Port Havannah revisited

We left Epi on saturday morning. It was quite calm in the lee of the island but when we rounded the corner we had 20-25knot winds gusting to 30kn as lines of squalls passed over. The swell wasn’t too bad but when we were in a squall the waves bashed over the boat or the boat went through the waves, or both. It was quite an exhilerating sail but exhausting.

We had the main with its number 2 reef in and the stay sail up the whole time. And in between squalls we also had the genoa out a bit, in cutter style configuration. It worked quite well and we were consistently sailing between 6-8 knots. But thank god for our hard dodger. We were in our safe dry little world under it.

This photo may look a bit calmer, except the wave in front of us is higher than us! The waves certainly tested the waterproofing on our hatches, and I think any remaining volcano ash has finally been washed away.

We had a radio call from SV_ Nomad to check what conditions were like, and they opted to tuck themselves into a little bay further down the island rather than come through to Port Havannah in one hard slog.

We considered our options but with possibly the same conditions on Sunday we decided to sail right through and knock the journey over in one day rather than have a potentially rocky night in a little cove and have to do it all again tomorrow.

We thought we’d arrive in Port Havannah well after dark, being a 70NM journey, but we maintained a cracking pace and dropped anchor just as the sun went down. Dean tells me we averaged 6.4kn with a quickest time of 9kn. That’s not bad because in the lee of both the islands we were sailing quite slowly. Once we entered into Port Havannah it was like we were in a different world. It was a millpond and we had to motor over to our anchorage.

When we sat down for dinner that evening we could hear some people in a Tuff boat nearby fishing. They sounded like they were having a merry old time, laughing and singing while they fished. I called out to them and asked them if they would like some of our fish, because I am certain we aren’t going to be able to eat all of ours between the two of us before we return to Australia. They came over and gratefully accepted our offer. There was grandma, mum and dad and all the bambinos in the boat and had caught a barracuda, so I am glad we topped up their catch.

With my good deed for the day done, we headed in for an early night and slept soundly after our big day. I stayed up a bit later but Dean was fast asleep by 7pm, thoroughly exhausted.

We had a few idyllic days back in Port Havannah before returning to Vila; kayaking, snorkelling and swimming whenever we felt like it. There is a little creek near where we are anchored so we decided to paddle up and check it out. It was pretty shallow but with the tide coming in, the Tuff boats up there were starting to be able to leave to go fishing.

We spoke to one man leaving called Ben. He works at the Naturopathy Health Spa called Reflections nearby and invited us to come and have a look at it when he was working next as they have no-one staying at the moment. We had a really nice chat, and of course he had been to Australia picking fruit/veg, in his case cabbages in Victoria.

We couldn’t go too far up the creek before it was too shallow to go any further but I got a good reminder why to never drink this water with so many villages about. You just don’t know what it upstream. In this case the cutest little pig in a tiny cage right on the creek bank. Poor little fella being fattened up on coconuts by the looks of things!

We went as far as we could go until we ran out of water. There was a road crossing the creek so Dean went up and had a bit of an explore before we went back into the Port. This is the little entrance we passed through. I am certain during the wet season this creek is a roaring river. There was definitely capacity there.

After we exited the creek we continued up the coast. The water was like a swimming pool with clear water and a nice rocky reef. Here is Dean catching some rays on our lazy kayak. Behind him you can see the entry to the Port, and the route we will be taking back to Vila.

We kayaked past the retreat that Ben worked at, Reflections, and a man was working on a gazebo. He waved and said hi, and was clearly an Aussie so we paddled over to chat and he invited us in to have a look around. Brad and his wife had spent over 5 years turning what was swamp, into this little piece of paradise. They were open 6 months before Covid hit. We were glad to hear they had a 75 year lease on this prime piece of land, didn’t own it.

