New Guinea

(click on a place to go there)

We usually begin our passages with a sunset and are too old to change now. This is a few hundred miles south of Chuuk. Those with sailorvision will note the rain showers to the right of the sun - we're heading for "The Line" (read: Equator) and the Doldrums.

When people think of Doldrums they think of light winds. This afforded us a chance to try out our cruising chute, which had moldered for 2 years after we bought it off a boat in Tonga. Here is rises in all its expensive glory. It was very helpful in reducing our fuel consumption, which is good because diesel cost about USD $4/gal in Micronesia. It worked well: we could go 7.5 knots in a 10 knot quartering wind, 4.5 with 6.

One thing we could do while lazily heading south was laundry, in this case bedding. Here we see the admiral literally 3 sheets to the wind.

For those who think the Doldrums are all light winds, be advised that squalls are common. Once we crossed to the south side of the ITCZ (Intertropical Convergence Zone) we started to get nasty stuff and adverse winds, so down went the chute and up went the "Iron Main", i.e. we started motoring for the last 2 days.

Ah, land! Safe harbor! After about 5 days we arrived at Kavieng, at the west end of New Ireland, Papua New Guinea. We were looking forward to returning to the nice people of Melanesia and we weren't disappointed.

Unlike the Chuukese, who mostly cash US government checks and drink, the Papuans work for a living. Here some women fish at sunset. They have some of the nicest dugout canoes we've seen, mostly held together with fishing line.

Another thing they do is grow things. This is Kavieng market. In Chuuk all fresh vegetables, besides cucumbers and green beans, are imported from the US. As a result, tomatoes are usually not available and mushy and tasteless when they are. We went for a month there with no fresh veggies at all. Here there is a cornucopia of tasty choices. Oh, the picture looks blurred because the waterproof camera housing fogs up at inopportune times.

We thought we'd share some pidgin with you. The sign above says, as best we can guess:

"You can't throw paper hereabouts"

"Put paper into a trash receptacle"

"The appearance of the town is up to us"

Here's a view of Kavieng harbor with Le Tub in the middle. There were actually sailing yachts here, drawn in part by the presence of fresh food.

This is a shot of some heavy showers over New Hanover, our next destination.

The area around Kavieng is full of wrecks. Here Aquahub tries his hand at flying a rather soggy Japanese "Kate" torpedo bomber.

We moved up the E coast of New Hanover inside a lagoon and anchored off the charming island of Tsoilik. Here we're greeted by two locals, Timothy and Ian. Like most Melanesian youth they were very polite and well-spoken. Schools appear to be a high priority in PNG and it shows.

Here's some more great kids, proudly showing off the balloons we gave them. The big girl's teeth are stained by betel nut.

A nice local guy named Cruz gave us a tour of the eco-resort his father Graham was building. The bungalow behind him is typical PNG: on stilts with woven walls and thatch roof. They are excellent builders with local materials.

Here we see our Island Girl on some great beachfront property

After idyllic Tsoilok we left for Three Island Harbor, which has a well-known dive site. Our first anchorage was very sheltered, which can mean easy access for locals to visit. The village nearby was brimming with kids, most just out of school. Here one proudly shows off his books, pencils and ruler.

Unfortunately, not all the kids in the village were nice. A couple started demanding things, then began jeering when we said "no", mostly to requests for stuff like cigarettes, which we don't carry. With sunset approaching and a dozen potentially hostile canoes milling around, we decided to find shelter elsewhere. This is about the first time we left an anchorage because the natives made us feel unsafe.

After spending a rough night in the bay next door we decided to check out our intended destination, Dunung Island. As you see from the south end, we headed back to a tropical paradise.

We were first met by the nice guy above, named Lazarus. He turned out to be the local policeman. He proudly stands in front of a newly carved dugout canoe. He said they take 2-3 weeks to finish. We can attest that they weigh a ton. As we said, they are the best dugouts we've seen in the Pacific.

As we mentioned, Dunung has a popular dive site, which is a Japanese ship which apparently was carrying a mini-sub when sunk. The ship is a mess but the sub is intact. This is the business end showing 2 empty torpedo tubes.

This is the open hatch of the sub, inviting divers inside. Naturally Aquahub wanted a looksee but wasn't sure if his head would fit, let alone his shoulders. In any event, the divemistress had an adamant NO to say on the matter; women are fussy like that, may be why they outlive men.

This picture does not convey just how many zillions of fish we encountered on the ship, a finny rush hour.

This is "Junior", the nice guy who showed us where the ship & sub were located.

This is Junior's dad Anton. Just as we were about to leave, he showed his island hospitality by bringing us two large lovely lobsters for a very nominal fee. This very pleasant elderly gentleman is still canoeing and his only complaint was a aching left shoulder. We were able to supply him with some relief.

