Luganville to The Banks Islands, Vanuatu

We arrived at Oyster Island at high tide so we could travel the pass through the shallow coral reefs safely.
We joined the other 8-10 boats at anchor in this beautiful bay enjoying internet access and dinner ashore. As it was 6 weeks since we left Port Vila we were happy to take advantage of the amenities and greet old friends..
The following morning we hitched a ride into Luganville to pick up some groceries and arrange a dive on the USS President Coolidge, a sunken cruise ship which had been converted to a troop carrier in the 2nd World War.
Luganville is a small dusty town with a local market, several restaurants and a couple of grocery stores which stock most things we needed. It is the dive centre for tourists for both the Coolidge and Million Dollar point where the Americans dumped all of their heavy machinery into the sea after the war. They had offered it to the Vanuatu people at a rock bottom price but when the Vanuatu government declined to pay assuming the Americans would just leave it anyway they dumped it.
In 1943 the captain of the Coolidge decided that the channel he was told to take into the harbour was too narrow and he would take another route in. He paid no attention as they tried to signal that the channel was mined and they ran into one. He immediately ran the bow of the boat onto the reef where all but 2 of the 5000 troops got off before the boat rolled off into the ocean and now provides a wonderful shore dive ranging from 90-180 foot depth dives. I am sure at the time the future diving opportunities it would provide was not appreciated!!!
We arranged the dive with a local Australian who had 2500 dives on the ship and apparently ran the best dive company. We went in from shore with a guide for the two of us. Our first dive was from the bow and we swam the length of the ship which was lying on its side. Shells and helmets were lying there and it provided a reef for some lovely large fish. The first dive was to assess our competence to ensure we would be safe to take inside the boat for the second. As the depth was 90 feet and our next dive was to be 120 feet we had very long decompression stops and 4 hours between dives.
The second dive took us down and we entered the boat through a hole in the side. As we dove deep and headed towards the middle of the boat I felt quite unnerved, although you could look up and see the light coming in through the port holes I felt claustrophobic. We all had dive lights and swam into what had been the dining room where the ceramic decorative “lady” was—as the boat was on its side it was hard to orient the things we were looking at---the chandelier was on its side. We swam out past the row of toilets high up on the wall to the room where there were still jeeps and tires. We then swam up to our decompression stop and I was quite happy to be sitting at 15 feet of water with lots of light.
It was an interesting dive but personally I do not feel the need to do more dives in such a confined space. Many people do about 6-7 dives so they can see all of it. Ken would have liked to have done another dive or two but Darlene will be arrive in the morning and we will need to check out of Luganville and start our journey north.
Darlene arrived in the morning managing to negotiate her way to Oyster Island from the airport after her long voyage---Calgary-LA-NZ-Port Vila, overnight there and a 7 30 am flight to Luganville. We let her compress by taking the dingy the 30 minutes up the river to the beautiful “Blue Hole” which is a crystal clear 45 foot deep spring fed pool. The colour is influenced by the colour of the sand which in the sun is a lovely blue colour and we enjoyed a refreshing fresh water swim.
There were three single handed sail boats in the anchorage and it quickly became obvious that Darlene as a single woman was of great interest. Most single handers like to have good crew if it available and an attractive woman is an added attraction.
Doug on Windcastle was quite infatuated with Darlene and quickly offered her a cruise to the Solomon Islands for a month. His wife who had been cruising with him died a year ago from a reaction to an unproven malarial treatment and he was very lonely and wanted a sailing companion. She took the email addresses of each of them and would think about her options.
We left and made our way up the coast of Espiritu Santo to head for Waterfall Bay on Vanua Levu in the Banks Islands where would hope to arrive at dawn the next morning. There was a fair amount of swell and Darlene was feeling sea sick making her question her future sailing options. We fed her some sea sickness pills which made her pass out for 18 hours, making for a comfortable passage but not great assistance for the passage making. We will feed our next guest a smaller dose of medication!!
