Meeting Other Cruisers.
When we got into Port Vila in Vanuatu, Brian recognized a few of the boats in the harbor.
Each morning at 8:30 a.m. on a certain radio channel used by cruisers, a wonderful woman named Jess comes on the air and has a morning program. Each day she runs down a similar itinerary. First she asks if anyone has any emergency needs. Then new arriving yachts and sail boats get to announce that they have arrived. After that there is the goodbye's of anyone leaving the harbor today. Next is an opportunity for anyone needing any technical advice to ask for assistance. It can be as simple as how to get the cell phone service to work, to a request for a particular part or help repairing something. Then she asks if anyone has anything they want to gift or trade. Someone this morning said they had a bunch of New Caledonian money they would like to trade for Vanuatuan (sp?). It can be anything. Finally are any announcements of events happening today and in the near future.
Yesterday's radio show is how we found out about the cruiser's potluck. We each brought something for the grill, our own plates, cups, drinks, and flatware, a dish to share, and headed over from our boats on our dingy's (I really don't know how to spell that word).
A Dingy is a small raft-type boat with a motor on it that you use to go from your larger boat to shore. They are called by many other names depending on where you are.
When your boat is docked at a marina, then you just step directly from your boat onto the dock. Very convenient. However, marina's vary wildly in price per day.
Anchoring off shore in a harbor or other anchorage doesn't cost anything. But it requires that you travel back and forth by Dingy. We keep the one we use on the top deck. So each time we use it is a process of lowering it with a motorized hoist system. Unclipping it from the hoist, tying it securely so it doesn't float away. Getting in and out of the thing is always fun - especially when you are carrying piles of stuff for a pot luck. They can get wet in the bottom.
The potluck was in a house right on the water in the harbor. Jess from the radio show is the lady of the house. She is the mom of a 15 month old and is expecting her 2nd child. She is from California. When I asked her how she ended up living in Vanuatu, she said that she and her husband had been cruising and arrived in Vanuatu, had pretty much run out of money and found themselves pregnant at the same time. So they decided to stay. They've carved out for themselves a nice way to live. She handles provisioning and concierge services for mega yachts when they come in. Her husband is a marine engineer and works on multiple projects for yacht owners. They both work from home. They have a local woman as a live in nanny. I enjoyed getting to know both of them. They seemed very happy here.
There were many other cruisers at the pot luck. I'd say somewhere between 35 and 45. All were caucasian. The only non-Caucasian I saw was the Vanuatuan nanny. It is amazing to me how many white people there are in Port Vila. Vanuatu natives have very dark, very beautiful skin. But everywhere you look downtown, at the market, driving on the main streets, walking from shop to shop, are white folks with American, Australian, and New Zealand accents. It just seems really odd and out of place.
There were 3 other kids at the potluck - besides the very young one that belongs to the party hosts. They were brothers and sisters. The oldest son was Jess' age. The girl was only slightly younger and then another boy a few years younger still. The family was from Belgium. Very quickly Jess was involved in a hide and seek adventure with the three of them. Other games followed.
The Belgian family is following the same route we are. Hopefully we will see them again.
I sat down with a woman named Glee at a giant square table under a gazebo between the house and the water. I think 12 to 16 people could eat comfortably at the table. There were big cushion covered benches on 2 sides with wooden chairs at either end. Jess laid down and fell asleep on the bench opposite the one I was on. All those 3 hour watches had caught up to him.
Glee is originally from Southern Australia. She and her husband are cruisers. They have been in Vanuatu for 11 months. She is an emergency medical person and works at the hospital. She said she gets bored just staying on the boat reading like most cruisers do. So wherever they go for any length of time she either volunteers at some organization or works in a medical facility. How wonderful is that?
I heard many wonderful stories.
Others were not so great. One of the reasons for the potluck was as a fund raiser to give money to a local village that had helped with an attempted rescue.
Brian has always said that you never leave your Dingy down being pulled behind your boat. He always puts it on top. He knows people who have had theirs stolen.
This is a much more tragic story.
A dingy was being pulled behind a boat - a common practice. The weather was bad and the dingy rope got snagged on something. The captain of the bigger boat climbed down into the dingy to try to fix things. It flipped over and the man drown. They never did find the body. That just happened last week some time.
After the party, we headed back to the Further in our dingy. It still amazes me how Brian can find the boat at night, weaving in and out of anchored sail boats, no lights on the dingy. Things look so different at night, I'm not sure I could find it so easily.
As has become our nightly ritual, if its too late for a movie, we watch an episode or 2 of Northern Exposure or the Big Bang Theory - funny stuff.
There is just something about Vanuatu that I really like. I've only really been here for 2 days and I just love it here.
Debbie Takara Shelor
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