Wednesday 1st September

Sunday 28th August

We finally left Port Vila, much to everyone’s surprise. We had become fixtures at the nakamal, the Waterfront Bar & Grill, the veggie market, Au Bon Marché Nambas 1 & 2…and we had a whole new lot of BFFs. Not to mention our daily contact with darling Leah and Mark.

Pete and Andrew slaved for two long hot grueling days on the rudder problem. Sledgehammers were all go… If Andrew hadn’t been there, with his diving equipment, his competence and his patience, we would still be up on the (very expensive) slip in Port Vila, trying to solve and fix The Rudder problem. We knew that we couldn’t leave Port Vila with the steering so stiff, and with the autopilot refusing to work. It had been absolutely grueling, just having a day trip over from Erromango to Efate.

Now I am going to ask The Men what the issue was:
Oh dear…they are drinking beer and are very very hot. They gazed at me in horror; what fresh hell was this?? I wanted them to do something??. But…to my great delight Pete took over, as he says, with a gentle smile of enthusiasm!

No, Pete has arisen, after 3 kavas with a gentle smile of (could that be)….enthusiasm?

Pete’s explanation: I do believe that Laura is somewhat overcome by my enthusiasm for my contributing to her blog. Mind you there are some of her followers who believe I am likely to corrupt, defile or simply bugger up her wonderful efforts of writing her blog. On the other hand some of her more nautical followers are requesting a bit more information as to the sailing decisions that accrue.
Here goes :-Whilst in Tassie James and I removed the port side rudder. Two reasons…Firstly I had dinged the rudder in the Whitsundays and it was a bit stiff to turn, but also there had been a deterioration in the autopilot and I thought the stiffness was causing this problem.

We had an engineering firm test the stock for bend, no problem, but it was extremely difficult to remove…much hammering and swearing, but eventually it was dissociated from the boat and tested. Absolutely no bend, and very little to show why it was stiff. A bit of a clean up, removing what appeared to be minimal residue from (maybe) electrolysis and all seemed to be fixed. Certainly the new autopilot that was installed worked without a hitch.

Sadly, as we progressed from Sydney to Lord Howe Island, we started to encounter problems with the autopilot. It would have a “fit” and totally lose direction. By the time we reached New Caledonia it was unable to “Track”. (For the uninitiated that means staying exactly on a rhumb line, as compared with staying on a course (direction). By Efate Laura and I were totally exhausted from having to manually steer the whole way and it was obvious that the steering needed fixed.

The problem was exactly the same as previously, after much effort to get the rudder out there is still little to show for it being so tight. Many suggestions, such as increased water temperature causing increased expansion in the rudder stock, a further ding (no that has not happened), the start of electrolysis and the aluminium stock releasing some small particles of metal which caused scouring of the stock and tightness. Whatever... Andrew spent a lot of time and effort removing some millimeters from the nylon (neoprene) bush (bearing), using his battery operated hookah as this needed to be done from under the hull, and I polished the stock, applied grease and all has popped back in place. OK for the moment, but I can assure you we are not far away from our next challenge.

(This is Pete’s first contribution; I am very happy with it and have only fixed the spacing – he doesn’t believe there should be two spaces after a full stop. And he wouldn’t let me change “needed fixed” – it is apparently an in-joke which everyone will understand (except me…) I have been Laura all day in the village where we spent the afternoon. Local people can cope very well with Laura as a name. Unfortunately we were with a party of Quatre Français, to whom I introduced myself, ofcourse, as Marguerite, so it was all a bit schizophrenic. Pete is very happily still in LauraMode, and is being very nice to me in spite of the fact that his camera had a bit of a damp moment or two in my backpack and now it doesn’t work… I quite like being Laura, it is a whole new world out there when you have a different name!)

I spent my last morning in Vila buying provisions – fresh fruit and veggies from the market, that sort of thing. I also sat sadly in the Waterfront Café with Mark and Leah, sipping our very last fresh lime juices. (They were usually so reliably delicious, but this time…Leah’s had no ice and mine, I fear, had no lime…but never mind!) Very sad to say farewell but…so it goes…

It was a beautiful day and we made very good speed to Havana Harbour, where we anchored for the night. Absolutely beautiful! There is a fabulous resort there, and Cate Blanchett has, we hear, bought land nearby. But…even she was denied access to the resort because she had children under 12 with her!

The next morning we set off for Epi island, famous, in Lonely Planet, for having NO SHARKS. We found a lovely anchorage in gorgeous Lamon Bay, home to, so they told us, turtles and dugongs. Alack and alas we didn’t see any but…it was picture-postcard perfect.

