Behind the Mast: Sorsocers ,Land Divers, Blue Holes, and Boat Cats

The Blue Hole

We anchored in an amazing bay surrounded by deserted islands, just off the big island of Santo. There was a river you could travel up several miles which ended at a 80 foot blue hole of fresh water. Cold water and the bluest azure colored water I have ever seen.There was a rope swing tied to a giant Banyan Tree and we all had fun climbing to jump off into the water.

Twisted Trees in the jungle on the ride down the river to the Blue Hole

Road to the Waterfalls on Pentecost Island

Change is the only constant and so it was, we departed Fiji with a new crew of young people; new captain, Eskil Glantz, a strong stapling Swed who possesses the same licensing as the last captain, Isi, our head stewardess, a lovely hard working Fijian girl,who spent three years at Fiji's most exclusive resort, serving up fine meals and good conversation to celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Tom Cruise, Jenifer Aniston, Nicole Kidman, Courtney Cox, and even our governor Arnold. Elaine Dowling (our captains fiance') is now official deckhand/first mate in training, and is also, a talented singer/songwriter from Ireland. Another fine Swed, Anders, joins us as our new marine engineer and really knows his stuff! An amazing crew of young talented people who are a joy to have aboard. Slow Dance is at last settling down to the FUN boat she was meant to be; I have not seen her looking so fine; clean, organized, and well maintained. Anders has a degree in Physics and has been engineering on boats since he was a young lad. After all, Swedes are the Vikings of old!

Ezi, at the blue hole.

Ron and Elaine on Champagne Beach

Champagne Beach

It was love at first sight landing in the beautiful bay of Port Vila, Vanautu. The French flavor mixed with the rural outter island culture has produced a local language called Bislama. An example is the Digicel sign below. Good Morning is-gut moning, good night-gut naet, how are you-yu orat, and so on. When speaking quickly, it is difficult to understand but no worries, French and English are spoken fluently. We are enjoyed the small town of Port Vila complete with great dental services by Phillip from Brazil, who just opened his practice overlooking the gorgeous bay with sailboats floating in clear blue waters. Elaine and I spent a day having much needed dental work for a fraction of the cost in out respective countries. I had a cleaning and 2 fillings, she had a root canal and a bonding. As we walked around the town Ron and I stumbled on the Casino! Yes Casino, complete with Texas Hold Em. You can play for $2.00.We had 2 hours of fun for $25.00 US$. I did great at Texas Hold-um, but lost when I switched to Black Jack! The money system is VAU (Vatu) and you get $89.95 VAU for $1.00 US. Makes me crazy, as a cup of coffee is like $500.00 dollars. (takes some getting used to). You can get anything you want in the local pharmacy without a prescription and booze is insanely cheap at the duty free shops for the yachts. Clothes shopping was awesome and we girls have purchased some nice new tops, shorts, and bathing suits.

Example of Bislamic-Small Store for your Sim Card

Due to the hold up in Fiji, we will have limited time to explore this awesome place. We have met other yachts from across the world who came here years ago and decided to never leave. I can see why. We left port Sunday and traveled toward the 3 islands that offer extraordinary experiences. Port Vila is on the main island of Efate, where we had time to explore the city and hike Melee waterfalls. I posted some pictures on my last blog. I had to get something up quickly as we were leaving Efate and there would be no internet on the outter islands.

Ron and Cookie at melee Falls

Ron peeling through laundry day on Slow Dance.

Ambrym, was our first stop, where 2 active volcano's can be explored. The huge cones poke out of the clouds and resemble King Kong's island. At night, red fire glows from the craters on top of the mountains and during the day, plumes of smoke fill the air like low hanging clouds. 7000 inhabitants live in three corners of this triangular island and the only way around this island is on foot and by sea. The Ambrym islanders are famous for their heirlooms and have been known to shoot arrows at visitors who try to purchase them. We won't ask to buy a thing! A powerful traditional system of copyright exists on the island and only those with the traditional rights can make certain types of objects, such as drums, wood carvings, and pottery. The Storytellers of Ambrym use intricate sand drawings to illustrate their tales and can draw up to 180 patterns without removing their fingers from the sand, to convey a variety of messages! Ambrym Sorcerers are famous throughout Vanautu for their magic which mostly is a destructive power associated with the volcano. Chief Tolor resides at Fania, one of the most traditional villages in Vanautu and for $1500.00 VAU he will show you an actze made from iron given to his ancestors by captain Cook. We opted not to have a look. We awoke in the morning to a cloud covered sky. The previous day, the crew had arranged to meet guides from the village at 6AM, on the black sand beach, for a 3 hour trek to the volcano. I had a dream during the night that was powerful enough to convince me I did NOT want to join the others for the trek. Isi also decided not to go after receiving a tex message from her boy-friend stating he had a dream she was in trouble. So, Isi and I remained behind, unable to restrain Ron from going. I packed a hardy lunch for the others and we watched them row ashore to meet their 6 guides. At 10AM, Ron appeared from the jungle, weary and worn out. Two of the guides had helped him down the the first rock face he managed to climb. When he realized there were many more rock walls to climb, he gave it up. The others did not return until dark, exhausted and limping. I had a big pot of chili waiting for them and some tofu Pad-Thai. Later that evening, the kids went back to the beach for a bon-fire with the village men. They drank kava, which is rumored to be much stronger than the kava in Fiji. After 2 bowls, you can not lift your arms! The men told stories of travelers that came to their village to hike the volcano. The story teller told a tale of a recent visitor who arrived by plane with 6 friends and they took the trek up to the volcano together. The man decided to cast a line down into the crater and take a closer look inside the bubbling cauldron. The rope snapped and he was gone! When ask about his friends the story teller simply replied that there was alot of crying. Another story told of an elder Australian man who made the all day hike but upon returning to the village, dropped dead of a heart attack! Trusting your intuition is a really good thing!

