Part Two of the Louisiades story.
We did get the world’s smallest bunch of bananas which were ripe; of course the green bananas from the previous week which we doubted would ever ripen did so all at once, so Susie made banana and chocolate cake which has yet to be sampled.
In calm conditions at Hati Lawi, I went up the mast to straighten out the tell tails on the Windex, somehow they had become more swept back. Whilst up, I also gave the rig a bit of a check.
Dean and I decided to go for a snorkel around the bommies near where we were anchored, it was so good we went to the coral island where there was a 30 metre drop off and an amazing collection of fish. The new underwater camera had its first dip, but I need more practice!
We headed north to Grass also known as Wanim Island where we anchored and went ashore. The village kids showed us up the hill to their school. Most of the village was mostly deserted as being Saturday many had gone over to Hobruk School to play or watch soccer. Wanim Island is where there is a trade store, the first we have seen but being Saturday it was closed, however we peered in through the windows at the meagre stock of hooks, sinkers, some fishing line, Maggi stock, tins of fish, cooking oil etc.
We continued on to Hobuk School where we met Hans on the yacht “Seagoon”. He has been visiting the Louisiades for the last 8 years or so. It was not the best of anchorages due to the tidal flow between the islands, therefore the following day we sailed 16 miles to Robinson’s Anchorage on Kuwanak Island near Gigila Island. Our first night was interrupted by gusty winds and many brief passing showers, but the anchorage was well protected and had a pretty vista. We decided to stay another night. Several canoes came visiting, we traded a pair of old shorts for a bunch of large bananas with Noah, and 2 oranges and 6 limes for 1kg rice, an exercise book and a biro with Doris. Susie had the sewing machine out and with some of Dean’s UV thread re-sewed the zippers on the quarter seat cushions. Dean made pizzas for lunch which was a drawn out affair. Before leaving Robinsons Anchorage we managed to trade for a few small crayfish. We are very aware to ensure the trades fair to all parties, remembering that tails sell in Misima or Alotau for 20 kina ($15) p/kg.
Our next stop, Hoba Bay on Pana Numura Island, is where we caught up with Ashley and Brenda on “Ashymakaihken”. It is a month since we had last seen them in Townsville, although we had been in touch almost every day by Ham radio. In the bay anchored with them was another yacht flying a French Flag, then later in the afternoon another sailed into the bay, this time a catamaran also flying a French flag. Five yachts together in one bay, our own little Rally! Needless to say sun downers on “Water Music”, meant we all got together to swap stories.
Dean had been very careful with his fuel and had not had to motor sail into the wind from Samarai as we had done, he offered to let me have 40 litres, I am not sure if it will be enough, but we may be able to get more from Raymond the businessman at Wanim Island.
Next day we sailed to the Blue Lagoon which is supposed to be very pretty but stupidly we had timed our our arrival at just after 8 am which meant the sun was in our eyes and entering the lagoon too hard. We sailed on to another anchorage nearby at Gilia Island which had been recommended to us.
We had hardly finished anchoring and were approached by a canoe with a man who does carvings with a badly cut finger, it probably needed stitches. Susie did her best for him, dressing it and giving him some Panadol for pain and strict instructions to keep it dry for two days. She also suggested he visit the Health Outpost on Bagaman Island should it become more painful. Shortly after another canoe visited arriving with a couple of good sized crayfish so it was crays, champagne and potato salad as a farewell lunch for Dean who was heading back to Australia.
At 2 pm we sadly watched Dean depart in the opposite direction, we tracked him for a while on AIS as he headed SW towards Duchateau Pass. Hopefully his Dad will keep us updated with his progress.
We motor sailed back to Pana Numura and were the only boat in the anchorage at Hoba Bay overnight. The anchorage at Hoba Bay is amongst coral and despite moving we always managed to get coral near our chain and much grumbling at night. With a freshening SE wind forecast for the next several days we decided to leave early and return to Robinson’s Anchorage where the anchor does not grumble over coral and at least a quiet night sleep is assured.
En route to Robinson’s we caught a 6.5 kg Spanish mackerel, which we took to the village as soon as we arrived. Only three families live there, Rocky and Clim were the two men we met, others were our fishing or working in the gardens. They appreciated the gift.
We stayed at Robinson’s for several nights mainly as we had worked out that by staying longer in an anchorage the locals tend to get to know what trades we were likely to make and hence their visiting reduces considerably, and we were enjoying the peace and solitude. While we were at Robinson’s the generator overheated and shut down. I suspected the impellor so waited until the relative cool of the next morning to start the job. NB: Night time temperatures of 28 degrees with RH of 85% is normal.
