We got up at 0600 and both of us felt recovered from the short Covid 19 bout we had.

After a quick breakfast we took the tender and went ashore, where Andrew was supposed to meet us and go with us over to Lamen Island.

However, William showed up, told us that Andrew is drunk, and asked us to follow their boat. We did it. Fortunately the boat in front of us had only 15 hp outboard motor and more people on board so we could follow with MaRe’s only 5 hp tender and two persons on board.

It’s 1 1/2 NM over to the island.

The reef in front of it was submerged sufficiently to cross it.

At the beach, William got a few people and we carried the tender up at the beach.

With William we walked into the village and stopped immediately at the first house. William asked us to drop our small day-backpacks here and join the working people.

There were already several people preparing food. The food under preparation grows on the island. Yams, cassava, manioka, taro, water taro, plantains, etc., not mentioning all the delicious fruits growing here.

Tobi was lucky he got the last big knife and could peel taro. I was sitting beside a men, who also peeled first taro and later water taro. He pointed out to what needs to cut away. Beside him another one cut plantains in the middle, parallel to the length side. His wife took the cut halfs and scraped the content out of the peel using a shell. That’s the way they dealt with the very thick plantains. The thinner ones get the peel being removed from outside with a big and knife.

Other ladies were grating pretty big amounts of other roots

Around them, kids were watching movies or animations on mobile phones. Also on these small and remote islands kids get born into the internet age.

About 5 m away, 2 ladies started working on the earth-oven. It seems they use this place always. First the stones were removed, then earth, fallen into the pit, was taken out by a man to get the needed depth. Once deep enough, the ladies took over again and covered the ground inside the hole with the small stones and the big ones were put aside. A small fire was started on the small stones and it was very skillfully covered with rather big chunks of wood a man chopped next to the fire place a few minutes ago. As William showed us around in the village, we could not see how the meat and vegetables were wrapped in banana leaves and placed on the hot stones, then covered again with banana leaves. These top leaves are weight down with the big stones, which were put aside at the beginning. The meal will only ready in the evening.

William came and walked with us through the village.

The first thing I was surprised about was the streets through the village. Something I never saw on any small island in the South Pacific before. It’s a very clean dirt road. At both sides there are small, about 40 cm high walls of moss covered stones with holes for the entrance to the houses being aligned left and right. There are also many trees aligned both street sides, covering the street and puting all under the pleasant shadow of there leaves. It’s a wonderful feeling walking along such a bower, a green tunnel.

As it was already around breakfast time, William brought us to a place where rice and meat with vegetables was avaliable for hungry people. It was one of the community kitchens & eating places in the village. A few people cook in large pots and many people come to eat. The people live here the same or similar ‘sharing lifestyle’, which I also saw on Naigani Island in Fiji. I think this is an excellent way of life. Meals are taken under a big old tree with a wooden platform beneath, where the food is placed and people can enjoy it while sitting on it. We too got a plate of rice with a kind of beefstew with vegetables. It tasted delicious. We were very thankful to the people who cooked it.

And then she came, the first bride of the day.

The husband was a bit hidden but finally I recognized him .

The strong dress code according to the traditional code of Europe surprised me. I expected something more traditional in the Vanuatu style. But via internet people see what’s outside there island and seeing something new creates desire.

The couple and the people around them where heading towards one of the two, different in religion, churches of the village.

On our way, we came to a place, which will be used as ceremonial place after the couples got married.

About a handful, carefully decorated, about a meter high vertical columns coming out of the ground. The decoration was colorful. The columns were wrapped in violet colored paper with ornaments on it, perhaps Melanesian patterns. On top, natural flowers combined with balloons. Heliconia flowers are used as vertical hanging decoration.

There was also a booth like structure. Well decorated and prepared for two couples doing there some ceremonial activities. What will happen there I’ll see later. Thus I’ll get back to this place later again.

We walked towards the Presbyterian church. One couple will get married here. Inside some people did a lot of efforts to made it looking colorful for the wedding ceremony.

Sitting down outside in shadow of one of these huge trees, was very relaxing under a big tree. A comfortable breeze was blowing. We were talking about many things and sometimes just were sitting there silently, waiting for the first couple to come.

