Pam: The last entry had Jim making the anchorage at Ai Creek in Havannah Harbour under sail with no wind – a great feat. Unfortunately the dead calm preceded a change of wind to veering between north and west and rapidly increasing. So yesterday morning, with the engine at least partially fixed, we motored further up Havannah Harbour to an anchorage with good protection from northerlies. This anchorage turns out to be the same spot that we anchored at some weeks ago and those of you who read the earlier blog may remember the kindness of Augustine and his family when our stove was kaput – they boiled water for our essential tea and cooked our crab. Well this same family have welcomed us back and again shown great courtesy and generosity. Augustine’s daughter offered to buy us bread this morning, a project that required waiting at the main road for the passing baker’s van. Unfortunately the van failed to show up, but Mary-Lou and her toddler son rowed over to us in half a gale to apologise for failing to get us bread and give us some bananas.
While on the topic of tea some of you may be surprised to hear that Jim – previously an avowed non-tea and coffee drinker has suddenly taken to drinking tea with his crew. He had two cups for breakfast yesterday and today even more, two cups for breakfast and one for lunch. He still refuses coffee but he may yet succumb ….
This morning the wind was still a howling northerly and after swabbing the decks we decided to go ashore and visit the local primary school which was around a kilometer down the road. For some reason I cannot fathom all 3 of the outboard engines for the inflatable dinghy were neatly hanging off the stern of Intention and not in the dinghy. So it ended up with me having a fairly tough row ashore against wind and tide. Maybe I will return to Australia with some stomach muscles.
I will leave the teachers Nicky and Lee to report on our visit to the local primary school. I will finish by saying that it is has been raining heavily most of the day and we won’t be setting sail to islands north of here until the SE trade winds reestablish themselves. Jim will download the weather fax soon and see if it predicts more favourable winds soon.
Nicky: This morning, like Pam said, we headed off with the intention (no pun intended!)of visiting Tanoliu Primary School. We took with us a gift of exercise books kindly donated by former crew member, Cathy. On the way we talked to some villagers who told us the School Master was called Mr Henry. We felt happy to have a name to ask for when we arrived. The school has two classes. The junior class has 32 students who are in their first three years of schooling and is taught by a lovely NiVan lady, Lydia, whom we met on the road yesterday. She was returning with her husband, from their garden, with bok choy and tomatoes and kindly gave us some. Mr Henry has a class of 34 students in Grades 4, 5 and 6. When we arrived we were invited to sit in on the drama that was being enacted by a visiting group on ‘global warming’. As it progressed we realized this group were the Wan Smol Bag Theater Group who tour around Vanuatu encouraging Waste Management, Environmental Health, Safe Sex, Awareness of Pollution and Global Warming Issues. We felt so blessed and fully delighted to have visited at such an opportune time. Pam gave a heartfelt thanks from the crew of ‘Intention’ for the valuable work this group do. When the group left Mr. Hendry introduced us to his class and then handed them to me for a ‘chat’. The students understood a little English and were most delightful. I congratulated them on their wonderful manners (no calling out!), asked them questions and told them a little about school in Australia. Then they sang us their school song. As we left we were given the opportunity to write in the school’s visitor’s book. What a privilege we felt to share in the local kids school day! On the way back to the boat we slipped into the stream for a quick ‘wash’ and then went back to ‘Intention’ for a lazy afternoon.
Jim: As you can tell this is a great crew and we are getting along very harmoniously. They are a hoot as we have much fun teasing and kidding around while exploring and having adventures. Pam has a wonderful way of organizing, Lee is a wonderful cook and great cleaning person and Nicky adds a bubbly effervescent quality to each activity. Having them aboard is a pleasure.
There is a Blue Moon, 2 full moons in one month, in two days on the 30th. Enjoy the moon and know that we share that same moon.
So log for now.
Jim, Nicky, Lee, Pam