Since we arrived at Bwatnapne Bay late in the afternoon, there was not much time to go ashore before dinner. And since we would have to return to the ship for dinner, we all opted to stay on board. We rigged up the rope swing on the end of the foreyard which was braced around to port. Climbing out on the forward starboard edge of the fo’c’sle head, we grab onto a heavy rope that has several knots tied in it, swing way out and drop into the water. Jack and a couple of others do fancy flips, forward or back; the rest of us go kerplunk.
We also launched a couple of outrigger dugout canoes that the Captain purchased in Asanvari. They had been lashed on the main deck during our transit, so we just had to lift them up over the rail and lowered into the water. The difficult part is getting into the canoe without swamping it. And the trick is to only enter the canoe at midships; never attempt to enter at the bow or the stern, or even move too far forward or aft of the center of the vessel. As I learned the hard way, this is guaranteed to swamp the canoe and you will be swimming when you did not expect to do so. I didn’t feel so bad about doing it when I saw Jill do the same thing only a few minutes after I did. I also discovered how difficult it can be to steer or to go anywhere when using a half-size paddle and the wind is blowing. As the wind blew me away from the ship, John Kemper reminded me “don’t go farther than you want to swim.” I had fun going in circles!
On our second day at Bwatnapne Bay, Chief Alan Bule had planned a Program for us which included some welcoming speeches, music by the Tasule String Band (remarkably similar to the music we had heard from other string bands), and officially presenting school books that the Picton Castle brought on behalf of World Wise for the primary and secondary schools. After the Program finished we had an hour or so to visit the school and talk with students and villagers before lunch. A buffet was set up for us with the usual rice, taro, manioc and pawpaw (papaya) supplemented by mackerel from the ship’s stores. We used large leaves as plates and because of the scarcity of forks, most of us ate with our fingers.
After lunch, we had a two hour trading session. Woven baskets and mats were the most abundant items that the islanders offered for trade. Nautilus shells and boar tusks were reserved for special deals. The islanders were very eager to trade for clothes, flashlights, paper and pens, and especially wristwatches. Some of the crew literally traded the clothes off their back.
While we were in Bwatnapne Bay, as well as the other islands, our ship’s doctor, Keith, held a medical clinic and saw patients with a myriad of complaints. In Bwatnapne the major problems were an epidemic of scabies among the children, and abdominal pain of unknown origin among adults. Bruce, a former army medic who assisted Keith, speculated that the abdominal pain could be related to regular consumption of kava, which is highly acidic, on an empty stomach.
Since I had to work on the ship during our third and last day at Bwatnapne, I was unable to do any snorkeling there. A dozen of the off duty crew lowered the Monomoy (the ship’s lifeboat), rowed out to a reef and snorkeled. They reported seeing some unusual sea life including a sea horse.
On our last afternoon in Bwatnapne we invited the islanders to tour the ship. My guess is that there were 200 or more visitors, adults and children, that came on board between 1 pm and 4 pm. We ran the skiff continually back and forth between the ship and the beach taking people to and fro.
We heaved up the anchor shortly after 5 pm and set out for Espiritu Santo. We “sailed” through the night. In reality, we ran before the wing with bare poles, going as fast as 4.5 knots with no sails set. The 4-8 watch had set a few sails and had to take them in right away. The Captain’s orders were to take in sail if we went faster than 3.5 knots.
When I came on watch at midnight and took the helm, the wind was blowing Force 7 with some gusts of 8; we were going more than 4 knots and no sails were set. Steering was tricky – sometimes very steady and other times the ship jumped two points or more from one direction to the other. With an ordered course of West by South ½ South, my heading varied from West by North to Southwest. Most of the time I was able to stay within half to one point of the ordered course.
We arrived in Espiritu Santo mid-morning. After several attempts to back into an anchorage with our stern to the shore and tie up to trees on shore, we wound up anchoring farther offshore, across the harbor from Luganville. We’ll be here until Monday morning when we set sail for Bali.
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