David
Tue Jul 24 20:56:00 EDT 2012, 0 N'N:E E'E, St George's Channel, PNG

Rough conditions - hard to type. Adam got an intiation on his first night out here sailign in PNG as we tacked up the St Georges Channel. Left Rabaul after a 3 hour wait at the customs house yesterday. Officier left key at home. Then while we waited for the other officer to turn up he remembered he had a stamp and documents in his bag. It is an old stamp he said. He showed us, stamped Adam's arm and we said it looked fine to us. Had to flee a terrible dust storm after that. Strong wind was dumping volcanic ash over us. Anchored on other side of harbour and washed everything down in saltwater leaving at sunset. Just exitig St George's channel now into the Solomon Sea. It seems like all the sea is trying to squeeze through the channel. Steep waves of up to 2 metres, current varying from 1 to 3.3 knots against us. Motor sailed all night with main in 3rd reef. Found pockets where there was no current or little current and tried to stick with them. Not dissimilar to some of the Izu Sailing so not new for the boat or skipper. But is ok for a 5 hour sail to Oshima different when we are cooking and sleeping in it. Adam is a great help. This would be exhausting stuff on my own. We were going to head down the coast of Bouganville - keeping at least 15 miles off as it is a region recovering from a civil war - on way to Gizo and Honiara. But if the coniditons are going to be like this the next 2 to 3 days will go north and around Bouganville. Will make decision later in the day as we get further away from this channel. Lots of thoughts on PNG and hopefully will have time to write them up when sea flattens. David

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David
Mon Jul 23 2:05:00 EDT 2012, 0 N'N:E E'E, Rabaul outer harbour

We have had a productive day. Finally got the installation of the waste tank complete. Also did oil change, filter changes on the engine, fixed the windlass, installed the new thermostat in the fridge, and repacked the galley for the next passage. Wrote up the sail plan through to Mackay Australia and also notified Australian customs of our impending arrival August 13.

We will head in to town tomorrow to clear the boat and get our passports stamped. Will also pick up some gasoline for the tender and perhaps a couple of the local SP beers for the trip. Should be on our way by 10AM.

We will head first to Gizo in the Solomon's 390 miles or 4 days away. A little against the wind so expect it to be slow. Hopefully buy some nice Solomon Island hardwood carvings and then on to Honiara another 235 miles. After refueling in Honiara we have a 1100 mile trip to Mackay. We will head due south into the Coral sea and at some point will turn south west toward the Hydrographer's Passage and enter the Great Barrier Reef there.

We have had the local radio on all day. The new bulletins are all from Australia's Radio national. The music is everything from western, 70s and 80s which are referred to 'mouldy oldies' and some local music. The ads are for everything from local kaikai rice 'favored by the highlanders and the islanders', maggie chicken noodles, anti-human trafficking, HIV resistant condoms, cheap mobile phones with preloaded facebook settings and cameras. A lot of the adverts are done by familiar Sydney radio voices. Lots of SMS messages going into the radio station congratulating the various candidates who have won in the recent elections too. I need to write some of them down. "You are the sunshine of our beautiful PNG and know you will do us proud" was one I remember.

The boat is a total workshop after the last 3 days so tools are now being put away and when done will run the gauntlet of the little thieving rascals on the dock (in photo) and to go to the Rabaul Yacht club for a well earned drink for Adam. Actually the kids have been a lot of entertainment. But we can't leave the boat on the dock because of they will lift anything - even the flag. Yesterday they almost made it out to the Yarramundi on their own home made sailboat. They raided polystyrene packaging from a fishing vessel, stood up on some wood and held the polystyrene up against the wind and sailed almost into us. White poystyrene was going everywhere. When they go far enough the jumped off their makeshift boat and swam to shore.

Finally, our location as I type is on the outer harbor. We had to move the boat as the wind was blowing vast quantities of ash all over us and the rest of Rabaul. It happened yesterday too.

