Run to the cargo ship

Saltwater, Atong

Sleeping on Ships

Sleeping on ships is like the funniest thing in the entire world. It's extremely uncomfortable, you're out in the open air, the ship's rocking, there's nowhere to put your head ... It's just an extremely unpleasant experience.

Now, you might look at this picture and ask yourself, what is this woman doing? Does she think she's a mummy? Rookie mistake. Always bring a lavalava or another large piece of calico on a ship. During the daytime, you can wear it like a scarf. At night, wrap it around your face to pretend that you're more than six inches from some dude you don't know. It's nice to have a feeling of privacy.

A key trick is to find something nice to sleep on. Ideally, you want something that's soft but large. Hard and large is okay, too. You just don't want to be balancing your head on a bucket. Chinese bags are good. Sleeping on a big ice box or against a solar panel is good. Sleeping on luggage is good. Ideally, nothing that smells.

Final tip for sleeping on ships: dress warmly, but always carry a blanket. That girl on the left has the right idea. It might only be 75 degrees outside, but with strong wind on a boat, you feel chilly. Wrap it up! 

PS. The benches in that picture are the least comfortable things to sleep on in the world. At one point when I was sleeping there, I was curled in the fetal position with my head between two planks, getting pushed by the mama who was above me. Unpleasant.

Ships at sea

I was going from Emae to Vila on Big Sista when we saw a little fishing boat that had engine problems, outside of Lelepa island. For context: Big Sista is this big passenger ship and Lelepa island is off of the coast of the main island, Efate.

Big Sista pulled the guys for about two hours at a slow speed. You can't go that fast if there's a small boat behind. Once we got closer to Lelepa, local boats came out to help. 

I've been thinking about this because there was a really big marine accident here in Vanuatu over the weekend. MCY, which is this ship I've never even heard of, sank outside of Hat Island (also close to Efate), killing four people. One of them was a baby. Big Sista went out to do rescue, and 37 of the 41 passengers were saved, but 4 drowned. 

The thing that's so awful about this -- I've been reading in the newspapers -- is that the ship sank because it had a hole in its body. Literally, that's why the ship sank. I guess they had tried to repair it on the cheap and the owners of the ship figured that they'd risk it on the run to Malekula. The owner, the captain, and the supercargo have been arrested and charged with manslaughter, but it's awful that a ship that was in clear violation of all the marine codes was even able to leave.

In America, I think we complain a lot about our laws, but laws and safety regulation make our lives so much safer. We don't have to worry in the same way about bad operators who know that they are risking our lives. In Vanuatu, there are government organizations but they lack the same power that similar organizations have in America. Even just the fact that there are ships that still run when they haven't been cleared by Marine -- that's crazy.

There are about ten ships we're allowed to go on here in Vanuatu. Some of them are more comfortable than others, but they're all safe. The ship I use, Brooklyn, is a cargo ship so it's not the most pleasant ride. But the owners pay attention to safety. They don't leave port when the water is really rough and when there are repairs that need to be done, the ship gets repaired. Man.

Traveling is fun fun fun

Traveling in Vanuatu is hilarious. It’s always kind of unpleasant and nothing is secure unless you are on the plane and it’s taxi-ing down the runway. Even ships, if you’re on them, they can change the routine, and be like, oh sori, we’re actually going to do this other thing first. It can be pretty stressful to travel if you have a set date you have to get somewhere else by. But if you have a lot of free time, it’s kind of fun. I think if you had enough money and felt like you had the freedom to say “I’m going to a northern island and I’ll get there when I get there,” you’d have a good time. I actually fantasize about that sometimes, imagining the time and the money to go all over the Pacific, seeing everything over the course of a few years. Kind of like Paddling the Pacific by Paul Theroux, but on a longer time frame.

