Sola

Toga is our last clinic of the tour and we need to decide if we are heading back to Sola with Another Angel 2 while they drop off the team or if we have a few more days in Torres. Then Murphy’s Law strikes and our anchor winch stops working properly. First it decided it had it’s own mind and would pull the anchor the wrong direction. Then it wouldn’t work at all. We try manually pulling up but we are in fairly deep and find that we have hooked a small rock. The decision is made to head to Sola where we have the safety of another yacht to help if needed.

 

We have a fast sail just off the wind and have these visitors a type of dolphin we haven’t seen yet. They are short and more solid and dark than we are used to.They played around us for about half an hour before visiting Another Angel 2. The seas are up to about 3m and the winds on the nose so we slow considerably and it looks like it will be a longer trip than expected. Another Angel is well ahead and they call up when they off the Reef Islands that they are stopping into Dulap for a sleep. Mike decides that we will continue on and it turns into an all night sail.

We anchor in Sola on a bright sunny and the anchorage is reasonably calm. Mike immediately takes to bed to catch up on some much needed rest. As the dingy motor is playing up Beau takes to the kayak to tow some water bottles over to Brian who is making water with the watermaker and the great friend he is he offers to make some for us.

Anna lives in waterfront complex just near where we anchor and we spend some lovely times with her family.   Hendrix had a great time coming out to the yachts and getting a pair of cool sunglasses.

Anna organises a lunch for us at the Yacht Club bungalows next door to her house. we find out that they are on her land and her sister runs them and is the cook at this little restaurant.

We go ashore for Torba Day where the celebrations include custom dance competition by the schools and a display of traditional handicrafts. The tamtam I am holding was used by one of the students and is renewable being a piece of bamboo. Makes a lovely sound.

The celebrations are held at the stadium built for the Vanuatu Games that we saw in 2012. They have been kept in good condition. The wind is increasing so we decide to head off and find a better anchorage. It is sad to say goodbye to Anna, John and their family.

 

2017 Torres North Vanuatu

Moto

It is a shame that yachts don’t visit here but I guess it is expected. There is no real anchorage and we only stay a short time. We anchor by dropping the anchor off the edge of the coral shelf and reversing in towards the rocks, missing all the bombies and rocks, and tie up to the shore stern in.

We take the dingies around a couple of points to where there is a rocky headland where we can jump onto the rocks. The dingies are anchored off with a rope to the shore as well.

From here we climb the rocks to the headland, clamboring along the low cliff and walk to the village. These people only see yachts here when PYM come so they are very excited. Clinic goes well with lots of blood pressures and all the children coming down from the school for dental checkups and immunisations. The school teachers truly appreciate the school pack as it is very hard to get supplies here.

Snorkelling around the yachts is very interesting for the rocky bombies that abound and seem just off our keels and rudders.

Moto Lava

After a late lunch we head off to our next island Moto Lava which is much larger but has a large fringing reef all around and is not considered an anchorage for yachts. Getting there late afternoon we look for the spot where the reef closes into the shore offering some protection for anchoring. Avoiding the surf on both sides we attempt to anchor in 14 m but in the time the anchor reaches the bottom we have drifted out and we miss the shelf. Another try just a little further in and we are secure for the night. Another Angel 2 anchors just a little closer to the surf and find holding with their first try.

Because of the fringing coral there are two options for going ashore. high tide allows you to take the dingy right up to the beach but you need to leave quickly. Low or part tide means you walk across the reef and return the dingy to the yacht. So we are dropped on the reef and walk into the beach.

At high tide there is quite a lagoon between the shore and the reef and it is dotted with villagers fishing with poles. One intrepid villager has turned his canoe into a sailing canoe.

It is a short 15 min walk to the village. We pass huts and small villages all the way as this area is very densely populated. We pass a lot of people going up to the gardens and find out that again the word has not spread about the clinic. We chat to many and they agree to pass the word and we also meet Gabriel who is going to bring us back some fruit and veges from his garden.

Kaikai.

There are three schools near here and we visit the large english school with both primary and secondary students. The primary school students walk up to the clinic for their immunisation. The secondary students have been sent home for the morning as the teachers have meetings with dignitaries from Port Vila. We agree to catch the secondary students in the afternoon but plans change when the meetings are extended to the afternoon as well. Just as well we have the morning.

