Foreland Bay, Epi Island, Vanauatu
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Sun 31 Aug 2008 02:29
|
16:40.819S 168:07.451E
After we spent a peaceful night all alone in Crab
Bay on Malakula Island, we set off the next morning (8/13) on the second
leg of our 250 mile upwind slog to Port Vila and civilization. It was
about this time that a serious craving for really good ice cream - the kind with
at least fifteen grams of fat per serving - set in. The last really good
ice cream we had was when we stopped at the agricultural college on
our hike up to the Belvedere lookout on Moorea in the Society Islands with
Bill and Kathie back in early May. There, the high fat content ice cream
was flavored on site with fruits and spices grown on the college grounds -
coconut ice cream, ginger ice cream, papaya ice cream, sour sop ice cream, mango
ice cream, vanilla ice cream. Need I go on? This sudden ice cream
craving of ours was most likely brought on by the large intake of
fruits and vegetables we were experiencing as we ate our way through the
mountain of bananas, grapefruits, passion fruit, papaya, onions, peppers,
tomatoes, potatoes and unidentifiable leafy green stuff that we were given
during our various stops on Espiritu Santo, Gaua and Vanua Lava Islands.
On top of the fact that we had eaten no ice cream in months, our chocolate stash
was completely decimated. With the exception of chocolate chips, that is
- which we were forced to eat on their own because there was no
butter with which to make chocolate chip cookies. Sometimes we truly
do lead a hellish existence.
All that day as we motored forty miles into the
wind on our way from Malakula Island to Epi Island, we fantasized about all the
good stuff we were going to eat and drink once we got back to Port Vila
where there is a real grocery store and lots of restaurants. Pizza,
cheeseburgers, french fries, ice cream, chocolate, beer. Not necessarily
in that order. Actually, at that point, anything that was not a fruit or
vegetable and was not prepared on our boat was suddenly extremely
appealing. This is very similar to the feelings we had about food when we
finally arrived in the Marquesas after seventeen long and boring food days
enroute from the Galapagos. It's amazing after several weeks of
deprivation how just one meal in a restaurant can become a major focus in one's
life. Amazing, and maybe just a little bit ridiculous.
Aside from food fantasizing, the semi-motor slog
(semi because unlike the famous Ecuador to Galapagos motorslog, we were not
battling a two knot current against us) to Epi Island was uneventful.
After nine and a half hours of listening to the motor drone with a few minor bow
slams thrown in for good measure, we arrived in Foreland Bay on Epi
Island. The bay was gray since a rain shower had just passed through and
there was nothing on shore - no village and therefore no welcoming canoe for the
second day in a row. We passed another quiet evening and night
in the bay by ourselves eating fish out of the freezer (yes, we still have
tuna in there, but we've eaten all of the triple back-flip, double twisting
blood spattering Pacific mahi-mahi) and Vanua Lava sweet potatoes with
tomatoes, unidentifiable leafy green stuff - and no ice cream.
Anne
|