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American Spirit II - Day 188; Work Day in Efate, Vanuatu; Saturday, July 12, 2014



As a follow up to our visit to the volcano in Tanna, Vanuatu on Wednesday, July 9; the name of the volcano is Yasur. I neglected to mention that in the July 9 log. Yasur is one of twelve volcanoes in Vanuatu. Six of these volcanoes are 'aerial' and the rest 'submarine.' The volcano is 365 meters high (1,423 feet). 'The Yasur volcano is one of the most accessible and certainly the most spectacular volcano on the planet,' so says Michel Massat in his book The Yasur Volcano. What makes Yasur so unique is that you can stand at the lip and top of the crater; the volcanic activity is a mere 200 - 300 yards away; and the guttural, rhythmic, and bone penetrating sound that the volcano makes is perhaps its most outstanding feature. Though usually harmless, a tourist was killed by a falling rock not too long ago.



As a follow up to my Friday, July 11 log; the last time that I had rappelled before then was in May, 1969 when myself and 2 other conspirators 'borrowed' some rappelling rope from the ROTC department at our boarding high school, and rappelled down the side of our senior class dormitory building right by the windows of the building's Jesuit priest/prefect...with pillow cases over our heads to give us anonymity. We didn't have safety lines attached to us, and none of the ropes broke.



One to today's log...

Up at 6:53 AM. Coffee, then a pastry I'd picked up from a gas station across the street from the marina.



In order to work on the Hydro Generator, we had to unload the port, cockpit locker and the 'hidden' hold area aft of the port, cockpit locker. That means our cockpit is full of plastic storage containers, both hard and soft. The hard type you've all seen and probably have at home after purchasing them at Office Depot or Staples. We dismantled the Hydro Generator because one of the two bolts attaching it to our transom appeared damaged. As one of these bolts was being taken off, it broke. We also found out that there wasn't a backing plate between the underside of the transom and the top of the locking nuts. In order to fix the bracket I departed with a taxi driver and visited 3 hardware stores and one boat yard to find the right bolts and nuts; and to purchase some three strand electrical wire so Joel could rewire the generator.



We also needed to fix the Whisker Pole because the plastic end cap had separated from the pole where it attaches to the mast. That was fixed by re screwing the cap with 8 screws instead of the original 4; and by attaching a long screw into the center tube inside of the pole.



Once I got back to the boat with the wire and bolts and nuts, I filled the water tank with our hose from a potable faucet near our boat. Whenever we fill the water tank we try to run the water thru a charcoal filter into the tank. Because the water pressure was low, it took about 45 minutes to fill the tank.



We showered ashore at 5:15 PM, had a cocktail at 5:45 PM, and entertained Charlie and Cathy from Celebrate with an Appleton Rum on board before going to dinner at 6:30 PM at the restaurant next to the marina. Same restaurant we ate at the previous night. The food and company were great. We were back on board at 8:55 PM, where Joel loaded pictures and sent them over the internet while I did...I can't remember.



We had to leave the storage containers in the cockpit because we weren't done working in the storage areas.



One final note. In med mooring, boats back into their assigned berth with a bow anchor or mooring ball at the bow and two lines from the transom to the cleats on the concrete dock. At the Yachting World Marina, they then supply us with a 12 inch board to use in boarding and leaving the boat. This is not easy, as the tide changes 5 feet a day and this results in having to walk either up or down a sometimes steep plank while getting on or off the boat. The 12 foot long plank also sags and tilts when you walk on it.



I went to bed before Joel at around 10:00 PM, a rarity.



Brian Fox


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