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| I thought a map might be useful.... the chain is as long as the East Caribbean |
Clearing into Vanuatu in Port Vila actually was more cumbersome than last year in Tanna. We arrived on a Friday but made it to the Port by 1pm and there was no one at immigration or bio security. The super friendly team at customs were super efficient and Ruth and I enjoyed a few jokes, while Andrew and his new best friend outside kept us entertained – going on about fishing and the like. One thing I remember about Ni-Van women is that they are strong, like a joke and love it if you have a joke about men. We returned to bio-security and met a couple who had been there that morning and were asked to return at 2pm – so together we waited… We took a selfie to prove we had tried then went back to customs, collected our cruising permit and they found out that immigration wouldn’t be back until Monday. Argh well we are now on island time…… then we saw a bio security car pull in so decided we’d walk the full length of the port again, and yes the Bio security team were here complete with a box of chicks – it’s fine, the’re special chicks that have been cross bred and of course we should take some to Australia…. They gave us an invoice, asked us to put any quarantine garbage in the bins at yachting world and said we shouldn’t leave Port Vila after 4pm as the rhinoceros beetle might be flying and we could take it to another island. The posters on the beetle were actually really good and we really enjoyed the guys.
Checking in..... 
Port Vila Port 
Bio Security Chicks 
Port Vila market 
Going all Ni-Van
We went back to town, got some Vatu, and ran into Yves from Basyc at the bank – oh of course we must share a beer. Then we ran into Mark and Marian that we last saw in Fiji and just as we are getting to the dinghy dock, John and Bev (Dandelion) are coming ashore – oh golly we must have another beer, we have just been at the bar for hours and so made an early escape for a light dinner and crashed in bed. What a welcome back to Vanuatu.
Not having cleared immigration we had to stay in Port Vila for the weekend, not a chore as we headed into the famous 24 hour market for a traditional lunch – the market has a variety of cooking stands and we usually just wander through and see what looks good. Today was a beef chop, veg and rice with a kind of oyster sauce – and really good. We also sorted a sim card each and did a bit of shopping in the market. We were still a bit tired from the trip, but had a beer ashore and decided Sunday would be a party day. After a bit of provisioning with Yves and his handy hire car we headed to Banyan Beach Bar for a mini Sunday session of pizza and cocktails – the Dandelion crew joined us and we had a lovely chilled afternoon.
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| Banyan Beach Bar - a favourite spot |
12th June 2023 – Port Vila to Havannah Harbour
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| Sailing on his Birthday |
Monday – Andrew did fuel and immigration and I did shopping…. I did also save the day noticing a fuel can had a split cap, so a bit of clearing up but then we were off – oh yes and it was Andrew’s birthday. We were keen to get out of the city so just sailed a short 20 miles ish to Havannah Harbour – for Andrew’s birthday I had made my first ever attempt at Paté – it came with candle of course.
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| Birthday Pate |
We had heard that they're maybe somewhere for a sundowner, but after we anchored and called argh it was closed. We did have a drive out in the dinghy and found the small kind of marina, took a walk but found nothing interesting and then I made a special meal – fray bentos steak and kidney (a birthday gift that I thought was funny – he loved it and wanted it immediately), mash and gravy – yes that was it but it came with a fine tassie pinot noir.
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| Little marina at Havannah Harbour |
13th June 2023 – Havannah Harbour to Epi Island
We had a early start as we wanted to make it to Epi in one day – we were on a bit of mission to make it to Pentecost by Friday and the wind was good for sailing. We left at 6am and in the light of dawn passed through the narrow channel back out into the ocean. By 8am we had a lovely 15 knots just south of east and enjoyed a great sail with just one squall, but we managed to use it and only get a little bit wet. By 4pm we were anchored in the lovely calm Lamen Bay on the northwest corner of Epi.
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| Dolphins on the way |
It is quite a busy bay and plenty of local boats came by all waving. Our pretty old guidebook says the people from Lamen Island paddle over to the main island to farm their land and return under sail; today it was more outboard and banana boat. We had read that people on Epi believe in tree dwellers called lysepsep that have hairy feet and maybe breasts that are so long they can strangle you. Locals apparently always carry a machete in case they come across one; we wondered if that was also why so many people live on the small island and farm on the mainland. Oh how I love all the superstitions in Vanuatu.