“Ashymakaihken” arrived the following morning and kindly, Ashley gave me some help to replace and repair the offending impellor . The impellor was shredded, I fished around with my finger in the end of the heat exchanger and found several bits, eventually it all had to be stripped down, when I re-started the generator the hose clamp slipped and sea water was pumped into the coolant chamber and overflowed into the bilge, the automatic bilge switch failed to work but the high water alarm went off, oh bother! After pumping a lot of pink coloured water out of the bilge Ashley helped me re-assemble the heat exchanger a different way with success. A couple of days later when everything was working properly, I drained the salt water from the coolant chamber and re-filled it with 50/50 glycol mixture. That is an annual service job done. Robinson’s was a good anchorage for us as we enjoyed snorkelling the reef here, which had some nice hard and soft corals, including a nice little piece of red coral and very pretty fish.
We were happy to hear from Dean via internet of his safe arrive back in Townsville.
Some of the Louisiades Rally boats arrived which caused the cost of living to go sky high, so at the first opportunity we left and headed for a creek on the north coast of Pana Wina. This was not our favourite spot, dirty water from rain run off made finding the coral difficult and at night the mozzies were ferocious. This was the first time we had been bothered by mozzies as we had avoided mangroves previously. We met a very nice man called Pascale, from the village around the corner. He was really interesting to chat to while Susie was making bread, and we chatted about all sorts of things, religion to politics, the PNG economy and the Louisiades, cultural stuff etc.
Once the bread went into the oven we motored then once the wind picked up, sailed through the channel beside the southern end Pana Wina to get to Hessessai Bay on Pana Tinani. We made the bay just as rain clouds blanketed the sun causing wind squalls. Visibility through the reef was poor and as our path appeared to be obstructed by an unbroken reef we aborted and went to the protected bay at Grass or Wanim Island.
It was mid-afternoon on Thursday by the time we arrived at Wanim Island but we went ashore to watch the women making Baggy which is a reddish coloured seashell ground, drilled and threaded to make necklaces. Baggy was traditionally used for money and culturally remains important in ceremonies, even today is still offered as part of the bride price. We gave them some dental drill bits which we had scrounged in Townsville; they were unsure whether they could be used.
The process of making Baggy is by breaking up the shell (which is similar to small oysters) into small pieces. The shell pieces are ground on carborundum stone to remove the inside and outside surfaces leaving the coloured inner layer. The red layer is the highly sort after layer, followed by orange, black and then white. Once the coloured shell pieces are ground they use pincer pliers make the pieces of a semi even and round wafer discs, then they drill a hole into the centre of each piece. How they drill the hole is a very interesting process, as they use a sharp ended triangulated drill bit attached to a piece of straight banana wood which has a flange above the drill and attached to the top end the ends of cord with a handle in the middle. By twisting the cord around the shaft the whole becomes like an old fashioned spinning top to drill the hole through the shell – amazing process. The pieces are now ready for threading. Threading each piece sometimes with a pattern into 12-14inch lengths and sometimes longer. Once threaded, the pieces are tightly packed together on the string which is placed on a board which is tightly secured by nails along the length of the board with a piece of thin tubing at each end. More grinding takes place up and down the length while the other hand rolls the necklace. Once the necklace is even, decorations at either end and sometimes the middle are added to complete the necklace. This hole process is time consuming but must be worth doing judging by the Baggi makers appearances, as they appear relatively well off.
It was school holidays while we were in the islands and the local children were happy to have a new distraction to amuse them. The usual stream of canoes arrived, the kids got sweets and we got an assortment of tomatoes and pawpaw for soap and fishing line. While ashore we enquired about being able to get diesel from the trade store, the owner was away so nothing was very clear, come back tomorrow they said when the boat comes in. The following day I went ashore; the result was the same however they seemed positive that if we came in again on Sunday we might have some luck. I did the fuel sums and probably had enough to get back to Townsville allowing for 24 hours motor use, not ideal, so we tried again asking for a full drum which we could share with “Ashymakaihken” but it appeared that use containers was the better way. As I only had one container and Ashley had 3, Raymond the businessman (store owner) offered the use of 2 of his. We did the deal and said we would be back on Friday to collect. In the meantime the tropical convergence zone had slipped south and provided a couple of days of rain and showers, great for the island gardens and Brenda’s laundry!
Weekends seem to start on Thursday pm and finish on Monday morning, soccer, church and visiting relatives are the main activities. The Wanim store has a generator so blasts out music while the locals played soccer or netball. We gave them a selection of movies, they wanted thrillers and anything soccer. We did the best we could and Ashley found some old DVD’s which they were very happy to get. I took lots of photos inside the store “to show other yachties all the good things they could buy when they get to Wanim” Raymond and his wife Leonnie were happy to have someone take an interest in their business, he also buys shark fins and beche de mere from the locals.
