can we help
+44(0)1983 296060
+1 757-788-8872
tell me moreJoin a rally

Menu

Cleone - Vanuatu - Part 2, Erromango



Big welcome from a small village.
 
We thought we had been very well looked after in Port Resolution, and so we were.  The leg from Tanna to Port Villa is too long for a comfortable day, but about half way along is an island called Erromango.  Its not one of the smaller ones, but you won't find much about it in the guide books as not many people live there.  But Dillon's Bay is shown as a good anchorage, with a wide open approach and the small village of Unpongkor on the bank of a stream at the centre of it.  So, together with six of our friends (Kasuje, Quasar, Jus'doit, Harmonie, Wizard and Strega), we decided to make an overnight stop there. 
 
Arriving towards the end of the afternoon after an exhiliarating sail in a fresh South Westerly, our first challenge was to ensure that Kasuje got in safely.  Shortly after leaving Tanna, she had developed engine trouble - a cooling hose had split, spraying her engine bay with hot water and causing the engine to overheat.  Of course it was not a problem getting up to Dillon's Bay, but as the afternoon drew in and dusk fell, the wind died.  But a couple of dinghies with outboards working lustily drove Kasuje into the anchorage at a comfortable 4 knots, and soon she was anchored in line beside the rest of us.  Whilst we were helping Kasuje, John from Quasar paid our respects to the Chief of the Village, and arranged for all of us who wanted to go and visit the village next morning.  Meanwile, the Cleone Crew had been summoned to Gin and Cake aboard Quasar, which led easily into a delicious supper - the cake courtesy of Malcolm, and the supper cooked for us by Judith.  And so off early to bed!
 
Despite Quasar's generous hospitality, we were up early in the morning.  The skipper buzzed round the other boats shortly after 7.30 - he'd been asked to pass on the Village's invitation to supper that night and to coordinate the responses.  By eight thirty, as agreed, representatives from the small fleet of World ARC yachts were tying up their dinghies to convenient tree roots under the welcoming and friendly gaze of the villagers, half of whom managed to stop what they were doing and to find the time to come and greet us.  After a short discussion, Donald was deputed to be our guide, and we were taken along the river bank to admire the plants in their nearby garden.  Protected from the attentions of wild pigs and cattle by a barbed-wire fence (as was the village itself), there seemed to be an example of everything that grows on these fertile islands - Taro, Bananas, Yams, Oranges, Pamplemoose and so on, together with every indigenous tree.  Everything was explained carefully to us by Donald, who larded his excellent knowledge of horticulture with plenty of philosophical observations on a wide range of subjects, including what was needed for the future of the community.  On the way we passed the villages inadequate water supply - a small petrol driven pump lifting water directly from the river to an inadequate storage tank.  Our short trip concluded with a visit to the Infants' School, where we were garlanded and greeted with a short song sung in excellent English.  We were also thanked very prettily for our gifts of pens, pencils, exercise books and all sorts of other house-hold necessities, which were again looked slightly tawdry when pitted against the freshly woven baskets of fresh fruit and vegetables.  Custom as well as politeness demanded that we take all of this away with us, though instincively we felt that the needs of the villagers were greater than ours, though probably wrongly.  The morning concluded with a visit in our own dinghies along the coast for a mile or so to the local cave, where the skulls and bones of former village chiefs now spend eternity, being visited from time-to-time by their descendants as well as a smattering of curious passing yachties.  In the evening, following a vain attempt by Don from Harmonie and our own Skipper to mend the village's only generator - a tiny petrol-driven Chinese machine delivering (on a good day, which this was not) 750 watts - almost the whole village assembled by five thirty to attend the evening meal cooked in our honour.
 
We had already decided that, in order to arrive in Port Vila in daylight, we would make an overnight passage from Erromango.  So we ate the delacacies provided for us, listened to the enthusiastic and melodious band from the Junior School (2 guitars, a banjo and a box-bass), chatted to the delightful villagers, made our excuses and left at 9pm to set off for Efate.  We left with plenty to think about. 
 
However poor, the villagers have to pay for all education for their children, who must live expensively away from home if they want to go on from Primary School.  There was one car seen in the village, so the rough track must lead somewhere, but there are no black-top roads in Erromango.  As we had observed, they don't have electricity in Unpongkor, and their very first telephone was installed literally two weeks ago.  They know about television, mobile phones and the internet, which many of their countrymen possess, but there is no access to them.  They've seen plenty of wealthy yachties with all their big dinghies and outboards and electronic gizmos and cameras and different ways of communication.  And they are promised that the project to provide them with their first proper supply of potable water will be underway shortly.  Like Donald, many of the villagers are well educated and multi-lingual - he spoke French, English, Baslama (Vanuatu's official language), and his own village language.  Many have lived, worked and travelled elsewhere in Vanuatu as well as abroad.  A supply vessel visits from time to time, and there is a more frequent ferry service to Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu as well as of Efate.  So though they cannot communciate with them, they are not cut off physically or culturally from their neighbours.  It is hard to make other than trite comments on all of this.  The people work quite hard and by fishing, hunting and horticulture they provide quite well for themselves, but the community probably generates no real net income.  There were plenty of large, healthy families and young men and women in the community - it's not dying.  Such money they have is probably donated by passing folk such as ourselves, and by the church and other non-government organisations.  But why they do not yet have a proper water supply, a medical centre or electricity or even telephones and television is a bit hard to understand.  Despite its near-bankruptcy most of the rest of Vanuatu has these modern-day basics.  To us the people of Unpongkor seemed remarkably healthy and happy and content with there lot.  Maybe they have the option of leaving to work elsewhere, maybe they don't.  But despite what they know of the advantages of the modern world, they seem for the most to be content with their lot.  It seems it's up to the rest of the world decide when the trappings of modern "civilisation" should reach them; they seem to be in no hurry for it all.  Meanwhile, they are happy to see all of us wealthy visitors, and rather than to resent us, to shower us with gifts and genuine hospitality.
 
I had originally decided to describe our experiences of Port Vila in the same piece as Unpongkor.  But what we did in the former metropolis was so far removed from the latter, thought-provoking, village that I will leave it to later.
 
Meanwhile, all of us are well and happy, and making our way northwards through Vanuatu for the start of the longish leg to Cairns.
 
Best wishes,
James, Elizabeth and Will
Yacht Cleone
off the Coast of Efate
Vanuatu



Previous | Next