Captain’s Log: Londot, Ambyrm, Port Vila

July 12-20

Hi All,

We are now back in Port Vila, the town where we entered Vanuatu in mid-May. I left off the blog when we were in Londot on Pentecost. There was not too much to do in the village as it is known primarily for the land diving which is over for the season. Luke, the tourism minister, was in Vila most likely defending his actions for destroying a competitors land diving platform. We had heard there was a huge controversy amongst the villages doing the land diving and in fact, the village we went to by the airport had their platform destroyed by some men from Londot….holy land diving wars batman!!!!

We anchored by Luke’s bungalows and we went into shore in hopes of meeting Luke and touring the village and find out what else to do. We found Luke was not there but his daughter greeted us. She was very nice but did not seem to want to offer any tours like Luke would have done….too bad as we really wanted to meet Luke. We asked her about the land diving controversy and her eyes got real big….you know about this…yes, in fact we saw the destroyed diving platform by the airport….oh….she then went into a 15 min explanation that the airport platform was illegal and villages could only perform the kustom land diving in southern Pentecost. When the airport group did not listen the Chief sent men to destroy the platform but not fight…..hmmmm, still did not feel right….this is now our third explanation of what happened, all different of course.

Kathy and I discussed over some cocktails and we think it is about money. These villages are very poor and do not receive much government support. After Cyclone Pam tourism was almost wiped out so the land diving villages were suffering from Pam as well as no income from land diving (they charge US$130pp). Several cruise ships come each season with thousands of people and we think only one came this year. The airport land diving was getting what few tourists there were (like us, small chartered planes comes from Vila or Luganville) so the Chiefs in the Londot area came up with an old “kustom” declaring land diving only in the southern region of Pentecost. Supposedly this is all being sorted in “court”…..hmmm!!!!

Once again the snorkeling was not very good…..a lot of dead reef and we never found the WW II wreck…..not sure how much of it is left but the area the wreck is in is under another land dispute and we were told to stay away…yikes!!!

But, we did have a fun time playing with some dolphins in our dinghy along with Brett and Stacey in their dinghy….a pod of maybe 20 would jump and ride our bow wake….they got so close you could almost reach out and touch them….and then, we look up and there is a minke whale maybe 100 yards away…..just on the surface and coming our way….oh he/she is really, really big……he gets to maybe 50 yards…sort of gives us the eye and then just slowly sinks down below the dinghy….we could see the whale below us, the water was that clear….gulp, what if it surfaces…..but it just slowly swam away….whoa….it surfaced several more times but the initial encounter was as close as we got!!!!

We left Pentecost for Ranon on Ambyrm, about 15 nm in very calm winds and seas…yeah…..still fishing but not catching:(((( There was an Art and Magic festival we wanted to attend for 2 days that featured a very unusual dance called the Rom dance. Ambyrm is also home to 2 active volcanoes. At night both volcanoes were glowing red and you could see bursts of color as lava and steam exploded out of the crater. We were mesmerized and just sat for hours (w/cocktails of course) and watched the show. We were there for 4 nights and unfortunately, a couple of nights the show was obscured with clouds.

We really, really enjoyed Ambrym and the ROM festival. There is a local man named Jeffrie in Ranon who uses his kayak to come to the boats and arranges tours of the village, guides for the Festival and helps arrange hikes up to the volcano. He is very enterprising which we thought was wonderful to see while some cruisers thought it was a bit much, although at the end, we think he provided great value for his services and befriended all. He charged US$7pp for a 2 hour village tour and took you to some of the carvers who had good carvings at very low prices. We bought a traditional carving for $30 which probably costs over $100 in Vila. Most of these carvers did not take their carvings to the Festival. He charged $10pp/day as the guide for the Festival which you are required to have….he had 6 people per group so he arranged 1-2 other guides as there were 9 boats at Ranon.