On 7 Oct, we motored the 3 miles to Hessessai Bay, catching a 6 kg barracuda just as we were approaching the reefs around the island. The smell of the barracuda was really off putting and as soon as we had anchored we took it ashore and found assistant priest Father Allenso, and gave it to him. We could hear the sound of baggy shell being ground and met Eunice who showed Ashley how the pieces are ground and drilled and roughly trimmed into approx. 5 mm diameter discs.
Just before sunset Raymond showed up in his banana boat, fibreglass dinghy approx.. 8mts long powered by a 40hp Yamaha. He stayed for a couple of beers, liking our Phillipino brewed San Miguel beer which we had bought from the bond store in Townsville. He liked it so much he asked for 6 to swap with the White label beers (South Pacific Export brewed in Pt Moresby) he sells from his store on Wanim. He sells it at Kina 5.40 each which is equivalent to AU$75 a case. Raymond said he would deliver our diesel to Hessassai the following morning.
Next morning we were woken up at first light (about 05.45) by the sound of 30 men doing their soccer fitness training on the sand spit between the two islands. Their coach, Ryall was not impressed with their lack of physical fitness during their last match.
Island time; we spent all day waiting for Raymond who was a no show. That’s life! Instead, the following morning we motored to Wanim to get diesel and beers (collecting Ashley’s as well) then on to Hata Lawi Harbour.
9 Oct Hessessai to Wanim
At Hata Lawi we met a man Francis. We bought (using Kina) a couple of Cray fish, but letting him know that we would like some more but this time we would prefer to use our trade items. The next morning Francis and David arrived with 15 crays, we took seven, Ashley and Brenda took eight. Susie spent a long time cleaning and cooking and freezing crays.
Francis also makes Baggi and said he would show Ashley and Brenda how it was finished off as we had already seen how the individual pieces were prepared and drilled. The following day Francis appeared with his wife, Vikki and two young children and the tools required for completing the process of making Baggi. We spent several hours on board “Ashymakaihken” while he showed us how the string of Baggi is stretched out and ground smooth with carborundum stones of different grades to get a uniform small bead size. There is no doubt that Francis makes excellent Baggi.
On a nice sunny clear day we dinghied to the nearby islet and burnt our accumulated rubbish before going snorkelling. A few of the local teenagers showed up in a sailing canoe which they sailed with great skill and confidence, they also stole Ashley’s plastic milk bottle bailer which is annoying, as they could have had it if they had asked.
In unusual NE winds we sailed to Pana Wina, but the anchorage had too many bommies for our comfort and we ended up by heading back at Robininson’s Anchorage on Kawanuk, where we spent another night or two.
From Robininson’s Anchorage we sailed onto Hoba Bay on Pana Numara, but we did detour to have a look at the anchorage at Pana Krusima Island en route, but decided the ground swell and tidal currents including the presence of numerous bommies would not make pleasant quiet anchorage. Ashley and Brenda stopped overnight and had a disturbed night.
For once we managed to place our anchor in a sandy spot in Hoba Bay remained for a couple of quiet nights. We had not originally planned to stay more than 1 night but shortly after our arrival here we were asked by Samuel to help him. He had a nasty very recent machete injury to this left thumb and index finger. This was an ugly wound, dirty, a chunk of skin taken from the thumb, and a really deep gash across the knuckle of the index finger. Susie cleaned it all up, dressed the wounds with Bactoban ointment. Because the wounds were dirty, she was concerned about infection developing. We decided to stay a couple of nights so that she could redress the wound two days later. More Panadol given, more instruction about keeping the wound dry. Sure enough, Samuel returned before 8am two days later. The wounds looked great and she redressed them again with Bactoban ointment, with instructions to keep dry for a further two days and to attend the Health Outpost at Bagaman Island if the wounds sore. We only had one remaining course of antibiotics and as these were probably not effectual in this case, we did not offer them, just in case we needed them en route back to Australia.
By now we were looking for a weather window for our trip back to Australia, so we were looking for a reasonable anchorage as a take-off point. We visited Bagaman Island via the anchorage at Gilia which was untenable with 30 knot bullets coming off the 400 metre high island. The first bay at Bagaman opposite Oissi village looked okay, anchoring in 16mts.
The locals were quick to approach with requests and offers to trade. We met “Wyaki” the wood carver who Susie had patched up when we stopped near Gilia Island three weeks previously. His badly cut finger was completely healed, which was great. We asked him to make us a wooden bowl and showed him the approximate size and shape, his brother made one for us as well. Wyaki and his brother Steven, were amongst the few nice people we met at this island, they agreed on a deal or trade and left it alone unlike most of the others that just keep asking for more and more. We had been warned the people here were greedy – they are!
