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| How long is the wait? Our restaurant with a view |
Our journey continued in Vanuatu. On L'ORIENT, we refer to our treks into undeveloped places as getting a taste of "village life". On Vanuatu, the outer islands are some of the most remote places we've ever been. We're talking no tourists, no electricity, no roads and only structures made from palm leaves and rope. And lots (I mean lots and lots) of children running around. The stares and instant child mobs we picked up while landing the dinghy ashore were the telltale sign that they don't see cruisers or white people very often, if at all. We were startled by how many kids were around in the middle of the day during the week until we learned that due to a teacher's strike most of the state run schools have been closed... for the past 11 months! Obviously this is a very big problem in a country where 43% of the population is under 18 (in the US that number is 22%). Some children attend religious schools - in one village the kids walk an hour each way to attend the local Catholic school. The need for education materials is absolutely huge here - in one village Kirstin pulled out a picture book for small kids and proceeded to read it on the road before giving it as a gift. I looked back to see 20 children and adults surrounding her absolutely captivated by the pictures and story.
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| Kirstin on the way to church in her gifted dress |
We try to give people in the village small gifts as a thank you for allowing us to anchor and explore their island and village. On Malekula, I gathered some old tools I didn't need as we headed into their lagoon. I was about to hand over some screw-drivers and wrenches to the chief when I noticed that the village did not have a single nail, screw, or bolt. What would he use my tools for? The village of 600 people was entirely constructed of palm leaves, rough hacked wood, rope, and little else. I'm sure if the year was 1725 vs. 2025 it would have looked exactly the same.
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| Truly organic construction |
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| Not the set of Gilligan's Island; this is how these folks live |
The only thing made out of concrete were the small communal ovens powered by coconut husks that they use to make bread. They told us about going through cyclones fairly regularly - the thatch walls and roofs fall down and after the storm has passed they merely pick them up and tie them back together or go get palm fronds to make new walls. I can't imagine going through a cyclone in structures like that but they don't really have other options.
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| These villages are larger than they appear.....they extend deep into the "bush" |
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| Unfortunately, cyclones wipe entire villages away due to the lack of cement |
In another village in Lamen Bay on Epi Island, we met Chief Douglas and Florida, a lovely couple with six kids. Douglas had worked in the big city of Port Vila, Vanuatu as a welder at one point so his village was a bit more modern. Some of the houses were built with cement and they had a smattering of machinery including a generator that he used for his welding work. Douglas had built a well but had no way to extract the water from it. He had been asking the government for a pump for 2 years, to no avail. Since we have several spare water pumps I gave Douglas one of ours (after completely wiring it and doing the plumbing connections around it). He was quite happy. He was so happy that he and Florida proceeded to walk up the mountain with us to their subsistence farm and load us down with 50 lbs of fruit, veggies, and anything else we could eat. We asked them what they ate in their diet that came from a store and the only thing they could think of was rice.
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| Douglas and Florida minus five of their kids |
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| Their subsistance farm is the norm here- no supply boats or stores |
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| Almost everything we are walking on is edible |
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| Florida harvesting some mysterious fruit for us |
Kirstin was shocked when Florida brought out a dress, woven fan and bracelet that she had made overnight after we told them that we were going to wire up a way for them to get water.
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| Florida made Kirstin's new dress overnight as thanks for the water pump |
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| Puppy snuggles can happen anywhere, anytime |
We ventured to the local beach for a quiet afternoon of reading - Kirstin came in via paddle board while I took the dinghy. By the time I arrived six children were already waiting for me and when they saw the paddle board more emerged seemingly by magic. I did an impromptu lesson for these kids in throwing an American football and two hours passed quickly as we played with the kids and made sure they didn't venture too far out on the paddle board.
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| Balling with some local kids |
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| Kirstin's paddle board was pirated by some local kids |
One of the older kids whipped out a machete and climbed a coconut tree to get us coconut water. Another very inquisitive kid was visiting from Port Vila and asked where we were from. The moment we said the United States he immediately asked us if we knew the recently murdered Charlie Kirk. To be sitting on a beach far from reliable internet and to be asked that question really took us aback. We did a public service announcement along the lines that violence is never the answer as we marveled at the flow of information to this very far flung spot. I asked the kids later in the afternoon how old they thought I was and this same joker immediately responded with "95". I think Kirstin's belly laugh could have been heard on the other side of the bay.
