Thursday 27 May 2010 Pt Vila, Waterfront sea wall, Vanuatu
The day started out warm and sunny, which made something of a change from the past few weeks which have been mostly overcast and mild. Our list of boat maintenance tasks seemed to be increasing as time went on and it was difficult deciding where we should start.
A discussion with the guy off the boat next to us yesterday revealed that he might be able to help us with servicing the main engine which had been losing power progressively for the past few weeks. Noah was his name, a 36 year old Canadian fellow who has been travelling the world for the past 2 years with his wife and, as it turns out, he’s a mechanic with quite a bit of knowledge on diesel motors.
“Sure, I’ll have a look at it for you”, he said, and true to his word he crawled all over the motor for a couple of hours this morning diagnosing a range of things which need to be addressed. The immediate issue of reduced engine power he solved (we hope) by simply removing the clogged air filter; much to the embarrassment of all onboard who claim a degree of knowledge concerning these matters and who’d read the onboard library of books on the matter.
So after a successful day of diagnosing we had Noah and his wife, Vicky over for dinner tonight which was a real treat. We learned of their sail across the Pacific together, swimming with a wild humpback whale and its baby in Niue and travelling from island to island throughout French Polynesia.
We really appreciate the hard work and knowledge of Noah and for his efforts have made him an honorary member of MSM.
A few yachts further up from us there are two yachts preparing to head north to the Solomons to assist with marine conservation efforts at a village level. They are from a group called Oceanswatch and can be found at www.oceanswatch.org
We had a long chat earlier today with a guy that seemed to be a leader in the organisation and briefly mentioned our mud brick making exercise. He was very interested and who knows, the idea may be demonstrated in villages further north as a result of Oceanswatch.
Not a lot else happened today, we chased up spare parts, tidied the boat, liaised with Don and Meg MacRaild from the Vanuatu Prevention of Blindness Project about the upcoming missions in June and July and talked with our neighbours about boat maintenance issues.
One yacht which has been sharing the bay with us, in a manner of speaking, worthy of mention is the world’s biggest privately owned yacht. It’s called Eos (maybe check out their website) is over 300 feet long, has three gigantic masts and just dominated the bay in terms of its size while at anchor. Earlier today they came on the radio to inform all concerned that they were leaving the harbour, will be travelling at 8 knots and if anyone had concerns or issues they were standing by to take their call. I heard from a guy off another yacht that the owner was flying in tomorrow and that a large consignment of smoked salmon had been air freighted in because it was felt the local salmon wasn’t up to the standard of onboard cuisine. I understand how they feel.
The next few days for us will be spent attending to maintenance jobs as we prepare Chimere for her next mission in June and beyond that in July. The next crew arrives on Wednesday and the old (current) crew flies home on Thursday
Smooth seas, fair breeze and three cheers for Noah
Robert Latimer
Dear Rob
Your consignment of exclusive organic french island produce will be flown in on wednesday!(Don’t tell Eos)
Did the earthquake affect you at all???
Hey kitty kats.
I heard there was an earthquake last night (28th) or early morning the day before, in Vanuatu. 7.4 I think it was. I was just wondering if you guys are alright and or felt it at all. I am under the impression it was a fairly deep quake and as a result no one was injured.
Still love reading about all the mud-brick adventures.
Big love to all, and looking forward to seeing you Thursday (Dad).
– James
Hi Isabel,
We demand nothing but the best. Eos will have to wait I’m afraid.
No problems here concerning the earthquake, although it’s interesting that the only news you are ever likely to hear about Vanuatu in the western press concerns earthquakes and volcanos, oh and maybe tsunamis just for good measure.
Catch up again soon
Rob
Hello my little baby boy
Ha … what earthquake. Fortunately no problems here … this is not a time to panic.
No more mud brick stories unfortunately, although Bill and I had a captive audience of Ni-van gardeners and security staff at Iririki Island this afternoon when we swam over there. They were sitting under a tree as we emerged from the water on their private beach and after asking them which region of Vanuatu they were from, as we stood there dripping water, we briefly discussed mud brick making and which islands we’d visited so far this year and last year. They seemed friendly and polite, but no chance for a brick making session I’m afraid.
Look forward to seeing y’all real soon now.
Love, dad