Bagaman Island is supposedly the island of wood carvers but they are nowhere near as good as the Solomon Islanders of Morovo Lagoon but the best in the Louisiades. They also try selling other woods as Ebony and it is really buyer beware.
We took all the remaining medical gifts to the First Aid Station and all the remaining stationary, Soccer and Netballs to the Elementary School. Iso the teacher was very grateful. They were due to hold the last round of the local Soccer tournament on Saturday and Susie was asked to bake cakes which they could sell as fund raisers. Susie duly baked cup-cakes, iced and decorated with hundreds and thousands. Later that morning we heard from a villager the soccer was cancelled. Nobody had bothered to let us know, we all ate the cakes.
I believe we have made beggars out of them. Common courtesy as in “Please” and “Thank you” are words lost to them. They expect to be given whatever they want and did not have the courtesy to let us know. By now we are all over the “Louisiades Experience” and are looking for a weather window to go back to Oz. One woman (Estelle) complained that the free clothing she had been given for a piddling amount of fruit was the wrong size, she went on to complain about some baggy that Susie said she wanted to trade, not buy and came to us asking for cash. Another man had an AU$50 note which he wanted to exchange for Kina, the rate he wanted was 25% better for him than bank rate I Australia so “no deal”. On the bright side, a 14 year old girl (Julie) came to us wanting sugar for which she brought 5 kina, which is a fair deal, she got the sugar and a handful of sweets and balloons. Several people have asked for sponsorship for church or school or soccer. Then Estelle returned wanting us to get people in Australia to send money to them. I suggested that she should get the money from her own very wealthy and corrupt government. She may not return to our boat! They seem to be able to see a sign on our boat that says “Gift Shop”. The pleasure of giving has been worn out.
Ashley had offered to try to fix the leaks in a fibre glass dinghy that Moses had acquired, so the dinghy was left on the beach near where we anchored and Ashley and I did some small repairs with glass and resin. Moses came and watched and said nothing much, next day he returned and was told it was ok to go, it went. The following day Moses came to our boat and got an earful from Susie for not telling us the soccer was cancelled and not even thanking us for repairing his dinghy. He stayed away for the next 24 hours but came and thanked us when he heard we were leaving.
We waited for what appeared to be a good weather window to make the dash to Australia. All the available information from Grib files based on the US meteorological models and the daily 4 day Mean Sea Level Pressure Prognosis issued by BOM together with the advice of Kiwi David, a retired meteorologist. The all looked good for Wednesday 23 October departure.
We had a couple of scary moments, the first night the whole GPS, Autopilot and Chartplotter threw a wobbly. After 3 reboots we were back on track and knew where we were. This happened again a couple of days later and our back up navigation systems were initiated. Separate charts and GPS running on my laptop with a continuous track made us feel better, especially as the second failure occurred just when we were within 10 miles of Dart Reef on one side and McDermott Bank on the other. Our plan to enter Australia via the Magnetic Passage worked well. However we did motor sail for a couple of hours as the wind became very light and on the nose whilst in Magnetic Passage. But once through we were able to ease the sails and sailed almost all the way across the Paddock to Magnetic Island where we anchored at 8:15 pm on Saturday 26 October.
We had hopes for easterly winds to give us a really easy passage, and we ended up with South Easterly wind and swell for most of our 586 mile trip. From our anchorage at Bagaman Island, it took 3 hours to clear the edge of the reef and get into deep water. By noon the wind freshened and we were doing 8 knots. Before sunset we reefed down the sails and steadied our speed to a more comfortable 6.5 – 7.5 knots. The wind strengths peaked at 24 knots but settled down to just below 15- 20 knots for the remainder of the trip. Our boat speed was determined by sleep demands for comfort, reefing down during the night. Most of the time the swell was mostly just forward of the mast which meant we were constantly heel over with little bumping or crashing over waves, and the wind was a close reach. Our average distance made good was 160 miles a day with an hourly average of 6.88 knots.
The following day, Sunday, we washed the boat with salt water to try and remove some of the salt crystal build up. Susie cleaned up below, after which we were able to relax. On Monday we had booked Customs for 10 am and they brought the people from AQIS. Customs were great with no issues about our lack of exit stamps or clearance papers from PNG. AQIS did their jobs …… We had to hand over any fruit and veg as expected. What annoyed me more was the loss of the cashews and macadamia nuts bought from Woollies but vacuum packed by us so no labelling!!! They also took seven frozen meals which Susie had pre-cooked in Australia, then froze and vacuum packed. AQIS also charged $330 for their services and whilst I was annoyed, I was thankful that they did not force us to undergo any bug treatment as they appeared hell bent in finding critters on board, even commenting how lucky we were not to have cockroaches.