SEA BEAR

 

A sailing blog about a skipper and his yacht

Pentecost Island 7th – 11th October

My last few days on Ambrym were bedevilled with rain and strong winds and i didn’t achieve much. With the wet weather I gave up on trying to get to Fanla and thought it time to move on to the next island in the chain, Pentecost. At last wind wise we had a reasonable forecast, that is not too strong although showers were promised for the afternoon. It being about 12 miles across to Pentecost I could do that in a morning and hopefully be safely at anchor before rain. It was not to be. It was drizzling lightly when I weighed anchor in the morning, little wind at first but it soon picked up and I set  a double reefed main and the yankee. With a strongish wind on her stern quarter, this is a combination that Sea Bear seems to like and she was going well. Unfortunately the wind speed indicator instrument had stopped working, the sensor cups at the mast head were not rotating at all. A bit of a blow this.

I passed a large school of what I thought must be pilot whales, adults and young. They were too large for dolphins and had a more leisurely motion, a pleasure to see.

A few miles short of Homo bay it came on to rain very heavily and the wind died too. visibility was appalling. Fortunately the approach to anchor in Homo bay is very straightforward with no offshore dangers. Just a matter of heading for the beach until you reach a suitable depth to anchor. I dropped the hook in 10 m about 100 m from the beach, the rain continuing to pour down. The rain didn’t deter two locals from the village paddling out in their dugout canoes to see me.  Later in the afternoon it stopped raining and they returned with fresh prawns, grapefruit, bananas, & water cress for me to buy.

Pounding Kava

I went ashore and watched them prepare Kava and had a couple of glasses with them before returning to the boat to cook the fresh prawns for my dinner. Delicious cooked with garlic and ginger on a bed of rice.

Next day I went ashore and took a walk with chief Sam to a huge Banyan tree and then dug up some water Taro.

Harvesting Taro

Back at his hut he prepared what he called laplap. Basically boiled Taro and Yam then mashed with a little fresh coconut milk and rolled out on a special slab of wood and more coconut milk puddled over the top. It was OK but hardly a gastronomic wonder.

Cooking taro

Mashing Taro & Yam

Eating laplap

In the afternoon I walked along the beach and track  as far as Cook’s rock (yes that man again).

Cook’s rock

I moved anchorage to the next bay, Wali bay. Pentecost is home to land diving, Bungi jumping is derived from it. I had hoped to see one of the land diving towers here but it had fallen down. They are temporary structure from trees & branches bound together with vines. They only land dive in April & May when the vines they use for “bungies” are green and pliable enough. However they was apparently still a tower standing at the next village Rangusuksu so I walked along the coast to see it.

Land diving tower

Back at the boat I moved further north up the coast, anchoring in Waterfall bay. After asking permission at the village I walked up to the waterfall. The plunge pool was a bit difficult of access and not so good for a bathe but to stand in the cool spray was very refreshing and I did bathe in a pool just a little way downstream.

Waterfall

Moving on next day I sailed up the coast and entered Loltong bay. The entry was between two shallow reefs which supposedly dry, there are leading marks to help you in but they are difficult to pick out and see until you are reasonably close in. It was one of those heart in mouth approaches taking it slow and steady. inside I anchored in 5m on sand. The holding is good but you do feel a bit surrounded by reefs.

I saw turtles here and also what I thought was probably a dugong.

Lontong village

I had a walk ashore through the village next day, visited a cave and a fresh water spring on the beach, the water just bubbling up through the sand and pebbles.

Fresh water spring on beach

It rained hard in the afternoon with very poor visibility, that laid to rest any half formed plans of moving on in the afternoon.