A day in Paradise - aka Epi Island

Nov. 4, 2008

As you recall a few days ago Dennis wrote and talked about Kava and said someone else would tell you about the rest of that day? Well, here it is, finally. Hope the sequence of days you are receiving aren't too out of order.

After a stressful evening watch, my six hour sleep gave me a whole new outlook as I prepared to tackle my next watch at 3am. Dennis and Rita had had an uneventful watch and Natasha was set so we started out stress free. It was a star filled night with a crescent moon, light winds and no big swells, so everyone was happy, including the people who were trying to sleep below. It was one of our best watches ever. By 4:30 am the sky was starting to lighten up and we could see that we were running
parallel to one of the Vanuatu islands. The trip from Port Vila to Epi Island should be 80 nautical miles.

It was so calm and quiet and peaceful and at approx. 5 am we saw a beautiful sunrise (some at home might say my first one, ha ha) coming up over the mountain. We had dropped our boat speed down to 2 kts so we put up the Genoa and off we went again. By 6:30 am everyone was awake and we all took turns uuwing and ahing (are those words?) about the beautiful scenery ahead. I was not tired so I stayed up for the french toast Dennis had prepared.

By 7:30 am we were anchored in Lamen Bay at Epi Island. From the boat this island looked mostly uninhabited and all we could see was a few small one story buildings, a long spanse of beautiful beach, a few volcanoes and rainforest covering most of the island. What a gorgeous place to spend a day ! (or a week) It was hot already, with a small breeze which gave some relief. A bigger relief would be a swim in the beautiful azure blue water and it was all there for the taking. We swam to the nearest
reef to snorkel. I was impressed with the coral formations and all the fish. You could swim through channels with 10 - 20 ft walls of coral on either side. A massive head of brain coral, some reindeer coral and many other types with colored tips, names which I didn't know. I surface to hear Dennis screaming. There are dolphins over here - two of them! He sounds winded and I take off as quickly as I can in his direction but to my disappointment they were gone. He was still breathing quite
heavily when I got there. I wonder if he thought they were sharks?? We were all totally pumped now and were hoping they would return to the bay. In the meantime others from our boat were discovering giant sea turtles all over the place. Some were feeding on the plankton at the bottom, so we could watch them for a long time. Others swam by quite quickly.

We all took a break and went on board. Suddenly Rita spotted something. A brownish, arched back surfaces. Maybe the dolphins are back. No, it's not a dolphin, dolphins would be grey, it must be a dugong. We read that they frequent this bay. That must be what swam by Dennis earlier. It disappeared underwater and then would resurface again a few hundred feet closer to us. Cress was in the dinghy checking out the coral reefs so we yelled at him to come back, giving him directions as to where
to see the dugong. People jumped off the boat left and right, swimming furiously in the direction of the spotting. It was angling towards shore. By then Rita and I were in the dinghy with Cress. A dinghy with a motor should be faster than the crazy men out there swimming! What were they thinking? Dennis stayed on the boat wildly shaking his arms all over the place, giving us directions. Both arms pointing straight out and ahead, he looked like he was bringing an airplane into a terminal!
My view from the dinghy showed total chaos! At this point Rita and Cress also went overboard. "It's right there in front of you", Dennis yells!

Okay, now it's decision time. Do I also jump in with my goggles on and take the chance that the dinghy will float away or do I do the responsible thing, stay in the dinghy and miss an opportunity of a lifetime ? !! I grabbed my goggles and the dinghy rope, jumped in and pulled the dinghy with me with my head under water. That's when I realized I had not turned off the motor... but it was in neutral, so singa nalinga !(no worries in Fijian lingo) Besides, I had other more important matters at hand.
There it was - about 40 feet in front of me! A large grey, very large grey sea cow swimming away from me. I wanted to see it, yes, but I didn't want a close personal encounter so this was good ! I preferred to see his backside than meeting him face to face!

Back on the sailboat there was much chatter and excitement. Everyone of us had seen the dugong from varying distances. That, together with swimming with giant sea turtles and snorkeling the reef made this day a huge success and it wasn't even noon yet. There would be more to come. What a great decision on Cress' part to take a little detour to Epi Island.

