Tall Ship Soren Larsen adventure sailing for all ages

The 2003 Tall Ship Soren Larsen Pacific Voyage Log

NEW 14th August: The ship arrives at Vanuatu and Noreen Hill - the scribe from the galley chronicals the voyage from Fiji:

Austrian Voyage Crew Emil Gruber flew out to New Zealand to join Soren Larsen for the entire 5 month 2003 Pacific season.

Read his Fiji-Vanautu account here

Lautoka, Western Fiji to Vanautu:

July 30th, 2003 and the sun is shining! Not only did we bid farewell to our VCs but also our dear Lucy Harris has left Soren to a start a sail-making job in the UK. She will be greatly missed but we wish her all the best in her endeavors! Oh by the way Lucy, you will be sad to hear that two days after you left I lost my voice…. we said it would happen one day!!
Anyways, with our time off on Viti Levu, Fiji, the majority of us choose to hang around in Lautoka and spend our hard earned money in the Indian shops. There are new sarongs and t-shirts being sported around deck, we all look quite dashing! The majority of my day was spent in the markets of Lautoka. They are spectacular, so colorful with the mixed fruit and vegetables as well as the Indian spices! With the opportunity to stay ashore, Mikkel, Fraser, Daniel, Jacob and I rented a room at the “Cathay Hotel” and lounged around the pool in the afternoon and decided to find some local night entertainment. As we tried to get into the various night clubs, we were turned down due to the fact that flip flops and shorts are a no no, the boys did not like this one bit, “we are on a tropical island, it’s hot, we are not going to where shoes and long pants!” Needless to say we ended up finding the local hangout, a bar called Paradise, where a live band sang out a range of Fijian and top 40 type songs, they were excellent! I was asked to dance by an older gentleman, he smiled the entire time and kept saying, “Vinaka, Noreen! Bula Vinaka” Later on I stood talking with him and found that he was Benny, the Brewer of Fijian Bitter Beer. He was definitely the most liked man in the club that night and boy did I feel privileged to be the one dancing with him! Haha

On Monday Waldorf and Statler (Emil and Syd) were joined by five new voyage crew, as well as two new crewmembers, Sonja and Grant. Thea and I hit the markets to stock up on enough fruit and veg to get us through a week around the Yasawa chain of Islands, and returned to the ship to meet our new guests and prepare lunch. In 1996 Thea lived in Fiji for 3 months in a small village on Wayasewa. As we were about to leave the wharf, someone began shouting “Thea, Thea”in a Fijian accent, it was two young guys that recognized her from six years earlier! Josh and Navi were invited to sail from Lautoka to Wayasewa with us, and in turn helped prepare dinner. Josh scraped coconut and made milk out of the desiccated meat and then Navi prepared a wonderful sauce of onion, tomato, salt and the coconut milk. As we began eating the boys sang and played guitar before joining us for a lovely Fijian meal. In the morning they made Fijian style pancakes, flour, sugar, yeast and milk mixed into dough, rolled and then deep fried, very tasty! When we arrived at the village where Thea had spent her time, villagers came by the boatload out to say Bula! It was a special moment for both the locals and Thea herself, almost like a family reunion!

A few keen adventurers hiked up to the top of the island to watch the sunset as the other half went snorkeling. I saw my first reef shark and even though I am missing my voice I managed to let out a scream through my snorkel, very cool indeed! We were invited ashore to drink kava, I missed out on the session, I figured I should prevent everyone else from catching my cold and go to bed early, what a wise choice…. I can talk today!

anchored off Wayasa island After voyage crew returned from there ventures ashore we motored around to. We were welcomed ashore by Thea’s old friends and they grabbed our hands and led the two of us into the village. Voyage crew and crew formed two teams with the locals and had a soccer match. With the sun setting over the island it was the perfect backdrop for the game. A few years ago, Soren visited the village with British school children, they took the time to paint the walls of the local boarding school with pictures of the ship, and the walls still remain the same today! The young boys and girls were so eager to have their picture taken in front of the painting as well as ask my name and hand out their address to me so that I may write to them! After a hard work out everyone headed back to the ship for the nights meal, in the morning we weighed anchor and motored towards Lautoka.

Castaway Islnad, tom hanks wannabees ashore Jim mentioned that the movie ‘Castaway’ was filmed on one of the small Fijian islands and that we would anchor off of it for lunch and a chance to go ashore. All the “Tom Hanks”wannabees headed ashore for some beachcombing and sun soaking. When we returned from shore, Jim had a peculiar look in his eye; this is his edited version of what took place!
“Just before departure from Castaway Captain Jim had one of his unpredictable flashes of sun induced wickedness. He invited the three girls ashore and with a minimum of planning all four marched, unadorned, up and over the crest of the gleaming white sand wave, which formed the sun-drenched beach. Moments later the girls skipped back over the crest-Jim crawled! Hopefully these playful moments were captured by at least one zoom lens, the ship might attract a whole new type of clientele with such publicity shots! On the other hand-maybe not! Good clean fun amongst a happy and intrepid crew.”

August 1st time to clear customs, load up with ships stores and refuel before heading off to Vanuatu. I checked my email while I waited on Marita, who was getting money at the bank. It was great to get emails from friends and family at home speaking so highly of the Soren website, I hope you are all enjoying this as much as I am writing it! A big hello to SALLY and NICK Anderson, two crew members who we dearly miss but know they are doing well in the jacob and mikkel at lautoka market States getting involved in the Super Yacht industry yet still continue to check the website for our latest whereabouts! (They asked me to say HI) Anyways, once I received the money needed to stock up with fruit and vege, I called a taxi to take me to the markets. I raced around like a chicken with its head cut off, collecting things from eggs, to bananas to eggplant to papaya. I managed to spend all the money (with very little difficulty, haha) and headed back to the ship to stow all the goods. After refueling we left the ports of Lautoka and anchored just off Nadi airport for the evening.