Anna, our nurse from Sola, Jan and myself meet with the senior students for health talks. The headmaster asks us to reinforce some family planning with them as three young girls have got pregnant and given up school. Anna handles this very well and you see some very embarrassed young men in the room. Jan talks to them about general health and nutrition, our focus being NCGs non-communicable diseases.

After the boys leave for class I am able to give the girls “Days for Girls” packs (sustainable reuasable femine hygeine packs). When they realise they will not have to stay home each month and suffer teasing and limited school time they get very excited and can’t thank me enough. Many thanks to all the church ladies who sew these packs, they are greatly needed and much appreciated. You are changing lives.

Back at the clinic we are getting lots of requests for sunglasses. The white sand means the reflected sun adds to the normal sunlight and causes problems. Our nurse receives a call that she is required for a meeting in Port Vila. Another case of Island communications. After about an hour back and forth on the phone Henry at Sola gets it all sorted and she is cleared to stay for the tour.

With the people seen and checked we decide to leave after lunch. 20 minutes later we finally extricate our anchor from under a rock. This is common as most anchorages have rocks and bombies that can catch an anchor or chain. We often tie a float on a nylon rope to the anchor shackle to give us another angle of release if required. We always try hard to anchor in clear sand but while water is generally clear there is a lot of overcaste weather and this year it is especially hazy due to volcano activity. Without direct sunlight it is difficult at times to avoid hazards.

Ureparapara

This is a very popular spot for  visiting yachties as who can resist the chance to anchor inside the centre of a volcano. It is awe inspiring even though we have seen it before. It  is so large it is impossible to photograph. We head into Divers Bay and down the far end where we anchor in shallow water off the village.

Everyone comes into the clinic and we are quickly surrounded by villagers. We set up in a thatch Nukamal and school children flock to one end for health education followed by checkups and immunisations.

Everyone wants to help it is easy to get volunteer interpreters.

Schools in these isolated areas are poorly provided for and the small amounts of material we are able to take to them can make a real difference. Thank you to all the wonderful people at Bridgy who donate things for these people. It is great seeing God’s work in action.

This is our first sight of Soloman style canoes.

some unusual architecture here.

 

Market building no longer used.

Hayter Bay

It’s the weekend and we get to spend it in a Paradise. This lovely bay is uninhabited white sandy beaches fringed with coconut trees and the clearest blue waters. Foraging is quite productive with coconuts, coconut crabs, fish and shellfish for lunch, cooked over an open fire.

Hiu – The Top of Vanuatu

We arrive at the furthest most Northern Island of Vanuatu. How remote are they? Well the only visitors they get are us and the occasional copra boats. They are closer to the Solomans than to Sola, Luganville or Port Vila.

Yes, another beautiful picturesque spot to anchor in. This is a good anchorage and quite calm.

Kindly we have been provided with tables and chairs for the clinic. It is lovely and cool under the trees and we have the trade winds blowing in.

Traditionally we start with a word of prayer.

The children are crowding around the dentist! Masang is giving a health education talk about teeth and the children all get a toothbrush, an exciting present for these isolated people.

The view from the lunchroom is worth the visit. Lina cooked us a large lunch of pumpkin in coconut milk, Yam and rice. This is very kind in an area where they were devastated by the cyclone in April and they have to replant all their gardens. This year there has been no fruit as the trees were stripped or destroyed. Vegetables faired better and are replaced quicker.

Her first pair of  glasses. This small gift is life changing as she can safely work in the kitchen and garden again without risking cuts all the time.

The equivalent of a hair salon. Ladies sit in rows so they can do each others hair while chatting in the shade. The girls often have elaborate hair styles of braids.

A short walk across to the other bay is another glorious bay with the whitest white sand and bluest water. This paradise is however spoilt by people’s carelessness. It is littered with thousands of plastic bottles and containers washed up from other places.

 

 

 

 

2017 Vanua Lava

Our next visit was to the Island of Vanua Lava. A larger volcanic island with the usual high mountains in the middle and rocky, or black sand beaches. The black rocks are everywhere and you need to be very careful heading ashore in your dingy.

Our first stop was Vureus Bay.

We had a calm anchorage with black sand which is good holding. Like most places the clinic is placed up in the hills out of the village. We were very excited to have a truck to take us and our gear up the hill. You can see the ocean in the left hand side of the picture.

When we arrived at the clinic we were impressed to see the community had completed a second, concrete building with rooms where sick people could stay and be treated. This was a much needed addition to the old timber building which was very small. Both were clean and in good order. The midwife has been here since last time we visited although she has been transferred to join her husband on Ambae.

