The locals have left us alone today. Carrying on with their village life. We could hear them this morning chopping down some trees. Maybe to make a canoe or build another house.
The memories of rainy days and high winds last week are fading away as we stare into the clear water at the shells on the seabed 15m below us. There is a large school of 150mm long squid surrounding Imagine. There dark colour quickly changing. Flashing blue and green to attracted their pray. Then darting at it and capturing it in their tenticles. As soon as we enter the water they turn transparent and swim away.
After swimming in the warm clear water. Laying on deck, not a cloud in the sky. The sun trying warm me as the slight cooling breeze caresses every inch of my body drying the droplets of water still on my back.
Emma spending the day laying in her hammock reading and being rocked by the small movement of Imagine. With the sunshade up she is also taking advantage of the gental breeze to cool off.
The sound of twitter (no not that electronic Internet app). The original twitter, the sound of birds in the trees. The sound of gentle waves rushing over the Coral reef and on to the shore. The distant chatter of children playing in their canoes. So peaceful.
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It wasn’t until 9am that the interaction started. We went ashore with rope for the cow and some clothes for the kids of the first village. Paulo greeted us at the waters edge with a small bunch of bananas. We thanked him and he left. We put on our snorkel gear and swam from the beach. The clear water revealed the seabed was scattered with broken coral – signs of the cyclone damage. There were still plenty of bombies covered in beautiful coral and teeming with fish. One bombie was home to a school of Nemos. Other bombies were home to Gil (the Angel fish), Clown fish, big blue star fish and more.

We returned to Imagine for a rest, but were interrupted by the kids on shore shouting at us and holding up a bag. We had to investigate. We rowed ashore to find Paulo had sent the kids back with more fruit.
It wasn’t long before a canoe came alongside. It was Rasrass the boy who lead us through the second village yesterday. The other one in the canoe was his brother Rex, who had lead us through the village in 2019. Another canoe full came and joined them and we talked for a while. We told them to leave while we had lunch.

After lunch we had more visitors. Two o’clock came around and we headed off to the second village with more clothes and pillows.
I had gotten two of my shirts to give Rasrass and Rex for helping. As we got to shore the men of the village had laid nets and were spearing fish.
Rex, Rasrass and a pile of kids were there to greet us and guide us through the village to the Chief. Rex and another young lady interpreted for us, as we presented the Chief with the pillows and some sandles. We then explained that the kids clothes were to be distributed as they thought best.
Emma took the young lady aside and gave her a bag of undies and feminine hygiene products to distribute.

We had no escort as we left the village but all the way to the beach we could hear the cheers as the clothes were being handed out.
The rowing back to Imagine hadn’t worn out Emma enough, so up the mast she went. It was her first mast climb. Although she didn’t make it all the way, it was a good attempt.