Now we decided it was time to explore the island. All six of us hopped into the dinghy and headed for shore. I drove and was razzed that I was driving the dinghy just as "straight" as the sailboat ! And to think I have to put up with these people another 3 weeks ! :) The minute I stepped foot on Epi Island I knew I would have many great picture opportunities. What a gorgeous place! Turquoise water, black (well greyish) sand, colorful fishing boats on shore, huge trees and lots of flowers.
We thought if we were lucky we could buy a a cold beer or have some lunch with/from the villagers. One of the 1st women I met was standing next to an old wooden table which was next to a primitive looking shack. She had cooked a massive pot of rice (enough to feed a small army) and was dishing it into large bowls to be distributed throughout the village. I also noticed a school in the distance. I asked her how many people lived in the village and she didn't know but she said she was in charge
of cooking all the rice and it was a lot.

In the meantime, the rest of the crew had found a building that looked like a local "food gathering" place or maybe a restaurant. Then I saw a sign stating Vanuatu Tusker beer, rum, Fanta and Sprite, so we knew we were in the right place. A woman come in and when I asked her if we could buy drinks, she said we had to wait for Tasso, the manager. Tasso ran 4 bungalows rentals for tourists and the restaurant. He told us they had caught a lot of lobster this morning which were suppose to be a welcome
dinner for some Japanese tourists. Turns out they would not be coming tonight, would we care to come for lobster tonight? Well, it took about 2 seconds to decide. What could be better than a fresh lobster dinner cooked in a traditional Ni-Vanuatu village by the local people? We were to come back at 5 pm for "frozen" beers, as Tasso called them, and some Kava and then dinner. I looked around the group and it seemed like a few of them were a lot more excited about drinking the "dishwater" than
I was.

Tasso asked us if we wanted a tour of his yard, which was just behind the restaurant. He had a pineapple orchard - pineapples 10 pounds in size, the likes I had never seen before. He also grew vanilla beans, Kava, pommelo fruit (like oranges) Ni-Vanuatu cabbage, papaya, mango and more. We would be enjoying many of these freshly picked tonight. We went back to the boat excited that this wasn't a commercialized island but one of very traditional villagers that we could interact with for a day.

Back to the boat for naps (for most) and some more snorkeling for me. I was very tired but I couldn't bear the thought of losing the few precious hours we had left. Besides, deep down I was hoping to see another dugong or some more turtles.

We arrived for pre-dinner beer at 5 pm and found out from Tasso that we needed to have Kava before beer and before dinner. I had already tried a small amount in Fiji and it tasted terrible (kinda like jagbombs!) and had no effect on me so I didn't see the point but then I thought about what a crew "bonding event" this could be. It reminded me of when my curling team was in Grafton, ND and we had to have a team bonding tequila shooter and how I hated the taste of tequila !! So I decided not to
be a party pooper. Dennis has already written about the Kava experience so I won't get into it here.

We sat outside, had a cocktail and watched a gorgeous sunset before dinner. The the evening feast included two very large platters of lobsters (10 for 6 people), yam patties, island cabbage, fruit kabobs, a very large sliced pineapple, like we'd seen in Tasso's garden earlier, and lemon meringue pie !! Talk about a feast ! All this for 1000 Vatu ($10.00) per person! The Japanese' loss was definitely our gain !

It's 10:30 pm and the boat is completely quiet. The only sound I hear is the occasional splash of a jumping fish or a curious turtle. It has been a very long, absolutely perfect day starting at 3 am. I'm not sure why I'm staying awake since I haven't slept all day but I think I needed some time to reflect. I am sitting in the cockpit with my headlamp on and everything beyond my light is pitch black. The crescent moon is visible, the only thing providing light tonight as the stars are blanketed
by the clouds. There is a nice breeze and as I sit here wondering how to describe this exceptional day, I hear music coming from ashore, the crystal clear sounds of a guitar and the occasional heavy breathing from below as everyone else is fast asleep. Does life get any better than this?

The prairie girl at sea !