Hike to See Volcano

From Barry: On Monday night, the sky cleared of most of the clouds and we could see the orange glow of the molten lave reflected down from higher clouds. Tuesday morning dawned with the cone of the volcanoes silhouetted against the sky. This suddenly looked very promising for ascending to the rim of the cone to look down on the molten lava. Arrangements were made by Patrick and Rebecca to have a truck transport us from Ranon to Ranletvan village about 1 or 2 miles to the west to pick up the guides and then take us up the hill to the trailhead. We were leaving about 10:30 in the morning instead of the recommended 7 am. I was very grateful for the 30 minute truck ride, as it did a lot of climbing up the mountain. At the trail head, it turned out that the only guide/porter was Joseph. The other two NiVans in the truck were there to fix the truck as necessary. I had two day packs, two small sleeping bags (one for padding) and my large camera. The guide books said that the guides carried your gear up the mountain, but that was not their expectation. Joseph generously offered to carry one of my day packs and Patrick and Rebecca each carried one of my sleeping bags along with their minimal gear. Then the hike began, going up fairly steeply through the forest.

After about 2 ½ hours, we dropped down onto the "ash plain" composed of cinders in the old caldera. The plain is fairly flat and walking on it was like walking on a sandy desert wash. Never-the-less, the ash plain is heavily vegetated with brush, bamboo, tall grasses and a few trees. We walked in the dry river beds for 2 more hours until we got our glimpse of the closest volcano cone. To our dismay, we could only see the bottom, as the top was shrouded in cloud. Our prospects suddenly looked very bleak. In another half hour of walking, we reached the "hut" where we were to spend the night. The hut consisted of a thatched roof with no walls or floor. After resting for a bit and eating, we started hiking again across the ash plain to the base of the cone. After another half hour, we started ascending up a steep creek gulley and then up a steep ridge. When we reached a spot on the ridge where we could get a good view, we stopped and assessed the situation. The cloud ceiling was about 200 feet above us and the guide said that the rim was about another 1 ½ hours hiking away. We stopped and rested and waited to see if we might get lucky and have the clouds dissipate. Instead the clouds were getting lower and it was starting to mist. With no hope of seeing the volcano, we headed back to the hut as the last light of day dimmed.

It was very hard walking the last half mile to the hut in the dim light on black ground since we had not gotten out our flash lights. The guide had set up a large tent, but it was not clear if the tent was only for him or all of us. At bed time, Rebecca decided to go into the tent and I soon followed. Patrick said that he was content to sleep under the shelter. I offered Rebecca one of my sleeping bags, but she said that she was fine and did not need it. Later in the night, Rebecca got very restless and I asked her if she was OK. "No, I've been shivering for the last hour." She gratefully accepted the extra sleeping bag and went back to sleep. Two hours later, Patrick came into the tent and snuggled up to his wife. He had toughed it out as long as he could and had finally given up.

As dawn broke, the mountain was still shrouded in cloud. We ate breakfast, packed up and headed back to get to the trail head by 10 am to meet the truck. There was no time to start back up the cone in hopes of the clouds clearing. We passed two men with a dog going the other way. They were out hunting and their dog had caught a megapode. Between the locals hunting and the gathering of megapode eggs near the hot springs, the future for megapodes looks bleak.

All-in-all, my legs and feet held up pretty well on the first day, although had we ascended to the top, the additional hiking would have been pretty brutal for a person my age and who walks as little as we do living on the boat. By the time we had hiked back down to the trailhead, my knee and toes were starting to suffer from the downhill trek. So, I am back from a long exercise to futility! Or is that futile exercise? Whatever, I am back.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Safe

Barry got back safely and he says he is almost in one piece. They did not see the throat because of all the smoke and clouds.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Wild and Wonderful

Barry has gone off on a wild and wonderful adventure leaving his lame wife behind. I am feeling sorry for myself! We are anchored off the small island of Ambryn which is basically a volcano with 2 active vents. At night we see the 2 vents glowing and changing brightness as they erupt. He and the neighbors, Patrick and Rebecca on BrickHouse, are hiking up to the rim and looking in at the boiling throat. They chose a perfect day with no smoke hiding the view. They will spend the night so that they can see the molten lava better in the dark and because it is such a strenuous hike. This is a bigger, better, less accessible volcano with better views than Mt Yasur which we climbed in May. Patrick and Rebecca are a young couple sailing the world. (Everyone we meet is younger than we are - I think we are the oldest people in all of Vanuatu!) Rebecca, being a woman, has good judgment and can tell Barry to "Get back from the edge!!" Barry, as you know, has a severe case of testosterone poisoning.

