Not all those who wander are lost
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AKAMA REPORT 21
12 April 2004
After a few days in Lae we went only 20 miles south to Salamaua.
Salamaua is on a tiny peninsula that creates a harbour. Rugged
mountains rise inland and there are small ones on the peninsula.
Salamaua fell to the Japanese in March 1942. Allied forces led by
General Douglas MacArthur recaptured it in September 1943. We climbed a
small mountain to see WW-II guns left behind by the Japanese, who
defended this area vigorously. We also visited an old cemetery that
seems to be all but forgotten, it is so overgrown and remote. One of
the stones bears the inscription, "...died of wounds from a native
arrow", yet the date of death was 1936, underscoring the fact that
hostile behaviour continued well into this century. Indeed, only last
week the local media reported that someone in the hills had taken a
human head as an act of retribution. We snorkelled on a small wreck in
the bay and saw a lion fish, puffer fish, several feeding sea cucumbers,
a school of large bat fish and numerous colourful reef fishes. The
wreck is a coastal freighter, not much larger than AKAMA, and it
apparently sank only two years ago, while at anchor as a refrigerator
ship. Once the coral grows a bit more this will become an excellent
shallow dive spot.
The next day we went to Brunswick Harbour (7-30 South by 147-16 East), a
deep bay with a west and south arm. The scenery on the way was
spectacular, as we entered Royle Channel, composed of mountains and
fjords on the mainland side and small islands seaward. We anchored in
the end of the south arm in 15-metres of water, totally protected. All
around us tropical birds flew and screeched. We recognized only the
cockatoos and hornbills among at least a dozen different species we
heard and saw. Only one family lives in this bay, an old man and his
five boys. They informed us that they were from a neighbouring village
and were establishing a vanilla plantation. It seems nearly every
village in PNG is starting vanilla plantations, which makes us wonder
whether there will be a glut on the market in time. We hope not for
their sake, as it is not easy work slashing a plantation out of the
jungle.
An easy day's run further southeast took us to Morobe (7-47 S by 147-35
E), yet another fantastic anchorage. This one has a small opening at
the end of the south arm of the bay. This opening leads to a lagoon,
thence to a river and another, bigger, lagoon. We entered with the
dinghy against about a six knot current, and explored both lagoons; the
area is beautiful. If this were in Canada this would be prime cottage
country. But since it is in PNG, the land is nearly worthless. We were
told that one could lease a waterfront lot for a sizeable cottage for
about twenty dollars a year, on a 99-year lease.
We limped toward Bau Island on the wing engine, as the alternator failed
taking out the v-belt and disabling the main engine. Bau is about
12-miles SE of Morobe. We anchored between the village of Bau and Bau
Island. Fortunately, not long ago, we added an identical alternator to
our wing engine, to use as a DC charger. So, that alternator was put on
the main engine. Maurice and Phil (from SELKIE) took the old
alternator apart; the bearings and brushes were shot. It had gone well
over 2000 hours, which on a land vehicle would be the equivalent of over
100 thousand miles, so we probably should have anticipated this and
stocked spares. At Bau Island, one of the boats travelling with us was
threatened by a drunken local. After we arrived, Maurice went down in
the engine room to do some repairs, and a man entered our boat.
Thinking this was the drunk, Maurice demanded that he get off the boat.
He was about to be bodily evicted, when the man stated that he was the
local ward councillor (head man). Apologies and handshakes restored
everyone's pride. The councillor explained that we could stay and that
they would protect us from the drunk, who was apparently a fisherman
from another village.
It was an easy day to Cape Ward Hunt (8-04.5 S 148-07 E) where we
anchored at Douglas Harbour. There is a large village in this area and
it seemed like everyone came out to meet us and gawk. A few of them
traded for fruit and vegetables. This was to be a two-day stop, only to
rest up for our first overnighter on the way to the Solomon Islands,
the first of two. None of the cruising guides say much about Douglas
Harbour, except that it is plagued by swells (we fixed that by deploying
our roll stoppers and setting out a stern anchor). It turns out that
it is a nice place. A scenic river runs back from the end of the bay,
through a small village and then into uninhabited country; we ran up it
until it got too shallow to navigate. There is a nice reef on the south
side of the bay, which had to date the best coral garden we've seen for
ages; we spent hours snorkelling there. The stop was marred only by
the head man in the Douglas Harbour village, who complained that we
should not have travelled up and down "his" river in our dinghies. When
we arrived, he was rather belligerent, saying this was "his" bay and
was setting us up for a big anchorage fee or some such, until we dropped
the name of the ward councillor for the area, who just by chance Gary
(of MUSCAT) had met in the previous bay where we had attempted to
anchor.
