Vanuatu Archives - Page 6 of 9

We had stayed in Port Sandwich another day due to the fact of liking the place so much. There really isn’t much here apart from a couple of simple villages and lots of friendly locals. We took the dingy out in the morning as we were going to try and get up one of the rivers that ran from the harbour inlet. Despite our best efforts we couldn’t see any safe passage into them and some we couldn’t even find, i think the locals were the only ones who knew the safe routes so we left it to them.

Me and Brian thought we would try some fishing as there had to be some fish in this inlet. We trawled behind the boat and after a while got a bite but nothing came of it. A few minutes later and the reel was spinning franticly, i started pulling it in but after a while i had the feeling it was lost. I pulled the lure in and it had been smashed nearly in half with loads of teeth marks all down it. We have no idea what it was and never will but could well have been a Barracuda.

port sandwich vanuatu — The one that got away !!

We tried fishing a bit more but no luck. We did find out why the kids never jumped from the jetty or swam by the shore though, the inlet was apparantly a breeding ground for sharks. Might stop the fishing until we get out into the ocean tomorrow. We also found out that we were only the second yacht in this year, the first being a yacht owned by two French couples who came from New Caledonia, they had only arrived a day before us. It was the start of the yacthing season according to ‘Rocky’. He was a nice guy who had a house nearby, yachties would visit him when in the area, he had an English and French book exchange and you could fill up with some water and use his showers if you wanted. He said he was going to start a yacht club there. Him and his wife had a few huts in the grounds of his house and looked like keen gardeners, they had a large variety of plants and flowers along with chickens/hens/cats, the normal stuff that people kept in their gardens. Poraic noticed a photo of a girl and next to it an Irish address – turns out the girl lives next door to a friend of his !! Small world.

We leave for Port Stanly tomorrow morning, a days sail of around 30 miles.

After a great nights sleep we up’d anchor and left Epi around 9 o’clock. The island of Malekula was only about 25 miles away so would only take 4-5 hours at most. The sun was shinning and there was a good breeze, the seas were still slightly choppy but it wouldn’t take us long.

We arrived towards Malekula and it was another very green and lush island with lots of coconut and banana plantations. The anchorage was at Port Sandwich, named after the Earl of Sandwich for some reason. It was a beautiful place, only a small jetty and no real sign of life.

A few people started to turn up and were filling the jetty up with goods, we later found out that a boat was coming in later that night on its way to another island. There were thatching roof panels, fruit and vegtables, disgruntalled pigs in boxes, chickens, you name it it was stacked high on the jetty.

We went for a walk into the town on the dirt road and yet again met loads of friendly people, even though everybody seem to be carrying a machete !! Even the youngest kids were chopping up a coconut or breaking into something using this weapon. We walked past loads of houses and everybody yelled out ‘Hello’ or ‘Hi’ as they saw us.

We saw one man who was cooking something above a large oven, we went over to him and asked what he was doing. He was drying out and cooking coco nuts. He would take the nuts out of the plant and leave them to dry for 9 days and then cook them for 3 days above the home made oven. They then got shipped out to one of the bigger islands where they were no doubt transported to somewhere else. I don’t suppose he saw much of the money for his work.

After walking for sometime we came to the end of the road where the local school was just letting out., a lot of the school kids followed us down the path back to the boat all happy and jokey. Not sure how many boats came into this anchorage but we did seem like a bit of a novalty !!

Travelling the world by sea……..(and a bit of land)

SimonTheSailor

Category Archives: Vanuatu

Port Sandwich Vanuatu

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Malekula Vanuatu

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Travelling the world by sea……..(and a bit of land)

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