June 11-18
Hi All,
Hmmmm….only a few comments on the cannibal tours….thought we might get more comments…..not too sure how many people are reading the blog but I won’t let it go to my “head”:)))))
We had a rather boisterous 34 nm cruise up to Luganville….20-25 kts with 6-9′ seas….all behind but too rough to fish…yikes!!! We tried to take a mooring across the channel from Luganville at Aore Resort…..but after several phone calls the manager finally came back and said oh no…..you are too heavy….sorry Mystic….don’t get in a huff….we are 45 tons and their moorings are good up to 30 tons. She said we could try to anchor but we found 100-140′ in coral…nope, not for us….so we went over and anchored off the river by Luganville. This anchorage is exposed to southerly winds and it was forecasted to keep blowing 20-30 kts for the next week or so….ugh!!! And, to our amazement as we anchored we saw Persephone. We thought they had already left for Australia but it turns out they were waiting for calmer weather!!!
It turns out the anchorage was a bit rolly and uncomfortable but we got lucky. Paul, who runs the local dive operation, Aore Adventures, and is located right next to the Aore Resort, told us he had a very heavy mooring…..good up to 150’….it was an old WWII mooring and the cement block was about the size of our salon….ok, that ought to hold us. So, the next day we crossed the 1.5 nm channel again and found a very calm and sheltered mooring….LIG!!!!
The Luganville Santo area was the home of the 2nd largest Pacific military base next to Pearl Harbor in WWII. It had a permanent base of 50k personnel, saw over 1 million soldiers pass through the base and was the home to the Navy’s 7th fleet. This was the area where James Michener was based and inspired his novel Tales of the South Pacific. The island of Ambae, 30 miles away was the mystical Bali Hi as it is often hidden by clouds. One of the tragedies was the USS Coolidge. This was a luxury cruise ship that was used for troop transport in WWII. Through a series of mistakes, it came in the wrong entrance to the harbor and hit a mine and was beached and eventually sank. All 5000 soldiers survived except one boiler operator and one Captain ensuring all his troops got off the ship. This is a highlight (bucket list for me, not so for Kathy)….over 700′ long and 90′ wide it is one of the most dived wrecks in the world. We dove it twice…..both were deep (115′) and decompression dives….it is always disconcerting to do a deco dive as our computers both start flashing at us and basically lock up until you do your safety stops. Paul, the divemaster, had the dives down to the minute and all was well!!! As luck would have it I did not get any pics w/the Go Pro….the card was full and when I went to clear my computer locked up on a windows update….REALLY!!! You can google Coolidge and the pics of the ship beached before it sank and the men disembarking as well as many of the dive pictures are amazing. I was blown away by the dives….Kathy described it as “very interesting”….she so loves her fish and coral and is just a reef, critter diver:))))
We did see an electric clam….actually light flashes across the clam opening….amazing…as well as flashlight fish….fish that in total darkness give off a flash of light….sort of like lightning bugs!!!
We did 2 more days of diving….another wreck and several reefs and saw some gigantic gorgonians….giant soft coral fans….the wreck was the USS Tucker….one of the first destroyer’s to get out of Pearl Harbor unharmed and actually returned fire….also hit a mine!!! We also dove the Million Dollar Point. This is where the USA dumped all the surplus equipment – trucks, generators, refrigerators, bulldozers, jeeps, tires et al. It seemed such a waste….why couldn’t the stuff be given to some needy nation/individuals…..we had quite a lively discussion with other divers and Paul, and it seems there was a major disagreement with the French at the time…the French controlled Santo island and ran the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) with England. There is supposedly a good history book at the Allan Powers dive shop which unfortunately has been closed everytime we have been by….but we will find a copy and it will be good to read the facts about this area’s history.
Every dive we have found some relic or something from the era, even the reef dives….Wow! The Ni-Vans seem to really like Americans….Seems like they all talk about parents/grandparents
remembering the US troops and their kindnesses… Makes us feel good for sure!
I had the Go Pro up and running for these dives but unfortunately the internet bandwidth is still not sufficient to load pics. Hopefully when we get back to Port Vila in a month or so we can do a massive pic upload!!!
So now it is Dave and Dana time…..we are soooooo excited….they arrive tonight….the last few days we have been provisioning and cleaning fools!!! We have decided to stay in the Santo area as the weather is just not calm enough to go to some of the other islands. But, we are taking a small plane on Saturday to see the Pentecost land diving. Supposedly there are over 10,000 cultures on this world and this is the only culture to perform land diving in this manner. Again, another bucket list event for us!!!
The little things in life: Kathy had been lamenting the fact that there wasn’t a head of lettuce to be found in all of Luganville, and then we went to the store a couple of days ago for our last provision before DD come, and lo and behold out walks a guy with a box of romaine….and iceberg….and broccoli….and mushrooms!!! It had just come in on the plane that morning and they were just putting it out. They never even bothered to put it in the frig, just sat it out and watched the vultures swoop in and grab it up. She got 2 heads of romaine, 3 of iceberg, and the veges. Woo-hoo!! We’re back into salads and tacos!! :))) By the time we were paying, everything was already gone!
Boat Stuff: fixing things in exotic places…..The AVR (automatic voltage regulator) for the GEN died. Kathy was doing a load of laundry and she noticed the washer had stopped and the power button was flashing….not good….then we noticed the inverters were not seeing any GEN power and indeed the GEN was just producing 80-100 volts….arghhhhhh. So down to the 100 deg ER and I discovered the AVR had come off it’s mounting….found the two bolts lying about and had vibrated itself to an early death. (For those interested, the techs in NZ when they miswired the GEN after the alternator work had evidently not gotten the bolts tight….arghhhhhh!!) Fortunately we had a spare and after many emails to 2 techs back in Seattle, we installed the new one and are back in business.
Dinghy: the original plug/epoxy we used to patch the hull crack fell out….yikes….so, while it was in the water taking on quite a bit of water, we used some marine epoxy and I stuffed it all in the hole. It’s now been almost 15 hours later and all is holding. We did use the dinghy last night to go to the Ratua Resort for dinner (very nice btw) and the patch seemed to hold!!!
Hope all is well!!
John
Mystic Moon