Oh, no! It's 4 o'clock and the volcanos are covered in cloud and smoke. That might make a view impossible. At least Barry took the camera with the telephoto lens and said he would photograph all the birds he sees on the way. The first third goes through jungle so maybe he'll see montane birds we haven't seen yet. In the meantime I am having a less than thrilling day inventorying all the prescriptions and medicines we have on board. All I can say is that I am Very Grateful that we have had no need of them. It's mind boggling to think of all the illnesses and afflictions that we don't have - an astounding number of things!

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Turtle

A thirteen year old girl came aboard and said she wanted us to buy a live turtle from her. We answered with our standard "We don't buy (or eat) turtles. We only like to see them swimming free in the ocean".

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

My dad's Log

Thanks to my brother, Steve, and Katie who got it to me.
USS Dupage
9/1/1943 Ship went into commission, New York. (Boarded ship 8th of
September)
9/11/1943 Left New York for Norfolk, VA
10/1/1943 Left Norfolk for West Coast
10/22/1943 Arrived San Diego, CA
1/13/1944 Left San Diego for overseas duty
1/21/1944 Arrived at Pearl Harbor
1/22/1944 Left Pearl Harbor for invasion of Marshall Islands
1/31/1944 *D-Day - Hit Roi and Namur in the Marshall Islands
2/5/1944 Left Marshalls
2/10/1944 Arrived at Funi Futi in the Ellice Islands
2/13/1944 Left Ellice Islands for Guadalcanal
2/18/1944 Arrived at Guadalcanal
3/18/1944 Left Guadalcanal
3/21/1944 Arrived at New Caledonia
4/4/1944 Left New Calidonia
4/7/1944 Arrived at Guadalcanal
4/8/1944 Left Guadalcanal
4/11/1944 *Operation of Emirau Islands
4/14/1944 Arrived at Guadalcanal
4/26/1944 Left Guadalcanal
4/28/1944 *Arrived at Cape Clouster, New Britain
5/1/1944 Left New Britain
5/3/1944 Arrived at Russell Islands
5/4/1944 Left Russell's and arrived at Guadalcanal same day
6/4/1944 Left Guadalcanal
6/8/1944 Arrived at Kwajalein, Marshall Islands
6/12/1944 Left Kwajalein Islands
6/15/1944 *Invasion of Saipan, lying off beach as floating reserves
6/19/1944 First Jap plane to show up was shot down
6/20/1944 Second Jap plane to show up and was shot down
6/21/1944 Third Jap plane to show up, within range, was shot down
6/25/1944 Orders to return to base
6/28/1944 Arrived at Eniwetok Island
7/17/1944 Left Eniwetok Island
7/21/1944 *D-Day Invasion of Guam
7/26/1944 Left Guam
7/30/1944 Arrived at Eniwetok Island
7/31/1944 Left Eniwetok Island
8/5/1944 Arrived at Espirito Sando, New Hebredes ***********This is Luganville, where we were at anchor at the Beachfront Resort*************
8/14/1944 Left Espiritu Santo An expat described the US Navy operation right there on the beach where we were eating lunch.
8/16/1944 Arrived at Guadalcanal
8/20/1944 Left Guadalcanal, arrived at Russell's the same day
9/8/1944 Left Russell's to invade Peleliu, Palau Islands
9/15/1944 *D-Day Peleliu
9/27/1944 Left Peleliu
9/30/1944 Arrived Hollandia, New Guinea
10/13/1944 Left New Guinea for invasion of Leyte, Phillipine Islands
10/20/1944 *D-Day Leyte, left the same day
10/25/1944 Arrived at Hollandia
11/9/1944 Left Hollandia for Leyte with reinforcements
11/14/1944 Arrived at Leyte, left the same day
11/20/1944 Arrived at Manus Islands
11/30/1944 Left Manus for Aitape in New Guinea
12/1/1944 arrived at Aitape, New Guinea
12/28/1944 Left Aitape ofr Lingayen Gulf, Luzon, Phillipine Islands
1/9/1945 *D-Day, Lingayen Gulf
1/10/1945 *Left Lingayen, hit by Jap suicide bomber
1/13/1945 Arrived at Leyte
1/26/1945 Left Leyte to invade San Antonio Bay at Luzon, Phillipine Islands
1/29/1945 *D-Day, invaded San Antonio Bay
1/29/1945 Left Sand Antonio Bay for Leyte
2/1/1945 Arrived at Leyte
2/11/1945 Left Leyte for Manus Islands, Admiralties Group
2/18/1945 Arrived at Manus Islands
2/19/1945 Left Manus for Pearl Harbor
3/2/1945 Arrived at Pearl Harbor
3/3/1945 Left Pearl Harbor for States
3/9/1945 Arrived San Francisco, U.S.A.
5/14/1945 Left San Francisco
5/16/1945 Arrived Seattle, Washington
5/20/1945 Left Seattle
5/27/1945 Arrived Pearl Harbor
5/29/1945 Left Pearl Harbor
6/6/1945 Arrived at Eniwetok Island
6/18/1945 Left Eniwetok Island
6/22/1945 Arrived Ulithi, West Carolines
7/1/1945 Left Ulthi
7/5/1945 Arrived Okinawa, Ryukyos
7/8/1945 Left Okinawa
7/12/1945 Arrived Saipan
7/13/1945 Left Saipan
7/14/1945 Arrived Guam
7/15/1945 Left Guam
7/18/1945 Arrived Eniwetok, left same day for States
7/28/1945 Arrived San Francisco, U.S.A.
8/12/1945 Left San Francisco
8/24/1945 Arrived Eniwetok Islands
8/25/1945 Left Eniwetok Island
8/29/1945 Arrived Ulithi, West Carolines
9/2/1945 Left Ulthi
9/5/1945 Arrived at Leyte
9/8/1945 Left Leyte
9/10/1945 Arrived at Subic Bay, Luzon, Phillipine Islands
9/11/1945 Left Subic Bay
9/12/1945 Arrived at Linguyan Gulf, (San Fernando)
10/1/1945 Left Linguyan Gulf for Japan
10/6/1945 Arrived with occupation forces at Wakayama, Japan
10/26/1945 Left Wakayama
10/27/1945 Arrived Nagoya, Japan
10/29/1945 Left Nagoya, Japan for Home