David

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David
Sat Jul 21 21:41:00 EDT 2012, 0 N'N:E E'E, Kokobo

Attended a great festival yesterday and made some new friends.

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David
Fri Jul 20 21:36:00 EDT 2012, 0 N'N:E E'E, Rabaul Yacht Club

Just a quick note to say doing fine in Rabaul. Second cousin Adam arrived Thursday evening carrying the waste tank to make us legal in Australia as well as other important spares. He handled an issue we were not expecting for his visa - his one way ticket and no letter from me the skipper of Yarramundi to say I was sailing him out of the country. Fortunately they let him in. Shortly after his arrival we had a few beers with the mayor of Rabaul at the Yacht Club. The mayor has since introduced us to his son who is a marine mechanic and is going to have a look at an issue I think I might have with the gear box. Discussions with the mayor Chango Manuai were very interesting. We share the same dislike of plastic bags. He wants to make a tax for them. He says that Australia should never have given PNG independence. Specifically he talked to the decline of the standard of education since. He has kindly offered to show us around a bit this weekend. We've been busy these 2 days - emptied all the old dirty fuel out of the fuel tank yesterday and now carrying 330 litres. Had to buy it direct from the Mobile plant in 2 X 44 gallon drums at wholesale rates! :) We sold off the remainder to another yacht. Today we made good progress together installing the waste tank. As there is festival at the town down the road though we are putting down the tools now to go and see it.

David

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David
Wed Jul 18 21:21:00 EDT 2012, 0 N'N:E E'E, Rabaul

The quarantine and hygiene officers turned up this morning demanding their money saying the fee was non-negotiable but they did give me some beers as an apology for it costing so much. Port and customs did not charge anything so all up the total fee was not too bad.

There is semi-retired commercial diver living here and doing search and salvage work on WW2 vessels. Mostly helping families "of all nations" bring closure to their loss. He has found countless planes and ships sunk around the waters here. He uses a very cool sonar which is dragged behind the boat and feeds information to a laptop. The images he showed me were incredible. And the reason for my visit on his vessel was the software had stopped working and he had found out from someone I was into IT. The software license had expired and he could get the new one to upload. A few minutes, a coffee and some scotch finger biscuits later I got it working for him. His staff are now doing my laundry which I think is a good trade. Actually I helped some of them create gmail accounts while onboard. Interestingly they did not know their birth-dates. "January 1986, it was a Saturday. In the afternoon".

A 76 metre luxury yacht arrived in the harbor this morning. It's name TV (MMSI No. 319840000) and in the picture above. I was on the dock when the customs officer was dropped off by their tender boat. He was wearing surgical slippers over his boots and said, "They made me wear these so I would not get their ship dirty". When I enquired a bit about the where it was from and who the owner was he could not respond much. He was simply overwhelmed by the size and the luxury of what he had seen. He did say they had come in from Gizo in the Solomon's, were dropping off a couple of passengers tonight to fly out and more would arrive tomorrow. When I enquired which flight he said, 'private jets'. Dumb of me to ask. They are visiting as there is a cultural show on this weekend at the next town so we might go and visit it prior to leaving. too.

The "we" I refer to is not Yarramundi this time but my cousin Adam who arrives this afternoon at 4:30. He is bringing with him a very important piece of equipment which we'll install prior to departure - A waste tank for the toilet. The toilet system currently does not have a holding tank. Raw sewerage goes straight out. However boats entering Australian waters must have a holding tank. I was supposed to pick one up in Honiara but as it looks like we might not make it there now so asked Adam to bring on with him.

Adam will join me for the rest of the trip to Cairns and looking forward to sailing with him and having him onboard. I've got the solo sailing thing out of my system for now. It will be good to go back to a watch system and get some sleep while at sea. We'll chose the course to Cairns over the next couple of days as we talk to other yachties and look at the wind is doing.

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David
Wed Jul 18 21:03:00 EDT 2012, 0 N'N:E E'E, Rabaul

A shack with beer and a TV.

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