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American Spirit II - Day 187; Abseiling (almost) Free Fall at Mele Cascades Waterfalls; Friday, July 11, 2014



Up at 7:00 AM to go rappelling at the Mele Cascades waterfalls.

Coffee and breakfast at 8:00 AM. Scrambled eggs, lamb breakfast sausage and fruit cocktail. Chet washed the dishes, as he's done every day since joining the crew.

Joel and I dropped off our laundry at 8:30 AM at the marina office. We were promised to have it back by 4:00 PM today.

At 8:55 AM we boarded a van sent to pick us up for the waterfall excursion. Five minutes later I realized that we were in the wrong van. The driver took us back and a few minutes later the correct van picked us up. It seems everyone in Port Vila has a van and act as taxi drivers even though they don't have a taxi sign on the top of their vehicle. In the van were 11 other persons going on the same tour as us - all from Australia.

We arrived at the Mele Cascades waterfalls around 9:30 AM; and after filling out the obligatory waiver of liability forms; we were each issued a helmet and rappelling harness to put around our waist and legs. Little did I know at that time the the helmet I was issued would perhaps save my life a couple of hours later.

The climb up to the top of the mountain was steep, muddy and arduous. Once at the top at 10:30 AM, we set up to practice rappelling down an 8 meter or 31 foot cliff-face into a stream below. I was the fourth to go down. Angela and Chet and one other person had preceded me.

Five feet from the top of the 31 foot cliff, I jumped way out to do a long rappel drop when my rope broke a few inches in front of my harness. I had no sensation of falling. In an instant I landed on a large boulder in about 3 inches of rushing stream water with a loud thump and then a sharp crack. I landed on my right side with my body stretched out completely, 10 to 15 feet from the cliff. Just after my body hit, my head jerked to the right and I smashed the right side of my head into the boulder. Actually, I smashed my head protected by my helmet into the boulder. The safety line I was attached to must have slowed down my fall (or surely I'd be dead or seriously injured), but I still landed very quickly and with no sensation of being held up by the safety line. The 2 Edge workers at the bottom of the cliff were on me at once. Both had a shocked look on their faces and they asked me questions how I was. I think they thought I was severely hurt. They kept asking me how my head was. I told them I was OK, but I don't think they believed me. As I lay in the water spread out on the boulder, I saw Angela, Chet and one other person rush over from the other side of the stream. Kind of like a video camera turned on its side. What I was seeing as they approached because I was laying on my side. The look on Angela's face was one of abject horror. She told me later that she saw me fall quite quickly onto the rocks; that the safety line did not appear to slow me down; and then she saw and heard what she thought was my head hitting the boulder with a loud crack. At that point she thought I was dead, because an impact like that to the side of my head on a boulder after dropping over 25 feet was not survivable. Once everyone believed me that I was OK (though I was a little sore along my ribs and lower back area), I took a position across the stream and watched the other 11 people come down. After Joel got down, he told me that the Edge employee attached to my safety line almost followed me over the cliff, and had stopped on a couple of inches from the precipice.

Joel also told me before I started to repel that he'd looked at my rope, thought it was frayed and was going to tell me not to go. However, he rationalized that the outer core of the rope might be bad, but that the inner core (he was sure) was OK. I told him that if I'd been killed or seriously injured that he would have felt kinda lousy. Have fun telling that one to Janet! Oops, I forgot to tell Brian that his rope might break.

Once all 15 of us had rappelled down the practice cliff, we climbed up thru a small but rapid cascade of water to the top again and started walking to our real rappel. The head Edge employee asked my if I still wanted to go on, and I said yes, and that I wanted to be the first one to go down the waterfalls. He said OK. He also said that I was the first customer to have a rope break.

The rappel down what in essence were 3 different waterfalls totalling 150 meters was easier than the practice rappel because the cliff face of the waterfalls sloped out a little bit much of the way; whereas the practice cliff was straight down. After getting down to the bottom, I video taped Chet, then Angela and finally Joel as they rappelled down thru the falls. Chet looked like he was a US Army Ranger as he quickly bounced his way down the cliff faces.

Since Angela and Chet had a flight to catch, Troy (the owner) had arranged to drive us in a separate van directly to our marina. He'd promised to get us there by 1:00 PM, and except for an accident that slowed traffic along the way, we were right on schedule. Once back at the boat we changed and moved the luggage pieces to the street by the marina; where Wesley, our driver, met us at 1:17 PM and drove us to the airport. Arriving at the airport at 1:40 PM, we grabbed a quick lunch while standing in line, and after checking in and going thru security I left. I was back at the boat by about 3:00 PM.

I picked up our laundry at 4:00 PM. Joel napped from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM.

At 5:00 PM while drinking coffee in the cockpit, we had to spray ourselves with bug stray as we were being attacked by mosquito's. We're both taking Doxycyline tablets as a malaria preventative.

Dinner at 6:30 PM was at the restaurant bordering the marina. I had beef curry and rice; while Joel had some sort of chicken dinner. Chicken is Joel's favorite dinner entree. I had a port wine after dinner, the first port wine I've had in 7 months. We both had vanilla ice cream for dessert, with caramel sauce poured on top.

After dinner Joel sent pictures of our stay in Tanna to the World Cruising Club web site; while I typed and emailed 2 more logs.

I called Angela and Chet in Fiji to make sure they got there OK. Angie said that their flight left on time and arrived when scheduled. They will stay in a hotel in Fiji tonight and catch a plane to Los Angeles Saturday night.

Tomorrow will be a work day for us. We'll start repairing the Hydro Generator bracket and the Whisker Pole that was broken on our trip from Fiji to Tanna, Vanuatu.

Brian Fox




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