Can you canoe?

 

The villagers in Ninigo sail outrigger canoes. When we visited Longan, we (along with our friends on Field Trip) were privileged to be taken out sailing in one of these sailing canoes. It was a welcome change to speed along in a sailboat that rivals Hobie cats for their speed. Our captain and crew were two local boys who expertly raised and trimmed the sails by tying knots and bracing wooden posts against one another. It was truly impressive what they could do with a wooden canoe and plastic tarps.

 

They also showered us with local delicacies like lobster and sago pudding, after a joyous welcome song. We were presented with handmade gifts, including a miniature outrigger sailing canoe just like the one we had sailed in. We had to draw the line at their proposed goodbye feast where they wanted to kill a pig in our honor. It was just much too generous for our short stay.

It has been a running joke that Matt has a knack for making the village babies cry, just by virtue of being  Big White Guy. I always thought it was pretty funny but the tables were turned the other day when I looked and smiled at a tiny toddler, only to have her start bawling.

Here are a few pictures we couldn't post with our sat phone while we were in Internet exile. Meanwhile, it's off to Indonesia.

Sunken Japanese WWII mini-sub

 

 

 

Just happy as a...

 

Dinner!

 

 

Nice manta just happened to stroll by while we were diving.

Tunung, The Hermits and Ninigo

Our time since leaving Kavieng has been relaxed and full of friendly villages, beautiful corals and abundant fish. We spent a day at Tunung and dove the World War II submarine and ship wrecks there with Clem. Clem runs a laid back surf resort and is about as well-spoken and savvy as any Papua New Guinean that we have met.

We had heard so many rave reviews of welcoming and generous villagers in The Hermits and Ninigo that I thought there was no way that it could live up to the hype. I was wrong, especially about Ninigo. We have been greeted everywhere with friendship and gifts. We have been enjoying the diving and snorkeling as we wait for a wind and weather window to Vanimo, where we need to get our visas for Indonesia.

Life on the Chain Gang

Mark celebrating the availability of locally
grown carrots at the market

After waiting a month for the ship from Lae to bring our new anchor chain, it was finally due to arrive on Monday. Unfortunately, the ship was stuck in another port because two other boats were unloading ahead of it. The ship eventually showed up on Wednesday and by the time it was unloaded and unpacked, it was Thursday morning before we could get our chain.

Koki Kai Kai at Nusalik Resort

To get the chain, Matt and Conrad navigated an hour and a half of dealing with Swire (the shipping agent that employs the Stevedores for the shipping company, Consort) and Kavieng Port Management (managing to avoid the involvement of Kavieng Port Services and Kavieng Port Transportation--all three apparently separately run divisions of the same small port complex). At the end, Matt and Conrad were able to get the 55-gallon drum full of 500 or so pounds of chain into the inflatable dinghy.

That was just the start of the fun. As Conrad and I floated the dinghy underneath the bow of the boat, Matt brought up a hundred meters (310') of new chain and lowered the old rusty chain back down as Conrad and I tried not to get bits of raining rust in our eyes. The engines on the big boat idled (and were occasionally engaged) as Matt brought up the anchor, disconnected the old chain, and reconnected the new chain. As we fed the new chain through the windlass, we had to straighten out a million kinks that had worked their way into it. To make a long story relatively short, we eventually fixed it by dumping the chain into the water and winching it up twelve feet at a time. Matt got the most vigorous arm and back workout he's had in years and we eventually got the chain in place.

We were all ready to check out the next day but found when we visited the Customs office that everyone had gone home for the day, even though it was early Friday afternoon. So we're in Kavieng until at least Monday. We had another nice dinner at the Nusalik Resort, hung out with new friends, and are finishing up some last minute errands.

I leave you with some critter pictures from Conrad...

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.