Vanuatu, November 2023

From Fiji it was a 465nm / 4 day, fast and often unpleasant sail to Vanuatu, our final destination in the Pacific Ocean. On the evening of our first day at sea, we took a freak wave into the cockpit, down the companion way, filling the galley and dowsing us all. The boys’ life jackets, which inflate automatically when submerged in water, were deployed, triggering our MOB (Man Overboard) AIS alarm. It was all a bit sh!t, and not for the first time, we wished that we could just stop and return to our comfortable, safe life on terra firma.

However, our time in Vanuatu more than compensated for our brief spell of misery at sea.

The Melanesian island nation of Vanuatu consists of a chain of about 80 islands spread over 1300km. We made landfall in Tanna, one of the most southerly islands in the archipelago. We anchored Mowzer amongst 5 other visiting yachts in Port Resolution, named by Captain Cook in 1774 when he visited aboard HMS Resolution.

Evidence of Tanna’s powerful geothermal activity was much in evidence with steam leaching through vents in the cliffs and magma heated rock pools smouldering on the shoreline. Ashore we tread carefully around boiling sand and the boys even boiled eggs in the simmering pools.

That evening, friends on SV Patricia set up a projector and screen on the beach and invited the local community to watch the movie, Trolls. In return, the villagers built an immense bonfire and sang us local songs. It was a joyous and unforgettable evening.

Vanuatu is ranked as the world’s most vulnerable to natural disasters. The previous year, within a few days of each other, the islands were hit by two category 4 cyclones and a 6.5 magnitude earthquake. High winds and flooding brought about significant damage to infrastructure and houses and the majority of crops were lost. For a population that depends entirely on subsistence agriculture the impact was profound, and yet the Vanuatan population have proven to be extraordinarily resilient. Despite their recent hardships, we were treated with immense kindness and generosity throughout our stay in Vanuatu.

Between the visiting boats, we shared any spare resources with the village – food, ropes, painkillers, shoes and clothing were much in demand. Our medical supplies and training proved useful when Donovan, a local farmer, arrived on the beach with a very nasty machete wound.

The following day, some boys from the local Iwea village; Eric, Tom and Sam, met us as we dinghied ashore and invited Barnaby and Zennor and their friend Dexter to go on an adventure inland. Barefoot and each armed with a machete, the new friends spent the day exploring together, making bows and arrows, winding their own twine, swinging on vines and harvesting their own lunch. It is these spontaneous adventures and encounters with alternative traditions that we will remember most fondly when this journey ends. The opportunity to immerse ourselves in differing languages, cultures, geography, traditions, history, and wildlife, will I hope instill us all with a greater appreciation and understanding of alternative cultures and to remind us how much we all have in common.

Vanuatu – Mount Yasur – 4th November 2023

Last time we attempted to get up close to an erupting volcano was in La Palma in 2021, when we ended up in the back of a police car, severely chastened for endangering our children whilst accidentally crossing the ‘no-go zone’. Two years later, we failed to heed the warnings of the Spanish police and had another go…

Vanuatu lies directly on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where shifting tectonic plates cause frequent earth tremors and feed nine active volcanos. Mount Yasur, on the island of Tanna, has been erupting pretty much continuously since at least 1774, when its exploding orange firework display attracted Captain Cook to visit the island.

From our anchorage in Port Resolution it was a bone-shaking, 45 minute journey in a 4WD via the island’s only ‘road’ which had been severely damaged by flooding. We were dropped in a desolate, ash covered plain, to climb the steep slopes of the volcano to reach the crater rim, 400m in diameter. Sulphurous gases wafted throughout the air, whilst thick smoke was spewed hundreds of meters into the air. Orange magma bubbled violently within the crater, whilst the ground beneath us shook. Every few minutes, car-sized rocks were expelled in deafening explosions, hurtling past us, into the air. As night fell, the light show intensified as bright orange molten lava erupted skywards. In equal measure the spectacle of Mount Yasur was breathtakingly awesome, humbling and terrifying. How lucky are we to have experienced such a magnificent display of Mother Nature’s extraordinary power and beauty? And this time we made it home in the back of a 4WD, not a police car!

Unfortunately, a cyclone warning meant that despite not having had long in Vanuatu, we had to make a run for it that night. Next stop Australia!