Photo update No 4 - The Tanna Volcano

The Mount Yasur volcano is a brilliant source of income for the villagers who live at its foot; they charge 7,500VT per person (about £48) but put on a couple of traditional dances and provide guides who give visitors a thorough safety briefing. The briefing goes something like:

Rule 1: Your safety is our number one priority (nice, but doesn't go into any details!)

Rule 2: Stay with your guides (ok, we'll curb the desire to go wandering off towards the hot bit)

Rule 3: In the event of an explosion, don't run. We need to assess the situation (note the absence of the word 'unlikely' before 'explosion'. What would they assess, exactly, anyway, the number of casualties?)

So dance and safety briefing completed, we set off up a very steep and bumpy track in the 4x4s and then climbed up to the rim of the volcano. Here are some photos:

The dance in traditional dress

Driving up to the volcano

Slightly worried selfie

The path along the rim - note the absence of safety rails!

First sight of the lava 

The smallest of the four blow-holes fires up a roman candle

The fireworks get better as darkness falls

It was an absolutely amazing experience, though the grit and ash and suffocating gas at one section of the rim wasn't a lot of fun for a while! We were glad to return to the safety of the boat in a very calm Port Resolution.

The local fishing fleet of dugout canoes

Photo update No 3 - Kustom Dance in Aneityum

The villagers put one a 'cultural event' for us in Aneityum and it was great - they seemed to enjoy it as much as we did. Here are some photos from the day.

The yachties arrive at the appointed hour

Part of the welcoming committee

The lea garlands are represent peace

Kenneth explains the traditional male clothing, with the aid of a small assistant 

The girl's dress is made from banana leaves

Happy man after the successful fire-making demonstration

The dancing is mostly in an inward-looking circle with firm foot stamping and loud singing

..... and leaf-waving

supper

Di tries the kava, which is a lot stronger than the Fijian stuff

Photo update No 2 - Aneityum

Aneitum is a beautiful island, densely wooded and with streams and rivers flowing down from its peaks. There are several villages around the shoreline but Anelcauhat, where we anchored, is the biggest (about 500 people) with a primary and a secondary school and three churches.

Beach front residence with personal watercraft

Sandy beaches ....

... and black volcanic rocks

The inter-island plane arrives at the grass airstrip - passengers still dress up for flights here!

Aboard a longboat for the start of a coastal hike

Traditional houses

Chris, our guide

The view from the highest section of the walk

Back at sea level 

Refreshment break

A swim for some 

Chris on our dinghy, looking for turtles

Found one!

Laura a bit unsure of the ethics of grabbing wild animals from their habitat!

Snorkellers

One of the many species of reef fish - this is a Honeycomb Grouper - Epinephelus merra (Laura is teaching us things!)

Photo update No 1 - the passage from NZ

We have arrived in Port Vila, the capital, on the island of Efate and have moved from glacial to slow internet so have a chance to post a few pictures from the past 3 weeks.

These first are from the passage from NZ

Perfect conditions at the start as we sail past the Ninepin rock

A pretty chilly wind, though!

One of many rrainbows spotted on passage - we also saw a moonbow in the light of the full moon

Laura with her first flying fish

Waves always look smaller in photos...

.... but the conditions were pretty boisterous at times!

We'll post some photos from Aneityum next

Adding an Angel

We had another brilliant Parasailor sail up to the island of Erromango on Saturday – 53nm completed at an average of 7 knots. Dillons Bay,  off a large village on the west side of the island, was sheltered from the SE wind but quite a rolly anchorage so we didn't sleep too well that night! So yesterday we had a 2-hour sail up to a deserted little bay called Ponamlas Bay ( 18:37.8S/169:02.76E) where we anchored in lovely clear water and good shelter.

 

The bay is beautiful, with high cliffs on its western side, home to hundreds of small bats, and a pebbly beach at the head. However, there were some refracted waves curling in causing us to rock and roll a little so we spent some time experimenting with the setting of a stern anchor to hold our stern into the waves. Unfortunately the sea-bed consists of small rocks and coral rubble and our normally-brilliant Fortress kedge anchor just skated across the surface so we ended up using the grapnel dinghy anchor with an angel. An angel in this context is a heavy weight (in our case a coil of spare anchor chain, lashed with rope around it) which you lower down the anchor line until it touches the bottom; when the boat pulls on the anchor chain it has to lift the angel off the bottom before it exerts any pull on the anchor itself. It worked perfectly so we had a steady night, unlike our friends on Iolea who stayed in Dillons Bay last night and reported three hours of dreadful rolling and 6 hours of moderate rolling when we talked to them on the radio this morning!

 

We're going to spend another day here, doing some baking and boat jobs then will leave at about 3.00am tomorrow for the 80-mile crossing to the Capital, Port Vila, on the island of Efate. The nice SE trade winds are due to be interrupted by a front bringing northerlies at the end of the week so it's a good time to move. We're looking forward to getting to some internet and a laundry and some shops; there's a rumour of a French Patisserie too!

 

Any news from you would be very welcome – to maunie(at)mailasail(dot)com. Has any sense been spoken in the UK, post the Brexit vote? Is it true that Boris Johnson has stepped down from the Tory leadership race, leaving the charismatic Michael Gove and the lovely Theresa May as front runners to succeed the wonderfully-successful David Cameron? Feeling very out of touch here but Laura thanks her dad for the Game of Thrones update!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Safely down from the crater's edge

(click on image to enlarge)

 

Wow! Standing on the crumbly edge of the crater and looking down in to the boiling lava is something we'll never forget! More photos when we (eventually) get to some internet.

 

We're sailing north to the island of Erromango today.