Singing in the Meskelyns - Awai Island, Vanuatu
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Fri 25 Sep 2009 21:41
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16:31.988S 167:46.193E
On September 10th, we left Ezekiel and Port
Sandwich behind and battled south into the wind for another three hours until we
reached the Meskelyn Islands - a small group of islands off the southern tip of
Malakula Island. We sailed the short distance, but it wasn't pretty.
As soon as we pulled the headsail out, the electric winch failed in the 'on'
position again. We both leapt to the port side of the cockpit to get
the headsail sheet (line) off the winch before it pulled
the sheet tight enough to rip the sail. While we were
busy rescuing the headsail sheet, the boat slowed down and pointed
into the wind, backwinding the headsail. Oops. By then we had
the headsail sheet under control, but had to tack (turn the boat) to get the
headsail over to starboard. As luck would have it, the starboard headsail
sheet got caught on a winch on the main mast as the wind pushed the headsail
from port to starboard. This all sounds very organized and civilized,
but don't let that fool you. It wasn't. We were bashing through
waves, the wind was blowing a good 25 knots and the headsail was flapping in a
big way the whole time we worked to get the sheet untangled from the winch on
the main mast - me on the foredeck and Don in the cockpit. There was a
little yelling involved, but mostly because it was hard to be heard above the
wind and massively flapping headsail. We were never in any danger, but
this was one of those times that once we had things back under control and
started sailing again, we couldn't help but look around to see if any other
boats were in the vicinity. It's one thing to totally 'cock-up' (as the
Kiwis would say) a tack, but quite another if someone else sees you do
it.
It was a long three hours to go just a few miles
south, but we made it and as soon as we turned into one of
the channels separating the tiny Meskelyn Islands, the wind became more
friendly and the surf died down. Unfortunately, there is no easy fix for
our faulty electric winch, so we'll just have to do it the old fashioned way for
the rest of the season and winch the headsail in by hand when we are on a port
tack. Horrors! Lucky for us though, we shouldn't be doing much
sailing on a port tack from now until Australia, assuming the southeast trade
winds don't let us down as we head west.
As for the Meskelyn Islands...what can we say
except that we found another idyllic spot in which to hang out for another four
nights. As did quite a few others. The first night was crowded
with nine boats crammed into the tiny bay formed by Awai Island to the
east, a reef to the south and Malakula Island to the west. Most left the
next day though and we had the place nearly to ourselves with only Storyteller,
another trawler called Special Blend (they are from Florida and run a business
providing liquid fertilizer to golf courses, hence the name 'Special Blend') and
a European catamaran.
There is one small village (three families) on Awai
Island. Their garden is on Malakula Island, so they paddled in their
dugout canoes across the bay each morning and evening on their way to and from
'work'. A whole new kind of commute - the canoe commute. One I think
most of us would opt for, given the choice. The three families on the
island had quite a few kids - which is not surprising to see in a country where
42% of the population is under the age of 15. We were there over a
Saturday and the kids must have taken a vote and decided to provide us
boaters with entertainment for the day. Several small boys and girls
- none over the age of say, seven - loaded themselves up
in three canoes and proceeded to paddle out to the boats and serenade
us. At the top of their lungs. For hours. The bay is situated
such that the gentle hills on Awai and Malakula Islands cause any sound uttered
from a canoe on the water to reverberate. The kids sang and sang in their
language and paddled around to the boats, stopping only for pictures and
the occasional bag of cookies thrown their way. You might wonder if
this was annoying. It really wasn't. It's hard to be
annoyed with kids doing such a good job of entertaining themselves
(and us).
Picture 1 - Once again the ni-Van men were
more interested in what Storyteller had to offer than what the rest of us ho-hum
sailboats did. In this particular case, no less than five ni-Van guys
piled into a canoe on a mission to get a good look at the big motorboat and to
scavenge for cigarettes and beer to have with their big kava party planned
for that night. They didn't get any cigarettes, but Storyteller did
part with a couple of beers.
Picture 2 - The singing, canoe paddling kids posing
for a picture.
Picture 3 - Close-up of the singing, canoe
paddling kids. Note that the paddle is bigger than the kid.
Pictures 4, 5 and 6 - The reef just to the south of
the anchorage was extensive, shallow and filled with an amazing array of small,
extremely colorful tropical fish. Picture 4 shows a clump of stag
horn coral with some of our favorite zebra-striped and translucent fish.
Pictures 5 and 6 are close-ups of a couple of yellow and black angel
fish there were gliding around the coral as we floated
by.
More on the rest of our trip south to Port Vila
later.
Anne
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