We had a good sail across from Fiji, not a lot of wind and what there was, was from a direction which is hard to do anything with. We've been seriously low on fuel due to the excessive motoring but the conditions, for Vanuatu, were great. We were treated to a visit from a curious sperm whale which approached right up to the boat before doing a magnificent dive, flicking up his tail and disappearing under the boat.
In Tanna a small group of us were lucky enough to get invited to a circumcision ceremony in a local village. The circumcision had been done several months ago (two boys aged around 10 yrs) and the ceremony was to welcome the boys back into the community. Locals with good English explained to us what was happening. Some mum's apologized for some of the younger children being frightened of us but they explained that the children hadn't seen white people before, let alone a camera. We were made to feel very welcome and Sascha and I had our faces painted along with all the village females. A great cultural experience, although Daryl thought my 500 photos was a little excessive!!!!
That evening we went up to see the volcano and, although it was fairly active, we feel the truck drive up was more dangerous than the volcano itself!!!!
We left Tanna after dark and were treated to a fantastic view of the erupting volcano as we sailed past. Winds were light (and so was the fuel) but with a full moon it was a beautiful, albeit slow, over night sail to the next island, Erromango. We sailed into the bay amidst a large pod of spinner dolphins.
By 8am we had our day planned including guided trips to burial caves and an ancestral cave with rock drawings.
If you don't think you're into viewing us with human bones, then skip the next two photos. As previous generations in Vanuatu were cannibals, some even up to 1969, they are somewhat more casual than us about the sighting and handling of human bones. In early times they also used the bone to make tools. We found the history fascinating.
The customs and traditions on each island in Vanuatu are quite different and it takes a while to get your head around it all. Adding to this is the change that is occurring due to westernization (for want of a better word). Two boys approached us in Tanna in their dug out canoe and asked whether we could charge their cellphones!!!! Things are changing and makes for some interesting discussing on what is actually the best for these people.
We spent time with the dolphins, did a bit of snorkelling, had time in the village, celebrated Erika's birthday from 'Oz Magic', traded fish hooks for bananas and then it was time to move on.
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