Lonely Planet informed us that there was a restaurant in the village, at the promisingly named Paradise Sunset Resort. It was similar in style to the Port Resolution Yacht Club, but in an enclosed hut, sans cats and dogs. Our welcoming committee to the village told us, after much discussion with the Women Who Cook, that we would be very welcome to come back for a meal at 7.30, with some visiting missionaries, here for an Assembly of God conference. What could be nicer?? We assumed that the missionaries would be dining with us rather than on the menu, and this was indeed the case. Chris and Paul were very nice men. Paul was originally from Launceston and very happy to chat about his home town. Not sure where Chris came from. (Qld?) He was a very kindly old gentleman, and we enjoyed their company very much. They probably enjoyed ours even more because they both revealed a surprising passion for motor car racing and I told them they were dining with Andrew Miedecke. Their eyes lit up and our status went up enormously in their eyes, even though I told them Chris (our new friend from Port Vila)’s joke about the drug and bomb-detecting dog on the plane (it involved the word SHIT.)

After this we had a very early night and possibly slept, all three of us, for about 11 hours… This reminds me – oh why this connection, I wonder? – of a snoring story I haven’t written about yet. One night when we were at the marina in Port Vila, Pete got up to commune with nature on the deck. It was about 2am and he idly glanced around to see if the security guard was doing his rounds. He could see a white shirt, and then wondered to himself if this nightwatchman ever, perchance, took a little nap. Could it be that he was lying on a bench in the café? Well yes…a few minutes later Pete heard a loud snore….

Monday 29th August

Epi was beautiful but we had miles to go so the next morning we left early and went to Avoch Island, just off the coast of Malekula Island. Another gorgeous stetting…I won’t gush too much but if you can visualize little white beaches, thick lush jungle on steep hills and crystal clear water…well yes…Oh and a dear little thatched village with gentle, hospitable people waiting to ply us with kava and pamplemousse…We had a few lovely swims in the warm clear water, and I enjoyed my snorkeling very much because, for once, my mask didn’t try to drown me – I have been having problems with it, so annoying. There wasn’t a lot of coral – alack and alas, most of it is dead – but I did see was quite spectacular, brilliant orange and yellow with schools of tiny luminous blue fish darting around.
Andrew had caught two decent sized bonitos out at sea – lovely little tuna. We gave one to some boys in a dugout. They fish all the time on the edge of the sea, ofcourse, but can’t catch deep-sea fish so they were very grateful. We were sorry later that we hadn’t caught a dozen to give to the other villagers, who were very envious. There were two other yachts in the bay, and we were all invited to a “kastom dance” at 2.00.

I don’t usually like seeing village people being made to perform tribal dances for our edification, it all seems very undignified, but this session was good. They had a whole program which they trotted out for us and our Quatre Français, companions. First there was a speech from The Chief (Jif Andrew), then a welcome song from a lively little string band. Two lovely men called Philip and George then took us for a guided tour around the beautiful village. George wanted me to be the translator for the Quatre Français; in fact what he REALLY wanted was for me to make them keep up with the rest of us… It was like herding cats and after a while I gave up. It was too hot and they paid no attention to me anyway, so I let them come at their own pace. In fact it was the hottest day we have had so far – between 33-36. We darted from one large breadfruit tree to the next…

After an hour or so of village tour, we were led down a wonderfully shady path along a mangrove-rimmed creek to the dancing area. It was all very atmospheric, sitting on a log under the huge shady trees, hearing tomtoms beating in the distance, and hearing a warrior song approaching. I will copy out a bit from Lonely Planet – I am very hot and can’t think of a better way to describe the tribal differences on Malekula:

“Two of Malekula’s major tribal groups are the Big Nambas and Small Nambas, named because of the size of the men’s namba (penis sheath.) Small Nambas men wear only one leaf of dried fibre wound around the penis and tucked into a bark belt. Their semi-kastom communities are built around tamtam, ready to beat a rhythm, and a dance area.”

We were in the World of Small Nambas; apparently the Big Nambas are much more terrifying…and were not all that long ago prone to eat intruders… The dance was just great. The men all wore anklets of dried nuts (very similar to large gumnuts) around their ankles and stamped to make them rattle – very like Morris Dancers’ bells… But otherwise nothing like Morris Dancers; they all had bare bottoms and were painted with ochre. One young man banged the tamtam while three old codgers sang the warrior songs. The dancers were all very fit and in their prime. They marched off in single file back into the jungle, chanting another bloodthirsty song, and were ready and waiting for us back in the village wearing their cotton shirts and shorts, ready to sing for us as the original string band… So lovely; their first song, to a jaunty reggae rhythm was… “The Grand Old Duke of York,” followed by… “Jingle Bells”!! A feast had been spread out on our return – coconuts, navele (native nuts threaded onto sticks,) pamplemousse (pink grapefruit, delicious) and sweet corn. And kava!