We arrived as planned at Waterfall Bay at dawn to meet up with Devala and Mike on Sea Rover before they head to Australia in two days.
We are becoming accustomed to the inevitable barrage of canoes coming to the boat—they all paddle out as you are anchoring and then again each morning. The children come again each afternoon after school. The Banks Islands are the poorest part of Vanuatu and are not serviced from Port Vila at all so the cruising yachts become their best source of goods. You are sitting in your boat and you hear someone whistling or coughing and there will be a canoe hovering near the back of the boat hoping to trade.
We traded for yet more eggplants, green peppers, bananas, pamplemousse, papayas and island cabbage. We were asking for eggs but when 9 of the 10 we had been given had partly grown chickens inside we now say we don’t need any more. We are asked for many items from rice or sugar to playing cards, rope to tie their cow and always batteries. They always have a flashlight which has no batteries left and often they have destroyed the switch or bulb so Ken is becoming an expert at trying to repair them.
Darlene had brought a lot of girl’s clothing with her and combined with the clothing I had bought in Fiji and the small toys and hair things we already had are well equipped to trade. They are dressed in very dirty ragged clothing. We felt good being able to give some good clean clothes.
After a rest we joined Mike and Devala and headed to shore to the local village where we were met by Chief Kerreley. He is the chief of a small village and contrary to most chiefs of other villages he believes the future of kastom will be ensured by limiting education. His family is only educated to grade 3 as he was and we found they were very inbred and limited in their communications and appeared somewhat less energetic than most locals we have come in contact with.
We had lunch at his small restaurant where we had looked forward to the lobster they were cooking and were disappointed when it had been cooked to resemble a chewy piece of rubber.
The visit to the waterfall was wonderful as the fresh water poured over the falls allowing us to sit underneath----visions of Bali Hai. Actually James Michener’s book South Pacific from which the movie was made was written from his 2nd world war experiences when he was stationed at Luganville. The island of Bali Hai was the island of Ambae which he could see from the base.
Sea Rover left for Brisbane in apparently good conditions—we will miss them as we have spent a lot of time with them and hope to join them in Sydney in December.
That night several villagers took Ken out lobster fishing and they managed to get 4 good size ones. Ken always gives them batteries—of course their torches do not work—rope and this time a couple of old headlights which we no longer used—complete with more batteries of course. They are more than happy with the trade. We were happy to have control of the cooking of the lobsters and they were delicious.
After a couple of days it was time to travel north and see if we could have a couple of calm days at the Reef Islands which are several uninhabited white coral sand islands surrounded by coral reefs. We were able to anchor in a sandy patch and snorkelled to the reef. The fish were more plentiful than we had seen before in Vanuatu. It was nice to be away from the villages with the constant barrage of canoes as the requests get tiresome.
We were very lucky as the weather had calmed and although the wind came up at night we were able to stay safely anchored for a couple of days. We had been listening to weather conditions for some time and realised that we were very privileged to get calm weather at the right time.
After a couple of lovely days exploring the reef and island we decided not to push our luck and headed to Uparapara. This is a small remote island which is a crater open to the sea which you sail into and anchor.
We arrived to find 2 other boats anchored already and immediately several canoes came out to greet us. One was Chief Nicholson’s and when we relayed a message from a boat which had been here previously we immediately became honoured guests. The villagers become very friendly with cruisers who stay a while and actually “adopt” some into their families. Another canoe was Frederick’s who invited Ken to go lobster fishing.
That night there was an Island feast which was put on to honour a French doctor on one of the other sail boats. He had come in a few days previously to find a young man had cut his foot to the bone and the local clinic had stitched it without cleaning the wound first so a major infection had started. The doctor cleaned it up, stitched it again and gave him antibiotics. He probably saved the man’s life as the island has no medication, no airstrip and no organised boat service. The copra boat which comes occasionally has not been here for 6 months so the people are desperate for rice, flour and sugar. The do have enough local vegetables and chicken to live well but they enjoy the variety of rice and sugar if they can get it.
