Hi Tom,
I just returned from a three week training expedition with John and Amanda Neal aboard their beautiful Hallberg Rassy 46, Mahina Tiare III.  Leaving Fiji we sailed for the next 1,250 miles around Vanuatu and New Caledonia which is still a delightfully primitive part of the world.  Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu, is the only town in that country that has a dock a yacht can tie up to (Mediterranean style) for any length of time.  The only other town with a pier capable of accommodating a ship of any size is Luganville.  Both piers are left over from World War II.  Luganville was once a massive base camp for the American drive on Japan’s southern flank.  It was also the place that inspired James Michener to write Tales of the South Pacific which became the basis for the musical South Pacific.  Yes, there was a beetle nut chewing “Bloody Mary” who recently died at the age of 90 plus.  The fabled Bali Hai was based on Ambae island an active volcanic island they sailed by.

Vanuatu, which gained its independence in 1980, has only 160,000 people spread among 69 islands with 3,233 inhabited localities speaking 105 distinct languages.  Some of the population, whom I met,  practiced cannibalism up until the mid 1950s.

Until very recently a major religion was a “cargo cult” which believed that all those ships, trucks and airplanes that suddenly appeared during WWII came from a volcano, to which they all just as suddenly returned a few years later.

My skipper, and primary instructor, was John Neal, a best selling author and noted speaker on world cruising.  His wife Amanda is a world class sailor in her own right having been practically born on a cruising sailboat to parents who circumnavigated the globe.  In 1994 Amanda was chosen as a crew member aboard Maiden, the first all female crew to compete in the famous Whitbread around the world race.  A professional rigger, she also regularly produced minor miracles from the galley.  
Ken Appleton

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