Around Kavieng

Blow holes on Nusa Island

We have taken advantage of the supplies in Kavieng to stock up for the next couple of months. Kavieng has better than average provisioning for a South Pacific town filled with mostly Chinese-owned shops. The bellwether for us is usually ice-cream, but this town even has such hard-to-find gems as potatoes (yes, the lowly potato becomes something you crave and usually can't have), cream cheese and bacon. We even scored lots of avocados and mangoes, which are apparently out of season. The other day, Mark and Conrad caused much amusement amongst the locals as they lugged a package of 40 rolls of toilet paper down the street.

Mark standing on a Japanese anti-ship gun from WWII

While our anchor chain is making its way on a slow boat from Lae to Kavieng, we have kept busy enjoying the sights around Kavieng, including some diving. Papua New Guinea has its share of World War II relics, both in the water and out.

A sunken bomber

The anchorages we visited near Kavieng were bit of a mixed bag. Two ward captains asked for pretty hefty anchoring fees (which we didn't pay--we left one anchorage and the fees were 'waived' in the other when we said we wouldn't pay). One anchorage was within view of three islands with villages and we got a multitude of canoes visiting, plus a rather strange vibe. We were told of other boats that had gotten boarded and had items taken. One guy asked if we had a dog. A couple of young men from one of the villages asked if they could "provide security" by fishing behind our boat overnight to prevent any raskels from coming on board. We weren't sure how to interpret this. Were they just being nice or did they want to be close to the boat so they could get first dibs at us?  Or was it a shake down scam for protection money?  Being from Chicago, my money was on the latter.  As it turns out, they were a couple of nice guys that probably were genuinely concerned for our welfare.  They spent the night fishing and we spent the evening sleeping lightly and unrestfully due to our paranoia. We decided to leave the next day.

Alan near some of the leper graves

We had a great stay at the vocational school (which was a former leper colony). Alan showed us around and gave us a watermelon and a bagful of mangoes. The final anchorage before we returned to Kavieng was not nearby any village. While we were away snorkeling for about half an hour, someone came aboard and took a couple mangoes and a fishing lure, which appeared to have been gnawed off the line we keep on the back of the boat. The lure had gotten us many fish in its short tenure and we were sorry to lose it. After that, we decided to make our way back to Kavieng to sort out payment for the transport of our anchor chain.

Garcon and Lucas after a night of fishing behind our boat.

If all goes according to schedule, the chain should be here on Monday. The Independence Day holiday is in the mix, as well as Papua New Guinea's general adherence to 'island time'.

Kaki Kai Kai can talk and dance, even though his legs
no longer work. He lives at the Nusalik Resort.

Boang to Tabar to Kavieng

Canoe race in Takuu

After Boang, we spent a few days in Tabar. The villagers were very welcoming but were somewhat used to yachts coming and bringing lots of goods.

A big yellowfin (Matt's straining under the weight)

After engaging in some trading for very welcome grapefruit, the 'askems' started snowballing. It started as some lopsided trading (the villagers got lots of much-needed and relatively pricey clothing and we got lots of inexpensive produce--mostly cheap and plentiful sweet potatoes) and ended up with outright requests for just about anything they could think of, including cigarettes and whiskey. At a delicious celebration feast/potluck, which featured music and dancing, we were somewhat inundated with requests which sort of left a bad taste in our mouths. It's hard to tell whether we are helping or not by visiting these places and participating in/ donating to the economy.

Canoe biter in Nuguria

Traditional clothing during the Takuu Book Week Celebration

Currently, we are in Kavieng. The resort we are anchored off of is relaxed and welcoming and has all manner of birds (talking and non-talking) running about the grounds. The kids are very impressed with the avian life. We may be here awhile as we wait for a new anchor chain (our old chain has badly rusted in less than half the lifespan of better quality links). In the meantime, we are enjoying a bit of civilization. Now that we have Internet, we can show you some of the pictures we have been taking in Papua New Guinea.

A fun tree in Nuguria

Fish smoking in Boang (Tanga Islands)

A pet lorikeet in Boang.  This picture is also notable for the fact that
both kids are actually wearing pants.

Giant clam--the diving has been good in PNG.

Dancing in Tabar.

Takuu to Nuguria to Boang

Our friends on Field Trip have a knack for making connections at the villages. Sarah, an elementary teacher in her former life, visits the schools and offers help. Mark on Field Trip usually offers assistance to fix whatever needs fixing. We were lucky to piggyback on their efforts in Takuu and Nuguria. Both of these islands have been extremely welcoming and generous. At Takuu, we were the honored guests during a "Book Week" celebration where the whole village turned out to watch the school children perform modern and traditional dances and stories. In Nuguria, Conrad and Mark enjoyed helping to give a joint presentation about American culture and our boat travels to the whole school. We were inundated with gifts of lap laps (the local version of a sarong), necklaces, food, and other local items. We made new friends and got a deeper connection than we normally do when spending just a few days at a place. Both places are more Polynesian in culture and are part of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.

Leaving Nuguria, we used a period of favorable wind to head east to the Tanga Islands. Our short overnight trip to Boang netted us a 50-lb wahoo and 60-lb yellowfin tuna. We broke our streak of Solomons doldrum fishing and actually landed both fish (and without losing a gaff!). Matt struggled a bit to fillet the fish because they were too long to fit on the transom. Boang is a more traditional Papua New Guinea Melanasian village. The villagers have been very welcoming but they don't get many cruisers that visit (only 1 boat in the last 20 years or so), so we have had a lot of canoes that want to just hang out around the boat. With no television and no Internet, we're apparently the most interesting show around for the moment. We chat with them as well as our limited Pigin and their limited English allows, but eventually we leave them to go do other things. This doesn't deter them and they simply continue to hang out around the new 'water cooler' in the area (a place to meet and chat).