We were invited as guests also to the feast as we had brought news of the family who had sailed in before. The food had been prepared all day by the women and included lap lap, this time made from breadfruit which is in season and seems to be considered a delicacy. They had also killed some chickens and I took in a big pot of soup to share which definitely was a hit. There were the speeches and we were obliged to take a cup of kava –still tastes like dishwater and makes your mouth numb.
The next morning we went up to the rim of the volcano with Brianna, the chief’s 17 year old daughter and Grace her 9 year old friend. It was a rough track involving clambering over roots and took us about 2 hours. On arrival at the top Grace shinnied up a coconut palm and dropped a coconut each which Brianna sliced open for us to drink---nectar from the gods. We were able to look over the bay where the boats were anchored and see in all directions.
We made our way down the 2 hours to the bottom and met with Ors on Better Than Shares who was one of the single handers we had met in Luganville.
He was anxious to go lobster hunting with Ken so along with several of the local men they successfully came home with enough for another meal. Frederick the man who had organised the lobster hunt remembered Barry by name from his trip here in 1997---they have remarkable memories and are very fond of the yachties who take the time to share with them. He actually asked if we would be his adopted family and he would call us mum and dad—his father had died at 60 and he felt an affinity with Ken.
The following day Ors, who is a keen diver, persuaded Ken to go and dive the reef with him and he would refill our tanks with his compressor.
He and Ken then went in and repaired the solar lights at the school and installed a solar panel, battery and an LED light for the community centre. The villages up here have no electricity and are so remote that I can’t imagine they will for many years yet but with current LED technology and solar panels it is possible to run a small light for their community. They are often given batteries, lights and panels from yachties—who seem to be the most common source, the government of Vanuatu does not appear to be providing anything. The issue becomes when something breaks down the locals have no concept of how they work so many systems given generously are not operating. It is then up to the next yachtie to sort it out for them and try and explain what they need to do next time it does not work. The local school had been recently built by the EU but they do not teach any of the local men how to maintain the electricity and do not leave a meter or any spare parts.
While they were doing the lights I had asked one of the young women to show me how to weave a basket. They weave here constantly using various fibres and I was amazed at the many hours from the time they stripped the dried pandanus leaves until a small basket was made. We continued to trade for everything they did for us as we have lots of clothes, some sugar and rice.
It was time to move on and we intended to start south towards the Island of Gaua where Darlene will fly out of to go back home. We had hoped to get as far as Vurias Bay on the south coast of Vanua Lavu but the strong winds, poor visibility and seas forced us to return to Waterfall Bay.
It was not all bad as we were able to have yet one more swim in the pool at the waterfall and did manage to make it to Vurias Bay the following day. Generally the weather in the
Banks Islands seems to be very windy and overcast and although it is warm we are forever opening and closing windows to escape the rain showers.
When we arrived at Vurias Bay we were met by Chief Graham for whom we were carrying a 25 kg bag of flour which Sea Rover had asked us to bring for him. He is a very popular chief amongst cruisers and remembered Sea Rover well and also our friends on Cat Coquette and Pegasus from last year who had celebrated his 40th birthday party with him.
They invited us in for a welcome ceremony and we went in for the afternoon. The people of this village appeared more affluent than those we had been in recently and we felt very comfortable visiting here.
Once again Ken managed to hook up the failing battery to the solar panel which John used to power a VHF radio he had been given to call arriving yachts advising them of the best anchoring spot as they arrived. The locals do not easily grasp the concept of recharging the battery before you have totally drained it. Ken did his best each time to teach them how to maintain the batteries but I am sure next season another yachtie will be repairing all of the corroded connections and trying to fix them all again.
When it was clear that the welcome dinner would not happen at the scheduled 4pm start we elected to go back to the boat and return at 6pm and were escorted to the “restaurant” where we were presented with leis and the children sang to us before we were invited to sit at the table—as we have experienced before, they sat on the ground and we had the now familiar lap lap, chicken with noodles and grapefruit and paw paw.