We set up on the small verandah expecting a very busy 2 days.However politics interfered and we did not see many patients and packed up early. Masang the dentist is waiting for patients to arrive for clinic.

People put in a lot of effort to come to the clinic, walking from villages many hours away. This lady hobbled in with a walking stick, her joints were so bad her knees went one way and the ankles the other. She had picked up a cold virus like many of the villagers and I had to help her to be able to climb the stairs to get her panadol and advice.

One of the reasons for the new paint and screens on the clinic was evident when we met Luke, a young American in the Peace Corp. He has completed 17 months of a 2 year stay in the village living in this house. The left is the cook house, the right is his bedroom and the centre a living area he built with help from the villagers. It is a great design with the cool open area in the middle attracting breezes. He was assigned to work on a water project for the village but has assisted with health education and maintenance work.

Another black sand, or more accurately gravel beach with small waves washing up making dingy launchings very interesting and sometimes very wet.

Waterfall Bay/Lion Bay

From Vureus bay we sailed on looking forward to Waterfall Bay. We have been here before and swam under the waterfall with the piccininis. We had heard there were disputes leading to changes following Jif Jimmy’s death late last year.

At least he waterfall is still there. We anchored in calm water to the north of the waterfall and were surprised that there was noone on shore at all. Canoes came visiting from around the point were Jif Nixons village is (previous Jif Jimmy).

Previously Jif KirraLee’s village had be situated on the North of the waterfall in the bay next to the anchorage. The crowning glory was a ‘Yacht Club’ where many visiting boats donated flags. The walls were festooned with flags from all around the world. They always provided visiting yachts with a warm welcome and if there were a few they would put on a meal. Now it is all deserted and the families have gone to live with other relatives.

The waterfall was a torrent due to rain the day before so the villagers suggested we dingy around to Lion Bay where we would hold clinic.

This is a pretty spot with reef all around and across the bay with two small openings. naturally we took the wrong one and with hearts in mouth we wound our dingies round bombies and rocks across the bay to the right beach. The aide station had been closed so we had to make do out in the open again. This also meant a busy day as people now have a very long trip to get to any medical attention. There was only one new baby to get immunised which is quite unusual.

After clinic we have half an hour for a quick dip in the waterfall before heading off to Vartop.

Vartop

We enjoyed a lovely sail from Waterfall Bay to Vartop passing a number of these impressive waterfalls. I guess it’s no surprise then that we have had so much overcast weather and lots of misty rain.

Entering between large scattered rocks we land on another black sand beach and walk inland to the village. The Aide post is closed and everyone at Church so we wait and shortly we are surrounded by welcoming people. One lady meets us and tells us she will be preparing lunch and will visit us a little later. The people here are always very keen to see us and they look on our visits as their annual or bi-annual checkup.

Another satisfied customer with glasses. People who have pterigiums are given sunglasses to protect their eyes. They are able to have them treated in Vanuatu now and can be referred to go to Luganville in December. One of the issues with travelling with the copra boats is that they have no idea when the next one is coming They may have to wait a couple of months to get back home.

Lulnetak

As we sailed towards Lulnetak we came across a lovely small island surrounded by white beaches and our anchorage was behind it. We entered the small bay between 2 very long thin areas of reef that offered protection from the swell. Going ashore we had a change from black sand as the beach was covered with ankle twisting small rocks to boulder size. These are very hard to walk upon, but at least we had shoes, the locals do everything bare foot although sometimes they wear slippers (thongs).

We walked inland through a small seaside village along a track through the bush to the next village.An enjoyable walk across a stream through the lush vegetation of a country with rich volcanic soil and plentiful rains.

As the path opened out to the next village we came across their copra drying kiln.

This was a very hot fire under a sheet of iron that supported the coconut pieces.

Sacks of dried copra were stored at the side ready to be transported to the beach for collection by the copra boats. This is still the main source of income for many villagers and it was heartening to hear that the price had gone up to $300 per ton.

This was a clean well organised village with industrious villagers.

No having to sit on fallen trees here; the villagers brought the homemade pews out of the church for us to use. That made life much easier and we even got a small table to use and they allowed Dr Franz to use the church and the dentists the nukemal. They were really happy to see us.

