October 2009 Vanuatu Earthquake & Tsunami near Samoa
By the time we reached Vanuatu we were half way thru our sailing season, averaging about a week in each port, in an effort to get back on schedule.
Since departing Nelson we had been 76 days underway and 50 days on the anchor. Our time in Vanuatu will would be mostly at anchor with day sails every week or two.
This was our 4th season working with Project MARC in Vanuatu. There were many smiling faces here to welcome us back. The Daily Post newspaper welcomed us and poked fun at us for being lost-at-sea two years ago. We seem to have a spontaneous party on board every weekend. We loaded tons of supplies for our 6-week expedition around the island of Malekula.
The jobs at hand were to repair or rebuild medical aid posts around Banam Bay. Then do a survey of the villages along the southern and western coasts. From Southwest Bay the next 20 miles of the west coast is accessible only by boat or on foot. We planned to send teams ashore to visit the villages on the coast and in the highlands.
Joining our crew were Seamus, the new director of Project MARC and Danielle the Australian Volunteers International representative and her daughter Talia. Also new to our crew was James a guitar player from Arizona; who turned out to be a big hit with the local string band. Departing Port Vila in early September we had an easy over night passage north to Banam Bay on the southeast corner of Malekula Island. During our 3 weeks anchored anchored in Banam Bay we installed rain catchment systems with water tanks in 3 villages and upgraded 3 more aid posts with cement floors and put a roof on the Banam Bay Yacht Club. (It isn't really a yacht club; no one around Banam Bay has a yacht. And besides, there is no electricity to keep the beer cold. It was in fact, founded by Dr. Henk as a semi-commercial venture to help the locals make some money off the many yachties who visit the bay during the season.) Dr. Henk also set up a coral reef preservation area off the beach near the yacht club. This had been a colonial plantation until independence.
The reef had been untouched by the local villagers and was in pristine condition. It is a beautiful snorkelling area. Also, joining at this anchorage were midwives Kelly and Carrie, who held maternity workshops in several villages. Law professor/sport fisherman Aidan and his daughters Kudra and Emmy joined us to help with the work on shore.
Late September we sailed south to the Maskelyne Islands. In most of the villages around Malekula there is no electricity, the shore is dark at night. We have been mostly out of contact with the outside world. No service on the cell phones. The exception being, what we hear on the rag-of-the-air, a maritime mobile yachtie net. We had been doing our medical aid work in the outer islands for 5 weeks.
When we heard about the earthquake and Tsunami near Samoa we were anchored south of Malekula, behind a small island named Sakau. There were a few early reports about boats tossed on the beach in the harbour at Pago Pago and flooding on the south coast of Samoa.
The quake epicentre, located at 15 degrees, 30 minutes south and 169 degrees west had registered 8.3 on the Richter Scale. I plotted the epicentre on our large-scale chart. You could draw a straight line from there, over the top of Fiji, to our position 1200 miles away. The arrival time for the wave was less than an hour from the time we learned of it. There was not enough time to weigh and anchor and get into deep water. I informed the crew and started the main engine. Our position at the end of a 2& ½ mile channel a quarter mile wide was like being at the bottom of a funnel. The wave, when it came, would pull all the water out of our lagoon from two directions then turn around and hit us from both sides. We battened hatches, took the outboard engines on board and put extra lines on the shore boats, then braced for the worst. As things developed there was some wave action around Aneityum Island in the southern end of the group, but none for us. The major wave was directed south instead of toward our position to the west. We were lucky.
A little while later we heard from a boat in Neiafu. They said there was little damage in the harbour, but that some docks had been washed away in the surrounding islands. A couple days later we heard there were 31 dead in American Samoa, 140 dead in Samoa and 9 dead in Tonga.
Moving along the south and west coasts we have been surveying the needs of local villages and treating people for scabies, worms and a variety of grungy ailments.
We arrived in Luganville the middle of October. Here we loaded medical supplies and building materials for delivery to the villages around Banam Bay and the Maskelyne Islands.
