October 1, 2000-Fun in Port Vila

Port Vila

We came back to Port Vila to make our preparations for departure from Vanuatu. Even though we haven't seen much of this country, our season is winding down and we need to head to Noumea, New Caledonia. So we'll leave Vanuatu for this year and come back for a longer stay next time.

Meanwhile, we have been having fun in Vila. We went to a local restaurant and found ourselves right in the middle of a big squabble between the French owner, his much aggrieved and apparently long suffering wife, a waitress who was probably his mistress and a third woman, who by looks and reputation, is the town prostitute. No one but the prostitute was talking to anyone else, and she wasn't saying much, but there was plenty of huffing and sighing and slamming of plates and things. The owner was doing a lot of dancing around trying to placate the women and make all guests think everything was normal, and meanwhile the guests didn't know whether to laugh or be embarrassed. On top of it all, several cats were wandering around and they kept getting into catfights under the unoccupied tables, which just added to the commotion. We don't know exactly what the fight was all about, although we had fun imagining, but the food and wine were good.

Then we went to the Waterfront Bar & Grill and danced ourselves silly to an excellent local band playing a combination of reggae, blues and Vanuatuan music. There is lots of good rock music in New Zealand but it is hard to find in the Pacific Island countries, and we've been looking. This band however was exactly what we wanted; they played loud, fast, and hard. We were still suffering from bad case of sore toe, but with plenty of rum aboard we didn't feel a thing. Like the locals say, "I straight no mo" meaning: "no problem". After we closed the place down we wound up on the yacht SENARAND, having rum and ice with Mark and his crew, which sort of took us over the top, alcohol wise (or unwise). Good thing we left the light on for ourselves back on WINGS, or we might not have found our way home. The next morning we were a bit shakey as we went about getting WINGS underway for an early appointment at the fuel dock, but, like they say, "I straight no mo."

We also would like to report, for those of you familiar with the Seattle sailboat racing scene back in the 70's, that WARRIOR, the great Chance 50 once owned and raced very successfully by the Hedrick family in Portland and Seattle, is out here cruising and still looking exactly the same as she always did except maybe slightly older. We haven't met the family aboard her yet but we are going to if we can just catch up with them.

So all is well on WINGS in Port Vila, and we're out of here. We'll get this off to you today, and we expect to be sailing towards Noumea by Monday, October 9, if the weather isn't too forbidding. We'll write from there.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Port Vila