Pam: Thursday: Lamen Bay is a beautiful spot with white coral beaches and excellent snorkeling over coral only 50 metres from where we were anchored. So we had a relaxed mornings alternating snorkeling with numerous cups of tea and coffee. It wasn’t until early afternoon that we got ourselves organized to go ashore and explore the village. We had read in Lonely Planet that the Paradise Sunset Bungalows did a good evening meal. We thought it might be fun to have a meal ashore.
This was the maiden voyage for the dinghy wheels and I am pleased to report that they worked a treat. We were able to pull the dinghy right up the coral beach with great ease.
We rowed ashore and pulled up just in front of the restaurant and the manager was only too happy to book us in for dinner and the crew of two other yachts had already booked. This booking seemed to be the open sesame to using the (very basic) shower and laundry facilities – which we took advantage of later in the day. Then we wandered up the beach and met a group of junior high school boys and after chatting to them they said we could look round their school. Most of the buildings were recently built but our main impression was of the pride and care that went into the maintenance of the grounds. All the coral paths were neatly edged with identical size small rocks and bordered by tropical plants. Not a speck of rubbish in sight anywhere. This can be achieved with local resources, but when it comes to resources requiring cash it was another story. There were NO computers at all for the students.
Then we walked back to the village and Adis introduced himself to us and offered to show us up to the local primary school (Kindy to Year 8)and help us find bread and veggies. I will leave the teachers to talk about our school visit.
NICKY LEE: We met a beautiful teacher called Judy who showed us around her classroom. She taught English and Social Studies to Years 7& 8. With two years training and 8 years experience in under resourced village schools, we were amazed at how similar her teaching methods and classroom management was to those practiced in NSW. The seats, however, were made of rough boards across second hand frames and were tiny and she relied on books from Yachts for her student reading material.
That evening saw the crew of Intention return to the resort for a meal and social interaction with guests and other yachties.

Pam: Friday: We set sail as early (as this not very early rising boat) could manage and had a great sail from Lamen Bay to Malekula Island. While we were underway Jim tried to start the engine by hand cranking. I watched his superhuman efforts which failed to start the engine but did worsen his existing bad back. So Jim said, philosophically, that Intention is a sailing boat so we will sail her. He chose to put into Port Sandwich as after looking at the chart plotter and Tusker’s Cruising Guide to Vanuatu he decided it would the easiest to sail into and out of in the anticipated wind conditions. Unfortunately the wind dropped to a virtual dead calm when we were still a few hundred metres from the anchorage so we took ages to make the last bit. Arriving in Port Sandwich was quite different to arriving at any of the previous anchorages, it was really eerie. The whole coastline was shrouded in haze and we are still trying to work out if it was from forest fires or a volcano. The other factor turning us off the place were the bright red capitalised warning about sharks and not to go swimming. Lee cooked our dinner by torchlight to save electricity(and an excellent tuna pasta carbonara with local bok choy).So all in all we were happy enough to leave first thing the next morning without going ashore and very relieved that there was enough power to operate the anchor winch.
Pam: Saturday: We again set sail (fairly) early, this time aiming for 10 kms north up the coast to Baman Bay (the southern end of Tisman Bay) – which was written up as having good swimming. We are still wondering why sharks are such an issue at Port Sandwich and not at Baman Bay. The sail should have only taken a couple of hours but at first there was hardly any wind and it took us an hour to get out of the anchorage. Luckily the SE wind picked up and we made Bamen Bay in time for lunch. The sun is not being kind to us, at the very time we need it so that the solar panels can keep our batteries charged it has turned really cloudy.
There were two other boats already at anchor when we sailed in. One was a brigantine chartered by an international youth NGO. They were staying for a month fixing up water pipes to 6 local villages. The other was a yacht sailed by an American doctor/nurse/husand/wife (Hank and Leila in Rivendale II) team. They had been running a medical charity for 8 years bringing much needed medical aid to remote Vanuatan villages. This was the same couple that Jim had met before in Port Vila who gave us useful hints about how to treat coral cuts.
NICKY AND LEE After settling in we found a way through the coral to Hanks shore clinic then walked through to the local village in the hope of buying bananas. We were met by 12 year old Douglas, his Mum, siblings and young cousins. Pam asked Douglas if he could take us on a walk. Immediately we found ourselves hurtling through the jungle following Douglas and accompanied by his Mum with babe in arms, all the little ones and his Aunt Jocelyn and her child. We criss-crossed the local stream, waded through mudbanks. When the path petered out we used the stream as our pathway losing shoes, grabbing young ones, slipping, falling down unexpected holes and constantly asking “how far”? Pam was definitely over it as her ankles were killing her and her balance was impossile to maintain. Nicky was asking in clearest voice “will this walk take all day’? Lee had lost clogs and gained a toddler on her hip, yet the guides kept up their pace. We could hear falling water and suddenly saw the most amazing waterfalls which fell into a shallow pool. Pam, overdressed in her island ‘mother Hubbard dress’ was in and under the main falls quickly followed by Lee and all the kids. Nicky and Jim were not going to miss this either and were also soon being drenched as well. This was such a treat and we came away bruised, battered and banana-ed up.