Ambrym, Malekula and Espiritu Santo

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We sailed out of Port Vila on the 25th after an awesome day. We spent a day sailing along north along the Vanuatuan archipelago towards the island of Ambrym, the centre of black magic and sorcery in the area, with two active volcanoes. The people are really christian but still practice lots of ceremonies and superstitions. Apparently they were still practicing cannabalism in the 1970's. Its crazy to think that there parents were cannibals. We pulled into a bay on the NW shore in front of a village called Ranon and dropped anchor. Its great, whenver we're anchored, we are able to sleep up on deck instad of the steamy hot hold. My bunk is right next to the galley so even hotter- within seconds of sleeping down below you are covered in beads of sweat. Sleeping on deck under the full moon and unhindered stars is unreal. I've been using my surfboard bag as a matress so its fairly comfy. In the morning we went into shore and asked some natives where the best snorkelling sites were. The island is completely volcanic and the beaches are composed of jet black sand. We snorkeled two km's along a steep cliff face. Lots of llava rock along the bottom and neon coloured coral. We saw two sea turtles, and few fish which was disappoinitng as we were armed with spear guns and turles are protected. Apparently the area is infested with reef and hammerhead sharks, but none were to be seen.

The next day we hiked up the volcano to a village where the locals had prepared a ROM dance for us. Got some amazing footage- basically abunch of naked natives dancing with penis sheaths and surrounded by men dressed up with huge masks and covered in banana leaves representing spritits- pretty wild. There stomping made the ground shake. In the afternoon A couple of us guys were invited by some natives to go pig hunting on the far side of the island. We travelled by boat to a lava river mouth. Two large hot spring lagoons could be seen beyond the beach. We couldn't swim into shore cos the warm water attracts a plethora of sharks to this river mouth. We got a shore and were told to be sure to keep up. Thus the marathon started. We ran up a solidified section of the lava river for about a mile. When we got to a place the ntives released their 2 dogs who instantly bolted up the side of the densely covered ravine wall. WE were guick to follo- we first crossed a 30ft fallen log which plummeted 20ft either side to hard rock. Once across we scrambled so fast up the muddy ravine after the barking dogs. Over and under tree roots and vines- it was insane trying to keep up with these guys. They do it everyday and move incredibly efficiently. nonetheless we manage to keep them insight and eventually cuaght up to the dogs who had a big boar cornered. We threw big rocks at it til we stunned it and was able to grab it by its legs, whereby we clubbed it to death. Another native screached in the distance and we were off on another wild pig chase back down the hill. All in all we caught 3, the natives quartered them right away and put them on sharpened sticks. We victoriously carried them back down to the beach feeling like the lord of the flys- chanting as we went. We took our victory kill back to the village beach where they prepared an awesome beach bbq for us under the moonlight.

The next day we made a brief stop on Malekula island to drop off the SALTS executive director who spent 2 weeks with us. I whooped him at chess. We then cruised northwards for Espiritu Santo with all sails up.
Enroute we caugt a 120lb marlin, and have fresh marlin to eat for the next few days.

Now we are here in Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu- that means Holy Spirit- discovered by Spanish sailors in the 1660's. Cool place- I'm going diving today at the SS.Coolidge and Million Dollar Point. The town is called Luganville and was a huge WW2 strategic town for the Americans, so lots of sunken ships and planes. Lots of fun.

We are still in the Cyclone warning zone so we're out of hear tomorrow, heading north for Santa cruz islands in the Solomons and then to Guadalcanal.

Peace out

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