The Island of Tanna

Following the excitement of Aneityum we set sail for Tanna the next island in the chain of islands that make up Vanuatu. This is billed as having the most accessible active volcano in the Pacific. We anchored at Port Resolution, another bay visited and named by Capt Cook on his exploration of the Pacific on his boat of the same name. The bay is surrounded by lush tropical vegetation, yellow cliffs potted with small caves and arches carved into the face. Several steam vents puff through the vegetation in time with the rising plume of smoke emanating from the volcano that lies hidden behind the green growth that tumbles down the hill side to meet the sea. The village can be seen perched above the low cliff, a collection of rustic woven huts and neat crops under a canopy of coconut palms.

The bay had 16 yachts anchored in it on our arrival and each had a story to tell of being covered in ash with the westerly winds and rain. Perhaps it was as well that we had been delayed by Pascal. There were many villages out on their outriggers waiting to say hi to the next yacht arrival, some were fishing others just watching the spectacle. We met Stanley a very helpful local who arranged our trip up to the volcano the following evening. He introduced us to his village; again people only lived very simply in huts with no power and very little material belongings. We traded for fruit exchanging rope, clothing, glasses and anything else they wanted, we had so much and they had so little.

The trip to the volcano was an amazing experience. 16 yachties were crammed into a Ute and taken along a rough muddy road through tropical rain forest to the volcano. As we approached the lush green gave way to a plain of grey pumice rising up to form the classic cone shape. The boom of the explosion could be felt as we climbed the path to the craters edge; a display of shooting fireworks of red and orange shards lit the evening sky. We stood meters away from the brim of a very active spectacle, the centre of the crater heaving with molten lava, pulsating as the next explosion of rocks, smoke and lava were propelled into the air. Wow! We remained watching until the night was dark accentuating the power and might of Mother Nature at her most primeval imagining with awe the intensity of the next explosion.

We sailed away from Tanna and the friendly village of Port Resolution to Port Villa on the island of Efate. The weather was expected to change to rain in the next few days and we wanted to be safe in the protected anchorage of the capital. The anchorage is a very protected harbour with an internal and external bay. Yachts anchor behind the island of Ikki with a resort of the same name looking towards the town. So that’s where we are at the time of this blog writing. What a contrast modern cars, cafes and restaurants, duty free shops to service the cruise ships that regularly visit and French supermarkets the internet and only 160nm from Tanna! Hard to reconcile the contrast between the two places, is it really the same country?

In between the rainy days we made a quick sail over to Hideaway Island only 5nm outside of Port Villa. This is a resort but it is also very near to some fantastic cascading pools that are fed by the river tumbling down through the mountain rain forests. These were really beautiful and cool sitting under the waterfalls on a warm day.

So now we find ourselves back in the anchorage, waiting in the rain for a good weather window which we will see us heading nearer to Australia as New Caledonia and Noumea are our next destination.