Next to Jeffrie’s house in Ranon is his cousin’s nakamal (gathering place and kava bar)….Ronnie had some of the best kava we have had in Vanuatu…..strong and more of a neutral taste:))))) The girls declined but Brett and I were told to come in around 2:00 to see how the kava is prepared….it took about an hour to prepare and then we sat and drank kava and talked the afternoon away…..very similar as we did in Fiji….we both had 4 bowls and both of us were feeling a bit stoned and very happy!!!! The discussions ranged from life in America as well as life in Ranon, politics of course, cyclone Pam, education and then medicine….Ronnie had a sore tooth….a cavity that he needed filled but the hospital on Ambrym could not do it so he needed to go to Vila or his other choice was to have the tooth pulled….we gave him some Advil and he was going to get some antibiotics at the hospital and then decide what to do.

The first day of the festival we all gathered on the beach around 8:00am and then took a 45 min hike through the bush….all uphill….we were all drenched by the time we got there as it was warm and very humid with no breeze….the good news for me was sweating out all the toxins from the day before:)))) The 2nd day another boat arranged a truck to take us up, which was way better!!! The festivities included a traditional Kustom dance, a yam cooking demonstration, weaving demo, some magic tricks which I got the trick on some but was stumped on others, (there is supposedly strong magic on Ambrym…..good and black….anyone caught performing black magic in the past was put to death….yikes), village tour, unveiling of the ROM mask to be used in the dance on the 2nd day and then a display of some beautiful wood carvings….we bought a very nice traditional mask!!!!

The ROM dance and mask/costumes were outstanding…..it lasted most of the morning of the 2nd day. The men were very enthusiastic and between the guides and John (from Fanla) we had a good explanation of what was happening. I’m not sure of the origin of the dance…..but the Kustom is very old….if a man wants to rise in the village he asks another man to make him a very elaborate mask and then it is displayed in this dance….after the dance we saw the payment of cash, pigs and other foods. Then the man must kill the pig….that part was rather brutal from our squeamish Western culture perspective. We will always cherish this Festival and feel very honored/privileged to have been allowed to attend…..it has just been in the last few years tourists, especially women were allowed to see the dance. I will post many pics and hopefully some video on the blog as it is hard to describe in words!!

Our last event was to attend a fundraiser….supposed to start at 5:00…but when Brett and I went in….the girls opted out again….we found that the band was leaving for another place…but they said the fundraiser was still going and most importantly there was still kava….evidently we did not get the memo about island time. The fundraiser was for repairs to the Presbyterian church….I donated to the cause thinking to just slip the money in the can but they had to present me and my gift to everyone…yikes!!! We then talked to a bunch of folks as well as had some more very smooth and strong kava!!!

Well…..that’s about it….we did have Brett and Stacey over for a semi-closing ceremony…we were leaving at 4:30am the next morning to go 100nm south to Havannah Harbor…..just north of Port Vila and they were going about 25 nm to Port Sandwich to hopefully find some decent internet and continue cruising Vanuatu…..we did make it a short evening as after the festival, all the walking and kava, we were pretty tired….so off they went around 8:00 and I was soon night nights….but Kathy stayed up and cleaned up and then got Mystic all secured for our passage…yep, she is a trooper!!!

So up at 4:00am…..had a cup of coffee, did the ER check and started up all the stuff…one last gander at the volcanoes glowing….and then we lifted anchor in complete darkness…a bit eerie. We had a great passage….winds 0-15kts primarily slightly aft of beam and the seas were in the 1-3′ range on the beam….sweet….fishing again but no catching….this was one of our calmer passages in Vanuatu….we ran a little faster to ensure we got to Havannah Harbor before dark as well as the stabilizers were more effective. We made it to the anchorage and popped the passage beer by 5:15 pm…..and to our delight we had fast internet!!!!

The next day we left around 8:00am and had another very easy passage to Port Vila arriving 10:30am. Since it was a Sunday, the marina is closed so we had to anchor overnight and then on Monday they arranged for a big mooring for us in the inner harbor. So that is where we sit….we will enjoy some R&R after our 2+ months of cruising Vanuatu with not much downtime, do some boat chores and look for a weather window to New Caledonia….there looks to be a possible one next week so we will be watching that one closely!!

Hope all is well!!

Cheers,

John
Mystic Moon

PS: Posted a few pictures on the website!! I hope to post a picture galley of all of Vanuatu over the next few days!!