Off to See the Volcano

Well, we’re off to the southern part of Vanuatu. The winds are backing to the east and then NE this weekend, so we thought we’d take advantage of it and work our way south, so we should be in Tanna tomorrow morning, land of the spewing red-hot volcano, Mt Yasur. J From there we’ll have a better angle on the trade winds to head for New Caledonia, probably towards the end of next week when the SE’erlies set back in.

Julie has settled into the rhythms and life aboard EQ nicely J. She has a calm and relaxed demeanour which I think comes from spending time at sea. I’m quite happy to have her aboard and she is happy to be here, so life is good and the crew of EQ content.

We spent some time in the northern islands of Vanuatu, though didn’t get to see everything we wanted too. There are very few anchorages in these islands that I’d call safe and relaxed places to hang out and leave the boat feeling she’ll be right while we venture ashore. I’d like to have gotten ashore on Ambrym, but there was no good place to set the hook. We did spend some time ashore in the Maskelyne’s. There are a number of projects going on there that I was intrigued to see. Folks we know have helped the villagers there set up a soap factory using coconut oil which has been a success. There’s also a wood working shop and a rural training centre to help train people to find jobs. And some aid workers from Australia have helped them develop and ‘eco-tourism’ business. The islands are really beautiful. I also like that the villagers live as they have for many centuries, the old traditional way. It’s quite funny to see many have cell phones too. So, it’s quite the contrast between the old and new in one place. I’d like to go back there in a few years when we get back in this part of the world to see how our new friends have got on.

Steward our Tour Guide, a lovely guy that took the time to show us around the island.

The Ladies hard at work. The villagers make most everything they have from what is available on the island.

 

Village Life, very simple and easy as.

 

Hopefully they will have dealt with the malaria problem though. We were taking anti-malaria drugs (mefloquine) , but it has not so nice side effects (confusion, anxiety, lethargy, dizziness, headaches, irritability, vision problems, etc) so we switched to doxycycline. We feel much better now and coming back to our regular cheery selves. J

Anyway, we are off in the next hour or so (Saturday morning) for an over-nighter down to Tanna and then off to New Cal for a couple of weeks before we head to Australia the end of the month. We’ll be on Sailmail until we get to Noumea in New Cal.

That’s the news from EQ, where the winds are fair, the seas following and the crew content.

J