Pharmacist Jean-Francios had us amazed by a concert he had the children singing and clapping! The surprise was at the end of it he gave them all what looked like a lollie – it turned out to be their worming tablet. The kids loved them!

Going back to the boats we had lots of help to carry the equipment and even our own bags. The people are so kind and generous.

With such a lovely calm safe anchorage we all had a good night sleep and did not miss the swells at all! Next morning at dawn it was time to head off to Sola for the weekend. Sola is the province capital and a government town with offices including immigration and customs, and health. There is a large regional police presence and we noted the police boat is still broken.

We expected after five years to see a few changes but Sola looks  very much the same. Some of the government offices have swapped around but not much else seems to have happened.

One of the local shops with the roof held down with anything heavy they can find. The shops are closed either on Saturday or Sunday depending on which church the owners go to. There is a large SDA community here so it is different walking down the street to find most of the shops closed, although some open at 6pm when Sabbath is finished.

The hospital doesn’t seem much changed but is a little better fitted out. We were pleased to meet an old friend Santhy who is now running an eye clinic at the hospital. He has received extra training in Fiji and has a lovely set of testing lenses. However there is nowhere to get prescription glasses made so it is not much benefit. As we have seen previously glasses are given out mostly by age. He and Mike and spent a lot of time discussing eye testing and he was excited to see our simple eye-tester. We are hoping to be able to obtain one for him. A huge benefit is that they have an operating theatre where they can do Pterygiums and where a team come and do cataracts. This is a great help in a country where the sun is so harsh.

It was strange to find that they had arranged for us to do a clinic at the hospital. We had expected the dentists to work as there are no dentists this far north.

2017 Gaua Island

Dolup is located on another small bay with rocks and black sand or pebbles.

Mike is doing a great job testing eyes and dispensing glasses.

Anna the nurse and Jean Francious the pharmacist set up in a room of the clinic. The old clinic has two rooms and a dispensery area with drugs and the fridge for vaccinations.

This is a typical village that we see around the islands. Most of the villagers live in one or two room huts with walls made from bamboo split and woven then attached to a frame of saplings. The roof is framed from saplings and covered in thatch which is made from the leaves of a nut tree. Leaves are looped over and sewn in place. These sheets are then put on the roof with much overlapping which keeps the houses watertight. I saw lots that did not even leak in the cyclone. These huts are used for sleeping mostly with living outdoors and separate cooking huts.

We see more and more toilets around the villages with many different designs.

Bushman’s Bay

Bushman’s Bay is a very small village without any close surrounding villages. They are very friendly and don’t get many visitors. It is not a very good anchorage as a swell tends to roll in although the sand seemed good holding.

They do not have a clinic or an aide station or even a first aide person in the village so we set up whereever we could find somewhere to sit. Coconut trees get hard after a while! The people here don’t have a shop and eat food from their gardens, chickens and fish and consequently we did not see many diet related problems.

A new style in Dentist Chair

Lean back on this coconut tree and have your teeth pulled. Nothing upsets our dentist Marsang.

Anna and Stephen sticking piccaninnies with their Immunisations working off a mat on the black sand.

The team in light blue shirts and most of the village.

Losa Lava

Losa Lava is the largest village on Gaua with many different areas owned by custom owners. Again we tucked in close to shore to try and stay out of the swell. We had a reasonably comfortable night.

We saw some unusual buildings including a couple of 2 storey huts.

They have an old water system with these upstands and pumps, however the water is not good enough to drink and the redcross are adding drinking water taps piped from a river high up in the mountains.

There are small garden plots like this close to the village. here they have Taro Manioc Island Cabbage and yams.

The clinic has not changed much in 5 years and we were dissapointed to see the same rotting verandah, the solar that Mike and Brian had worked on was not working again, the screens were broken after only 2 years but we receive a warm welcome.

Lots of vaccinations were done by Anna.

Mike, Brian and apprentice spent hours repairing faults in the solar system so the vaccination fridge would work. In the end the main fault was in the cable and we did not have a heavy cable of sufficient strength to replace it. It was left for Stephen to attempt to get the health department to replace it.

 

 

 

 

 

2017 Banks Group

Mere Lava

Well we are finally heading north into the boondocks these areas are quite isolated and quite poor and underserviced. Our first journey is to Mere Lava and what a sail, we left at 3:30am and arrived very wet and messy at 4:30. Although swells were bout 2 meters at times it was like tossed and turned in a washing machine with waves coming from all directions. The first couple of hours were quiet with motors running then the Wind came in just over 20 knots so we could get the sails working.