Reflections Retreat, Port Havannah

It covers 5 acres and borders the creek and the shoreline. A gazebo looking out across the Port had some recliners, and is where they hold their morning yoga sessions. They have just employed a local chef that cooks food that is good for you: gluten free, sugar free, fat free, organic… to eat in the communal dining area and had a decent kitchen. The accomodation could be made up into a king size bed or two singles and had an amazing ensuite with luxurious bath and shower. There was also a cottage that they built first and lived in while they built the rest, but is now accomodation for people staying longer term with its own kitchen. There was a massage room and oh did I mention, no kids! Though Ben and his wife and three children have been given accomodation on the land.

We are not the types to go for naturopathy and all that healthy food and stuff and I’d be lounging on the recliners not doing yoga at dawn, but it was really beautiful. And of course they help arrange trips to local villages, and Ben looks after the activities and things that you can access around the Island.

While we were talking to Brad, an interesting thing he told us about the village life is the way children are brought up. If one family has all girls and another all boys they may swap children. The kids know they have parents who raised them and parents who gave birth to them, but it is all fluid and accepted.

After this lazy morning we went for another snorkel. We went quite a way up the reef but as we were making our way back down there was a boat from one of the resorts pulling poeple behind it on a float and I was scared they were going to run me over while they seemed to be focussed behind them not in front of them. So I made my way in quite close to shore where it was much more shallow, rockier and slimier. There wasn’t much nice coral but I did see some interesting things. These giant sea cucumber thingo’s. There isn’t any perspective but they were bigger and thinker than my arm.

And I know these fish are really common, but I just find them so beautiful contrasted against the plain white coral. I had to stalk them for a while because they kept facing me and because they are nearly as thin as a piece of paper, you can barely see them. So I just floated until they were comfortable enough to start acting naturally again.

And I am sure some of the characters in Nemo must have been based on this googly eyed yellow fish. I must have taken about 30 photos to capture him. He kept darting into the coral and peeking around at me, then dashing back in and popping out somewhere else. It was hilarious watching him.

I also found a dark anemone with black clown fish in it.

And another colony teeming with orange clown fish that I watched for ages. They are so fascinating.

While I love all beautiful coral, I love finding a nugget of beauty amongst the not so beautiful if that makes sense! So amongst the old broken coral and slimy rocks these new colonies popping up looking so magical, took my breath away. Unfortunately taking a photo doesn’t give them the justice they deserve with the subtle colours lost in the image.

Dean went on a paddle without me to explore the other end of the beach. He met a local man, a community nurse on a nearby island who was visiting his father who lives right on the beach with his son who was about 6. The boys grandfather had made a slingshot for him out of a stick and he’d been flinging rocks and had killed one of the chickens. Fluke or skill? Regardless it was chicken for dinner for them that night!

Dean asked the man about “Blackman medicine” and what was it and he replied it mainly involves Kava! And he confirmed our suspicions that many don’t attend clinics until there is no other option and often by then it it too late, especially in the more remote communities.

As he paddled back Dean did find a house for sale! While this is a nice and protected Port it still has its moments with bad storms. I would love to see this house in a storm surge!

We also got some jobs done. I suspect our stay sail was rarely used before, but now we have it permanantly rigged we use it quite a bit, and have found the blocks for it aren’t strong enough. It is never nice drilling new holes in a boat, but Dean removed the old blocks, filled the holes and fitted the larger and stronger new blocks we’ve been carrying around for a year and fitted those. We expect they are going to get a lot of use where we are heading!

We also chased our application to enter The Federated States of Micronesia. They are notorious for not replying, but we followed Noonsite’s instructions, and our application is now being processed. So on that note we will say goodbye for a while. We are flying back to Australia shortly for a family visit and then when we get back to Vanuatu, we need to hightail it out of here to get above the cyclone line before the middle of November. We received our letter from immmigation so we could fly back to Vanuatu and leave again by ship, so we should be okay on that front.

Thank you to all the people who have kept in contact and have been messaging us, it is lovely to know you have also been enjoying our journey. From hereon in, I feel we will be taking the road less travelled, so I hope there will be some new and interesting places we will be able to share with you.