One of les Quatre Français, Jean-Francois, has chupachups to give to random children. I was sitting with him and his wife when they were talking about the villagers. “What beautiful teeth they have!” he said. “They won’t have now!” I said, a bit rudely…well…very rudely…

It all cost quite a lot – about $22 per head. But we didn’t begrudge a penny; it all goes back into the village economy, and they certainly gave us our money’s worth. Andrew had done a deal with James, the boy to whom he had given the bonito, and he came back with two beautiful big mud crabs. He cooked them for us for dinner last night, with much chilli and garlic, and it was THE most fabulous meal.

Tuesday 30th August

No lingering about for 2XS! We got up quite early again and set off for our next destination. I think we are in Uri Bay but Pete says Port Stanley. The coast of Malekula, anyway. We were planning on swimming, snorkeling, diving but…all I can hear around me is…snore snore… By the way, Infinity, our big boatfriend from Port Resolution, is right next to us.

Sharks are a BIG theme here in Vanuatu. I think I wrote about the woman Andrew and I were talking to (shouting to!) while dancing at the Waterfront Bar & Grill on Friday? She was saying “Where are you going blah blah blah SHARKS….don’t swim there blah blah blah SHARKS blah blah” so I said, “I really can’t hear you!” and danced off with my fingers in my ears…

And, for example, Lonely Planet says, of Port Sandwich, on Malekula:

“At the wharf, a small golden beach may tempt you in for a swim. Don’t do it! Don’t even paddle. This is the worst place for shark attacks.”

We carefully avoided Port Sandwich and its treacherous golden beach, and went to Port Stanley instead. On the way, Pete was talking to somebody close by on the radio and when he said we were heading here, was told, “Oh no…don’t swim there! The big shark problem in Port Sandwich has now transferred to…Port Stanley!””

But…we have never actually heard of anyone being killed, or even bitten by a shark in Vanuatu. Maybe people are terrified out of their wits if they just SEE one?? Anyway…my snoring boys woke up and it was so hot, the water so beautiful, that we all went for a swim. Andrew and Pete both dived with Andrew’s special power snorkel thingy, and I just snorkeled, not too far from the boat. And…it was beautiful! Gorgeous coral, lots of fish…no sharks!!

Wednesday 31st August

Early start again and off Espiritu Santo. Pete and Andrew launched the sailchute early on in the day and it accompanied it all the way, looking just glorious in the blue sky. Not only looking good; it carried us along at a spanking pace.

Andrew had his fishing lines out, as usual, and while Pete was lying on the net at the front of the boat watching the sailchute and I was sitting at the helm listening to podcasts there was a sudden commotion – a BIG fish on the line! It took ages for the fish to appear in view…a very big Spanish Mackerel, 700 mls in length. We had some for lunch, cooked on the BBQ with teriyaki sauce and it was absolutely delicious. Weehee Andrew! Hunter gatherer and cook!

We got to Aore Resort a bit after 2pm. It had been recommended as a nice place to moor the boat, and indeed it was a most beautiful resort, picture perfect, with a ferry service to Luganville across the channel.. We tied up to a small mooring and Pete took the tender in to work out what the system involved. A very efficient Australian woman owns and runs the resort and she told us we should go to a deeper mooring. Well we tried that but…it didn’t have a rope on it so we drove into the middle of Luganville and dropped poor Andrew off at a dodgy looking concrete jetty arrangement. No nice little ferry…but at least he didn’t miss the plane.

We didn’t go back to Aore; they had such a huge list of regulations I was tired even thinking of reading them. But before we left I did have a wonderful swim; so many fish, and some beautiful coral, I just loved it. Instead of Aore we anchored on the Luganville side of the channel, outside another less posh resort called Beachfront.