We arrived at the South East corner of Mere Lava to hear the welcome like this to find that our anchorage was just inshore of our position. Thinking we will be sleeping in the washing machine we hastily pulled in fishing lines, started motors and dropped sails and headed straight for the steep rocky shore.  There are 2 anchors painted on the rocks that tell you where to anchor so we headed for those and dropped anchor about 75 metres from shore giving us a large two boat lengths gap between us and the rocks. And what rocks many are over a metre high interspersed with smaller ones.

Bellowing out from the hidden village in the trees way above we heard the welcoming boom of the conshell. This traditional greeting and warning to the villagers of strangers approaching is made by blowing into a large shell that has a hole drilled into the side of it. Then shortly we heard voices yelling and saw people waving from halfway up the cliff shortly followed by the piccininis down on the rocks near the shore. You certainly know you are welcome here.

With the waves breaking just metres away we spent a restless night however we were pleased that the anchorage was fairly comfortable and we certainly were no heading out to go anywhere else. We set alarms and found that the anchor was holding fast and we were staying put. After a restless night, we woke a 4 to find Another Angel 2 had arrived and anchored just to the north.

Next morning the real adventure started, how to get ashore with all those big rocks, through the surf and then to get up the cliff to the village. The answer to the first is you jump up onto the rocks from the dingy. Simple! After you pick a good spot, time the waves correctly, throw your boxes and bags up to others and grab a hand of a friendly local. Then you.. clamber over 200 metres of rocks to the shore, then more rocks to the path above. Next you climb a steep muddy path luckily with lots of tree routes making flatter spots and wind up through the beautiful green forest until you come to the ….lava flow. This is an experience as the rocks are hard and sharp and when the lava flowed down from the volcano it leaves ridges.  Luckily I had Luke’s (a local villager) strong arm to help me through this or it would have been done on all fours. Then there is more mud/rock path and we end up at the cemetery. Then just up another 10 metres is the main common area of the village.

We should be standing on the side of the cliff but the villagers have two large flat level areas cut out of the mountain and filled with gravel. These areas contain the church and community buildings. We set ourselves us in two thatch buildings to carry out clinic. It is surprising to find there are other villages and we see people from them as well.

We see friends we met five years ago and met lots of others. They have a school up to year 6, after which the children have to go to another island and board to receive further education. Many people leave and go to the bigger islands to get work but come back here when they are older.

They get coastal traders, copra boats, in irregularly but usually 3-6 months apart. This is where they get any clothes and items they don’t make. Imagine placing an order for a t-shirt for your baby only to get it when they are six months old. We give out clothes, hats, kindy and school packs and a soccer ball. You should see the smiles.

Children lining up for dental check. Nurse practitioner Stephen in foreground.

We head back to the yachts after clinic and a track that was difficult becomes treacherous, then we are reminded of our age as the children come running past us gathering our boy into their midst and disappearing down the path.

2017 Merig Island

Merig

Next morning we head back out into the white capped seas in search of a smaller, more remote island jutting out of the sea surrounded by large rocks. This Island does not have a beach or dingy landing at all. The waves pound the rocks and large water spouts shoot up all around. It seems impossible to get ashore. It is a case of jumping and throwing bags, trusting the villagers to catch you.

The villages call Brian to go ashore in a new place which is a tiny inlet surrounded by rocks. It proves to be easier once you get in but navigating the rocks is like going through a mine field.

They just get unloaded as a huge swell sweeps in lifting Brian and dingy up in the air, would have been very nasty if someone was in the middle of getting off. The team see to the 25 villages living on the island. We are about the only people they see.

What amazing dingy work by Brian to do this trip 4 times safely dropping off 7 people and all their equipment.

Ratua

Another Angel 2 joined us in Luganville outside Beachside Resort. They had a week before they were ready to leave for the next clinic so we decided to go somewhere for a couple of days. We heard that Ratua Private Island is welcoming yachties in contradiction to what we had previously heard so we decided to have a look.

It is a very beautiful resort with buildings imported from Asia. They were very welcoming and we enjoyed sundowners on the beach.

t

Sunsets were lovely and the resort was never crowded in the common areas.

There is a lovely beach and coming from it a long reef studded with coral, anenomies, sponges and lots of colourful fish darting around. Some of the best snorkelling we have had in some time. 

