Happy place.
We VERY reluctantly left Fiji on the 5th of July. More than anyplace we’d been to yet, Fiji left us with a deep sense of just not being finished yet.
We’d had probably the best dive of our lives at the spectacular ‘White Wall’ near Taveuni. If that wasn’t enough, we saw 7 Bull Sharks in the dive that followed. We snorkeled ‘Manta Ray Alley’ and were thrilled to watch them glide and flip all around us, and the current to take us through some of the most beautiful coral and colorful schools of fish we’d ever seen. So yeah, we wanted more time in the waters of Fiji.
What’s more, we’d absolutely fallen in love with the people of Fiji. Always smiling, always quick to offer a warm ‘Bula!’ (Fijian for hello, but the literal translation is ‘life’ or ‘health’.) Plus, we’d found that almost all of the islands and businesses in Fiji were extremely cruiser-friendly, offering respite from the sometimes tiring boat life. This welcoming vibe was refreshing and we could have soaked it up for a lot longer.
But this is a high-speed, high-endurance circumnavigation that we are doing. And the World ARC show must go on! So David and I promised each other that we’d be back to cruise Fiji again someday. And with that beautiful thought in our minds and hearts, we set sail for Vanuatu, which felt like a particularly exotic destination. Full disclosure, I don’t think I’d ever even heard of Vanuatu before this trip! The excitement of that - travelling to a place so far flung that we’d otherwise never even consider going - was enough to dampen the sadness of leaving Fiji and get to excited for what laid ahead.
The crossing was just 2.5 days for us - a time that would earn us 1st place in the fleet for the first time! It was quick, but it was a rough. 3 meter swell coming from the side had us knocking around throughout the boat, so we were all pretty happy to see land. That excitement only grew as we approached the island of Tanna, as we spotted the active volcano. Mt. Yasur was steaming and holding a moody cloud around it’s crown.
Once we were cleared by customs & immigration, we headed to land to check out the ‘yacht club’. (Actually a wooden shack decorated with the flags of many yachts before us.) The World ARC and local officials had kindly arranged for the bank to come to us there as the nearest actual bank/ATM was virtually inaccessible from our location.
The next day we, along with crew from several other WARC boats, 23 piled into the back of a handful of pickup trucks and embarked on a very bumpy fun ride up the mountain. We held tight onto the roll bars as the truck climbed hills, drove through streams navigated the road-ish surfaces that would lead us to our destination.
We first stopped at a tiny village where the locals performed dances for us against the dramatic backdrop of Mt. Yasur. We’ve been lucky on this trip to witness many local communities aim to preserve their traditions and dances by performing for visitors. This felt different. The dances were planned for sure, but there was so much heart and realness in it. We could feel the rhythm of their dance through the soles of our shoes as we watched their full grass skirts swayed in unision. Elliot was selected to get involved in and he of course did not pass up an opportunity to ham it up!
The whole village joyfully waved us off as we drove away in our trucks, on our way to see their volcano.
30 minutes later, we hopped out of the backs of our trucks as the sun began to set. A quick hike up to the crater and we were met with a view so surreal, I’ll struggle to explain it. We watched the smoke and steam swirl around above, and the deep orange-red glow flicker below. Mt Yasur growled at us for at least 20 minutes and then let out a mighty and angry eruption, spewing lava and fire up in to the air - it took us all by surprise!
The next day, we did a bit of exploring around the bay as well as some boat jobs. And we also got the kid boats together to practice a couple of songs for a welcome ceremony planned for the following day.
The village by our anchorage hosted an exceptionally warm welcome for us. They made us hats and baskets out of coconut tree leaves and filled them with local fruits and vegetables. We donated a huge pile of goods - books, rope, toothbrushes, you name it - to them as well. The school children sang for us and we did our best to reciprocate! The entire fleet sang The Lava Song and the kids performed Count on Me. Elliot was on ukulele for both. He was a star. Our singing…well, it’s the thought that counts, right?! After a gorgeous lunch, we headed back to the boat to prepare to move on the following day.