We would like to pretend that this composition was inspired by Picasso's Blue Period. Our graceful tiny dancer is a very deadly species of Lionfish. We were able to capture her performance at Albatross Pass.

Yeah, you've seen our giant clams before, but this puppy is maybe a metre/yard wide. The hole on the right is the intake, the one on the left exhaust. They pump water through their bodies and filter it for bits of food. Their tissues contain algae that provide additional food via photosynthesis.

This is a typical seaside village, showing their excellent design & construction.

This might be your tuna: a Korean fishing boat next to its mother ship. There were a couple of factory ships and numerous tuna boats in Kavieng harbor. The main problem they seem to cause is they give local teenagers cigarettes and booze, thus corrupting them.

This should really be on the "Watery Wonders" page, but we're not sure how many of our viewers see what's new. This is a "sleeping" shark.

Busted! This guy is allergic to butter sauce.

Aquahub tries his hand at another damp plane, this one's a "Jake".

So far, we'd been in PNG for a month, half what we're allowed on our visas. We were concerned about the SE trade winds building up, especially since they were simply awful last year. We therefore decided to spend the next 4 weeks sailing along the island chain just north of New Ireland.

The island groups are called Tabar, Lihir, Tanga, Feni and Green. We planned to visit all but weather intervened.

This is a shot of Cigagare Harbor in Tabar, which is very sheltered and had ruins of an old plantation. Unfortunately, these settings are also nice environments for crocs, to which the admiral professes a profound allergy. So, we left.

Our next group is called Lihir, famous as the site of a large gold mine. We arrived on the west side and proceeded to look for a suitable anchorage. Unfortunately, the west side was very "steep to", i.e. it was either knee deep or 100m. The water looked great for diving but the boat needed a safe harbor. Above we see a bunch of kids on a wave-scoured ledge. Above them are the remains of a cave which collapsed into the depths. When John first asked me to snap this pic I was skeptical because of the distance. But it does illustrate the magnificent scale reminiscent of Carlsbad Caverns.

We discovered the main Harbor of Queen Luisa, seen above, was taken over by the gold mine. The steam you see rising is natural geothermal energy, which they use to power the mine operations. There is a large expat community present that live in an area resembling a military base. We met a nice group of Australians there. They took us to their stores which abounded in exotica such as cheese and Oreos.

Here we have the contrast between First World and Third. The jet ski and water skier are zooming past two guys fishing from dugout canoes.

A late mid-afternoon walkabout between two islands. Here the enveloping shallow reef is home to a motley array of creatures which the local villagers harvest. As John briefly rested,, we were visited by a friendly local who was searching for tasty sea urchins. We politely declined dinner.

The weather decided to crimp our style, so we decided to head for Tanga.

These brilliant green chromis are whirling round a giant coral head which pretends to be floating in some celestial nebulae. This was the only day we basked in fine weather. After our all day water venture we were pinned on Amante for five days in high winds. As a result, the Feni Islands were passed in the night: we had to reach Buka before our visas ran out.

This is a shot of a sunset complete with fisherman crossing the entrance to the atoll of Green or Nissan Island.

Gosh, and American teachers complain of underfunding! Note the stumps used as seats.

This is the public high school. Note the interesting figure over the door.

A tree blew down in a storm and was quickly turned into canoes. We were told we could buy one of these handcrafted beauties for only $10, but they are much heavier than they look.

A common sight in any village, though the caladiums and gladioli are a nice touch.

This delightful child who accompanied us on our hike to meet the village chief met us shyly on the trail as we departed Green Island.

We discovered the reason Green Island is green is because it rains every day. It also suffers from having its pass on the windward side, which meant it was rough to try diving on it. Therefore, after 4 days we decided to take off for Buka, a large island north of Bougainville.

Here's El Tubbo anchored off the island of Malolo in Queen Carola Harbor, Buka. We had hoped to do some diving here but discovered the water was murky. So, on to the main town hereabouts, which we call "Bukaville".

While steaming to "Bukaville" we passed this friendly Nubian diver, wearing not much more than fins, who could rival any jock in Muscle and Fitness Magazine.

Bukaville was a rough place. Bougainville was the scene of 10 years of civil war in which tens of thousands were thought to have been killed. If the admiral doesn't look too happy in the picture above, it's because she spent an hour being surrounded by hostile men who wanted her views on race relations. They also wanted her outboard motor. The guy lying on the boat just behind her simply stared at her with that betel-nut dazed look. This was one place where we couldn't leave the dingy unattended.

Here we are fleeing past Sohano Island, the former capital. Note the balanced rock in the background.

We would like to say that the officials here couldn't have been nicer and were really glad to see us. But the locals were hostile and there is no nice place to anchor as the large bay south of Bukaville is riddled with shoals. We decided to bounce off Buka and head south to our next destination, the Shortlands!

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