The first couple came walking in the green tunnel of one the streets leading to the grass covered place in front of the church.

When they came closer, the singing and the instruments of the Lirua Local String Band was too be heard. The sound is the one of the Southern Pacific Islands, created by about 10 people. Several guitars, at least one ukele, a conga, and a tea chest base. This was spiced up with a bunch of good voices.

The group moved to the church’s entrance and after organizing the who goes in when, the people went inside the church and the bride was the last one. As the church was completely occupied, a few ladies were sitting outside under a tree. The wedding ceremony started.

I asked William about documentation of a wedding, and he said there is none. Two people decide and start living together and sharing life.

We spent the time of the ceremony outside in the shade of an old tree. The bench had a backrest that enables a very comfortable leaning back. So comfortable that I felt asleep for a little while. Just in time for the arrival of the second couple I woke up again.

The second couple came walking under the bower from another direction.

It was the same nice experience when they, accompanied by the Lirua Local String Band, arrived at the grass covered huge place in front of the church. There both couples and the families and friends met and after a few minutes they all walked together to the nicely decorated ceremonial place I described before.

Both couples took their places in the well decorated booth like structure. People where standing outside around to watch the couples. There was a speech, given by a man in the native language Lamenu and volume increased by an amp and speaker.

We also met Terry again in this crowd. It was nice seeing him again and talk to him.

Once this was finished, two big wedding cakes were brought. One was decorated with a only a white cream and the other with about a combination of blue, red, and white cream. What a skill to create them on this island without refrigeration! The cutting of the wedding cake was a highlight and started with a loud count down by the crowd around. The cakes finally were cut into pieces about 5 cm small cubes and distributed to the people standing around. We too got some. It was especially a treat for the kids. They really enjoyed this piece of the sweet wedding cake.

Then William took us around the corner. There, two men boiled in huge pots rice and cooked beef pieces with vegetables in big pots on an open fire. As a wooden spoons they used sticks about a meter long and 3 – 5 cm thick. One has to be skillful with such ‘wooden spoons’ when stirring the food without p ushing the pot from the four metal rods over the open fire.

Inside the building next to the open kitchen, ladies already distributed rice with the beef cooked outside. It seems that it was for everybody of the village. The lunch of the wedding ceremony. We too got our portion.

Then William told u#dđs it’s time to go back to Epi Island and MaRe.

The evening of the wedding ceremony was reserved for a smaller group of people.

We got our backpacks, brought MaRe’s tender into the water, brought William back to Epi Island, and finally returned to MaRe.

What an eventful day!

Thanks William for making this experience possible.

*****

When I’m experiencing so friendliness and hospitality, a terrible thought sneaks into my mind and I see the following scenario. “Two black men cruising on bicycles Germany and reach a small village where a wedding ceremony takes place. What will they experience in this German village?”

I then feel ashamed and I’m considering me even more lucky, having been given the chance to meet all these wonderful people along my looong sail.

Yesterday morning I woke up and felt sick. Pretty sick. Head aches, terrible cough, sneezing, and running nose. When I got up and met Tobi he felt the same way. We caught in Port Vila, most likely in the supermarket a virus. And now the virus has us.

We hang around on board, being happy that we are in a good anchorage and not somewhere out at sea.

The PCR tests I still had on board were beyond their life time stamp, and the solution liquid in the tiny plastic bottles, evaporated through the plastic material. No Covid 19 test possible.

But I the second night I got the sweating symptom, I had back in Panama. So I’m pretty sure we got the latest version of the Covid 19 virus enjoying its life these days in Vanuatu.

The next day we both felt better. I actually felt healthy again. We successfully survived the virus.

In the morning I didn’t do my workout because i had some urgent mails to write. Additionally my sports clothes were still wet, what a nice excuse.

We did what’s needed since a while: boat cleaning. Starting at the bow, the gangway, the cockpit and the cockpit cushion.

Tobi worked on adding a rubber damper at his speargun and I could help him.