We were torn about where to go next. Should we head straight for the capital city of Port Vila? Or should we stop off on the way at the island of Erromango? Boy, were we glad we chose the latter.
We pulled into Dillon’s Bay, and as as per usual, Elliot was off on his paddleboard straight away. He wrote up what happened next as a story - he tells it best so I’ll just include it here:
On a sunny afternoon in Erromango I set off the back of Pure Joy on our purple paddleboard. Immediately the strong force of the wind blew me across the deep dark water.
With my heart beating out of my chest I tried to grab on to our neighbouring boat Walrus but I missed. As I drifted along I just managed to grab on to the next boat along, Montana.
I waited for the wind to die down and then gradually I inched along the water with all my strength, until I was sheltered by the wind because of the island.Slowly I paddled across the water exhausted. Finally I reached the island. The beach was full of rocks of all shapes and sizes so I spent a while skipping rocks across the calm water.
When I was done with skipping rocks I dragged my Paddleboard back to the water and set off for the village. As soon as I entered the bay I saw two black kids playing on the beach. They kindly helped tow my paddleboard up the rocks toward the sand. Then lots of other kids rushed in. It took me a while to realise they were French but luckily they spoke some English. They showed me toward the yacht club and then I learnt all of their names. We played on the sandy area of the beach and I even took them on rides with my paddle board.
When it was time to go I started paddling back to pure joy and halfway there I heard them shouting to me so I turned around and they were all waving from the beach and my heart was touched.
by Elliot Poole
The kids of Erromango first welcomed Elliot, and the next day the whole of the village welcomed all of us. Several other WARC boats were in the bay and one of them had organised for the Chief of the village to take us on a walking tour of the area. It was a stunning walk around a section of the island were we could see how simply and happily people lived there. He showed off his ‘Yacht Club’ as well, with dreams of catering to the needs of yachties more and more in the future. We were absolutely blown away about the generosity they showed us in preparing a FEAST for lunch for us, completely with a string band playing.
We left Erromango and headed for Port Vila the next day, but our hearts will never forget the remote islands of Vanuatu and the generous, happy people who live there.
In Port Vila - a modern, bustling city in stark comparison to the outlying villages - we were greeted almost immediately with an earthquake! After we’d docked, we felt a rumble - the only way to describe it was that for a second I thought someone had started our engines on Pure Joy. When we realised that was not the case, I looked to land and saw some fellow sailors in the restaurant opposite our boat, wide-eyed an frozen in place. Then I saw the restaurant staff carrying on with their business without batting an eye. I knew we were safe… but ‘whoa’ for those of us not used it! We later learned it was a 5.3 on the Richter Scale.
With our remaining days in Vanuatu, on the fun side, we did a couple of scuba dives (average - apparently down to the damage that earthquakes and cyclones have done in recent years) and a tour with a few friends to an outlying village where the highlight was more stunning scenery and the Giant Clams - bigger than me! On the getting-down-to-business side, we prepped the boat and our paperwork for the next passage which would take us to AUSTRALIA!
Vanuatu is another very-hard-to-leave place. We learned that in 2024 it was ranked #1 on the Happy Planet Index. And that fact is easy to believe once you’ve been here, and it’s hard to leave a place like that!
However, as we peel ourselves away from Vanuatu, my mind starts to shift to the fact that in a week, we’ll be in Australia! It’s truly bizarre to think about how FAR Pure Joy has carried us. And that at the end of our time in Australia, we’ll hit the half-way mark of this entire journey around the world. I’ll let you know about our adventures in Oz at that point. In the meantime, I’ll be here, contemplating how lucky we are to be seeing the world and meeting such beautiful people, together, and in such an incredible way.
Check out Elliot’s Excellent Expedition on YouTube for his take on Vanuatu!
Coming up: Australia & The Great Barrier Reef