Solomons to Takuu

After almost nine months of motoring through the Solomons (the longest we have been in any country while on the boat, by the way), we finally got our parts installed, made the last minute dash to the market to buy as much produce and fruit as we could store, checked out and headed for Takuu. We saw every kind of sailing, from perfect beam reaching through flat seas, to downwind in heavy seas, and upwind into waves and rain galore (to say the forecast was a bit off may be a bit of an understatement). We made some rookie mistakes: Mark's hatch wasn't all the way closed so his mattress was soaked with sea water--first time we have had that happen in 4-1/2 years of sailing. Conrad tossed his cookies inside the cabin and didn't make it to a bucket right away. We also lost a lure to something huge that about ripped the bungee cord in half, let alone snapping the 150 lb test line like it was nothing. Ripe bananas from the humongous stalk that Matt couldn't refuse (less than $3 US) started plopping down as the boat moved from side to side (a la the Pacific crossing), so it's lots of banana bread for the next while.

Takuu (Mortlock) is an atoll that is technically part of the Bougainville Independent government (which is itself nominally part of Papua New Guinea), though they get almost zero and are basically left to themselves. The inhabited islands are only a meter above the sea, so rising sea levels are a real concern facing the 200-300 residents and during very high tides some of the houses get inundated. The government wants the islanders to relocate, but many are reluctant to leave their home to move to a place with a different culture (Takuu is Polynesian in origin, while the rest of Papua New Guinea is Melanesian) and way of life. Our friends on Field Trip have been here for over a week and have making friends and fixing boats. We are enjoying the nice calm anchorage while we dry out Mark's bedding. Conrad turned 11 today (Matt made donuts to celebrate) and is itching to try out the new camera his grandparents got him.

Chillin' in the heat yo

Rescuing gobi fish

We had a fully sunny day for the first time in almost a week and we spent it exploring Rokana Nomana Island, near Lola Island.

The kids explored the huge low tide area and rescued stranded gobi fish. They walked around the island and reported seeing a yellow-spotted monitor lizard stealing some bird eggs. Matt and I (mostly Matt) caught a bucket full of mantis shrimp, with about a 50% success rate for each hole located. Mark and Conrad (with cries of "It's just a baby!" ) wanted us to let the smallest ones go.  Not gonna happen, the shrimp were way too hard-earned for that. Not to mention delicious. Especially the tender babies...

The next day we took the dinghy to Noro to stock up on fresh produce as we've managed to deplete it all hanging around Lola. Not sure if it's because of the resort, but no one comes up in canoes here to trade/sell produce. We almost didn't go as we hope to be back in Noro in a few days anyway to check out, but decided that the kids need a vegetable or two in the meantime, despite the clear nutritional value of shrimp, squid, and the Muzi Boko brownie mix. On the way back, we caught a decent-sized kingfish. It almost made up for the 5-footer that escaped with the lure a couple days back.

We're still in a holding pattern waiting for the last of the parts for the furler.  Fortunately, our contact at Wichard/Pro-Furl was very responsive and we should have the missing parts we need by early next week, dependent on Customs and the vagaries of  'Solomon Time'.

Many days Conrad takes hundreds of pictures.
A few of them are not bugs even.

 

Adventures in wildlife

Grainy footage of black-tip reef shark

Zipolo Habu Resort's sweet spot is fishing and their skilled guides know where to find them. Most days end with the clients' catch being cleaned and the scraps being tossed to the abundant black-tip reef sharks that frequent the beach. The following shots show some of the action. The pictures are a bit grainy because the sharks and fish kick up a lot of silt, plus they are just screen captures from an older Go Pro unit.  Oh, you want 4k clarity?  Go watch the National Geographic channel.  We also don't have David Attenborough on retainer, in case you were wondering.  

Tommy, one of the kids staying at the resort, was kayaking in the shallow water near the feeding sharks with a string of bait trailing behind him from a rope wrapped around his waist. As the swarm of sharks around his kayak got more and more excited, one grabbed his line and jumped right next to the kayak. Tommy's expression suddenly changed from 'this is so cool' to abject terror. The shark was pulling Tommy's kayak backward so strongly that he couldn't paddle away. He quickly undid the rope of bait and paddled back to shore, none the worse for wear.

 

 

You talkin' to me?





 

This fellow was about 8' long

We got our furler part. We were so excited! Unfortunately it didn't include everything we need so we need to sort that out. Sigh. My parents had also sent a package with all kinds of goodies that we ordered. It's like Christmas in July. So we have that to entertain us.

Red sky at night

More of the waiting-in-paradise game

Tuna in the can...

The good news is that our roller furler finally arrived at the rigger in Australia. Woohoo!

Unfortunately, once the rigger opened up the furler, he found a lot of corrosion and couldn't just replace the bearings. Which means the furler was toast. Our fantastic contact at ProFurl/ Wichard in Australia helped us locate a new unit that didn't dent the pocketbook too much (but it did leave a mark!) and would work with the rest of the system. It's currently en route from Oz.  Now, we play more of the postal waiting game even though we've already had our fill.

...and out.

All in all, we're in a pretty good place to wait. The 'dry' season isn't too dry so our water tanks are full but our solar is performing poorly, so our generator is getting a healthy workout. The cooler weather and water and breeze makes for better sleeping weather. We have made friends and been able to slow down and explore more.

Safety first. Putting on labels.



 

 

 
 

 
We finally got our tour of the SolTuna factory, which was fascinating for all of us. I thought it might put the kids off tuna but instead it made them like it even more.



The tasting. Everyone's new favorite was Spicy Tuna Delight.

We're back at Lola for a bit, hanging out with friends old and new and killing some time jigging for tasty mantis shrimp.

These weird-looking dudes are as long as your hand.