HERE - Polynesian Catamaran Association

greatesteffods,she could notfind it,and the engine had to be takenashore.Itdid costanotherE55,butatleast the mechanic knew aI aboutwhere to find outriggercanoes AtIastJam es and Hanneke were able tocarry on theirwork ofrecording andphotographing existing outrigger canoeson the islands,fornotonly wasthe Auckland Maritim e M useum interestedinit,theSuva(Fiji)andtheVila(Vanuatu) Museums also wantedcopies oftheirrecords,as welas theViking M useum in Denm ark.Before leaving Vila we went to oneisland,w here a canoe which had apparentlywon the races a few yearsago,was hauled out So its m easurementswere taken,draw ings and photographsm ade.Thenwe were fina ly offto HavannahHarbour,where im mediately a coupleofsailing canoes cam e overto greetus.They were sailing very wel,fastand quite close to the wind. Itwaswonderfulto see them and not IonguntilHanneke was sailing one herself.Afterhearing that Bily,the fatherofone ofthe sailors,wasthe Iocalcanoebuilder we invited a group ofthem .including Bily, for a sail with us.around theirisland,Lelepa,the folowing d a yFirstwe visited the island and walkedto the cave,w hich had rock paintingsfrom 9O0 AD,Iooked atthe vilage andBily's 'workshop'with anothercanoebeing made, and after m ore canoevisitors on GAIA,we finally setoffonourtrip Nodh,which we had intendedto startover2 weeksago!Stil,betterto getto see a Iot and m eet m anypeople ofone islandthan to see m anyislands,butonly superficialy.for , w efound aI the islands beautiful andtheirinhabitantsveryfriendly.The island ofEpiwas ournextstop.You m ay rem em ber,thatlfinishedm ylast newsletter with Jam es'recoveryfrom his coral poisoning. I shouldhave known betterand be m ore careful,fornowaIIIcan do isto siton m ybunk and look outforthe dugongs ,which are supposed to be here in thebay -one ofthem evenverytame andswim m ing w ith people - as Iam notalowed to swim with a bad skin infectiononmyIeg(Erysipelas).However,eventhe others finaly only swam withsom e tudles, and one dugong wasjustseeninthedistance.stream of visitors. whether fromyachtsm en.holiday m akers orthe Iocals,representatives of aI the'dignitaries'ofthe couple of islandsaround usThe Iocal restaurant owner. Tasso ,m ade a buKetm ealforanyone interested,whichwasveryenjoyable andtoday they had a bazaaron one oftheislands in aid ofschoolfunds ForEpihas a prim ary and a high school ahospital Iibrary etc.,realy a wonderfuIcomm unity One can only hopethat it wil remain so peaceful andhappy withoutthe young people havingtheurge to go to the big townsJamesand Jamiein traditional(oinc10th.On the M askellyn Islands ofMalakula,the others visited one ofthevilages,which has a boat buildingschool.Very nice and interesting peopIeThey had justhad a committeem eeting,talking abouttheirdifficultiesofgetting enough Iogs to build morecanoes and had discussed the possibilityofbuilding in plywood.Ourarrivalcame justintime.Jamesgave a talk to the school 1a group of18 visited GAIA,and we prom ised tosend them some drawings of theMAUIand HINA designs with generalbuilding instruction fortheirfuture canoesln Epia sm al yachting com m unity SO.tim e goesby,butwe had anotherwas gathering - am ongst them a pleasantweek on this island before So we wanderedfrom island to island,canadian doctor,a greatblessing for heading for M alakula, the second getting our fruit and vegetables fromme - but there was now a constant largestisland ofvanuatu the natives who passed by,whentheyPage 4