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| Jake and Lucy's family room |
On Malekula we were invited by Jake and Lucy to go to church and share Sunday lunch with them and their three sons. Yikes. While appreciative of the offer, we were wondering what this might be like. Oh, what the hell, we're in! Lap-lap looks kind of like a pizza, wrapped in plant leaves and cooked while buried under smoldering wood and coals. It is made with the vegetable called cassava and pieces of meat suspended in this not-so-great tasting and very chewy plasma. Meat? Where did that come from? It seems that Jake's son, his uncle, and their 3 dogs had gone into the "bush" last night and killed a wild boar with a spear. The gutted it on the spot somewhere in the jungle and brought back the meat. It actually was the best part of the lap-lap, but I didn't ask for seconds. They did a lot of work to help expose us to their way of life and we reciprocated a bit by making a donation towards their boys school fees (post-strike, hopefully).
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| This is lap-lap; I found eating it to be a real challenge |
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| Sweet potato "something" |
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| Lap-lap covered in coconut cream - coming to a restaurant near you! |
The Sunday service in a thatch church was quite an experience. After being assured it only lasts an hour, we went. Men on one side of the room, women on the other. Like churches everywhere, the boys sitting around me were not paying attention, not singing, not behaving, and generally being, well.......boys. Kind of like churches the world over. The women sitting on the other side of this small structure more than made up for the lack of male participation in the sheer volume of their voices during hymns. It was unbelievably loud in there (not to mention quite hot). The hymnals were written in Bislama, which is a kind of pigeon english. "Yu save helpem mi" means "Can you help me". So we were handicapped from the outset. After the service the pastor invited us to stand with him at the "door" of the church and we proceeded to greet and shake hands with all 75 attendees. A very memorable experience.
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| Jake and Lucy's indoor kitchen - a villager has to have options! |
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| Pigpen... pet or dinner? |
Our village tour featured an older woman sitting on the floor weaving a mat. She seemed to be having trouble seeing, so I gave her some reading glasses as a gift. A younger man asked me to guess how old the woman was? No idea. He told me 114. What? And she has ID. Ironically, we happened to be standing in a village inhabited by one of the last tribes in Vanuatu to give up cannibalism, sometime in the late 1960s. So, this lady in front of me may have practiced cannibalism at an earlier point in her life.
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| Off-the-grid resort with tree house accommodations |
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| It's cute and functional- harder for the snakes to get you up there |
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| People pay to stay in these rooms; a bit too rustic for my tastes |
A couple of the islands in Vanuatu have "resorts" for the traveler who likes it rough and untamed. The gold standard for us was finding a resort so we could have lunch there after alot of meals on the boat. Places like Ratua, Port Olry and Champagne Beach did not disappoint.
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| This resort is more our speed.....slick restaurant decor |
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| Room with a view.......and probably reef sharks |
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| Nice place to watch a sunset |
The Ratua resort had a particularly fantastic reef with some of the most colorful coral we have seen in quite some time (and only one shark - that we saw).
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| Amazing coral everywhere |
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| The colors really popped; some of the best we've ever seen |
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| We probably should have done some diving here, sharks notwithstanding |
Beautiful beaches, turtles galore and fantastic snorkeling. The days continued to slip by and our short six weeks in Vanuatu passed all too quickly. I wish we had more time.
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| All I need.....from left to right.....L'ORIENT, Crabby, and a shady reading spot |
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| Another empty beach |
Vanuatu has a number of blue holes - fresh water from the mountains flows into caves and eventually become freshwater springs forming the blue holes. We took the dinghy on a fun drove down a mangrove lined river to get to Malo Blue Hole.
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| Blue hole; electric blue water that's cold and deep |
One unsettling constant was the weather. Not in Vanuatu (where we were) but in the Brisbane area (where we needed to sail soon). Monster storms with high wind, hail, and lightning were getting more frequent as cyclone season rapidly approached. Gulp. So we lived a bifurcated life........enjoying village life while looking for an opportunity to sail the 1000 miles to Bundaberg (the place where we check into Australia).
