Port Vila

We arranged to pick up a swinging mooring at Yachting World in Port Vila. However, that wasn’t strictly necessary because more of the moorings were free than weren’t. But giving an early heads-up meant we got help picking up the mooring pennant, which was very welcome after an overnight sail to get here.

Then, after lowering the dinghy and checking in at the marina office, we walked up the hill to the supermarket for some exercise.

And in the supermarket, we found the best water to buy.

Pentecost Island

Our ridiculously short visit to Vanuatu was driven by the need to be at Thursday Island (the north end of Australia) before 26 June to join the Sail to Indonesia rally. But we didn’t want to leave Vanuatu without seeing the land diving at Pentecost Island. And the only way we could do that, given the time we had left, was to fly there.

By one of life’s odd coincidences, we were on the same flight as Ferry and Bridget, whom we last saw in French Polynesia when we still had Lady Jane. We didn’t meet them at Port Vila airport; we met them at the sailors’ sanctuary—the bar—a few days before.

The flight to Pentecost is operated by Air Taxi Vanuatu, which operates a fleet of old but robust Britten-Norman Islander BN2A-26 aircraft well suited to ferrying passengers, cargo, and coffins between Efate and Pentecost. I know this because its website says so.

Fortunately, not much cargo was aboard, and no coffins were present – just seven passengers and a pilot – John.

The photo above gives the history of Nagol, but if you are reading on a small screen, here’s what it says – only slightly embellished by me:

The land diving ritual is associated with the annual yam harvest, and it is believed that a good dive ensures a bountiful harvest.

According to the Guinness Book of Records, the g-force experienced by those at their lowest point in the dive is the greatest human experience in the non-industrialised world.

Landing diving (known in the local sa language as Gol, in Bislama as Nanggol)is a ritual performed by the men of South Pentecost Island. Men jump off 20-30 meters high wooden towers with two tree vines wrapped around their ankles.

According to legend, a woman ran away from her husband (Tamalie), climbing a banyan tree to escape. Tamalie followed her up the tree, so she tied lianas (vines) to her ankles and jumped; her husband followed without first attaching the lianas and died as a result of the fall (dickhead).

Originally, it was women who performed the ceremonial jump from trees to pay respects to the original woman; however, men were uncomfortable with seeing the women conduct such a sport and took it for themselves, moving the sport from trees to purpose-built towers. The men performed the original land diving so they would not be tricked again. Women are not permitted to go near the tower as the belief is that Tamalie will seek vengeance, leading to the death of a diver.

Before dawn on the day of the ceremony, the men undergo a ritual wash, anoint themselves with coconut oil and decorate their bodies.
After the boys are circumcised (around seven years old), they can participate in the ritual.
When a boy is ready to become a man, he land dives in the presence of his elders. The ritual begins with the least experienced jumper on the lowest part of the tower and the more experienced jumpers on the upper platforms.

In the mid-nineteenth century, missionaries came to the area and persuaded the locals to stop land diving; it wasn’t until after Independence in 1980 that Christian locals revived the ritual from neighbouring areas as it was a demonstration of cultural identity.

Nagol

We arrived at the Nagol (land diving) site after a few minutes of driving on a surprisingly smooth road made by the Chinese. More on that later.

After being shepherded up a hill towards the tower where the young fellas hurl themselves off, we took up position to take photographs of the ground being prepared.

The photograph above shows one of the villagers with a bamboo pole preparing the ground. It needs to be softened so that the jumper is still capable of speech and movement after he hits the ground.

The singers are from the village and surrounding areas.

As I understand it, this was the most successful dive of the day. He managed to plant his head firmly in the soil. If you listen with the volume up, you can hear the thud of skull meeting the ground. He walked away unharmed.

After the land diving and lunch, there wasn’t much else to do. Even the guide was at a loss. So he decided to show us the end of the road. And this is it. It’s where the Chinese workers stopped building the road, and the river begins. Afterwards, we went to the beach for a while and then back to the airport.

On the way back, we flew over the volcanos in Ambrym.

Was it worth it? Definitely, I don’t believe there is anything like it anywhere else in the world. The land divers make AJ Hackett’s bungee jumpers look soft.

Practicalities at Port Vila

Just when you think you have everything sorted, something will come along and dispel you of that notion. The main fridge broke just two days before we were due to leave.

I couldn’t fix it, so on Monday, I went on a quest to find someone who could.

After an hour of walking uphill and around town, I blundered across a fridge repair shop. It looked like a scrap yard for cooling equipment of all types.

After explaining my predicament to the two young fellas in the workshop, he called his boss, who agreed to come to the boat to sort it out immediately. I was delighted about that and for the lift back into town.

All was going well. I led the boss and his young apprentice to the dinghy, asked them to wait while I started it, and then… I fell in. What prompted that act of ridiculousness, I have no idea. But I tried my best to make it look like an everyday occurrence. There’s nothing to see here. I got back in the dinghy, helped them get their tools onboard, and took them over to Jamala.

While they fixed the fridge, I sorted myself out with dry clothes.

The short story is that after vacuuming the gas out of the fridge and refilling it, all was well again. I went with them to the ATM and handed over a fair rate for the work. The next day, we were back at sea on our way to Thursday Island, Australia.