Friday 26th August

Yesterday we – finally – went to the Mélé Cascades with Mark and Leah as our chauffeur and guides. This is an absolutely wonderful place, only about five kilometes out of Port Vila. A magical cascade of clear blue pools with, at the top, a magnificent pair of waterfalls. We swam in the very top pool, under the smaller of the waterfalls, and gasped happily as the cold spray hit us on the head. Mark was frolicking happily on the larger of the falls, clambering up like a mountain goat. Leah took lots of photos while Pete and I admired this feat appreciatively. Andrew, who while quiet and gentle is actually VERY competitive ( well you have to be, to be a racing car driver…) waited till we were out of sight and clambered up the waterfall himself. (Pete stayed behind and took a photo to prove it. He, mind you, stayed on a warm dry rock…) Mark took Andrew into a cave behind the larger fall, and I decided, after a bit of cautious deliberation, that I couldn’t miss this opportunity. It was a bit confronting going under the breath-taking (literally) rush of water, but then – magic! A dry little cave! Whoopee! I was inordinately proud of this achievement and managed to get all the way back down (down is always much harder than up…) the Cascades without having to slide on my bottom, as usually happens to me in waterfall areas.

At the bottom we celebrated our achievements by having a nice cold drink – beer for the older people brightly coloured drinks with flowers and umbrellas atop for Mark and Leah. The Cascades belong to Mark’s large extended family –various cousins, uncles, brothers-of-cousins, brothers-in-law and uncle-in-law, and they have created a most beautiful development there, totally in keeping with the beauty of the area.

Our other activities for the daylight hours consisted of…travelling around in buses, or in long-suffering Mark and Leah’s Island Princess Ute, looking in hardware stores and mechanical repair shops for weapons to tackle the rudder problems on 2XS.

At 5 we had speedy showers and met up with Chris, who sells photocopiers and other such Toshiba equipment in an office overlooking our marina. (He has a connection to Pete’s cousin Michael, who had told him we were in Vila.) Chris had very kindly offered to take us to a kava bar (nakamel). It was a much more salubrious establishment than Ronnie’s, where we had been with Fred, our wild Dutch friend. It was perched on a steep hill overlooking the harbor, and we had clean plastic chairs to sit on instead of dusty wooden benches in an unlit thatched hut. We met yet another group of expats, all of them long-time Vanuatu residents. Jerry and Jan (Dutch) own La Tentation, the beautiful restaurant where Pete and I had dinner the night before we went back to Tasmania. Their son Nick is the manager. When I told Jerry how much we enjoyed our dinner there, she said, swiftly, “Please put a review on tripadvisor.com”, which is exactly what the manager of the Café du Village said the night before.

We were later joined by Beverley (English) who has also lived in Vanuatu for over twenty years. She does various jobs, including being a property manager for rentals around Vila. Not an easy job…. “I have 200 children who ring me saying, “fix this, fix that, my light globes have blown,’ that sort of thing.” Beverley is very tall, blonde, gorgeous, and she might join us after work today. For drinks not kava, I hope… I really enjoyed the kava last night and was very circumspect – TWO shells, not FIVE. But…I still had terrible trouble getting to sleep. Kava is not my friend!

At 7.30 we met Leah and Mark for dinner at our front garden restaurant (Waterfront Bar & Grill.) Mark and I had totally delicious fish (wahu) with veggies. Pete had rack of beef which was ENORMOUS and possibly not as yummy as my fish…Andrew had steak, which was also… not as yummy as my fish, and Leah had calamari. Food here is good! Later in the evening I was talking to the owner of the Waterfront and she said…“Please put a review on tripadvisor.com.” I am very busy writing reviews to make all my Vanuatu restaurant managers happy! She also told me where we should go when we leave her –this island, that island, not here, not there, and WATCH OUT FOR SHARKS. I said I couldn’t hear her above the music, it was all too loud. I don’t want to hear any more about sharks!!

We have been reading our Lonely Planet Guide to the South Pacific, and it is FULL of shark warnings. In fact, it is fulsome in its praise of Epi Island - you can swim there secure in the knowledge here will be no sharks. So where it is SILENT on the topic of sharks, this is also alarming! Pete and I talked to a man in Au Bon Marché supermarket the other day. He is Australian and has a little resort on Epi. He agreed there were no sharks around Epi but said, charmingly, “No sharks but many inexplicable disappearances of catamarans.” Very witty and amusing!!

We have been reading jaw-dropping stories about the time of the Condominium in Vanuatu – generally known as the Pandemonium. For about seventy years this poor benighted country was run by a coalition of Les Francais and The English. On some islands, they even had currency with cinq centimes on one side and sixpence on the other. And Beverly told me last night that they could never agree on left-hand or right-hand traffic, so they instituted a rule of alternate days… So you would wake up in the morning thinking, “Hmmm…is it Wednesday, when I drive on the left, or Thursday when I drive on the right?” She said it actually all worked quite well because there were, in those days, so few cars here.

