To Sydney, Australia

Hello to all,

We’re in a comfortable hotel in the heart of Sydney, Australia with a cricket match on the tellie and tucker in our tummies contemplating our trip home tomorrow. A lot has happened since our last update so I’ll try to catch up a little.

Airstream left Luganville, Vanuatu about 1100 on the 19th of October in company with Glenn, Marilyn and Jaryd, our good friends on their boat Tin Soldier. I tucked two reefs in the main when we hoisted and five days later I took them out. It was that kind of passage. The forecast was for reinforced trades across the Coral Sea with 25-35 knots most of the way. We had hope for winds and seas well aft the beam and a reasonable ride. As it turned out things were a little more out of the south the first several days, pretty much a beam reach, and the ride was pretty darn ‘boisterous’ most of the way. We saw over thirty knots quite a bit of the time and over thirty five occasionally. Other boats reported more. Seas were maybe twelve- fifteen feet max but of fairly short duration and choppy. All in all we were happy when things calmed down a little the last day. Of course they ended up calming down almost completely and we motored the last sixteen hours into Bundaberg dropping the hook in the quarantine area at 0226 on the 26th. The passage worked out to 1086 MN total distance. Six days 15 hrs enroute for a 6.82 knot average, 164 NM per day. A good passage for us but since we had to get a little beat up it would have been nice if the wind gods had kept it up long enough to avoid the motor at the end. I know, I know, cruisers never stop whining about the winds. We didn’t break anything and wear and tear was minimal. All passages should be so lucky!

In this voyage we participated in the Port2Port rally sponsored by the Bundaberg Cruising Yacht Club and Volunteer Marine Rescue in Bundaberg. They provided a radio net enroute and a week of festivities after the boats arrived. This being our first ever ‘rally’ experience I will say the folks in Bundaberg showed us a very good time and we enjoyed the opportunity for a low key week long party with old and new friends. It was a great way to end our cruising season.

The plan was to put the boat in dry storage in Bundaberg so we stowed everything away and hauled out on November 2nd. We rented a car, threw our accumulated stuff from the season plus some sails into the beast and blasted off south for Sydney, not without some sadness at leaving friends and the South Pacific behind for several months. The good thing is a bunch of these people have more or less the same plans as us for next year and we’ll see them in March or April.

The nine hundred mile drive to Sydney went well enough with a night spent in Coolangatta on the way. The country side was lovely, mostly various forms of Eucalyptus forest with some agriculture and orchards. We saw several groups of kangaroos and the road kill was was definitely not North American. We spent a night in Manly which is a rather cool beach suburb of Sydney and delivered the sails to the UK loft where there’s a little work to be done. Since then we’ve done the tourist thing in Sydney. We’ve been to the aquarium, the botanical gardens, the zoo, the opera house, the ‘Rocks’, the circular quay, the Sydney tower, the maritime museum, the replica of Cook’s ship ‘Endeavor’, the observatory park and we’ve tramped a good deal of the center of Sydney. All in all it’s a very nice city and well worth a visit. What’s really striking is the incredible contrast between life a thousand miles to the east in Vanuatu and here. Were back in a very modern and cosmopolitan place and the two realities are hard to reconcile. Of course there’s no need to reconcile anything. Both are quite real and both have their advantages. I just hope we can take the best from them and enjoy all that’s offered.

So tomorrow, the 8th, Delta Flt 016 shows 18 seats left in business and 96 in coach. Looks like we should get on to LAX. Just hoping for business! Horizon 2307 LAX-ACV is only half full so with a little luck we’ll be home at 1130 local, about twenty minutes before we leave! We get our day back.

Love to all,
Bill & Janet
SV Airstream

Espirito Santo Log

This is being posted November 7, 2009 from Sydney, Australia. Written Oct. 19th it couldn't be posted until now.

18 October 2009

Hello to all,

Internet coverage here is almost zero but we'll see if this can get out.

Tomorrow morning, Monday 19 October, we plan to depart Luganville, Vanuatu for Bundaberg, Australia. By the route we intend to follow which skirts the reef structure north of New Caledonia, north of Chesterfield Reef and south of the Great Barrier Reef this is a voyage of about 1040 nautical miles. It should take about seven days. Forecasts are reasonably good. There should be plenty of wind but wind and seas should be slightly aft the beam for most of the trip so we hope to be not too uncomfortable.

The time spent here on Espiritu Santo has been very, very enjoyable. We've had cruising friends to socialize with and the local people are very sweet. The highlights of the stay have been the 'blue holes' near Oyster Island and diving the wreck of the President Coolidge in the entrance to the channel at Luganville.