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Cave of the Moon

Here's one of my favorites: Prince Charles is nambawan pikinini blong Kwin. Just pronounce every letter. The letter A is always pronounced ah and the letter I is always pronounced ee.

From Barry: We anchored for the night at Narovorovo, where there was some protection from the wind and swell moving north up the coast. In the morning, we moved south some more to Sanasom, where I went ashore to arrange a visit to the large sea cave called Cave of the Moon and some petroglyphs. Two young women with children were my guides. A large number of other children also tagged along. One of these young women hoisted her two-year old child onto her hip. The child hung on to her neck with one hand and waved a bush knife the size of a large kitchen knife around her back with the other hand. The National Safety Council in Vanuatu is not very active, if in fact it exists. We are always seeing young children playing with large bush knives. And nobody in Vanuatu uses a life jacket when they are in their dugout canoes or when 20 people are piled into a small fiberglass motorboat with the gunnels nearly awash. The women also guided me to the Cave of the Sun, a smaller cave in the limestone. The locals piled rounded river rocks up in stacks all over the cave. Some spiritual significance? No, probably just getting a quick start making stalagmites, as many stalagmites could be seen having a core of river rocks. Kind of like cultured pearls. Nearby, under an overhanging cliff, there were a large number of petroglyphs. I went back to Sunrise and took my lame wife, Lynne, to the Cave of the Moon in the dinghy. She then waited in the dinghy while I went back to the petroglyphs and Cave of the Sun to take pictures. Afterwards, we punched Sunrise directly into the strong afternoon wind and swell for several hours to reach the calm, protected anchorage at
Asanvari at the very south end of Maewo. There, we found two other yachts, a "yacht club" and a bar. Back to civilization!

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Priorities

Priorities? 1: Not falling over waterfalls. 2: Not missing out on the fun.
From Barry: The island is made of calcified coral, so the water in the river is full of calcium carbonate. It deposits travertine on the wet surfaces. The locals have done a fine job making pools with walls of rocks or clumps of coral and have also dug irrigation canals and made terraced ponds for growing taro. The travertine cements everything together. It reminds us a little bit of Bali and the terraced rice fields everywhere. The two young people that we meet become our guides and do a fine job helping Lynne climb up the travertine and across the falls, holding her hand and steadying her. Afterwards, we invite the two, Arnold and Elsie, out for a tour of Sunrise and give them facemasks for gifts for helping us and also give them the money that the village collects from tourists for visiting the cascades. Since this anchorage is exposed to the prevailing swell moving up the island, we up anchor and move two miles south to a more protected spot, where we enjoy the full moon while eating dinner.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com