We are supposed to be leaving for bluer waters tomorrow. Pete and Andrew have been slogging away on the rudder problems. I swear I saw them with a very large sledge-hammer, making a horrendous noise. I am prudently keeping out of it; I have no skills in this area. I spent a very pleasant hour or two bobbing around in the dinghy under the boat with a small squirty bottle of fairly mild poison (the fish loved it and clustered around me, fascinated, trying to wash off some of the slime adhering to the hull.) Occasionally I would look up, to find the odd wistful sailor gazing at me. “I think I should bring my wife to watch this. Can I take a photo?” No thank you! I do not want photos of me looking like a tomato appearing on youtube; and I do not wish to make enemies of sailing wives, whose husbands are very wrongly impressed by the very small contributions I make to boat maintenance and wellbeing.

I don’t know when next I will be in internet range. A mystery! I will keep writing but the next blogpost might be a large and unwieldy affair…

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANN-MARIE!!

Thursday 25th August

Yesterday was busy yet again…a lovely Port Vila day.

I got up and scrubbed the decks with the hose and the broom; always fun, always satisfying. There was still, believe it or not, volcanic ash from Mt Yasur lurking in various crevices. Oh those volcanoes!

Pete spent a lot of the day down various hatches trying to fix the rudders – the steering is still alarmingly stiff. By the end of the day he was a sodden wreck and had to be revived with cold showers and beer while I sailed forth to find wild raspberries at the market. I also went to a very shmick pharmacy looking for antibiotic ream and dressing for my surgery wound. I knew where the dressings where because of my rusty ladder wound experience, but I couldn’t find the correct dressing. A dreamy young chick came up to gaze at the shelves with me; she didn’t have a clue either and went off to find a superior pharmacy attendant. “Hmmm…” she said, looking at my wrist. She showed me her catalogue and said that this particular item, No: XJY 3456543 216789765 was out of stock. I could feel my woundette throbbing and mild panic rising so I pointed, mutely, at a package of Johnson and Johnson dressings, waterproof, which looked exactly the same size as the one on my wrist. “Oh yes…” said my helpful assistant. I suppose that might be the same…” So...I bought the required items – antibiotic cream, strong painkillers (just in case) and dressings from my reluctant new friend…

At midday we met up with Mark and Leah, and, as a bonus, Mark’s lovely mother Tauchi, who had escaped from her village school in Ekipe to spend the day in the Big Smoke. She was delighted to have a big chocolate milkshake all to herself and to have a tour of 2XS. “It is my dream,” she said happily, “that one day Mark and Leah will have a boat like this!” Well I didn’t like to put too many obstacles in her way but…Leah gets fearfully seasick…

Leah let me know very gently that…I was no longer in possession of beloved iphone. I had taken it to the showers in the morning, and had left it – OH NO – on top of the toilet. I think I had been so bamboozled by the coldness of the shower (BRRRR!!) that I had taken temporary leave of my senses; no other excuse will do; I LOVE my iphone! Leah had sent me a message and a very wonderful woman called Dominique, temporarily on Chasse Spleen, a big yacht not far from 2XS, had texted back saying she had rescued my phone from almost certain disaster. I am so grateful for this I can barely type…and even better, I didn’t know I had been parted from my phone until Leah told me, so I didn’t have to implode with anxiety! (Well only retrospectively.) I spent a long time in the bottleshop choosing the most appropriate reward: Wolf Blass champagne won the day; I hope Dominique and her friends enjoy it as much as she deserves.

Leah says that ni-Van people don’t generally steal; they wouldn’t take your handbag, or mug you, or slither things out of your backpack. But…they LOVE phones and would very possibly take your phone right from under your nose. So…how lucky was I??

Pete and I had another battery-chasing excursion in the afternoon. I don’t think one single stone has been left unturned in Port Vila in the search for this particular battery… Bus trips are great fun in Vanuatu. You clamber into a Tarago-style van and give some vague sort of indication as to where you might like to go. Then the bus takes off and may or may not veer in a completely different direction. (Tauchi, for example, said it would take her from 2-6 to get home to Ekipe, which is only really 30 minutes drive from Port Vila…) We enjoyed our detours in the back blocks of Vila very much. We were also fascinated by the battery shop. Pete had rung to check and the shop assistant had said, “Yes, we have hundreds of batteries.” What she meant was, “We have hundreds of exactly the same battery, none of which is what you want.” Too funny!

