As some of you know, Mrs. R and I are currently sailing around the Pacific in our little 37 foot sailboat, Reflections. I thought it was about time I started sharing some of our adventures with my family here. Hopefully, this will be the first of many diaries that I'll share with you in the future!
In April of last year, we left Hawaii and headed south to the atolls of the Tuamotus in French Polynesia. We sailed on to the Society Islands, Tahiti, Moorea, Huahini, Bora Bora. From there we made a stop at Suwarrow in the Northern Cook Islands, on to the Samoas, a quick stop in Tuvalu before sailing north to the Marshall Islands to avoid cyclone season in the South Pacific.
We spent 5 months in the Marshall Islands, and we have to say, we didn't much care for our time there. The weather there was horrendous with torrential rains and winds that blew 25-35kts for the first 2 1/2 months we were there. Something was missing from Majuro that we love so much about our visits to other island nations, culture. We felt much of the original culture of the Marshallese people has been lost. They have been ruled by so many different countries over the years that their culture, at least in Majuro, seems to be lost forever. With extremely high unemployment and overpopulation we didn't find many happy faces there. Paradise it wasn't!
We had decided to leave the Marshall's as soon as cyclone season came to an end in the South Pacific. Our plan was to sail directly to the southern end of the Vanuatu Island chain and spend the rest of the season sailing north and exploring the islands of Vanuatu and then continuing north to the Solomon Islands. Studying past weather and wind conditions, we expected an easy 1690 mile passage with light winds off the beam and mild seas. We were in for one big surprise!! It turned out to be the worst passage we've had in over 33,000 miles of sailing.
We had a great sail for the first few days, but only a few hours after crossing the equator, we started to encounter squalls. Moderate at first, but by the time we were around 12 degrees south, they became severe and down right dangerous. Weather reports were not helping us much. In fact, they seem to be enticing us to continue on with the prospect of finally sailing away from squalls that never seemed to end.
We were at 4 degrees south when we finally received a weather report that even mentioned thunderstorms, even though we had been experiencing them for 2 days. The report said "Isolated moderate thunderstorms north of 6S west of 170 east. We thought "Great only 120 miles to go and we'll be out of these". Unfortunately, the following days report was "north of 8", followed by "north of 11", followed by "north of 13", then 15. It was an imaginary line we could never cross!
Somewhere around 13 south, in the middle of a huge squall, some 20 miles in diameter with lightning, we were hit with a shotgun blast of wind that had be 60 knots, possibly more. For the prior 48 hours, one of us had been sitting in the companionway with one hand on the main sheet to ease the mainsail if we were hit by a strung gust of wind. I was on watch when the blast hit. The wind shifted 60 degrees and before I could even open my hand to let the main sheet go, we were knocked down, hard. The boat was heeled over 90 degrees, the boom and mainsail were in the water and the dodger, over the companionway, was now being used as a dive mask! Fortunately the whole event probably didn't last for more than 2 seconds, but it seemed like an eternity. The following photos were taken early on, shortly after crossing the equator.
Things you don't want to see on your radar screen! This is a small one in comparison to many we endured.
There is almost a sinister beauty to these things. This one was only a few miles in diameter, but had nearly perfect symmetry. Ones this size are fairly easy to avoid.
Join me below the fold and I'll show you why we do these things!
As bad as this passage was, making landfall immediately starts to erase those images and memories from your mind. We made landfall on the southernmost island of Vanuatu, Anatom or Aneityum depending on which chart you look at. We took about a week to decompress from our passage before making our way up to the next island in the chain, Tanna. It will forever be remembered as one of the highlights of our cruising experiences. Join me for a few photos!
The anchorage at Port Resolution. Reflections is the boat on the right. At the time Cook and Bligh were here, the anchorage was over 100 feet deep. Today, due to volcanic activity and an uplifting of the sea floor, the entire anchorage is about 15 feet deep.
Our first steps on land revealed a tropical paradise.
As we walked through the village we felt like we were in a mystical world that time had forgotten.
There must have been at least 100 homes here. Only one building we saw used any type of concrete construction.
You won't find any electric lights or running water here! There were a few solar panels that ran a small pump that provided water for the village.
Technology has just started to make inroads here. Cellular phone towers have been erected on the island and even these villagers now have cell phones. A frequent request of the local people was asking the cruisers to recharge their phones.
Homes are still built the same way they have been for hundreds of years
New home construction! Definitely using renewable products!
The smiling, friendly faces of the Vanuatu people have made our time in Vanuatu amazing. We think the are the friendliest, happiest, most generous people in the world.
A view from the ocean side of the village
One of the main attractions on Tanna, and one of primary reasons for stopping here, is the Mt Yasur volcano. Supposedly, this is the most accessible volcano in the world. I know I've never been close to an erupting volcano than this one! And Frankly, this was plenty close enough! You can actually stand on the very edge of the crater and look straight down into the volcano. It was one of the most spectacular events of nature we have ever witnessed. You would never be allowed within 5 miles of this volcano if it were in the United States.
We spent a total of nearly 5 hours at the volcano. We only have a few photos of the volcano erupting. It's difficult to get good photos when you never know when an eruption is going to happen. But, we made up for it with some great video footage. Credit to Mrs. R for the all photos and video footage!
The park entrance to Mt. Yasur volcano.
The walkway to the rim of the volcano.
The backside of the volcano and the plain where all the ash falls.
An explosion of gas while the sun was still up
Another big explosion at dusk. Some of the lava bombs thrown out were landing within 100 yards of where we were standing!
This was taken from a video clip of a spectacular eruption!
Below is my first attempt at a movie. For a first attempt, I think it came out really well! I suspect after this gets widespread acclaim, Hollywood will be contacting me. It's comprised of many different clips taken during our 5 hours at Mt. Yasur. Special thanks to sailing vessel Mokisha who accompanied us on the trip and provided some of the video clips below. Make sure you turn your volume up!
Hope you enjoyed your visit to the Island of Tanna, Vanuatu and the Mt. Yasur volcano as much as we did!!
We're currently in Port Vila, Vanuatu and our future plans have us spending another 6 to 8 weeks exploring the other islands of Vanuatu and then sailing north to the Solomon Islands. At that point we're not sure yet whether we'll spend cyclone season in the Solomon Islands, or sail on to Papua New Guinea and then on to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and other places in South East Asia. One thing for sure, cruising plans are always written in the sand at the low water mark and are subject to change in a moments notice!
Cheers!