Hiding on Aore Island

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There are navigational hazards all over the oceans and lagoons.  These can range from natural reefs and bommies that are just below the surface to lost containers, FADs (fishing devices), debris and trash,

We are constantly watching the ocean in front of us and utilizing multiple charts and satellite images to ensure a smooth passage.  This would be whether it is 1200nm or 8nm.  Distance doesn’t matter when things can pop up at any moment.

We were leaving Atchin and heading to Aore island which is a 10nm sail.  We had full sails as there were light winds predicted.  

What Can You See?

Matt called me over to look out at the ocean.  Hmmm, I could see a color difference ahead so we both checked the charts.  We were running navionics, B&G, Rocket Guide, Garmin, satellite charts from three sources and I am on the bow as a lookout.  This is our norm.

Me looking for visual changes in the ocean and or reefs / bommies.

At first glance we could not see any reason as to why the ocean goes from dark blue to a lighter blue.  I looked closely at Navionics.  Everything appears clear (left image)….until you zoom in (right image) and click on the small dot when “reef” shows up.  Well, that is one obstruction we want to avoid.  

But on the satellite charts there are two areas of concern.  The oval shaped one below is the one we spotted after we zoomed in to Navionics.  However, the long skinny one, just below the boat never showed up.  What the heck?  Well, no matter what it is, let’s avoid it!

As it turns out, we believe that the light coloring in the satellite chart could be a cut in the fringing reef where a creek emerges from the forest.  But, despite this possibility we decided it was best to go around it.

Aore Island

We arrived safely into Aiswari Bay on Aore Island.  It is a tricky entrance where you have to have good light to navigate around the reefs that line the entrance.

You are rewarded with a super calm, beautiful anchorage once you are inside the pass.  We were looking for an isolated anchorage where we could work on boat projects and let my hands heal.  

Matt took this time to go for a few paddle board trips, we walked onshore (which is pretty much the only thing I can do) and we worked on small boat projects.

We had beautiful sunsets (top) and sunrises (bottom).

What Do You Do With Injured Hands?

I organized our spices.  Yep, that is exciting.  We had all of our spices in an upper cabinet.  The problem was you could not see anything beyond the spices in front.  So, they ended up getting moved around a lot making it difficult to find what you needed.

So, I gathered my label maker, labeled the lids and we moved them to a drawer.  Sweet as!

Go Sun

Our good friend Rena on sv Moana gifted us with a Go Sun.  I had never heard of them before, but of course Matt was over the moon with this new oven.  All it needs is a little sun and you can bake bread, pizza dough, baguettes, veggies, potatoes and more.  Our first try came out pretty darn tasty!

Malokilikili Bay, Malo Isalnd

We had a “light” weather window and decided to motor sail10nm to Malo Island.  We had passed by a pretty bay on the way to Aore Island but could not enter due to the wind direction.  Since, the winds shifted and decreased, we thought we would go check it out.

We are headed to Malokilikili Bay just off of Malotina Island (which is just off Malo Island).  There are a lot of reefs and bommies in this area.  The best time to enter is when the sun is straight up, clear skies, and calm seas.  The tide is 2m at 0 tide and we have a 1.3m draft.  Doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room.  But we are able to navigate around all the bommies and anchored in a sandy spot.

All of the dark spots in the turquoise water are bommies or coral heads.  The white or gray areas are reef.  Can you see Sugar Shack in the photo above?

The photo below shows you how close we are to one large bommie.  We dropped our hook in 3m, put out 15m of chain, plus 5m of bridle.  We could have anchored further up, but we set the hook good and decided to leave it.  

Super beautiful, calm, protected spot.  We enjoyed a nice long walk around Malotina and then took the dinghy over to Malokilikili.  We met a few locals who took us around to each of the 4 villages on the island and even managed to score some fruit!

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events.  We visited Malokilikil and Aore Island in late July 2024.  In our last blog I share the unfortunate burning of my hands….

Malekula Madness

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It has been so fun staying at the beautiful Maskelyne Islands.  They are just on the southern tip of Malekula which is a short 18nm away.

Malekula is Vanuatu’s second largest island and is one of the most culturally diverse islands in Vanuatu.  It is riddled with secret cannibal sites, surrounded by glassy reefs, and home to the gentle giant of the sea: the dugong.

There are over 30 languages spoken on the small island of Malekula. With a population of only 25,000 and different cultural practices affiliated with each language and village, Malekula is sure to delight at every turn.

Banam Bay

Banam Bay is a large bay with many outreaching reefs.  We had the entire bay to ourselves and it was delightful.    We snorkeled the varied reefs inside the bay which are home to dozens of large and small fish.  While we snorkeled, we encountered a surprising number of soft coral patches with nemos which was a pleasant surprise.  Usually we see hard or branching coral.

We headed into shore to do some exploring and walking around.  It was Sunday so many villagers were at church (they attend outdoors under banyan trees). A cackle of children followed us down the road. There were many villages along the road that ran parallel to the beach. All villages were super clean and had well groomed yards with colorful flowers.Lots of the kids (big and small) had these great hand made cars.  Made with a stick and nuts.  So fun.  We also found an oven (left top) for bread and a chocolate oven (right top) where they make chocolate.

We were so lucky to find not one, but two large nautilus shells.  Matt found one floating in the sea on his paddle board trip and I found one on the beach.  These are only the 3rd such finds in 8 years (and 2 of them were found withing 2 days)!

