After a roly poly night and a pretty tense morning, with a strong wind blowing and large swells throwing us about, Captain Cress maneuvered us into the tranquil waters of Port Resolution, Tanna Island, Vanuatu on Tuesday, October 28. The sail took us 4 days in total. We only saw one other ship along the way from Fiji. What a lovely little piece of Paradise Tanna Island is. Calm waters, lush green hills, palms swaying in the gentle breeze... There are several small villages and a school with 150
students from K to Gr. 8. The people are very poor, with little more than their small hut, garden, and a few animals. But they are very friendly and welcoming. And the scenery is breathtaking! The village of Port Resolution is preparing for a week long celebration (150th anniversary of the Presbyterian Church) and they expect 1000 visitors from all over Vanuatu. As we walked by, we could see women sweeping or raking their dirt paths or cutting their grass (with machetes).
While on Tanna, we met several other yachters/cruisers. What a friendly, helpful community they are! Our second day there, we took a truck ride up to Mt. Yasur, one of the world's most accessible, active volcanoes. We were fortunate, as the evening was clear so visibility was excellent. After a very bumpy ride we walked the last 100 or so metres to the top of the volcano. As darkness enveloped us, we saw not one, but two caldera, each spewing red hot lava. Occasionally, there would be a large,
thundering thud and huge pieces of molten lava, some the size of cars, would catapult skyward. We can hardly wait to show off and share our many photos and videos. It really was like watching a special National Geographic programme, except this was in real life! I am a great fan of Vancouver's summer fireworks displays on English Bay, but this was so much more fantastic!! We all felt very privileged to witness this amazing wonder of Nature!
The next morning we set sail for Port Vila, Efate Island. It was a "robust" sail of about 24 hours. We will likely stay in Port Vila till Tuesday morning. If you ask any of us, "Was it worth it?" you would get a resounding "YES" (with maybe just a tad less enthusiasm from our Captain who got no sleep last night)!
Life on board has been so much fun! We newbies worry that we must be driving poor Cress to distraction because we are just so slow to "get it", but he is an amazing captain and teacher!! We try to make up a little for what we lack in sailing savy by feeding the crew decently. But even that varies from pretty darned good meals to barely being able to pour water from the kettle into the coffee pot! But I guess that's life -- it can't all be smooth sailing!
Life is good!
Rita
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