The blue holes are two crystal clear fresh water steams which flow down into the bay near Oyster Island resort. You can dinghy up about a mile to the source of these steams which in each case is a limestone spring about fifty yards in diameter and fifty feet deep emitting a heavy flow of wonderfully cool, clear, fresh water. The mineral components in the water give it a sapphire blue tint. For people who spend their time aboard boats on salt water this in itself is quite wonderful. But what is really cool is the ride up the rivers. These are deep enough to be easily navigated in dinghies using the motor and they are like jungle tours into Amazonia. The tropical forest grows over the stream and vines hang down into the water and cross above. There are parrots in the trees and it's wonderfully isolated from signs of human occupation. The blue holes themselves have to be the ultimate cruiser swimming hole and at one of them the local folks, who also visit for the same fun we do, have strung some lines from the Banyan trees on shore. You can climb up the trees easily enough about twenty feet (which seems like forty) and then swing wide from an over hanging limb out over the pools and do your favorite fancy drop after a couple swings. Even Janet, who has an often stated disinclination for heights, couldn't resist that fun. So we made daily visits to the blue holes and came back clean and refreshed, a little rope burned, but happy.

The Coolidge is one of the great wreck dives in the world. She was a major luxury liner built in 1931 for the Dollar LIne (which became American President LInes) to use in the Pacific. She was 650' long and she and her sister ship, the President Hoover, were the fastest and most luxurious ships in the Pacific. When the war started the Hoover was impounded in Japan and the Coolidge was converted into a troop ship. In 1942 with over 5000 troops aboard she struck a US mine at the entrance to the channel into Luganville. The skipper was never given proper information and was eventually exonerated fully. Two men were killed but most went ashore easily enough because the ship was purposely run up onto the reef to keep it afloat. Unfortunately it fell off the reef and sunk in about 220 feet of water about 90 minutes after striking. So now the ship, essentially intact, lies on it's port side, bow towards the shore, about fifty yards off the beach. There is every imaginable form of ships gear and military equipment in her holds or around the wreck. I haven't handled live artillery rounds in forty years. They're lying in the gun tubs on the Coolidge just as they were when she went down. The shallowest portion of the bow is about 80 feet below the surface. The name and hailing port on the stern are at 208 feet on our depth gauges. We did six dives each with Aquamarine Diving. They were very professional and good in all respects but this was not diving for beginners. The wreck is a world heritage site and a Vanuatuan National Park so all diving is guided. Aquamarine has one dive master for each two clients. You gear up at the beach, do a briefing, and swim 50-200 yards out to a buoy, depending on where you'll dive that day, and descend to the wreck. We did one dive a day and that was just fine for us codgers. The first day they show you the bow sections and the promenade deck and they're obviously evaluating the cliental. This gets in about a 100 foot dive. The next dive is to cargo hold one and two and involves a little penetration into the wreck at about 110 feet. Next is a deep penetration to view the symbol of the ship, a porcelain statue of a medieval lady and unicorn which is a substantial penetration at 140 feet. You're supposed to kiss the lady, which I did, and I swear she kissed back. Nitrogen narcosis anyone? Next is a little trip into the engine rooms and engine control spaces and out through the main saloon at 156 feet. Dive five is to the aft deck swimming pool at 186 feet. You can try and count the number of tile colors visible. Not so super easy when you're just a little narc'd at 180 feet. Dive six is the stern, the prop shafts, the rudder and the ships name and then up along the full length of the hull. This is an over 200 foot dive. Not something I know of any dive operator doing anywhere else with clients. They use the Canadian tables for ascent and most of the dives have three or four decompression stops. It's pretty conservative and our dive computers were always less conservative than their decompression schedules. They have fixed line along the reef as it rises up from the bottom to help control decompression depth and spare tanks at the stops. Everybody is out of air by the time they get to the final stop and those spare bottles look pretty good. On the stern dive we had eight people and four dive masters and several of the clients were buddy breathing off the divemasters by the time we got to the first deco stop at 15 meters. This is not goofing around. The dive masters are Vanuatuans who are all young- middle aged, little, very fit guys who seem to have gills. They don't seem to use air at all. The guy Janet and I did the stern with has been diving the Coolidge for twenty years now, seventeen with Aquamarine, and has over 3500 dives on the Coolidge. Very confidence inspiring. Of course there are many, many different dives on the wreck. We did the standard introduction but some people come back again and again to explore and enjoy. So it was very interesting diving. I did not imagine us ever diving to over 200 feet, Janet at 54 and me nearly 62, and we probably won't do that again. But it was a great experience!The photos from the Coolidge diving were taken from aquamarine's excellent website at http://www.aquamarinesanto.com/coolidge.html.

Love to all,
Bill & Janet

From Northern Vanuatu

This is posted November 7, 2009 from Sydney, Australia. Written in early October, it couldn't be posted until now.