Crab Bay

Our next stop is Crab bay which is on the east side of Malekula.  It is a terribly small bay full of reefs.  It is very daunting entering the bay, but we were determined to find a spot.

We went ashore (to the right of the boat) to walk the beach.  One of the guides stated that there is an educational center here that used to give tours of this beautiful marine sanctuary.  However, it was long defunct when we visited.

We also came across a ship wreck that has been here for a very long time.  This 18-20 meter, metal boat named “Tantrum” from Australia was complete torn apart.  Amazing to see the 3-4mm steel ripped at the seams.

Malekula Madness?

Why did I title this blog “Malekula Madness”?  Well, on the way to the Crab Bay anchorage we tried to fly our small parasail spinnaker.  Something got caught and Matt had me come to the foredeck to help.  He gave me one of the two sock lifting lines and said “hold on tight.”  Not sure what happened next as it was so fast, but the wind came up, caught the sail and ripped the 2nd lifting line out of Matt’s hands. He jumped backward and landed on his back on the trampoline.  I kept holding on until my hands caught fire. – literally burned every finger.

This will keep me out of the water for at least 3 weeks and prevents me from doing pretty much everything for at least a few days.  Serious bummer.

Sarmette Bay

We walked around the bay each day we were anchored in Crab Bay.  On our last day we took a long walk to a neighboring bay to visit the Sarmette village. 

The walk was mostly on the beach and a road that ran parallel to the beach.   Sarmette Bay is 9.8km (18,000 steps) walk round trip.   We saw a rather large herd of cows and 6 horses!  I had not seen horses here in Vanuatu yet so it was a special treat.  You can tell from the bottom left photo that we were walking near low tide.

We met some super nice people who showed us their coconut and chocolate harvesting farms and baking.  They showed us how they baked the coconut and cocoa bean (top right is the cocoa tree, middle are the beans and left bottom is the cocoa nut).

Norsup Island

We need to start making our way toward Santo (the next big island up the chain).  So we make a few short stops along the way.  The first being Norsup Island which is in the middle of Norsup Bay.  We enjoy a nice walk around the island with a few villagers and donate some reading glasses.  

The winds were blowing pretty strong from the southeasterly direction and bringing a big swell. Both made the anchorage uncomfortable so we left the next morning.  We anchored at the white spot toward the end of the island.

Atchin Island

Our next stop was Atchin Island which is at the North end of Malekula.  This island  is known for its master canoe carvers.  But, the funny thing was there were a ton of “tough boats” on moorings and very few canoes.  

We went ashore and found a beautiful trail that takes you through all of the villages and around the entire island.  Once onshore we found a few “racing” canoes that showed the craftmanship of the Atchin carvers. 

We were super surprised by the shear number of nasaras (sacred places where community events are held).  I think we came across 6 on this very small island. It took us a little over an hour to walk around the island and that is with many stops.  At each nasara has a banyan tree near by and there is a kava bar (which is where Matt is servin).

Most kava bars have a grinder that they use to grind the kava root. Matt is standing amongst the roots of the female banyan tree at one of the nasaras.

We could not believe we came across two tam tams that have two faces on each of them.  It is extremely rare to find multiple faced tam tams and we found two in an old nasara.

This beautiful nasara was so well kept and had a beautiful garden!

We found this lovely swing overlooking the bay that was so picturesque. 

My hands are still raw and blistered….5 days later.  So, not much we can do other than walk.  And even that is tricky as I can’t use my hands to get in and out of the dinghy.  I am a mess.

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events.  We were in Malekula around 18-26 July 2024.  We visit Sughulamp Reef in our last blog post.

Sugar Shack at Sughulamp Reef

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Sughulamp Reef is not technically an anchorage.  There are no anchor spots on the charts or guide books.  But, there was a beautiful sandy area next the reef that was screaming for our attention.

We edged up to the reef and dropped the hook in 2.4m of sand.  We have a reef in front of us that blocks the swell from the sea. There is a reef to the right and left and the lagoon behind us.  A perfect spot for relaxing and soaking up the pure beauty of the Maskelyne islands.

It is raining a lot so we got several rainbows in between the rain storms.  We were re-anchoring when Matt captured this rainbow.

Matt got the drone out when we finally had a sunny moment.  I am so glad he did as he captured some amazing shots!

In the sandy area below the boat we found a huge school of trigger fish, a school of squid, and several small soft coral patches with nemos.

The red arrow is Sugar Shack at the Sughulamp Reef.

And the most important part of this location is that it is close to the dugongs.  We went out several times to see them but it was always raining.  Still a huge pleasure being in their presence.

Vulai Island

This is an uninhabited island.  It is said that it used to be the leper island and is now tabu amongst the locals.  Nobody lives here either because of the tabu or the fact that there is no flat dirt anywhere to build.  It is overgrown with palm trees and vegetation making it pretty difficult to imagine where a settlement might be.

But we did wander around and tried to get to the beach on the other side of the island.  But the deeply thick mangroves prevented access.

This island had so many small palm trees growing.  The coconuts fall from the tree, and start to sprout a little palm.  When this palm is about 3-6″ you can open the coconut and have tasty coconut cake.  If the coconut is left on the ground, the little tree will break free from the shell and grow roots into the ground.  Making a lovely coconut farm on Vulai.

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events.  We were at Sughulamp Reef around mid-July 2024.  In our last blog I share our photos from our dugong adventures.