Today is my Dad’s birthday August 2nd! Happy birthday Dad, I love you and miss you, I won’t tell everyone your age as that would be a bit embarrassing, but I think you look great for a 47 year old! Oops, sorry, haha! Ok, back to business…Jim did a navigational talk just before morning smoko and afterwards we set off for Vanuatu. It is sad to bid farewell to Fiji but we look forward to what Vanuatu has in store!

Dental repair number two! Much to our surprise the wind direction was in our favor and we averaged 7 knots for the 640 nautical miles thus arriving in approximately three and half days! Wow, we are in another country, hard to believe how quickly the time is passing! I attended Jim’s navigational talks and look forward to using the sextant to put to use what I have learnt, he is such an excellent teacher!
We were very fortunate with fish this trip, catching a large Dorado and two Tuna. Yesterday Dan Covich began pulling in another Dorado and just as he was about to lift the fish over the rail, the creature of the sea escaped leaving us all moaning, “that was the biggest one yet, why’d you let ‘em go?”

August 6th, Port Vila, Vanuatu. After customs and immigration cleared us, Voyage crew headed ashore to evaluate what looks to be a busy port. The crew were split into two groups, the first having three hours ashore after lunch and the second after smoko. The majority of us wandered through the streets aimlessly, I spent almost my entire time on the Internet. How horrible is it that I am on a tropical island in the South Pacific and I spend an hour and a half inside on a computer; oh it is so great to hear from friends and family though!
The following morning we sailed off anchor and ventured south towards Tanna Island.

Tanna is home to the ‘Yasur’ volcano, it is an active volcano and said to be the most accessible volcano anywhere in the World! Crew and Voyage crew were given the opportunity to see the marvelous sight. Daniel and Joel joined Katherine and Martin for the first trip of the day; they were driven about 10 minutes from the crater and then hiked up to the rim. Daniel and Joel took the opportunity to hike back over the ash plains before returning to the ship for the next trip ashore. Fraser, Marita, Mikkel, Jacob and Frank (Mark) as well as a few other VCs climbed into the back of a pickup truck for the evening trip, and supposedly the more spectacular of the two, because of the glowing lava. Sonja and Grant took the opportunity to go checkout the surf on the west side of the island while Dan Covich took up the offer to drink kava with the local men, it is not customary for the women to drink kava in Vanuatu, but rumor has it, that the grog is very strong.

Thea and I had the privilege of both going ashore together, this is a rare occasion (as one cook or other us usually on duty) so truly a treasured moment, we wandered through the small village of Port Resolution, Captain James Cook named this port after his ship in 1774 when he discovered the island. As we admired the beautiful sunflowers, banana trees, pineapple plants and papaya trees we came across some young children chewing on coconuts. We stopped to talk to them and in the end, they ended up guiding us through the ‘sports ground’ where I stopped to play volleyball with the local women for about an hour while Thea talked with the children. I took a break from the game to wander to the beach where we learned to weave from our new friends! After another brief volleyball match the sun began setting, this was our cue to head back to the ship to prepare dinner. As we strolled back along the road, one of the local women ran up to us bearing a gift. Naomi presented Thea and I with a woven bag, and then one of the children walking with us put a beaded necklace around our necks. They thanked us for coming to visit them on their island and were so glad that we stopped to play volleyball and talk to them.

Local children eating coconut After sailing off the anchorage we steered towards Erromango Island, we spent the day slowly making our way there under full sail until realizing we actually were only getting closer to Tanna, we began motoring. It turned out to be a good thing that we bobbed around all day because a pod of whales were spotted just off our port side. Joel, Marita, Jacob, Grant and Sonja scurried aloft to watch the beautiful creatures of the sea while the rest of us gathered on deck to try and snap a shot at the Sei whales. They crossed over our bow, gave one last blow and retreated to the deep. At approximately 2300 hrs we dropped anchor in Dillon’s Bay and turned in for the evening, minus the watch keeper! Early in the morning on August 11th as the locals paddled out to the ship in their outriggers to greet us. The voyage crew were escorted by three of the locals to Burial Cave, the entombment of ancestral people to Erronmano Island. As we were preparing lunch, a local ferry unloaded people and cargo onto the beach of the village, Voyage Crew ventured ashore after eating to check things out! We weighed anchor and sailed overnight to an island north of Efate.
17°03’S 168°17É we spent three hours snorkeling at Captain Cook Reef exploring the underwater world of Vanuatu. The coral was an array of purples, greens and pinks and the fish were a rainbow of activity. Emil spotted his first shark and came back to the ship bragging of his findings, he said he had photographic evidence…. well I should hope so, he goes everywhere with his cameras!

Our ‘last dinner’ was held at anchor about 28 miles from Port Vila, we would weigh anchor at 0600 hrs on the 14th to get VCs ashore in time to catch their flights back to civilization!
I am sitting in the galley as we motor, listening to the on goings of the ship. The garboman organizing his rubbish, the anchor being raised, the kettle being heated, the morning greetings of voyage crew and of course the music coming from my computer! The ship is really a special place and everyone plays a key role in the daily operation. We have been 12 weeks in the South Pacific this gives us an excuse for a party…on Thursday we will be holding a ‘big bannock’ (you’ll have to ask Bobby about this Shetland tradition) and a midway party for Wardolf and Statler! Time continues to pass at warp speed………..

Noreen (a.k.a Daisy!!)

SEE NOREEN'S PICTURE GALLERIES OF THIS ACCOUNT here