Blue Book of Boats

This is our last island before Australia. I got up early to watch us come in. The weather was cloudy and cool (23C) but humid. From a distance the island was not as impressive as the Polynesian islands, but as we approached it looked better and better.

Port Vila harbor is large, deep and well sheltered with several commercial docks. We tied up at a cruise ship dock which was under construction, no buildings or facilities, located about 5 km from the center of town. No brass band here! There were lots of taxis and buses waiting, and just outside the port there were many vendors with tables set up.

Vanuatu was formerly the French/English joint protectorate known as the New Hebrides (shouldn’t it have been run by Scots?). It has been independent since 1980. There are three official languages, English, French and pidgin. I never really thought of pidgin as a language, rather I thought it was a “dumbed down” version of English.

Hearing it spoken, I realized it is a real language, and I understand about as many words as I would if it was Korean!

I left the Port and turned right (town is to the left) and walked along a dusty road until I came to the water then followed the beach past some attractive waterfront homes, some with swimming pools, interspersed with tin shacks. There was a boat repair yard with about a dozen yachts inside, one or tow nice ones, the rest pretty rough. Although it was a weekday, and the gates were open, I couldn’t see any work going on. I met and spoke to a few locals on the beach, but they didn’t have much English, just Pidgin. One older man with a little boy (the boys hair was almost blonde, bleached by the sun I suppose) spoke to me in a friendly manner. I asked if the boy was his grandson. He didn’t understand so I said “Him son belong you?”. Amazingly he understood that and shook his head, said “Blong brother belong me” which I took to mean he was the boys Uncle.

The people here are Melanesia, and look negro, but with different features form Africans. The have lined faces and even young people look older than they really are. Most are not good looking by our standards, but are gentle and polite. You would never guess that this was the land of headhunters and cannibals, the Big Nambas and Little Nambas and the cargo cult that worships John Frum. Look it up! There are lots of other islands and this is the capital, so maybe the original culture is still out there somewhere.

I walked further and came to a lovely sheltered beach with clear blue water and white sand, not a soul on it. This sign was on the beach. Can anyone translate it?

The next day, I was able to get a translation for this sign. Here it is:
PUBLIC NOTICE
U BLON KAREM
COREL MO SANBIS
LONG PLES IA
SIGN: OWNER

Translates as:

YOU DON’T CARRY CORAL OR BEACH SAND AWAY FROM HERE

Thank you for your inquiry regarding the condition of the ms Amsterdam.

We can assure you that the ship did not hit anything and is sailing under full power. It seems that a small number of guests heard a noise that was a result of normal deceleration and decided that the ship had run into something. Despite assurances from the crew that nothing was wrong they started rumors amongst the other guests which prompted the Captain to make an announcement over the public address system. We have provided a copy of the announcement below.

“On a technical note: I have been made aware that a few of our passengers are under the impression that the Amsterdam is sailing with only one of her Azipods/propellers working. This information is incorrect. Both of our Azipods/Propellers are working and the ship is sailing under safe conditions, hopefully this information provided by me will stop the rumor mill.”

We hope this information is helpful.

Kind Regards,

Office of the President
Holland America Line

I went out on the aft deck of the Amsterdam this afternoon and had a look at the wake. Contrary to my guess that they had repaired the prop at Suva, the ship is running on one engine. It is pretty obvious that it is the starboard side that is OK and the port side damaged. There is only slight turbulence from the port prop, indicating it is either free-wheeling or perhaps running dead slow.

Could one or more of you fire off an email to Holland America and ask them what the Amsterdam hit at about 5:30 PM,Monday October the 19th between Pago Pago and Suva? It would be interesting to know their response. There has been no official mention on board but many passengers are speculating.

Last night at dinner it was “Pirate Night” with the crew and some passengers all dressed up with eye patches, hooks, peg legs and other pirate gear. Dinner took a long time as they kept stopping to have their photos taken.

In the middle of dinner the ship hit something. There was a thump and a shudder went through the ship, then a minute of so later the starboard prop made a large vibration. The dining room is right aft directly above the drive pods, so I could easily identify the sound and vibration. The engines were idled and I suppose the props were stopped, as the ship went very smooth and silent. Then a few minutes later the engines started up again, but all night there was a noticeable vibration from one prop. I think it must have been a whale, as the thump was muffled and whatever hit the prop did not make any clanging noises as you would expect it it was something metal such as another boat or floating container. No announcements were made so it remains a mystery.

We arrived in Suva as scheduled so it didn’t slow us much. Still, I’m pretty sure the prop is damaged.

Suva is the largest city in the Pacific Islands with over 200,000 people. It isn’t very pretty on approach as the port is industrial and there are a lot of rusty old ships at anchor.

As we docked a large Police Band appeared and played a large selection of music, starting with marching tunes but then there were Beatles and at one point they were dancing the Macarena on the dock. The side of the ship was lined with people as they applauded this performance. It certainly made us feel welcome.