There is no shortage of colourful clown fish including some very small baby fish and quite a variety of everything. Homeschooling has reached a new level when we go snorkelling for PE!

We also took the opportunity to visit the SDA school opposite on Arore Island. They have around 400 students most who board there. It is quite a complex with their own workshop farm and chicken coops.

Vanuatu 2017 – Between Clinics Santo

Palakula Bay – Santo Island

After Penticost we decided to stop at Palakula on our way to Luganville. Very close to Luganville this is a lovely bay with long sandy beaches and a large bomby for snorkelling.

 

Oyster Island 21-27 August

Spending time between clinics is always easy to do. We decided to go to one of our favourite spots Paterson Bay where the Oyster Island Resort is based. Unfortunately it is part of the change we are seeing more and more of. Purchased by the Chinese it is closed and awaiting a change from a local low key resort offering day trippers and yachties a place to call in for a meal, drink and wi-fi to a high class resort for chinese people. There is even talk of a causeway to connect it to Santo which would be a real shame as this is one of the few anchorages suggested for cyclones.

The boys took advantage of the calm waters to have some fun in the dingy and on the paddle board.

We promised them fun the next day and set off with dingy and kyak up the river to the beautiful blue hole. The trip up the river is awesome with clean water running between rocks, mangroves and forest.

The blue hole is still lovely although slightly cloudy due to a recent earthquake. They have added a platform with a low rope swing which the boys soon took full advantage of until they saw the big one off the Banyan tree on the other side. They then spent hours climbing the tree and seeing how high and how far they could go.

We decided to take Shekinah up to the North end of the bay and visit Turtle Bay Lodge. Situated on a rocky point there is a rocky shallow area great for exploring at low tide. We stayed in the bay as the bay was lovely and calm.

Aese Island

On our way back to Luganville we decided to drop by Aese Island for a snorkel on the big bombie and to see how the landing barge full of anenomies and soft coral had fared. The wreck had deteriorated a lot, loosing most of one side since our last visit. We were pleased to see that it was still like a underwater wonderful with all the anemomies waving in the waves and lots of small fish darting all around.

2017 Penticost Clinics

Bwatnapwi

We arrived Friday and were expecting Brian Jan and the team Friday night. We headed ashore to look around and were met by the school girls who have an early finish on Fridays so they can walk back to their villages. That night we were able to go across to Another Angel 2 and reunite with Brian Jan and Masang and meet the rest of the team.

 

 

Saturday afternoon clinic Amy teacher

Despite the increased prosperity we saw on Penticost the clinic was still quite basic and not very clean.

 

We take most of our own equipment from pharmaceuticals, blood pressure and sugar testing equipment to our own dentist’s chair. Most  unusually this clinic was close to the beach so we did not have to carry our equipment far.

Sunday morning we got up to a normally overcast day and headed ashore to give the boys their first exposure to church in the villages. This one was Anglican and carried out in Bislama and English. The school children were running the service and lead the singing quite beautifully. Even the songs in English were hard to follow and looking across from my side of the room into the male domain the boys didn’t seem to be joining in. Unfortunately, the local priest had a tendency to mumble so I only picked up some of the Bislama sermon.

Sunday afternoon clinic was fairly quiet which gave us a chance to get used to the system again. PYM are still using the registration slips I designed in 2011 and I was back in the old groove taking blood pressure after blood pressure. Mike and the boys replaced the insect screening on the maternity clinic which was in very poor condition. We have limited supplies so just did the worst area.

Back at the boat Kynan and I had a jump or two off the boat and a quick swim. I cooked dinner and we went over to Another Angel 2 to join the others for a singalong and chat and meal.

Monday clinic

As the local school had recently had an Ent nurse inspect all the children Batterson, our ENT nurse, together with his assistance Kynan and Masang, one of the dentists, decided to go up to the clinic in the hills to do the 3 schools there. There was a death in one of the villages so the school closed and the children missed out on clinic.

Back in Bwatnapwi we had a busy day at the clinic.

 

Mike took time out to visit the village. A barge had arrived carrying a drilling rig to provide a bore for the villages. Currently the were collecting water from the river and a tiny well in the rocks on the beach.  The new well was in place in half a day. There have been a number of previous water projects here including pipes running from the hills, however without maintenance they stopped working.

Tuesday we were taken up the hills in a truck where we were welcomed to the clinic.