Now we are just chilling out waiting for the sun to set.
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The sea had. hardly a ripple on it when we rose this morning. As we had breakfast on the deck we could see the sun breaking through the clouds. We hauled anchor and motored west back to Malakula. As we left Ambrym the wind came at us at 25kts and stayed for most of the trip. This gave us a great 7 to 8kts sail. We turned into Banam Bay and anchored. Two local ladies fishing in their canoe, came over and greated us and pointed to their village. After we had lunch we launched the dinghy and rowed to the nearest land. As we walked along the sandy shore we found groups of hermit crabs dinning on fallen coconuts. We came across a village hidden behind the coconut palms and ventured in. The half a dozen huts had no visable damage from the cyclones. The lady there got her two daughters to guide us through the bush to the main part of the village. This also had no damage, they told us their veggie garden did get hit. We were guided through the village by the chiefs son and about 20 kids. I’m not sure if the kids were more interested in the lollies we were handing out or the photos Emma was taking. We were shown the church where they all took shelter during the cyclones. The village churches here are all made of concrete. I had seen there village cow was tied up by a warn out rope, so I asked if they would like me to bring a good rope for the cow. They said yes and then they gave us some more pompleoss and are going to bring some bananas tomorrow. They have to trade, it’s offensive to give gifts without a trade.
Later this afternoon we ventured on to the next village. A village I had been to in 2019. Armed with more lollies it wasn’t long before we had an entourage of kids escorting us through the village. We went and met the chief who said we could wander around. As we did so we could see this village could do with some of the clothes and things donated by K-Mart NZ. So we will be back ashore tomorrow with some goodies. Our entourage with their beaming smiles kept hooting at Emma and touching her owl tattoo. They lead us back to our dinghy and put it in the water for us. They continued playing on the beach as we rowed back to Imagine.
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We were visited again this morning by Sovren and Joslin in their canoe, on their way to the community to help rebuild a house. With the grey clouds still hanging over the bay and the wind still blowing, we decided to haul anchor and head north around the coast of Malakula. Once we had navigated our way out of the reefs we found ourselves in a strong south east wind. So instead of north we turned north east across to Ambrym. As we got closer the sun began to finally show it’s face again after a few days in hiding. The water turned from black to dark blue with aqua tipped waves. We turned Fred (autopilot) off most of the way and got a good arm workout trying to stay on course while surfing the waves. Once we anchored in at Hot Springs beach it was time to swim ashore and look around. The black volcanic sand that lined the beach made the water temperature even warmer. We walked around to the natural spring were the water temp was so high we couldn’t walk in the stream heated from the islands volancos. Back on Imagine we bought a hoard of flies from the shore. Now it’s time to relax ready for the sunset.
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No Awei didn’t get hit hard by the cyclones, but they did get hit. Their main house where they sheltered in hand the window/shutters blown in. One house blown away and others with minor damage. Sovren has requested we get some nails for him to do repairs. We should be able to pick up nails in Port Vila. Yes their veggie gardens we distoyed. Most of their trees survived. I haven’t seen any bananas still standing. Coconut and pompellos are still good. Awei received government assistance and has now got two 300ltr water tanks collecting water off the main house. Sovren said they did well, most of the wind came from the other side of the island.
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Another rainy day in paradise. That doesn’t deter the locals. They still have to eat. We saw Sovren and Joslin canoe across to the main land to tend to one of their veggie gardens. A few hours later one of the other villagers ventured out in the rain and canoed to the edge of the reef to fish.
For us it was stay inside read a book and do a few small inside jobs and watch the waves of rain pass over. Sovren and Joslin stopped on their way back in the rain, just to ask how our day was going.
By lunch time it was bucketing down. The islands turning into ghosts behind the sheets of water. Watching the streams of water running down the deck, creating waterfalls into the sea.
Still nothing to do except sit back watch the rain coming down or read a book or win at cards again.
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They all saw us anchored in the Bay. First to come to us was Tom. He lives on Uliveo island and runs the island tourism. He was eager to tell us about swimming with the dugongs and his village will put on a traditional dance and meal for us. Just the two of us. I told him I k new of his village and had been swimming with the dugongs last time. I told him we would get to his island when we were ready.
Next our friend Sovren came in his canoe. I told him we have some things for him and Joslin (his wife).
Ten minutes later we went ashore with clothes for Joslin, reading glasses and reef shoes for Sovren. We had size 41 shoes. They were no where near his size. So we have to find something bigger for him. He showed us around his village which had sustained minimal damage from the cyclones. But he said their gardens were ruined. They have since replanted but have little vegitables till they grow.
Back on Imagine chilling to the rain dripping of the boom and the patter of raindrops on the still water. The sound of the waves crashing on the reef interrupted by the laughter of kids playing in their canoe in the rain.
We then were approached by another canoe with three guys in it. Jimmy said he was the grand chief of the area. He offered us pompelos in exchange for biscuits and books. I said we were going to take the books to the school and gave him the size 41 reef shoes. Off they went.
This afternoon has been quiet. Just having another attempt at fixing the slow leak in the dinghy.
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It was an early morning start. Hauled anchor at dawn. We motored our of the harbour and found there was only 7kts of wind. That meant Genaker time. We sailed for about 2 hours before the wind got too high. Then we switched to head sail.
By lunch time we were sitting in the middle of a squall that stayed with us until evening. We had taken the screens off the cockpit two days ago to let more air flow through. This alowed the rain and wind pour in so much i had to put a raincoat on to keep dry and warm. The squall kept changing the wind direction and speed, so we eventually has to pull in the head sail and motor.
By night there was no moon and heavy cloud cover, we couldn’t see the mast. This meant relying totally on the charts, as we made our way through the reef and into the shelter of Awei Island.
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