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| Does this come in white ? Kirstin trying out the native water-craft |
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| No outboard, no problem |
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| Another shady reading spot |
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| Luckiest restaurant dog in the world |
The day before we checked out of Luganville a new boat pulled up into the bay and before we knew it a dinghy full of four guys comes over. They wanted the download on the resort we were anchored in front of and asked if we knew of a chandlery in town. Luganville has nothing that even approximates a chandlery so I asked them what they needed. They were searching for an adhesive called Sikaflex and I told them that I would look across the afternoon to see if we had any. Then I asked where they were from (as there was no flag on their boat) and they said Russia. Huh? After a nice conversation they left and I started to speculate about what they were up to. Of course we had Sikaflex so I left a tube of it in their dinghy when we went to shore. This mere gift has done more for American Russian relations than anything in the last 50 years - they came over to the boat and were so appreciative. They offered us fruit and tuna (neither of which we accepted as we had way too much of each already). When we bumped into them on shore the next morning it was hugs all around and requests for pictures with their new American friends. These guys were beyond suspicious. None were tan (as cruisers invariably are), they were kind of military looking (Gennady was about 6'6"), and they were in a big hurry to get to Malaysia (they said). Whatever. When cruisers meet, basic inquiries are the norm. Who are you? What do you do? Where are you going? We asked them absolutely no questions (awkwardly), but I think there's a bit more to their story than meets the eye. Just four friends out sailing? No way. Honestly, I don't really want to know what these guys were up to.
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| Me flanked by my GRU Spetsnaz friends (someday we might need these guys) |
Picking the right weather window is kind of a big deal. If you sail into 50 knot wind and five meter waves you might not come out successfully the other side. We know multiple cruising couples who lost their boats (and almost their lives) due to weather. For that reason, on a journey that technically is starting in cyclone season (we were leaving Vanuatu a bit late), we employed a weather router. I'll call him "Brad" since I don't want to slander him, but let's just say that Brad hasn't always been on target in predicting weather for us. We worked with Brad again and predictably, he got almost everything wrong. Wind speed, wind direction, currents, best course. Brad advised us to follow a course that would add 150 miles to our journey (more than a day) because he thought the wind would be better (even though it was taking us further from our destination). While Brad was sending us forecasts detailing the precise wind speed and direction that we would be seeing 4 days from now, he was usually not just wrong........he was almost uniformly very wrong. We began just to thank him for his input and wet our index fingers and put it in the air.
The sail to Bundaberg ended up being slow......we averaged just over 5 knots.......but the seas were fairly calm for a change. All in all, not bad. The scariest thing was seeing lightning everywhere in the sky as we approached Bundaberg. Having been damaged four times by lightning in our 15 years of cruising, this is the thing we truly dread.......more than high wind and big waves.
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| My second skipjack tuna....call be "butta" cause I'm on a roll |
The sail yielded another fishing victory for us......another skipjack tuna, this time bigger. Alas we suffered a loss. Our favorite lure had been deployed when suddenly zzzzzzzzzz. The sound of a fish taking the lure. I tried to tighten the pole's drag while the fish was running away but to no avail. As I held the rod, I realized that this was something REALLY BIG. I couldn't even slow him down as he swam away. He finally snapped our super high test braided fishing line and took off. Probably a good thing as there's no way I could have brought him in. I'm telling myself it was a 100 lb fish, but as I retell the story (as all fishermen do), this fish will grow to 500 lbs.
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| Modern cruising; 500 miles from Bundaberg and watching NFL Red-zone via Starlink |
We stayed in Bundaberg a few days but now we were definately in harm's way storm-wise. We waited for wind out of the north, and got it for a day and a half. We had to go to Scarborough at that moment or risk beating or motoring into the wind. It wasn't fantastic sailing, but L'ORIENT did her thing and we arrived safely.
So, four months of testing all our boat improvements complete. The creations Kirstin makes in her new galley are amazing. The lithium batteries and improved solar allowed us to use 75 pct less diesel. Our generator use is likewise way down. The hard top was amazing, and our passages were much more comfortable. We still have work to do. More solar, some canvas repairs and upgrades..........but overall we are pleased.
And we have to get this right, because the future is coming into focus. Our plan is to explore Australia by car during cyclone season. Tasmania, Sydney for New Year's Eve, Western Australia. In June or July (or thereabouts) we think it's off to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore.....places we definitely never imaged sailing to when we bought L'ORIENT. It will be very hard to say goodbye to the Pacific! Hello Asia? Never thought we'd say that. Thank you for traveling with us in 2025.
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| 2025 was a big year for Vanuatu and for L'ORIENT. Happy Independence Anniversary Vanuatu! |