Then we went ashore. The pier we wanted to go to turned out as good dinghy dock but it was pretty much destroyed by a cyclone with huge waves. Beside tying up a tender or do some fishing, or cannot be used anymore for docking supply boats. We learned later that the supply boats are build like landing boats which go just at the beach to exchange freight, which includes even cars.

Walking up the beach to the first house, we saw a young lady cleaning the yard. We approached her and asked her for the chief of the village to give him a present of yaquona roots for kava. Here in Vanuatu these roots are more presents from men to men to enjoy driving kava together.

In the yard, I was surprised to see it covered with a layer of dead corals, which are always found in the vicinity of coral reefs. Even inside the house I could see these dead corals functioning from my foreign point of view as small pebbles. The covered floor looks very nice and clean.

Then the lady took the present for the chief and started walking us down the road. However, the chief was already back to village and welcomed us in conversation just at road side. H introduced him as Terry, a d speaks pretty good English. It urns out that he works during the season in Australia , harvesting vegetables and fruits. A way for 4 of the island of Vanuatu to make money for items they need cash for. Food for daily life grows plenty on the island and their is the sea which provides fish and shells. Thus daily life doesn’t require much cash.

Terry encouraged us to walk down the road until the tiny airport. When we arrived there I saw it’s only a small grass covers airstrip. The airport building only had open doors and windows. No wood, no glass, no need for such things. At the side of the building there were a few cows grazing. Later we learned that people don’t really rely on the airline. The airline is said to cancle flights very often. I’m curious if on Wednesday the scheduled flight arrives.

When we walked into the village we met again Terry and had another friendly and open chat about life on the island.

We then continued walking only to stop soon again. We met William. He works in NZ during the kiwi harvesting season. Talking about fruits he got a bowl of mangos for us of which we took only six. But then we got additional 3 Papayas. Gosh, what a rich present. It was also William who invited us to a feast on Lamen Island an Friday. Food is supposed to be prepared in an earth oven.

As soon as we started walking further down the road, a young girl came a bit shy to Tobi to bring him two pamplemousses she promised to get for him. What a gesture of this girl! Despite the fact that all kind of vegetables and fruits are growing in abondance at islands like Epi Island, I’m always feeling ashamed when I receiving so much fruits or vegetables just as presents.

Finally we walked again towards the other village. The first village we entered is called “Lamarou” the second is called “Vaemali”. In between is a very big school and the concrete street to the other side of the island. The school of the Epi Island has 300 student and also a dormitory for those students who can’t commute every day.

After the school, we passed a small football field with a sandy ground. Boys played football; some had football shoes with studs the others played barefoot. A bit a risky combination. They had great fun and seems nobody gets hurt by the studs.

The kids of the island seem to be very sportive. A group of girls played volleyball. Only one man played with them. Most likely the coach. Most of the were playing in one pieces or skirts; only 2 girls played in shorts. Later, Tobi joined them playing volley ball. So I had a bit of time to watch the game. I was surprised about the intensity with which they played. It was ongoing power-play.

We walked on and there was group of girls playing with glass marbles it was played so fast that from watching I could not really recognize the rules of this game.

A bit further down the road, I saw an interesting looking buildings. Walls are made of split bamboo walling. Bamboo is splitted, and woven into a lattice pattern and fixed an wooden frames to built up the walls. Roofs are thatched with coconuts tree leaves.

A nice emerald blue paint is used for a geometrical pattern. A few houses, obviously belonging to the same owner, have the same patterns. It turned out that one of houses is for selling fruits and vegetables mostly the buyer just leaves the money. Another one is the coffee shop / restaurant. The rest of the houses are the “private quarters”.

Then Miriam came out of one of these “private quarters”. She introduced herself as the chef of the “Sanda Cafe”. She offers dinners for sailors and other tourist coming to this corner of Epi Island. We agreed for a dinner on Wednesday evening.

When we continued walking a lady with a styrofoam box approached us “fresh bread” was written on it. When she opened the box in front of us, the wonderful smell of freshly baked bread sneaked into our noses. We bought a bread. When I asked for her oven, she showed it to us. It was not an earth-oven like the one Christine has in
Penrhyn Island, Cook Islands. It was a construction of stones and concrete. The wood fire is made in the oven, and when the stones are hot, the wood or better the ash is removed and the dough in the bread pans are put on the oven and the opening is closed with an old coconuts husk sack.