After the ash field, the crew gets ready to ascend the first series of rigorous climbs up to the volcano.

Next we sailed to Pentecost island, home of the land divers. Men tie liana vines around their ankles, then jump head first from atop a 30 meter man-made tower built around tree trucks. The men dive,jerking to a halt just centimeters from the ground. Slack in the lifeline vine eases the shock as it stretches to it's limit, and the platform is designed to sway, so the jumpers are rarely injured. Just before the diver smashes to the ground the vine stretches fully. This slows and finally stops his fall just as his head brushes the soil, blessing it for the yam crop. The jumping is done for fun and not manditory. Even eight year old boys participate and the diving traditionally takes place for the yam festival. As you must have gathered by now, yams are super important vegetables here in Vanautu. When the platforms are made women are not allowed near and guards are posted at night to protect it from "poison man". Jumpers can make a speech prior to their jump denying false accusations against them and criticizing anyone they like, including the chief. Traditionally, land diving takes place May-June when the Yams are harvested, but rumor has it that they will jump for money. Although disappointing,we decided not to seek jumpers for money, as it just seemed wrong. The villages here are as they were hundreds of years ago, except for the fighting and cannibalism! The other attraction on Pentecost was a series of waterfalls which offer cool refreshing pools and deep areas for jumping off rocks. We had an absolute blast hiking up to the waterfall near out anchorage. The trail led us up a fresh water stream that runs into the ocean. The trail breaks away from the stream and meanders through a small village. The villagers have made steps and a wooden bridge from tree limbs that help get you up to the pools. The pools are deep and you can sit under the falls which pushed you under from the force of the water. Trini came along, swimming and climbing the rocks, which made her resemble a small goat!

The ocean is the the most amazing water I have ever seen; blue azure and so clear you can see the bottom 50 feet down! The waters surrounding Pentecost are teeming with marine life and we have had lots of company from dolphins and sea turtles. Today we wanted to do some kayaking and snorkeling but unfortunately the weather did not permit it, so we are at sea headed for Santos.

A bit of interesting history; American soldiers were stationed here during WW11, including JFK on PT-109. Japan bombed Vanautu once and only two marines were killed. James Mitchner was stationed here and was inspired to write Bali Hai. The people love Americans and to this day have a holiday called "John From" day where they dress up in US military uniforms and march in a parade using wooden guns! One village man has collected coke bottles left by the US from WW11 and has made a museum of literally thousands of bottles! When the US military left Vanautu, rather then take their tanks and equipment back, they pushed it all into the ocean on Santo's island which has become a world famous dive site.

Final stop, Espiritu Santo, called simply, Santo, the largest island in Vanautu. Mt. Tabwemasana (1,879 meters) highest peak in the country, has never had a recorded climb. It is believed that still-contacted pigmy tribes reside in the impassable interior jungles. Whoa! Santo, has played an important role in Vanautu, from Quioros 1606 settlement on Big Bay to the giant support base set up by America during WW11, and the Coconut rebellion of 1980. This beautiful island has untouched beaches, wild jungles, friendly villagers, good internet, and an untouristed town. Apart from Port Vila, Luganville is the only other incorporated community in Vanuatu. A mixture of french, Chinese, Vietnamese, and American influences, with a Wild West air.

Champagne Beach, near Hog Harbor is rated one of the best beaches in the South Pacific and we anchored just off this beautiful beach, by far, the most awesome beach I have ever seen. The bay is surrounded by lush tropical islands and pure white sandy beaches. There are trails and dirt roads that take you through the rain forest, past grazing cattle, to small villages and quaint resorts on the bay, with sparse amenities. We met two young Americans from Buffalo, New York, Tiffany and Chris, and invited them for brunch. They were camping in their tent at the resort and had been working in Australia for 8 months, prior to exploring Vanautu. We are all going over to their small resort tonight for a meal of the traditional food of Vanautu, called, Lap Lap. Oh yeah, the eat bats here! They shoot them with a sling shot, the roast them on an open fire after removing the wings. I found some in the local market, but opted NOT to try them out.