We went for dinner at a different restaurant, just along the waterfront – the Village Café, I think. Lots of atmosphere – a leafy flowery bower, in fact. We had a great time. Delicious food once again – I had – so surprising – fish with veggies; Pete had steak with potatoes and salad (he wanted veggies but never mind…) There was great music as well - three singers, a big synthesiser, the same sort of repertoire as the Waterfront – a bit of Frank, a bit of Bob Marley, Lionel Ritchie, Leo Sayer… We made some lovely new friends, from Australia (Mt Colah NSW), New Zealand (Christchurch) and there was much dancing and merriment. The Australians, Anne and Laurie, had been to Vanuatu before, many years ago, and have travelled widely. “We usually bring the kids,’ said Laurie – they have six. “But…our oldest is now fifty-four so we thought it was time we had a holiday by ourselves.” They were great dancers; Anne had been, until the age of 74 a ballet, jazz and tap teacher, and Laurie was a ballroom dancing whizz. I enjoyed my dance with him very much while Pete was jiving with Anne.

At 10.30 it was time for Cinderella and Cinderello to go back to 2XS to watch moves and wait for Andrew Miedecke to arrive on the midnight special…We were thrilled to bits when he arrived and frolicked around making him tropical fruit salad and pouring beer into him.

Today is hot and sunny. Pete and Andrew are already in a lather of sweat, having powered around Vila and its environs in a bus (I went on this trip, great fun going up all the by-ways) looking for something-or-another, not finding it, borrowing an enormous socket thingy…oh dear I MUST let Pete write these details.. What we are SUPPOSED to be doing is going to the Cascades with Leah and Mark. I have let them trudge up the hill (mad dogs and Englishmen) looking for a another widget for a wadget; I am in the Waterfront Café in the shade with a large lime juice, admiring Mary who is wearing her new Tasmanian earrings (not gold but she is happy with silver adorned with bright blue beads…)

Wednesday 24th August

So how did Pete like my new Tropical Frocks? He is much disposed to admire various shades of grey and black and beige so my violently Sunset Coloured maxi-dress drew nothing but a startled gasp. And my black shirred frock, adorned with large blue flowers – well he smiled very fondly but not in admiration of the attire. Never mind! I will wear both of these dresses with great comfort and joy. And I think I look a treat! (A TropicalTreat…)

No we didn’t kick up our heels last night. We played with our computers, which was just mildly unpleasant – for example, I tried to get my blogpost up about fifteen times. Each time I JUST got it to “Publish post” – the last step – and it would fade away…computer says no… Eventually think I succeeded. Pete was having similar struggles with his banking site. I tore myself away from my epic discourse with cyberforces and made a very beautiful filling omelette for Pete, and a slightly less bursting one for myself. Once it was all done and dusted, we lay on the couches and read our books, with our lovely singers on our front terrace doing their Leo Sayer/Rod Stuart/Joe Cocker thing.

I forgot to say we made some new BFFs yesterday, from a catamaran called Reflections, just arrived from New Zealand. It took them nine days non-stop to get here. Oh it was no problem, a lovely if lively trip (60 knot winds, 6-9 metre swells), said Russell. Then I met Anne who had been very ill, in spite of scopatches… Next we met Eric, who we think is the owner. “So,” said Pete brightly, “A reasonable trip, nothing broken?” Eric beamed at him and started listing all of the things which were in fact shattered, bent, twisted, buggered…oh what fun!

Back in Tasmania most people I met said they were enjoying this blog. Either that or they hadn’t looked at it at all; not interested, too busy, etc etc. Why hadn’t I told them we were in Vanuatu, they said, accusingly? Well…I did…in cyberspace. And my many postcards to the grandchildren (mine, but also to Pete’s – we have 15, soon to be 16, between us,) were very much appreciated. Eva, 3½ was deeply suspicious. “So,” she said, accusingly, “How do you get postcards to OUR house when you are at sea on a BOAT?” And – oh dear – unfortunately I have revealed one of my big weaknesses by sending postcards to anyone at all… I have very poor handwriting. In fact it is godawful… Can I please point out that I am, on the other hand, a very good speller? Does this make amends?? I did tell one of my commenters that my writing is PARTICULARLY bad on the postcards because I am writing them on a wobbly boat. Or in a wobbly café while drinking wobbly alcohol…

Another complaint/request was for more info about sailing details. This blog IS, I realise, called SAILING2XS… Not…IDLEGOSSIP2XS. So I have asked Pete if he would make a regular contribution with details about wind, sails, lalala, engines, blah blah blah, bilges, ahahaha and he said – YES! This should be a big improvement; I will put his bit at the front so those who really only want to know about knots and wind and ocean swell and leaky this and that can move on to greener pastures very swiftly. Or not?? Anyone with any ideas/suggestions re this? Or maybe I will put it at the end, in big bold typeface?