Benny, the baking lady offered us coconuts jam. During my long sail along islands with coconuts, I never heard about coconuts jam. So we were curious and wanted to buy one next day.

At the end we walked with Benny and saw that she sells her bread at the little shop of the village.

Filled up to the top with things we saw, heard, experienced, we went back.

What a day!

And what will be coming up?

At 1145 the anchor went down in Lamen Bay and it seems it has a good hold.

The Lamen Bay is the way I like it. Quite. A small village ashore. Locals are traveling to the l little Lamen island on the other side of the bay on their small, often a bit heavily loaded open boats. A rather big pier is to be seen on the NE shore which indicates that not only small supply ships can dock and provide what the people on the islands need.

At the beach I can see an outrigger canoe made from a dugout. Curious to see is w when standing beside it.

There are two more boats in the bay. Curious what kind of sailors are on board.

Tomorrow we want to go ashore. For that, we still have presents of yaqona too be used when we go ashore. Here the custom seems to be less formal and more considered as present from men to men to enjoy kava together.

How will the visit to the village be?

We had the fun range of winds last night including frequent changes between S, E, N and the sound spinning of the wind indicator needle in full circles around the wind dial.

I had my first squalls since quite a while. The first one was quite strong with 26 KN and Tobi woke me up. As MaRe is always wearing her pyjama especially for squalls, we just reduced the genoa a bit and left MaRe run through the nightly sea.

Unfortunately squalls don’t take long, we made only a few miles with that speed of 7+ KN.

Thereafter we had the ‘Kartoffelacker’ (potato field after harvest or in English choppy wasters) again. I ‘love’ it when the wind indicator needle spins around the dial and MaRe rocks in the completely irregular waves, the choppy wastes.

A while later another squalls came by to say ‘hello’ butit was a weaker one. Only 17 KN wind speed.

At about 0630 I saw that we need to use the engines to reach our anchorage by noon.
So I took the sails down and adjusted the boat speed that we make it in time but earlier then needed.

I had a deep sleep from 1900 till about 2030. Then it was an on- off sleep. At 2130 I offered Tobi to go to bed and take over a bit earlier.

The night is quite. The wind comes pretty much from E and around 10 KN. Thus, it follows the forecast. At daylight we will change to reef 1 in the main sail. This should give us a knot to two more speed.

Now I have to start with dough for fresh bread tomorrow.

We are already out of the bay of Port Vila. However, still running with the engines because the wind is still too weak for sailing. I hope we get more when we are more outside. I’m looking for nice southerly wind which blows us north to Epi Island.

Decision was made to depart today because the wind forecast for the next week looks more than disappointing. We would stuck on Port Vila for possibly a week.

Now I hope that the wind really gets us until noon tomorrow to the NW corner of Epi Island.

We started in the morning with provisioning because Port Vila is in respect to shopping canned & packed food the last chance until Chichi-Jima, the Port of Entry, I want to use for inbound clearance for Japan.

Guam and Saipan, I don’t consider as reasonable stop- over islands anymore. The USA want to be great again, thus sailors like Tobi and me don’t fit into the MAGA dream. But let’s see if I get replies to my mails.

Wind is changing directions, blowing more from N. Exactly the wrong direction.

A week swell from SSE is rolling onto MaRe. Nothing special.

Until later.

Yesterday I took on the task to get the washing machine running again. However, it didn’t work. So far I always needed to replace a certain resistor and the PCB was working again. This time there is software log up and I can crank it. Thus until Japan no washing machine.

This morning I started washing bed sheets and bed covers. I’ll get it done even without my beloved washing machine.

After a few urgent emails we went ashore. Tobias wanted to look for a PC and I wanted to see more in relaxed way of Port Vila and visit the museum.

Port Vila appears to me as a modern city although it has v elements of an not very developed city. Comparing it with Suva, Fiji is brighter.