The proved a very busy day with around 90 patients, meaning about 85 blood pressures…but I had a couple of assistants for a while.

Brian Mike and I walked through the village up a hill, through the school, and through the bush taking the shortcut to the clinic.

We stopped in at the Nukemal to visit and a couple of local women were weaving baskets. Baskets on Penticost have their own special designs and often include brightly colour patterns or letters and tassels. They are make out of Panda (Pandanus) leaves cut into strips during the weaving process.

The clinic is the usual concrete block building half painted blue in the government colours. Quite a number of people were waiting in the yard and under a tree. This included the Grade 1 class from the school.  Other classes dropped in during the day to have their ears checked.

We walked down to the school for lunch and the children were fascinated by Daniella and her blond hair. She was like a modern day Pied Piper. This primary school looked like many other we see but the main language is French. Supplies are few and children spend much time copying things of the blackboard consequently they usually have lovely neat writing.

 

Mike took over charge of the glasses, checking eyes and dispensing from our supplies donated by Lions Clubs in Australia.

Jan gave the children coloured cloth bags which they really appreciated.

I had a new helper with the blood pressures this local girl wanted to do the writing for me. She was fascinated by the machine and like all toddlers wanted to push the buttons.

 

One teenager came in from the bush with blood running down his leg. I took him into the nurses to check it out. The room they were using was too small and dark for treatment so they brought him out onto the verandah, sitting on the edge of the dirty concreate with his foot on the grass. It turned out that a piece of tree had broken off inside the cut and had to be removed. Unfortunately the clinic did not have a pair of forceps! Luckily the dentists were there and Catherine borrowed some clamps from them. They were a little large but Daniella was able to remove the last remnant by irrigating with saline, which they had at the clinic.

This was one of the nicest walks we have done. The forest is beautiful and the volcanic rocks make a spectactular contrast. It was quite unusual to see the building built amongst the rocks. Most villages are set in a large cleared grassy area.

 

 

Vanuatu 2017

Well it’s been a few years but with lots of family issues behind us it is time to head back to Vanuatu on Shekinah. We will again be joining PYM for some of the clinics and helping where and when we can so the isolated villagers can receive this vital health service.

Crossing Brisbane to Port Vila

Friday 21^st July 2017

Allan arrived early to join us and we finished stowing everything away. Border patrol arrived at 8am and completed paperwork checked passports and cleared us to leave Australia. Ian and Min arrived with Henry and Amber with a special cake to say goodbye. Left after morning tea and the children had climbed all over the boat and Henry did his inspection.

Usually leaving the coast there are a lot of fishing vessels and ships. With this in mind we have replaced the radar and teamed it with a plotter and AIS. This year it was fairly quite with few ships. As previous years had seen us with very unfavourable weather we decided to consult weather guru, Met Bob, who created a route to provide us with a better crossing. The route was designed to take us straight East not heading north for a few days to avoid a large high pressure system with little wind.

We started out in light winds and the first night these increased to about 20 knots allowing us to sail along making about 9 knots. However after that we skirted the edge of the high pressure and spent a lot of time motoring. In fact we learnt a lot about sailing Shekinah in light winds, trying different to take a sail configurations. We were quite happy with her performance and enjoyed some very nice sailing, but it looks like we might need to get a light weather sail.

There is only so much tweaking you can do and soon the books came out. One boring day we planned training program for potential crew.

1. Stand in front of a fan and have buckets of cold water thrown at you for a few hours.
2. Sit in a chair on the beach staring out to sea for a couple of days.
3. Turn off your phone TV and computer for 10 days and only talk to people every 3 hours
4. Sit on a bucking bronc machine with water splashing in your face.

One morning on watch I saw an AIS target which turned out to be a supertanker which crossed our track about 6 miles North. It was so large we could see it for a long time. South East of New Caledonia a scan of the horizon left me in shock as I saw a small whale doing a breach. The a pod of them swam south right past us. Unfortunately they were not close enough  to take photos.

Mike had an interesting watch  when in the middle of the night he saw bright lights ahead. Keeping a watch another two sets appeared on the horizon. There was nothing showing on AIS but the radar showed 2 ships. Shortly there were 7 sets of lights around us and two turned on their AIS. Every cent spent on the radar and AIS proved worthwhile while we meandered through what we assumed to be a fishing fleet out of New Caledonia.

It was nice to have a crossing with no damage to the boat, we didn’t even need to cover the plates on the shelves.