Sailing Across The Pacific Pictures: 2008

Australia

There was a lot more land in Australia than most of the small islands that we had visited.

Volcano in Vanuatu

There were no gates or fences. You walked from the parking lot up to the edge of the crater and looked down at the volcano.

Vanuatu traditions

The volcano trip included a stop at a village where the men performed traditional dances in their traditional dress and a fire lighting demo.

The villagers welcomed us with traditional songs and dancing. It was part of the traditional welcoming ceremony that includes the exchange of gifts. They were very generous as they gave us a live pig! It is considered very rude to refuse a gift so we asked the villagers to butcher the pig and serve it to us in a banquet that night. I was told by several people that the kava was very strong and that I really ought to try some, but I refused anyway.

When I was provisioning for the passage to Australia in Luganville, I noticed that most people in the butcher's shop were only buying half a pound of the cheapest meat. I'm pretty sure that they were buying the meat for their families which means that the gift of a pig was very generous indeed. I don't think most people in Vanuatu eat a lot of meat.

Dillon's Bay, Vanuatu

The children at the local school prepared flower garlands and baskets of fruit for us in return for our presents of paper, pens, pencils and crayons.

The skulls are apparently the skulls of the 19th century chieftains, but some are very small. These skulls look like children's skulls.

Yet another rally yacht

A rally yacht motor-sailing into Savusavu, Fiji. This yacht later hit a reef 200 miles off Australia and sank. The two crew members onboard were rescued.

Another yacht on the rally

Makongai school

The school teacher slept on this bed.

The school children sang and danced for us. I think they liked that more than their lessons.

Makongai village

There was a turtle sanctuary on Makongai, but it closed. There are still baby turtles in the gray well below.

The building above is the kava drinking place. Kava looks and tastes like dishwater. It apparently has some sort of effect, but I have never drunk enough of it to notice any.

Makongai leper graveyard

There was a notice that the upkeep of the graveyard was paid for by the French government in honour of the French nuns who worked in the leper colony.