Just across from our bay is "Shark Bay, where we don't plan on doing any swimming or snorkeling! It is important to know the waters throughout Vanuatu, as there are areas that abound with sharks and other areas protected by reef and safe for swimming and snorkeling. It is believed that Vanuatu sorcerers can change themselves into sharks and kill their enemies; luckily we have only encountered sweet friendly islanders.

Lastly; we have been plagued by rats for the second time since I have been on Slow Dance. We figure they came on board sometime during the Bollywood shoot at Raki Raki.After cleaning out their nests and feeding them hardy helpings of poison we think they have abandoned ship. The poison we have makes them thirsty and they jump ship for water. I wished for some boat cats and low and behold, while enjoying a Lap Lap (traditional food of Vanautu) dinner in Lonoc near Champagne beach, the kitchen cat had 3 small kittens and we left with two of them. I doubt we will have any future problems with mice and rats! We named them Mizzen and Whaloo and they are so cute. Trinidad is a bit unhappy about it all but tolerating the little babies who try to eat her food at every chance they get.

Mizzen and Wahloo

The girls asleep in the wheel house.

There are so many awesome photo's but it takes 20 minutes just to upload one, here in East Jesus, so
stay tuned for more great pictures. Tomorrow we rent a car and travel to see a tribe that still practice the old ways. Naked men with penis wrappers and bare breasted tattooed women come out to greet you under the largest banyan tree in the world! Can't wait to see this!

We arrived at the village after 15 miles on harsh dirt roads. The woman were not bare breasted any longer andan old man in the village told us the banyan tree had fallen down. And so, the modern world finds it's way to all places, no matter how remote. There were however some small boy's in loin cloths.

On route to the inland village, Vanuatu

Boy's hearding cattle

Here is an update to this post. We landed in Port Morsby, Papal New Guinea and the internet works very well here at the yacht club. My next post will tell the story of being here in the second most dangerous city in the world! Be afraid, be very afraid!

A bit more on Vanautu: Luganville was disapointing at best. The town had deterorated over the past 6 years and all hopes of hauling out Slow Dance vanished. The once booming shipyard was vertually deserted except for one old crusy mechanic that did manage to fix a part for us in his broken down shop. The town had 2 nice resorts and one large supermarket. The open produce market was a welcome sight, complete with avacados! There were many strange vegetables, but by far the weirdest item for sale were flying fox bats. Yes bats for sale! Dead ones, which are shot at dusk with a slingshot and rocks. Apparently they make for good eating once the wings are removed and you roast them in an open fire. UGH! No Thank you, no bats for me. The internet moved slow and posting photos was impossible.

Fox bats for sale along with bok choy

We have been at sea for 5 days so far. The first 3 days were hell, as the seas turned rough with 25-30 knots of wind and lots of squalls. It was great for sailing but hard to sleep with all the rocking and rolling. I put a patch on, enabling me to go down in the galley to make food for the crew. By day 4 the sea's calmed down with blue skies, causing me to remember why i love sailing! We caught a Whaloo and finally a tuna, which we celebrated with a grand night of Sushi. We are headed for Papul New Guinia and uncertain what we will find there. We should arrive at Port Morsby, the largest port on the mainland, within 2 days, reaching 10 degrees South of the equator. New Guinia is said to be a rough place, where yachts hire armed guards to stay on the boat for the duration of their stay. The cruising guide warns of "Raschels" that will steal you blind, dangers of walking alone, and warnings to NEVER go anywhere at night. To say Iam a bit nervous would be an understatement. On the other hand, people warn of the many dangers in New York City and East LA!
There is an Indonesian embassy and we will need to get all our paperwork and visas settled prior to landing in Indonesia. It is late in the season for crossing due to the wind direction and tropical storm belt. This is why we can not linger in New Guinia and MUST move on for what will be 2-3 weeks at sea!

Children in the village making baskets. The village was very remote, in the Banks. The banks is the last island in the chain of Vanautu islands. We stopped just prior to heading out for Papal New Guinea

Adorable girl in the Banks island village

Close up of bat for Dinner! They are cute little things and quite tasty I hear.

Market in Port Villa

At the Banks village. This elder of the village had 39 grand children. he is pictured here with his son, four grandkids, Elaine and Eskil.

The Banks village was very clean and organized. The cheif had a community hall which featured a DVD player, so we gave them some DVD's i.e. Lady and the Tramp, and several action movies. Also some pain meds and books for the kids.