After an overnight run we anchored near Kwalvaluma Island (8-20.7 S x
150-35.4 E), a tiny, uninhabited speck on a big reef. We carefully
picked our way through the reef on the west side, only to find that we
could have easily entered from the east. Since the area is uncharted we
did not feel too dumb. This is a beautiful spot with crystal clear
water; we watched our anchor go to the bottom in over 15 metres. Some
local banana boats (open fibreglass boats with outboards) came by and
gave us advice on where to go from here. One was a dive boat for
collecting sea cucumbers, a big business in this country. Another was a
bunch of traders who were seeking respite on the island from the
noonday sun (hmmm; was that a 6-pack on ice?). Alas, this was not quite
the paradise it seemed. There are lots of flies here, which spoiled
our plans for a beach BBQ. Also, there were stingers in the water,
which spoiled our plans to do some snorkelling. After we left we
discovered that we'd received hundreds of sand fly bites while ashore
and we had to bathe the bites in calamine lotion and take antihistamine
tablets to reduce the severe itching and swelling. We are told that one
develops immunity to sand fly bites, but so far we suffer for a week
whenever we are attacked. This time was by far the worse.
Upon arrival at Kiriwina Island (8-23 S x 151-04 E), we were besieged by
canoes of people wanting to trade; we took the opportunity to stock up
on beans, coconut and a few other things. Some thought that we were one
of the local charter boats and had dozens of carvings ready to sell to
our guests. The carvings here are reputedly the best in PNG; however we
did not buy any, as we have no room on the boat for anything more than
we already have. One carver paddled over from four islands away when he
heard that yachts had arrived. Two kids paddled over in the evening
asking for lollies (candies). We knew that if we gave them some that
all the kids would be over looking for handouts, so we got them to sing a
song and paid them for that in lollies. The people here are obviously
used to tourists, although we saw none. We went ashore for yet another
traditional cultural show, for which we were expected to make a
donation. This time it was the young ladies who danced. It was quite
amateurish, although their costumes were striking, and not just because
they were bare breasted. As usual, the village was neat and clean.
Surprisingly there were few flies. The drought that struck the southern
hemisphere last year affected the crops here; we noted that the yam
cribs (similar to our corn cribs) were empty. They told us that they
have started eating this year's crop a month early.
Twenty miles farther southeast, at Kitava (8-38 S by 151-18.5 E), we
anchored between the main island and an islet to the east. It is
nicely sheltered on three sides, and it was a good thing, as the wind
whipped up, causing us to stay an extra two days. It was a good place
to be stranded, as it has nice people, very clear water and lots of
coral. The usual bunch of canoes came out to greet us and get some
handouts. Among other things, they like to receive old newspapers,
which they use to roll cigarettes. As usual, we handed out balloons to
the kids and let some go on the wind; the kids swim and paddle after
them, having a great time. We spent a lot of time talking to the
locals, a dozen or so would stand on our swim platform at a time. The
United Church boat called M/V Bromilow, which they use for their
Outreach Program, was there when we arrived. It is smaller than AKAMA
and we watched while they loaded at least 60 persons and a huge quantity
of goods, including a large pig. The heavily overloaded boat set out
for Kiriwina; people were sitting on the roof, the gunwales and all the
decks. There are some little birds here, about the size of sparrows,
which have a most interesting habit. They "swarm" the few hundred
metres from one island to the other each morning and evening. First a
few start flying around the island; they are joined by more and more.
Then suddenly millions of them fly upwards in a black column, and then
suddenly it subsides, only to be replaced with bigger and bigger
columns. Eventually, they decide to make the dash across the little
strait, but often one near the rear of the swarm will chicken out and
turn back. The instant this happens the birds ahead of it also turn
back and they peel away in layers. However, if the lead birds are more
than half way across, they continue and are followed by those behind
them; this often splits the flock in two. It's almost like the flock
was an amorphous blob which is being pulled at both ends and then
somehow breaks in the middle, each half then regrouping to form a
separate blob. This process is repeated several times with bigger and
bigger swarms, until all the birds are across.
We are now sending position reports to a position report server on ham
radio when we send/receive our emails. So, if you go to the web site
http://winlink.org, choose the position report module and enter ve0mn,
which is our call sign (the middle character is a zero, not oh), you
will be able to see where we are on a map. We also have a link to this
server on our web site (www.nunas.com). Way cool!
That's all the news for now. Hugs and kisses to everyone and happy Easter. |
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