Last night we found ourselves sailing in a shipping lane unexpectedly. We were surprised to see so many ships come past every hour and afraid as we were crossing perpendicular east ward across the north-south lane on top of a fast current taking us at 8 knots towards our destination (way ahead of schedule, we had to heave to and wait for light to enter the lagoon). Hoping every time we saw a ship that they had seen us. The closest large container ship came within a mile of us wishing that it was decision not to alter its course rather than one of not being aware of us. There's nothing much a little sailing boat can do to a container ship speeding at a zillion miles per hour with slow turning ability. So that night we kept an extra well anticipated lookout, turning the radar on regularly to measure the distance and bearing of ships, checking whether they were on a collision course with us. Ella re-read "Ten Degrees of Reckoning" just to raise her concerns- a story of a cruising family just off the coast of New Zealand mauled over by a container ship. We thought also of that young sailor attempting to be the youngest solo sailor to sail round the world, who on her first night out of Australia crashed into a much larger vessel. So collisions at sea do happen - despite the vastness of the ocean. But altering our course seemed futile in all the situations we encountered. At very least it's reassuring to have a steel hull (making us show up well on radar) and bright masthead light.

Anyway after a reasonably anxious night, we made it to the pretty atoll of the Green Islands, just above Bougainville and east of New Ireland. Just to complete our full World War II tour for New Zealand's actions, but actually it is a wonderful lagoon encircled by a tiara shaped island providing an anchorage with plenty of shelter. It seems too small an atoll to warrant a battle, but here once again the New Zealand soldiers drove out the Japanese to build an airfield. This one to allow the allied airforce to attack Kavieng. Although reasonably far from Kavieng, the closer islands would have been within reach of the Japanese planes. The Kiwis stationed here reckoned this island was better than the last place- perhaps referring to the Treasuries, (although we're not sure about this - we loved the Treasuries - perhaps a drop in temperature is what they were thinking about). Rampant malaria was the real downside of the Green Islands.

Back in Siar a man told us that watching the footage Paul took of his people's music five years ago was really sad, many people cried - because so many people were not there anymore. Many people since that time had died, primarily because of Malaria. He said that their area had big problems with Malaria and lost lots of children. A very sad story that seems to reappear in a lot of these places we visit. It's tragic that in the year 2010 the world still can't get it's act together enough to save people from such a preventable death.

Anyhow, best catch up on some sleep, we're looking forward to exploring more of the Green Islands this afternoon and in the following days. We're hoping the sun will come out for some great snorkeling.