 bungalows and
a central bar, restaurant and eating area. Taaso is the cook and he makes superb
Soufflés apart from other foods. The mangroves around the island produce pacific
oysters so most meals start with half a dozen Kilpatrick and last night the
whole baby snapper was great.
July 31st saw our 43rd wedding anniversary and we celebrated
with a bottle of Moet left on board by Avelyn & Ian Massam when they
departed in Vava'u, Tonga. Thanks guys it was put to good use. After the Moet
and a further bottle of champagne from the stocks of Storyteller, we repaired
ashore to Oyster Island, with John Gilder & Rigel Bricken off Storyteller
together with Anne & Don Myers off Harmonie. Oysters, lobster and all the
trimmings it was a fine meal and a fun night. Don wanted coffee so we stopped by
Southern Princess on the way back and out came the single malt. None of the boys
felt real well in the morning! Irene went to bed and Anne while claiming not to
have been counting suggested at least 4 single malts each had passed our lips!
Forty Three Years Married; Irene reckons you only get 15 years for murder and is
just now completing her third life sentence!!!! Is she trying to tell me
something?
Kathleen & Graham McGregor, our mates from Perth have joined
us for a week. Graham has a filthy cold and doesn't really want to do much so we
will swing around the anchor here for the week I guess. Fun to be with them
again, the last time we saw them was in Malta in April 2007 when they travelled
to Sicily with us. The visit to the native village below is a far cry from Mount
Etna and Taormina for lunch. This visit is a marked contrast.
Took a trip up the river feeding Peterson Bay to a blue hole.
This is a fresh water spring producing millions of gallons of water coloured
with limestone and calcium. Tastes wonderful!
Grant, the manager of Oyster Island, took us to visit a real
Ni-Vanuatu living village and not a tourist village. It was educational to see
how they lived and it is not something I would want to do. Apart from the
chief's house (concrete floor) they were all mud floors and after the recent
rain, damp underfoot. Chief Villi took us through the village gardens and
they have an amazing array of food and medicinal plants. Plants for chest colds,
headache, mosquito and fly repellent, sick belly and the trots. Some are
infused, some are rubbed on the skin and others burned to provide protective
smoke. They use an inhalation for the common cold.
Chief Villi was hard muscled and not an ounce of fat, loin
clothed, has fathered 10 children the oldest 21 and Chief Villi only looked
about 35 years old! The original Ni-Vanuatu were bushmen and mostly vegetarian.
Meat was saved for ceremonial feasts and if they were kill a pig or cow they
gorged themselves until all gone as they had no refrigeration and did not have
skills to smoke the meat. They were bushmen, living inland so that they were
protected from marauding seamen. When the missionaries arrived they encouraged
the bushmen to move to the coast as they were now protected from the attacks and
slowly the diet has changed to include fish and some meat.
The blue hole - a primeval
place.
You
see some strange transport in Luganville. A home made three
wheeler.
A copra drying shed. They take the fallen
coconuts, split them in half and hollow out the white meat. This is then placed
in a drying shed and 'cooked' to start the oil producing process. Copra sells
for A$560 a tonne and they are now using the oil as a bio-fuel. Some diesel
motors here in Luganville are using coconut oil exclusively. The white meat is
placed in racks in the smoke house and fires are lighted from underneath in
these metal tubes made from used 44 gallon drums. The husks of the coconuts are
used for the fuel.
Looking for the Ni-Vanuatu village we got right
off the beaten track. Santo has 5.5 metres of rain per year and the bush is
lush. The juxtaposition of the electricity metres feeding into a traditional
village is incongruous and while providing lighting, they have no television or
any other 21sr century luxuries. This is the main entry into the
village.
A lovely young lady was our guide with Chief
Villi. Grant and Chief Villi. The loin
clothe is his normal attire. The wee bald spot starts to give away his
age.
The cooking house. A beaten mud floor, damp
under foot after recent rain. Some of the villagers sleep in this room on mats.
The fire, one of several and no smoke hole in the roof so that the atmosphere
was close and smoky.
The nursery. The young guy to the left has his
first toy. A bush knife and he was handling it quite naturally. The second toy
they are given is a shanghai (slingshot) and they are expert shots killing small
birds for the cooking pot. The fellow on the right, in the tree, is picking a
native apple and he threw several down to us. He was about 40 feet in the air
and quite at home. The apples, while a little tart in flavour were very
refreshing.
Grant took us to visit his fathers farm and a
dip in a pool which was like a champagne bubble bath. Once again fed by a
spring, the water was cool and tasted wonderful. To the right the vanilla
plantation. Vanilla is of the orchid family and the roots are above ground in a
mix of coconut husks and shells. Vanilla is a well paid cash crop with these
vines being 3 years old and due to flower and produce for the first time next
spring. With not many flying insects around, they are all hand pollinated, a
lengthy job, however an even longer job is when they pick the beans; during the
day they are laid out in the sun to dry, then at nightfall they are packed into
small boxes, covered in blankets and surrounded with hot water bottles to keep
them warm until they can be placed in the sun again the next day. This goes on
for three months! No wonder vanilla beans are so expensive.
Taaso and his superb Contreau soufflé
Yesterday we discovered that there is a small resort,
'Turtle Bay' at the other end of Peterson Bay and today we had lunch there. The
owners, Matt & Patricia are an interesting couple. Max is English, a clown
in a circus and has his own Luna Circus in Margaret River in Western Australia
which operates for one month a year in January. During the Australian winter
they run Turtle Bay and Matt does a few circus shows in NZ & Australia when
the 'money is right'. They seem to live an easy life.
NEWS FLASH:
ASOLARE one of the yachts sailing in the World ARC ran aground on Moore's Reef
about 200nm west of Cairns a couple of days back. The following report from Blue
Flyer.
"At 0400 Peter was asleep and
Tim was on watch 2 days ago. Peter was woken by a crash sound and then a few
seconds later the boat stopped dead with an almighty crash and lay over on her
port side. Peter fought his way out of his cabin, past all the hanging clothes
that were now hanging across his door, blocking it.
On deck he found they
were about 50 metres up on a reef that was not shown on either his C map or Max
C charts.( It is on Navionics). The reef is called Moore's Reef and is at 15
52S, 149 10E.
Peter set off the VHF DSC mayday with no response, so then
set off the 2182. Response from NZ RCC in seconds. They got the Ozzies onto it
and a fixed wing plane arrived out in a couple of hours. It dropped a canister
to them with water, VHF, flares, etc which Tim recovered. The life raft was
launched with considerable problems. The Ozzies wanted all the usual info. and
the passport numbers then & there! They stayed on the boat and Peter
remained on the radio. After 3 1/2 hours the chopper appeared and winched them
up. Off then to Willis Island for fuel and food. They all arrived into Cairns
unharmed and became instant celebrities all round the World due to the Internet.
As a result Mary saw this in Singapore airport on her way to rejoin Peter to
cruise to Darwin. They are now going with us to Brisbane instead. Peter salvaged
very little from the boat- laptop, cards, phone and boat papers.
The boat is a wreck and is probably being cleaned
out by anyone in the neighbourhood. It is an insurance write off and has
probably begun to break up by now.
Mandy & Clare met them at the
airport and took him off to buy some clothes, and later we took about 15 WARC
people out for dinner with Peter.
He is in great shape and very upbeat about
the whole episode."
Google ASOLARE CAIRNS and you can see the
pictures.
That's all for now and 'be kind to each
other'.
Love
John & Irene - Southern Princess