Tuesday 23rd August
So now there are three young girls who can do the Pride of Erin – a skill which will stand them in good stead for many years to come! Last night we had dinner at the Waterfront Bar & Grill aka our front garden/café. (Delicious meal, by the way, Kate H – Pete had a beef curry and I had beautiful fresh wahu on a bed of mashed kumara with veggies lavishly cooked in garlic and butter.) The next table was full of cheery charming Australians with their delightful children. They were all staying at Le Lagon resort, which is, apparently, quite wonderful. But they decided to leave their comfort zone come and hang out here, and we enjoyed their company very much – especially that of the girls, aged 6, 7 and 9. They had all had their hair braided and were wearing new sun-dresses from the market, and they were full of fizz, bounce and chat. The local singers were singing their way through their repertoire, and the girls all enjoyed learning their new dance very much. A few old people (by old people I mean Pete’s and my age or even older…) sitting on the sidelines recognised the steps if not the music – yes it is possible to do the Pride of Erin to Lady in Red; in fact, to just about any song – and called me over very happily to tell me they too had learned this very lovely dance at primary school.
So we are back to food, music, dancing and…sleeping… We went to bed at about eleven and when we (finally…) woke this morning, Pete said, “What time do you think it is?” I stretched my guess and said, “Nine?” Well no, it was closer to ten… Back in snoozyland!!
Today we have wandered around Port Vila in search of mundane items such as a special sort of battery for the diving equipment Andrew Miedecke is bringing with him tomorrow.
We met up with Mark and Leah by chance in the small pharmacy opposite the yacht club – great joy all round, and amazement –they had been looking for us on the boat, and had quickly scarpered because people in the café were staring at them with great suspicion. We had been buying doxycycline and were then going to make our way to Island Princess to find them, so it was good luck all round, and we had a lovely lunch at the Waterfront instead of having to traipse any further. (Re the doxycycline…this is a very light dose of antibiotic which we are – sigh sigh – required to take as an anti-malarial precaution thingy. I am deeply suspicious of antibiotics and very rarely take them – I have suffered very bad side effects, won’t go into it but any of you know what thrush is will sympathise. So I usually go to areas of malarial infestation going lalalala, I won’t get it. Our Asian pharmacist gazed at us expressionlessly as she watched me dithering, will-I-won’t-I-maybe-just-you-take-them-Pete. Then she said, flatly. “You have to take them. You will get malaria if you don’t.” Oh OK… She was a bit Chinese Mother so, ofcourse, I obeyed.)
Mark and Leah were full of chat about (a) the earthquake the day before yesterday – 7.5 on the Richter Scale and OH MY GOD, their house shook on its foundations… and (b) Alice’s wedding. The church service went from just after 10am till 1.30…MUCH singing, many sermons. There were about 1,000 guests; Leah the only white person. She thought she and Mark would slink in and out but no…they found themselves at the bridal table for the wedding feast, guests of honour! Alice looked beautiful in her Chinese ebay dress with much ruffling and bling, but Leah and Mark said the entire wedding party looked absolutely petrified –centre of attention for 1,00 people, very daunting!
One of the things I had on my to-do list back in Tasmania was to do to the doctor and get a disgusting growth thingy cut off my wrist. It has been there for about six months and has not responded to treatment in any way other than to flourish and grow bigger and yuckier. I have even knocked it off during moments of Extreme Sailing, and it has inexorably grown back. But… I was TOO BUSY. When we were back on 2XS, Pete noticed that it was stil there, in spite of my cunning disguise of Large Bandaid. “Oh Gawd, you didn’t get it cut off!” I asked Leah about the accessibility of doctors – would I have to wait a long time to get an appointment? She laughed heartily – “Just walk in!” The Medical Centre is just opposite our Waterfront Paradise so I abandoned Pete to yet more battery searching (yes he gets all the fun!) and I went in, hesitantly, to make an appointment. The ni-Van receptionist, lacking any evidence of teeth, and chewing gum with great vigour, said, “When you want appointment? Now? Write your name and date of birth here.” She tore a tiny strip of paper off her desk calendar and I wrote the required details. Within thirty seconds I was flat on my back on a bed having my wrist anaesthetised by a lovely kindly doctor from Tuvalu. Leah had warned me that his equipment would be primitive and indeed I could see a re-fillable and very large syringe coming my way…so I closed my eyes.
When I was paying my bill (this took longer than the rest of the appointment and it cost me nearly $100 in case you ever want to come and have a yucky growth cut off your wrist in Vanuatu) I looked at the posters. There was a lovely one promoting baby (bebi) health, and it said, baldly, “GIVIM TITI.” Couldn’t have put it better myself.
Next to the medical centre is a very hot and stifling computer shop, where I also spent some time this afternoon. I bought a new ipod at Sydney Duty Free, with greater capacity, and my new BFF (Best Friend Forever) Ravi spent a stifling few hours trying to get it to work in English rather than Mandarin – I had inadvertently pressed yes to this inscrutable language rather than English – oh dear and oh no… I have also purchased some new audiobooks – Alistair Cook’s entire Letters From America, for example, which will be every soothing when I am at sea on ocean passages. But…they are not visible anywhere on my itunes although I have receipts from Audiobooks thanking me for my business. Ravi is going to work on this ALL NIGHT, or so he assures me, and all for… about $10.
Maybe you have realised that this afternoon I was NOT with Pete. Aha! So what did I do? I spent money very freely! I bought two summer dresses, one from a shop ($25) and one from the market ($18), ideal for hot weather. They are very very beautiful…for the tropics. So they will no doubt be hidden in the bottom of my wardrobe when I get back to Tasmania.