We will be back in Port Vila by the end of the October. We will be making the passage back to New Zealand as early in November as we can find crew.
Since departing Nelson we had been 76 days underway and 50 days on the anchor. Our time in Vanuatu will would be mostly at anchor with day sails every week or two.
This was our 4th season working with Project MARC in Vanuatu. There were many smiling faces here to welcome us back. The Daily Post newspaper welcomed us and poked fun at us for being lost-at-sea two years ago. We seem to have a spontaneous party on board every weekend. We loaded tons of supplies for our 6-week expedition around the island of Malekula.
The jobs at hand were to repair or rebuild medical aid posts around Banam Bay. Then do a survey of the villages along the southern and western coasts. From Southwest Bay the next 20 miles of the west coast is accessible only by boat or on foot. We planned to send teams ashore to visit the villages on the coast and in the highlands.
Joining our crew were Seamus, the new director of Project MARC and Danielle the Australian Volunteers International representative and her daughter Talia. Also new to our crew was James a guitar player from Arizona; who turned out to be a big hit with the local string band. Departing Port Vila in early September we had an easy over night passage north to Banam Bay on the southeast corner of Malekula Island. During our 3 weeks anchored anchored in Banam Bay we installed rain catchment systems with water tanks in 3 villages and upgraded 3 more aid posts with cement floors and put a roof on the Banam Bay Yacht Club. (It isn't really a yacht club; no one around Banam Bay has a yacht. And besides, there is no electricity to keep the beer cold. It was in fact, founded by Dr. Henk as a semi-commercial venture to help the locals make some money off the many yachties who visit the bay during the season.) Dr. Henk also set up a coral reef preservation area off the beach near the yacht club. This had been a colonial plantation until independence.
The reef had been untouched by the local villagers and was in pristine condition. It is a beautiful snorkelling area. Also, joining at this anchorage were midwives Kelly and Carrie, who held maternity workshops in several villages. Law professor/sport fisherman Aidan and his daughters Kudra and Emmy joined us to help with the work on shore.
Late September we sailed south to the Maskelyne Islands. In most of the villages around Malekula there is no electricity, the shore is dark at night. We have been mostly out of contact with the outside world. No service on the cell phones. The exception being, what we hear on the rag-of-the-air, a maritime mobile yachtie net. We had been doing our medical aid work in the outer islands for 5 weeks.
When we heard about the earthquake and Tsunami near Samoa we were anchored south of Malekula, behind a small island named Sakau. There were a few early reports about boats tossed on the beach in the harbour at Pago Pago and flooding on the south coast of Samoa.
The quake epicentre, located at 15 degrees, 30 minutes south and 169 degrees west had registered 8.3 on the Richter Scale. I plotted the epicentre on our large-scale chart. You could draw a straight line from there, over the top of Fiji, to our position 1200 miles away. The arrival time for the wave was less than an hour from the time we learned of it. There was not enough time to weigh and anchor and get into deep water. I informed the crew and started the main engine. Our position at the end of a 2& ½ mile channel a quarter mile wide was like being at the bottom of a funnel. The wave, when it came, would pull all the water out of our lagoon from two directions then turn around and hit us from both sides. We battened hatches, took the outboard engines on board and put extra lines on the shore boats, then braced for the worst. As things developed there was some wave action around Aneityum Island in the southern end of the group, but none for us. The major wave was directed south instead of toward our position to the west. We were lucky.
A little while later we heard from a boat in Neiafu. They said there was little damage in the harbour, but that some docks had been washed away in the surrounding islands. A couple days later we heard there were 31 dead in American Samoa, 140 dead in Samoa and 9 dead in Tonga.
Moving along the south and west coasts we have been surveying the needs of local villages and treating people for scabies, worms and a variety of grungy ailments.
We arrived in Luganville the middle of October. Here we loaded medical supplies and building materials for delivery to the villages around Banam Bay and the Maskelyne Islands.
We will be back in Port Vila by the end of the October. We will be making the passage back to New Zealand as early in November as we can find crew.