Even the market for agricultural produce is brighter. Maybe it had to do with the bright daylight I feel that in seeing here.

Finding the ‘Musée National de Vanuatu’ was easy with my OsmAnd+ off-line map.

The museum looked with it’s painted scenes of daily life nice from outside. The name in the local language Bislama, shows where Bislama is strongly influenced from. “Nasional Musium Blong Vanuatu”
“Blong” means ‘belonging to’.

The museum is not big at all. One big hall is full of exhibits.

Figures made of wood reminded my to figures I saw in Polynesia. But what they have here and not in Polynesia, are “tamtams”. Big slit drums made from stems of bigger trees. They really sound good and the sound is pretty strong thus was carried over a larger distance.

Then I saw something, which looked to me like a music instrument made of bamboo but I could not figure out how it is played.

Just when I turned around, a museum guide smiled at me and said, “I know you!”. I was a bit baffled and asked “From where do you know me?” “From the hospital”, he replied and added, “You have a problem with a tooth”. So he remembered me pretty well and we started talking to each other. Suddenly, out of nothing, there was a familiarity between the two of us. I asked him about the music instrument, which I looked at before. He asked me from where I come and started playing the German national anthem. I was surprised.

He needed to attend some other visitor and gathered all of about 10 people around the place where he always gives his presentations and explanations. He explained a bit about the geography and the people of Vanuatu. When it came to art he demonstrated how the ornaments, which are often to be seen in a cultural context are dream m drawn. These patterns really required special skills and pactise

He also played two different types of old traditional flutes, which had a nice harmonic sound.

At the end he played the “bamboo-instrument” Ididn’t understand art the beginning. It sounded like a local song and showed a soft voice matching excellently the sound of the “bamboo-instrument”.

As I needed to walk back, I needed to say farewell. It took quite a while until I finally left the museum.

At the NAMBAWAN coffeeshop I had a snack, an iced coffee and a chocolate muffin while waiting for Tobias.

When we arrived at MaRe’s tender I was very astonished. Someone broke one lock and damaged the second one. However, the tender was not stolen. Difficult for me to understand that because I experienced the people here as very friendly. ‘Idiots without borders’ are to be found anywhere.

Under “Wikipedia Vanuatu” there are about 5 articles which give a good introduction to Vanuatu.

It took only a few minutes until someone saw me. However, the gentleman needed to tell me that they don’t do inlays and crowns, thus don’t have the cement needed.

I asked him for the address of clinic, which possibly could do the work. He indicated me one. 2 1/2 km away. Another clinic, another chance.

I walked and took a minibus along the coastal road. They have a simple, well functioning system of minibusses. They run from bus stop to bus stop as often as a bus comes.

I found the ‘Prime Dental clinic quickly. The friendly lady at the reception helped me together with a nurse to get all set up.
It is a Korean dentist. Most likely he has here in Vanuatu a more relaxed life than back in Korea, which I know from my professional life well.

While waiting a nice conversation with the receptionist developed. She was very interested about sailing. I’ll send her the links to my blog and tracking.

Then it was my turn on the dentist’s chair. He did a good job and the inlay is in. I only have to wait 2 h – 1 1/4 is gone already – until I can eat another salad at the NAMBAWAN coffee shop. Sitting already in coffee shop and wait is no problem. I even get water to drink. A wonderful friendly atmosphere.

We left at 0800 from MaRe. Tying up the tender at the dinghy dock we found yesterday, took a bit longer. Then we went to the NAMBAWAN coffee shop to see if their new Starlink works today. It works and we have a place where we can send messages to each other.

I headed up the hill to the hospital. Luckily I saw several shortcuts, which saved me a long walk along streets in bright sunshine.

Although I was at 0900 at the hospital there was already quite a group of people in front of me. I wonder if I can get an appointment this morning.

Then a lady in front of asked a man standing in front of me and me to move forward directly to the reception.

Then it was my turn. The receptionist remembered me from yesterday. She listened again to my request and disappeared. A few minutes later a dentist or an assistant came. I was told to wait 10 min because there is only one doctor who can help me.

Yesterday I walked 3 h, thus what means 10 min… It is 0915.