Monday 22^nd August

Back to 2Xs…did you even know we had gone?? I sort of neglected to mention it in my recent blog entries… It didn’t seem like a good idea, for some vague reason. We left on the tenth and have spent many happy but very busy days home in Tasmania. When we arrived, everyone who saw us gasped and said, “Oh don’t you look well!” (They also may have gasped because my hair is so SHORT; who knows...) By yesterday, no-one was mentioning the words “well” or “relaxed,” in fact I heard the word…”tired”… Oh dear, oh no…will have to get back into RelaxedMode on the water.

It is wonderful to be back although we had to wrench ourselves tearfully away from our darling families and friends. 2XS looks fine; no rat infestations or engulfment by tsunami; not even a light bit of break ‘n’ enter. I had a bit of difficulty getting aboard; our plank had been confiscated (maybe to deter rats and break ‘n’ enter attempts??) so I had to dejoomp across quite a big gap. I made just a bit of a wally of myself, teetering on the edge and saying, “I just can’t,” in a Selwyn-esque voice (private in-joke, won’t explain…) until,, with a bit of coaxing and hand-holding from poor tired Pete, I got aboard, to a round of applause from the people at the nearby café table… The plank is back now, so I just have to wobble across instead of teetering and whingeing.

I won’t go into an account of our Tasmanian time just now; in fact I am just going to sink into a very nice big G & T, dinner at the Yacht Club at the other end of the plank, and then – snoozytime.

Sunday 21st August

I am looking forward to hearing accounts of the Big Wedding in Vanuatu. My niece Leah and her boyfriend, Mark, were invited to Alice’s nuptials last Saturday – Alice works in Island Princess (the shop not the ute…they are connected but not interchangeable!!), and her wedding was a huge affair, involving a week or so of festivities, ceremonies, changes of – ahem – costume. Leah was the only non-ni-Van guest. An honour!

The whole Tasmanian family was involved; Monique’s role was…to procure the wedding dress, on ebay, from China. Alice chose a most elaborate meringue-like gown, with much ruffling and bling, for $150. Great excitement! Great value! All Monique had to do was…order it… It turned into a nightmare; every time she pressed “continue” on her computer, the order would multiply and she would get a polite Chinglish message – “Dear Valued Client, two wedding dresses are on their way to you!” Then four…and eventually – SIX identical meringue-like gowns, with much ruffling and bling were soon to be winging their way to Australia. It took a lot of emailing and a fair amount of blind panic before Monique could stem the flow of frocks. And then the worry – would it arrive in time for her to take it to Vanuatu?? Her new Chinese Best Friends Forever (BFFs) were very encouraging. “Yes! Your dress has transport!” She hoped and prayed this meant it was on its way, and indeed it did arrive, just in the nick of time. She was too frightened to open the plastic packaging enclosing The Frock – the dog might bite it to shreds, the cats might wee on it…

Pete and I were actually in Island Princess (the shop not the ute…) at the moment of The Reveal, and we saw Alice in tears of happiness – the meringue-like gown, with much ruffling and bling, exceeding expectation and fitted perfectly.

Phew….