Once again we felt humbled by the incredible welcome given to us and left with gratitude.
Next morning we beat into the nasty seas to Gaua island where we would be able to get Darlene to her flight to Vila. We were thankful to get in to the anchorage inside the reef where it was sheltered albeit still rolly.
The island has yet another active volcano which has a fresh water lake—it has the highest sulphur output of any volcano in the world and is presently considered dangerous. We anchored at a village in the north east close to the airport. The locals from the western island villages were forced to move here last November and have been living here until they can return. They think it will be by Xmas but they will have no gardens or any way to sustain themselves when they do. I have no faith that the government will assist them. The farming methods here are the primitive slash and burn where they clear the area for next year as they are living off last year’s planting. Each family has their own plots which they are totally dependant on for food. Although it is a very inefficient way of growing each family works hard every day and they can eat well—the climate is warm and moist and weeds grow as you watch.
Once again the parade of canoes arrived; one was the chief of the village who advised us of a program they offered for $75 which would include their infamous water music which is performed by the woman. We told him we would consider it but would like a guide to take us to the banyan tree which we had been told was worth the 45 minute walk.
The next morning we walked the lovely gentle terrain on a good track through the rain forest which led to the huge banyan tree. Afterwards we also walked to the airport so we would feel comfortable about Darlene’s flight the next day. Darlene was somewhat taken aback when we were told to walk the road and it turned out to be yet another dirt track. I guess it shows how long we have been travelling when we had just assumed that would be all that it would be. Just to have some form of track which a vehicle can drive on is uncommon on most of the Vanuatu islands. When we arrived at the airport—a grass strip with a windowless concrete building we found the lady who manages the flights. She made Darlene even less comfortable when it appeared she had no idea of the flight schedule—they have one flight on Wednesdays and two on Fridays but seemed beyond her scope to know the times. Of course she had no computer and just gets the passenger lists as the planes arrive. We did have a timetable—which she did not appear to have—which confirmed the time of Darlene’s flight.
We walked back to the village and stopped at the store to buy a drink—no more left—saw an ice cream sign—no more left and settled for a package of chocolate mint cookies which we ate as we sat on the steps along with the water we had carried.
We arrived back at the village at high tide which was the time they could do the water music which we had negotiated for $25. This consisted of 5 women in waist deep water scooping and clapping the water in rhythm. The sound was great but we felt that the initial price for this compared with other things in the islands was exorbitant and felt justified with the amount we actually paid. One of the women had along with 9 other women had gone to Expo at Seville Spain to perform in the Vanuatu pavilion which I am sure was well received but did give them an inflated view of the value.
Darlene had managed to find a truck to take her to the airport in the morning and as we waited Ken and I walked up to the High School to drop of the packages of math instruments we had bought in NZ. We had been told that the classes have to share one set and the principal expressed his gratitude. High school education is not funded and is prohibitively expensive with the few who can afford it having no money left for school supplies. We had been told that many children who start high school are sent home if the parents can not pay.
We jumped on the back of the truck taking Darlene to the airport where it was obvious ta plane would be coming sometime that day as groups of people were sitting under the mango tree and perched elsewhere around the “terminal”. Luggage destined for Vila was in piles including several watermelons with the label tied to the stalk and addressed in felt pen on the melon itself.
The lady now had the passenger list which had Darlene’s name so we felt it was OK for us to go back to the boat to ready ourselves for the night passage we were to take to get ourselves as far south as the weather would allow—it is forecasted to drop from the howling winds we had been experiencing. Actually I am writing this on passage on a beautiful full moon lit night and indeed the wind has dropped---15-20knots from the 25-30knot we had had recently. Although it is on our nose as we had expected—we are now paying for all of those “down wind” passages---we are making good progress and it will only require a couple of easy tacks to get to our destination.
We have enjoyed visiting these remote islands but have felt a little overwhelmed by the intensity and poverty and feel it is time to move on.