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| Big Sista at sunset |
We were enjoying an arrival beer when a lot of commotion started in the bay and then behind us we saw a ferry arriving at high speed. We aren’t sure why, but the Big Sista decided to come between us and a French yacht anchored in the bay (we were close together and it was just two yachts in a huge bay) and anchored just ahead of us. People all waved, and the local fishing boats all appeared as people climbed out the windows and small carrier bags and chairs were passed off from all sorts of storage places – it really was quite entertaining.
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| Lamen Bay |
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| Lamen Bay |
Next morning, we went ashore to brave the tree people. We met Max and Chuck as soon as we landed, they invited us to a fund raiser for their church, everyone was going and the ladies were all dressed nicely around the village – we missed the veggie sail but did get a plate of food and I chatted to the ladies of the womens ministry and Andrew chatted to one of the pastors and the chief from Revelieu Bay. What was interesting was that the men cooked the food, and the women served it. Max lived on the island the asked if we had a sail thread as he wants to make a sail for his boat to sail to Efate – how could we refuse, so Max came by Askari later that day. We will go back to this bay and visit Lamen island as apparently that’s where you can swim with Dugongs.
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| Ladies serving |
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| Ben was really happy we'd come along |
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| Lunch with the pastor |
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| Men cooking lunch |
We had planned to have lunch at the small Sanda café on the beach – so after we went for second lunch; simple wahoo and veg served with big smiles. This is a real local place as we met one of the schoolteachers – Roy. We really enjoyed chatting to him; we said how we had met some of the students and our experience was that they were shy, he explained that in Ni-Van culture children should never raise their voice above that of an adult so they would rarely ask questions of us… Roy invited us to see the school – sadly we didn’t make it as when we got back to the boat we found the holding tank was blocked – now that was a glamourous job!
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| Lunch at Sanda Cafe |
We also met Isel and Lucy the village bakers, gathering rocks on the beach, so we went to the store and grabbed a loaf of freshly baked bread. What we found in Lamen Bay was an industrious village with all the features of a small town but on a small scale – shops, churches, two schools, a market and even an airport. Such a lovely place.
That afternoon Zenna and Broadsword arrived in the Bay – so drinks were arranged on Broadsword – funny evening and how unusual to have 3 UK flagged yachts in a bay in Vanuatu – even though two were really Australian and one was Scottish ;-)
15th June 2023 Lamen Bay to Ambryn Island
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| Dolphins on the way again |
A leisurely start to that day for the short sail downwind over to Ambryn; we arrived in Craig’s cove at lunch time to check it out for a future stop and then went to carefully check out an uncharted anchorage near Lake Lonwolwol that we were planning a tour from on Monday. Then headed under motor along the north of Ambryn and anchored near Ranon for the night. As we came along the coast we spotted a fabulous waterfall dropping straight into the sea in a small cove. We ventured in to see if we could anchor but sadly it was 60-90 metres deep.
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| Waterfall Bay |
16th June 2023 Ambryn Island to Pentecost
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| Askari at anchor Ambryn island, Vanuatu |
We enjoyed the morning at anchor before Lucy and Andrew from Broadsword whizzed over – we joined them in our dinghy to show them the waterfall and we all took a swim- pretty nice.
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| Had to be done! |
We then lifted the anchor and sailed over to Pentecost. The channel between the two islands is only 6 miles but faces directly South East and was pretty rough with compressed winds up to 25 knots. We couldn't believe the anchorage at Homo Bay would be tenable but as we approached the beach the swell subsided and actually the anchorage was calm.
Our mission was complete we anchored at Homo Bay and were met by Barthelomew Garae, the spokesman for the Chief of Ratap Village where tomorrow there will be a festival that has brought us here. We had been messaging Garae and Pete, a tour guide, so he knew exactly when we would arrive and he was there in a dugout canoe, looking pretty relieved to step onto Askari to tell us all about the program for tomorrow…..
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| Andrew taking the guys to Broadsword - Mr Garae appeared to prefer our dinghy to the canoe |
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| Canoe left at Askari - maybe I should take it for a spin |
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