Boat-sitting a Pirate Boat: Mele Bay, Vanuatu
22nd of August, 2025.
Michael is a skipper, and as he’s delivering a boat from the Caribbean to the U.S.A. He wants someone to watch after his boat, as the whole trip will take him around one month. So the agreement was that I would come here some days before his departure in order to learn more about the boat, learn how to drive the dinghy and other things too.
The boat is an old fashion one, wooden, dating from 1963. Comparing to the other two boats I’ve been until now, it’s not great, but I’ve been to worse places during my volunteer works. I don’t have a cabin but sleep in the middle of the boat. As Michael will be gone in about 10 days, I think it’s fine.
The water is the first issue. Michael adds way too much bleach and vinegar to it, so it tastes absolutely terrible. Plus, I simply don’t trust it. So I ask Michael what we can do about that because I drink litres of water per day, and I wouldn’t even cook with this water with such disgusting taste. Luckily, I can drink water from the Beach Bar, located right in front of where the boat is anchored (it’s not a marina, we are anchored out). The owner of the Beach Bar, Tom, is a very nice Australian man, and he knows Michael. Next morning, when Michael and I go there to have breakfast, we get some people to get acquainted with me, so I can come every few days for drinking water, as we have a 10 litres gallon.
On Tuesday we come back to the Beach Bar to watch a movie which they stream in a very big screen. They show “American Beauty”. We have some pizza and I have a beer. Afterwards, we also have a very nice ice cream. This night I meet Flavie, a Swiss young girl, only 20 years old, who has “sailed” one time with Michael before. The day before I arrived, Flavie and two other girls joined Michael for a short sailing just around the bay. Now, for reasons I cannot understand, she would like to stay a few nights in the boat, so she’s joining us from tomorrow onwards.
I’m really glad that she came because I could understand more what Michael was actually expecting from me and any other girl who would join him in the boat. I think that most girls on holidays in a summer island, spend most of their time in bikinis, swimming around and sunbathing. So that’s one. Second, Michael wanted someone to simply wake up at 6 a.m. and spend some time talking with him while drinking coffee. Like most senior captains sailing alone out there, Michael wanted not only company but a partner. What he couldn’t understand is that, even though he wanted a girly girl onboard, only someone like me would accept stay for a longer time in his boat, under the conditions of it.
Another thing is that Michael makes videos and take photos of Flavie in her bikinis all the time. It seems like every time she puts on her bikinis, he takes his tablet and starts stalking her around. He didn’t even ask her and later on posted videos on YouTube which have a lot of shots of her in her bikinis. That’s really disrespectful and, in my opinion, very awkward.
The best thing that happened to me while here, and one of the best things of Vanuatu for me, ever, is the Fire Show. I know what you might be thinking: “Ah, Lei, but there are Fire Shows in mny tropical islnds and places, they are quite common and all the same”. Nd yuo are partilly right, they are. But the one in Mele Bay is the exception. It is incredibly good! It’s trully awesome, and they re lwys improving. The member of the group are all locals and really not only need this but are into it. The show is for free and it last for bout 2 hours. They are sponsored by the owner of The Bech Bar, Tom, and rely only on donations mde by the visitors / tourists. So when you go there to watch, and make sure that if you are in Vanuatu you go there, please be generous. Just make sure to arrive early, even more if you, just like me, like to watch in the first role. It starts to get crowded around 17h00 even though the show only starts at 19h00. But don’t worry, The Bech Bar offers all kind o drinks, local and international beers, and lovely pizzas and different dishes to keep you up until the show starts. Don’t miss out the Friday Night Fire Show! There’s also a Local Circus on Sunday Night’s. It’s OK, but I just don’t relly like circus, so I didn’t enjoy it that much. Plus, it’s much newer than the Fire Show, so they are still improving it. There’s a Light’s Show in the end of the CIrcus which is really nice though.
At certain point, the inevitable happens. Michael shows off his true self. He calls me a princess for not wanting to drink the terrible water from his boat, even though I’m not even asking him to buy water for me. He didn’t even notice that Flavie haven’t drank the water from the Beach Bar for the whole three nights she was with us. He says I treat him like a servant (even though I’ve been cooking and washing our dishes every day, every meal, for the past 10 days), simply because I asked him to fill the gallon of water from the beach bar, as he was already going there. He even let another person thinking that I am a freeloader, because he deliberately didn’t explain to this person that I work really hard doing volunteer work in every single country I go for the past seven years. He also told me that he didn’t really need me there, so I should only be grateful for the favour he was doing to me.
If this had happened in the beginning of my travels, I would probably let it pass and think that I should just put up with it. But after all I’ve been through, being a 35 years old woman, I decide that I don’t need to put up with anyone’s shit and disrespect.
Even though Flavie and Michael are taking the same flight, so she could’ve stayed with us until that date, she leaves a few days earlier, for obvious reasons. Michael was so inappropriate by hitting on her, saying things like he could not marry her because she’s too young or making awkward compliments. She is literally more than three times younger than him.
We were supposed to go grocery shopping for the 30 days I should stay on the boat. That morning, before we leave, I tell Michael that I came up to the conclusion that, if he doesn’t really need me here, I don’t want to stay, as I don’t need for him to do me a favor. All my volunteer work places needed me, and I worked hard for my accommodation and food. I would be OK staying about 10 days, only out of respect, and also so I could do some of the painting of the boat. Plus, I really feel like that would make us even for these 10 days we spent here together. Help for help. But as I expected, Michael said no, 10 days would not work for him.
We still come to Port Vila together. I have a meeting with another boat captain, to talk about the possibility of sailing together.
The meeting is great and J. and I have a lot in common. The only issue is that the window for him to start sailing is too short for me, as I would still like to go travelling around Efate. Plus, I’ve been talking with another captain, for quite some time now, all the way from Fiji, so I must give him priority. But as nothing is for certain, mostly when it comes to sailing, I have to go with the wind and see how things turn out.
I talk with my previous captain and friend Michael, and he says I can stay a few nights in his boat (back to Larabeck again!), and I can even sail a little bit with him and his new crew, who’s arriving on the 3rd.
Things are not terrible between Michael and I, and in my last night he even prepared some dinner for us. Although he didn’t really know that it was our last night together, as I told him that while we were eating.
Next morning, as he needs to go to the Beach Bar in the morning, we come together, and that’s the last I see of him. I say some nice words to him, and even apologize for anything I might have done. And I think that was really nice of me. He didn’t say anything similar. That tells a lot.
10 Years Around the World 