Hello to all,

Internet coverage is still very spotty and slow at best so we haven't updated the blog and sending many photos is out of the question. We've been anchored off Oyster Island in Peterson Bay on the East side of Espiritu Santo for several days. This is a very lovely and well protected bay. There is a small resort here with wireless and good food. There are a few other boats including some very good friends. We actually felt a couple of the earthquakes while sitting on the boat but there was no damage in this area. Life is good.

To catch up on our travels, we worked our way northwards through the islands on the eastern side of the Vanuatuan archipelago stopping for anchorages on Ambrym, Pentecost and Maewo. At the Ranon anchorage on Ambrym we bought the best Vanuatuan wood carving we've seen. Ambrym is another volcanic island and the volcano is much larger and more dangerous than that on Tanna. This one causes regular evacuations, as it did a few days after we departed. The island is also known as a center of black magic and sorcery, a very real thing on Vanuatu. From Ambrym we had a nice day sail over to Pentecost and Waterfall Bay. From the anchorage it's a ten minute walk up to the very nice waterfall and a long cool swim. We spent a night there and moved up the island to Loltong Bay which is another very beautiful bay and much better protected than Ranon or Waterfall Bay, both of which are just open beach anchorages. We spent a few days at Loltong. We got to know some of the local folks and the chief and went to the Anglican church service on Sunday morning. A very, very interesting experience. Henry the VIII would never have guessed where his church might lead. From Loltong we moved up one island to Asanvari Bay on Maewo. Asanvari is in the running for the 'all time favorite spot' award. The anchorage is beautiful and well protected. There is a waterfall you can dinghy up to and go swimming in cool fresh water after the daily snorkel in the great visibility of the bay. The village was very friendly and welcoming. The chief has built a 'yacht club' with the help of some Americans and New Zealanders and it actually has a floor and a kitchen. The chief's one surviving son was a chef at several restaurants in Vila and Luganville. The guy really can cook to a high standard if he can scrounge some ingredients from his yachtie customers. Things like Oyster Sauce, and even cream, are not to be found on these islands.

The 'one surviving son' remark was made to lead into one of the more interesting cultural experiences we've had on this trip. Chief Nelson had four sons and three have passed away before reaching thirty. The most recent death occurred just a few weeks ago. The cause; black magic! And they're deadly serious about that kind of thing. So apparently the custom is to have a 100 day mourning and periodic feasts during that time. The fifty day feast was a few days after we arrived and we and the other yachties (three other boats) in the bay were invited to the feast. The feast was held in the village Lamakal. Any village in Vanuatu larger than just a few people has a Lamakal which is generally the largest building in the village. I'll describe the Asanvari Lamakal as a good example. It's about a 100'X40' rectangle with a single ridge pole about twenty feet high and a gently sloping roof which descends equally almost to the ground on both sides of the building. There are walls only a couple feet high on each side but the walls on the ends of the building are full height with only a door sized opening at either end, no door. The roof is palm thatch and the walls are bamboo weave. There are no windows or fireplace chimneys, etc. The floor is uneven packed earth and there are areas where stones are piled to use in cooking. There are a few palm tree trunks on the floor to act as seats but most people sit on the earthen floor. The building is unlit so its dark and it smells rather pleasantly of cooking fires, kava, roasted meat and semi-washed humanity. The daily use for the lamakal is as a kind of club where the village men gather to drink kava and socialize. On this occasion large pieces of cow were brought in the day before by boat and over the shoulders of the men and a really big fire was built in a pit in the lamakal. Stones were heated in the pit, the meat was wrapped in palm leaves, put in the pit and covered with more stones and with earth. On feast day we yachties were invited to show about two o'clock in the afternoon. All in all there were probably about sixty men and forty women attending. The women enter through a separate door from the men and sit separately. The men sat around the floor while several young men prepared fresh kava directly from the roots. They take fresh roots and by hand they shred and mash the roots on a wooden tray to extract the juice. The juice is poured through a coconut fiber sieve into a half coconut cup. The chief takes a cup and presents it to an individual and that person drinks the entire cup at once. Tastes like bitter, muddy spit. But this is strong stuff and immediately causes numb lips, puts a silly grin on your face and creates a very mellow atmosphere. It's very quiet, everyone is speaking in whispers, if at all, and everyone gets their fill of kava by the time the afternoon is over. Meanwhile the women have been uncovering the meat and preparing palm leaf servers with some taro and manioc. Eventually everyone was presented with the vegetables. The meat was served in palm leaf baskets in large chunks. We stayed for the kava drinking and then it was politely made known that we should leave so they could have the mourning feast in private. The whole scene is very quiet, very communal and very old. Except for two things we could have been sitting around the lamakal with friends a thousand years ago. Most obvious of course is that everyone is wearing western style shorts, tee shirts or dresses. Less obvious is the cell phone hanging from a wooden hook on the lamakal wall. Asanvari has cell coverage. No electricity, no land line, no services of any kind but cell coverage. Amazing!

