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Starblazer - 15/07/2015 - A rushed few days in Vanuatu




We left Tanna on Friday afternoon to pay a fleeting visit to Avokh, one of the Maskelyne Islands which we visited last year. The problem with the trip was the timing, it's 230 miles and unsafe to arrive in the dark. Leaving at about 4.00 pm should have been OK but we flew along in rather confused seas. Saturday afternoon we anchored off the west coast of Efate for nearly 5 hours. We chose to anchor there because there were no hazards to avoid when we wished to leave after dark. We had another fantastic sail overnight and anchored north of Avokh Island at about 1000 on Sunday morning.

George paddled alongside in his outrigger and asked if we could charge his mobile phone which he brought out to us late afternoon. Sunday is a day of rest, nobody was out fishing, no children came visiting and we could hear lovely singing from the church. We went ashore in the afternoon to pay our respects to Chief Kaiser and give him a bag of food. We explained that we had other gifts and would bring them ashore the next morning.

Early Monday morning Kaiser came on board and we showed him the tools we had, he said he would give an axe to Vincent who had lost his a few years ago and that he would like a kitchen knife and a hand saw, the rest could be distributed in the village. He went ashore ahead of us then pulled our dinghy over the shallows. At his suggestion, John presented an axe to Chief Andrew, the rest of the tools and the bags of clothes were spread out on two long tables. It all seemed very orderly as the villagers looked at what we had brought. We spotted one little girl, about 2 years old, stark naked except for a flowery sun hat and a big beaming smile, obviously happy with her new article of clothing! Kaiser explained that the village was very grateful and sorry that they were unable to offer us anything in return. He explained that the cyclone had stripped the fruit and leaves off all the trees. The root crops in their gardens on the bigger island had also suffered, the flat ground had flooded and the crops had rotted. The crops on the hillside had survived but there was not enough to feed everyone until the next crop would be ready in October. Unfortunately Avokh had received no aid because it wasn't in the direct path of Cyclone Pam but had still suffered damage, including the roof of their community hall which had impaled itself on a breadfruit tree, knocking it down. I'm not entirely sure of the cause and effect, possibly the wind knocked the tree down and the corrugated iron panels just happened to finish up twisted and bent on the remnants of the tree. Happily, no one was injured and they have speedily repaired their houses where walls or roofs were dislodged.

We left on Monday afternoon, having raided our stores for more rice, flour and sugar to donate, but wished we could have given more. We had a great sail back towards Port Vila, only motoring for the last couple of hours, and were moored against the wall in Yachting World Marina by 0930. If you are keeping count, that is 3 overnight sails in 4 nights, we were a little jaded. 3 hour watches do leave you a little tired!

It was great to catch up with two boats from last year's World ARC, Caduceus and Chez Nous. Both had been working as part of the relief effort, largely on the medical and distribution sides. At the Rally Dinner and Awards evening we were stunned to receive a prize for third place in Cruising Division, especially as we had spent 12 hours trying to keep our speed below 5 knots to avoid arriving in the dark. We had a great reunion with 6 boats from the 2014 World ARC, together again!

Wednesday passed in a bit of a blur, starting with clearing out at 0900, deflating the dinghy, refilling the water tanks, shopping for fruit and veg and duty free before the Rally Briefing for the next leg at 1630. We had a group meal for the 2014 group at the Chinese restaurant up the hill. It was a convivial evening, and saying goodbye to our friends was difficult. 3 boats will continue to Australia, leaving tomorrow morning, the other 3 will spend more time here taking aid to the islands.

We are not ready to sail but we will be on the start line tomorrow, we'll just have to get up super early to complete the tasks which still need doing including packing the dinghy, refuelling, stowing everything which could fly around etc.

Joyce

A word of apology. I am struggling to get line spaces in the logs I post. It looks fine on the screen when I send it. I've tried double spaces, a full stop on each line space, both to no avail. It only happens with posts from the i-pad, not the laptop.


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