I’ve been trying to get to Ambrym to do a workshop and walk around a little. People in Vanuatu think that Ambrym is full of black magic, and I was told by an auntie to look after my food while I’m there, so no man Ambrym can put a love potion in. (She said it in a joking tone but it’s still like, whoa, that’s your advice.) They also have some really nice kastom things. They do really nice wood carvings, making these figures that are called tamtams. In Vila, and on Ambrym, too, you can buy these little ones, maybe the height of your hand to the length of your arm. But in kastom for men who are taking different chiefly ranks, there are special ways to carve them and they can be really, really big. In the Cultural Center here in town they have a few tamtams that are just enormous.

[Insert picture of the tamtam with me and my parents.]

[wan tamtam ia]

So what’s complicated is this. I’m trying to travel north with Jessica (another vol) out of Vila. There’s Michelle, who’s trying to meet us out of Epi. So we need to leave Vila, hit Epi, and then get to Ambrym—three points on our travel.

Over the weekend, when we called the office, they told us that the ship would definitely go Vila-Epi-Ambrym. On Sunday, the crew told us that, kiaman, the ship would definitely go direct to Santo, in the north, do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars. On Monday, we called the ship and they told us that they were definitely still going Vila-Epi-Ambrym and that they would be out that night. But around mid-day, they told us that it would be delayed until  Tuesday. Yesterday, we put our stuff on the ship and bought tickets, and got told that the ship would Vila-Epi-Ambrym out at 8. We got so prepped; I got 500 vatu of kava and two Solbrews, calamari from Island Time, bread and butter and pate and cookies. Then we got to the wharf and … No gat. The ship’s now supposed to be out tonight at 6.

A volunteer who lives in town was really nice and let us all crash over at his place last night. We went out, drank a little kava, ate our dinners, rolled out in the morning. God willing, I will leave Efate tonight. But you know ... it's not the end of the world if it doesn't work. I'll get a refund and I'll go do something else. I do have to be back in Vila on July 14th because I have an international plane ticket -- awo.

The ship arrives

The ship is in!

You see Valea, Ewose, and Tongoa in the back. This is the ship I travel on--MV Brooklyn. 

I

I didn't take this photo-- you can see my head in the water. I just liked all the action that's caught here.

The line to put things on the ship...

Boats

You know you wanna see what some boats look like ...

These are all from the Maritime Museum in Auckland.

(This boat is a three beam canoe from Anuta in the Solomon Islands. According to the plaque, Anuta is a Polynesian outlier in the southeastern Solomons. [In general, the Solomons are Melanesian, but not this area.] This particular form of canoe is very seaworthy even though it's quite small.)

(This is from Futuna in Vanuatu. Futuna is far, far, far south in Vanuatu. The people there are still Melanesian but there's a lot of Polynesian influence down there and their language is actually Polynesian, which is different. This is a traditional outrigger canoe. Previously, Ni-Vanuatu used to do inter-island sailing in canoes like this, although that hasn't been practiced for about 200 years now. Nowadays, you definitely see canoes like this all throughout Vanuatu, but they are primarily used for fishing or short travel. There are people in this country who use canoes daily to travel to their gardens, for example. I know of communities on Epi and Maewo who do this; there have got to be plenty of them. In my part of the country, the Shepherds, canoes are really only used for fishing.)

This picture is small, but I hope you can get the gist! So this boat is a Fijian drua. It's an asymmetrical double hulled canoe. It can be used for ocean traveling or warfare. This is an extremely tiny example of one. According to the plaque, "[t]he largest could be up to 30 m in length and carry as many as 200 warriors." Can you imagine? 

Another thing I found really interesting -- apparently it's thought that the ancestors of the Pacific islands peoples used double hulled canoes like this to travel from South east Asia all the way through the Pacific, navigating only by stars, clouds, birds, and the like. Whenever I hear people try to denigrate Pacific cultures by asking about what technological advances they created, historically speaking, I feel like it's obvious. The Pacific Islanders have the greatest tradition of maritime expertise in the world. They made it from Indonesia to Hawaii, New Zealand to Tahiti, Tonga to Tongoa to Tongariki to Niue to Guadalcanal, on canoes, with no maps, no compass, just their seafaring expertise. That is amazing.