The next evening we arranged for Nixon (the chief's son) to cook for us at the 'yacht club'. He came around to our boats putting together ingredients and created a really good meal of prawns, mixed meat curry, vegetables and salad. He and his wife joined us for the dinner and the conversation put a nice finish on the mourning feast. They know why his brothers died so young. That cause was black magic, probably emanating from enemies on Ambrym. To them this is just a fact like we might think someone died of pancreatic cancer. His brother was buried with a knife in his hands so he could take vengeance in the after life. They said two guys had died on Ambym since the brothers death and they're pretty sure it was his brother at work. When the mourning period is over Nixon and his wife are going to leave the island for a few years to break the cycle of black magic. These are intelligent people who speak at least four languages pretty well and have some understanding of the outside world. But the old beliefs which they live with daily are, in many ways, more influential in their thinking than the education they have received. Very interesting.

From Asanvari it was back to civilization in the form of Luganville and some resort activity. Luganville is a sleepy island town but does have some decent restuarants, a bank with an ATM and decent opportunities to provision. We spent a night moored at Aora Resort and couple nights anchored off Beachfront and then came about twenty miles north to our present location. We've been exploring and doing some very, very interesting scuba diving. Tomorrow we'll move the boat back to Luganville and the Beachfront resort to finish off our diving and prepare to depart for Australia. I'll send out another update before we depart concerning the diving.

Love to all,
Bill & Janet
SV Airstream

Port Vila and Vanuatu

This is posted from Sydney, Australia, November 7, 2009. Written back in September and couldn't be posted until now.

Hello to all,

We've been out of internet access for awhile and probably will be for some time to come. We're working our way north through the islands of Vanuatu having some very good sailing. Presently we're anchored in Lamen Bay at the far Northeast corner of Epi Island. This place is a prosperous village by Vanuatuan standards. There are five other boats here. There's a village 'restaurant', a grass strip airport, and a guy in the village bakes bread. There's a telephone. They have a primary and secondary school which serves much of this part of the island. People generally live in homes built from grass and palm frond mats fashioned into walls with woven palm frond roofs. There's some concrete block construction. The village is very clean and neatly kept.

The beaches surrounding the bay are black sand and there are turtles and du dong around us at anchor. The du dong are pretty tame and people can pet them in the water sometimes. We haven't got that close yet. The local dugout canoes often use a clothe or palm frond sail to move down wind. This is the first place we've seen this. These islands are rugged, some of them really mountainous, and every possible shade of green in dense vegetation. There are reefs, of course, but navigation here is not the constant and sometimes nerve wracking reef dodge that is part of most sailing around Fiji. The city of Vila was very nice. Kind of a smaller, nicer Suva. People were sweet and for a city of about thirty thousand there were a lot of good restaurants to choose from, real restaurants where the French influence and the emphasis on good food was obvious. The yachtie social scene was great fun and we had good friends to enjoy being with. Port Vila is one of those places where the 'fleet' comes together as it moves across the Pacific. From Vila the boats spread out again, northward to more of Vanuatu and Luganville and then Australia, which is our plan. Or southwest to New Caledonia and then Australia or New Zealand. Or back to Fiji. Or further north into the far western Pacific.

We hauled out the boat at Port Vila Boatyard and fixed the propeller strut problem but we're still getting some vibration off the shaft or the prop at high RPM. We'll just have to deal with that in Australia.

We plan on attending the local church service this morning, Presbyterian we're told. Village services are always very interesting. We'll spend a few more days here and then the 'plan' is east to the Maskelyne group, back northwest to Ambrym and then Pentecost Island and then back east to Espiritu Santo and Luganville. Luganville is the big city again. It's a town of about twelve thousand with things like pizza and internet. The good stuff!

From Luganville we'll join a low key event called the Port2Port rally put on by the Bundaberg Cruising Club in Bundaberg Australia. Since that's our destination this year it seemed a good idea to join up. Their website has the details but there will be forty or fifty boats departing from Luganville, Port Vila and Noumea on the 18th of October, weather permitting of course. From Luganville the voyage is about a thousand miles and should take us about a week. The boats will converge in Bundaberg around the 26th for a few days of play.

Our plan after arrival is to put the boat on the hard and take the trains down the coast to Sydney and spend some time in that beautiful city. From there it's DL#16 to LAX and AS#2307 to ACV. Home is starting to sound good to me. It always sounds good to Janet. With just a little luck we'll be there about thirty minutes after we leave Sydney on the same day.

We'll post to the blog from Luganville if the internet is working there. We have some great photos to share.



Love to all,

Bill & Janet

SV Airstream