Nugarba
20 January 2009 | Nuguria Islands
Randy
It was nice to sleep in today. In Green Island we would have visitors knocking on the hull by 8AM at the latest. Here some kids come out to see the strange sailing boats, but they keep their distance and are generally very courteous. Visits here are also not a dawn to dusk thing. We enjoyed the cool breeze in our berth until the sun started to climb into the sky. It was a wonderful blue sky day.
We spent the day visiting folks on the island. The village is Polynesian and it is very beautiful. The main path through town is white sand and has pretty plants and flowers growing on either side. All of the houses are leaf huts up on stilts. What is really amazing is that they are all laid out in the quaintest fashion, with little grass yards and tidy work areas. There's no trash anywhere and everything is clean and organized.
Our fleet brought a bunch of books and school supplies to Sampson, the village administrator, for the school. The kids are on break right now and two of the three teachers were off island while the third was at Pao Pao, across the lagoon, attending a garden.
Nugaria Islands (the charted name for this area) are having similar problems to the other low lying atolls in this part of the world. Romano, a really nice guy who spoke great English, told us that for the past five years in November and December, the tides had been coming in very high. At times sea water would flood their small warehouse (wood shack with a tin roof) where they keep the Trochus shells and other marine products they trade for gasoline and other goods. Two islands bordering the atoll, previously covered in coconut palms and other vegetation, have been wiped out and are now just lumps of sand.
Pao Pao is the largest island in the group and has the highest ground. This is where the villagers have their gardens. Their main staple is taro, a common denominator in Polynesia and many remote islands. The sand flies on Pao Pao are apparently pretty vicious and thus no one lives there. The only village, with about 500 people, is on Nugarba. At least we think it is called Nugarba. Nugarba is charted as the southernmost of the three Akani islands just across the pass from Huhunati.
When we were talking to Romano in the warehouse we learned that the village has several cash crops. They collect sacks full of Trocus shells for sale to China. Trocus shells are used to make buttons and other clothing accessories. The villagers eat the Trocus critters first so the whole animal is being put to use. Not surprisingly the shells are harder and harder to find, and the divers must go deeper to keep filling the sacks.
They also sell sea cucumbers to Asia. These are coming in shorter supply as of late as well. The fishermen in the Galapagos not only killed a police officer when an embargo was attempted on sea cucumber harvesting, but they continued fishing until at least one species was eliminated. The people here are aware of the fact that if they wipe out the population there will be none in the future, but they seem to be unable to institute measures strong enough to create a sustainable situation. They have a genuine interest in succeeding though and that is the first step. They now have rest cycles for certain species of sea cucumbers that are overly pressured.
They also harvest sharks. They sell the fins to Asia and and often just toss the rest of the shark overboard. Shark fins for shark fin soup bring a very high price, and the buying network seems to reach even the remotest islands in the South Pacific.
Nuguria is an elder council run component of the new Bouganville Independent Government within Papua New Guinea. They stay in touch with Buka and Green Island via HF radio. A ship from Buka comes in once every three or four months. There was an airstrip at one time, but no more. An Asian business was buying lobster from the island and using the airstrip for freight until the lobster population crashed. No lobster, no airstrip. We are the first yachts they have seen in four years. Peter, a man who helped us find our way around the village, told us that sometimes it is six or seven years between yacht visits.
It is a beautiful atoll with wonderful people and the loveliest village I have seen in the South Pacific. You could easily spend a week or more exploring the islands around the perimeter and enjoying the company of the villagers. There is a lot of water flow in the lagoon, perhaps sadly due to the diminishing barrier of islands. On the up side, the water is crystal clear here and the reefs and coral heads are beautiful. It is a great place for snorkeling and exploring by dinghy and looky bucket. There are no bugs in the anchorage or the village, though we hear that some islands are plagued with sand flies. Many of the islands look fantastically inviting with beautiful beaches and lovely coral heads here and there for snorkeling. There are also plenty of large 40 foot deep sand patches around to offer perfect anchorage.
Some of the villagers use solar panels to charge batteries for lights and other purposes. The villagers also use fiberglass canoes and outboard powered boats made in the Solomons. I was surprised, because we had seen nothing but wooden canoes hewn from bread fruit trees and canoe trees since Gizo. As remote as it is, the village seems to be industrious enough to provide for itself fairly well.
After looking the pass over in the day time, I can safely say that it is one of the easiest passes to transit that I have come across. If you are looking for a heavenly place to drop the hook outside of the SoPac cyclone belt, this would be it.
We are happy and sad that we will be leaving tomorrow, early. Happy because we are looking forward to seeing Kapingamarangi, and we feel some urgency due to the significant damage incurred there during the big tides last December. The sooner we deliver our small, but hopefully helpful, aid package the better. We are sad though because Nuguria is a place we would happily stay for several days. The wind has finally changed from north to east though, and we we be under sail by 5AM.