Exploring South Pacific and it´s dolphins!!

Dawnbreaker
Lars Alfredson
Mon 23 Nov 2015 07:54

pos 4:13.75S 152:27.38E

Duke Of York Islands

 

Exploring South Pacific and it´s dolphins!!

 

We are now among the Duke of York Islands and this is the final location where Lars has been sailing before. When going further it is new ground for all of us in the crew, the exploring has begun!

 

22/11 We entered The Duke of York Islands in the afternoon and headed for a reaf in the middle to get some snorkeling. After about 45 min some canoes were heading towards us and suddenly we had 8-10 canoes with children around us, mostly in the age of 8-12 but also some older around 20. We got good use of our Lollipops and before we had handed them out there was another five canoes coming. They were all very nice and polite but we decided to take a swim in par as they also were very curios and found of our equipment. Both Darryl and Jonathan were asked to give away their shorts and caps.

Darryl got a ride with one of the guys and he was dropped of at the reef where he also got lessons in how to dive down to the bottom (5-6 m deep) without any real success but some good laughs from the local guy. Kenneth was given the opportunity to row a canoe himself, which went very well even if he had some difficulties to turn around in the beginning, but quick he was. He later gave the guy a t-shirt which was very much appreciated. Charlotta and Lars went snorkeling with a local guy who borrowed one of our googles. And it wasn´t hard to keep track of where they went because they had one guy (with the googles) swimming one meter away from them at all times and approximately 4 canoes that was circling above. Conclusion; there wasn´t that many fishes where they snorkeledclip_image001. After some swimming and chatting we had to start the engine and change location, they only way to get some relax even if the visit was a nice surprise.

We went and anchored west of Mioko Island, had an afternoon swim with mandatory beer. When it became a bit colder (30 instead of 32 degrees) at 16.30 we took the dinghy to Mioko Island for some cave search. Well on the island we were meet by the locals, mostly guys as the women’s seemed to be more in the background. They welcomed us but they didn´t have time to guide us to the cave as it was time for the Sunday mass in the local church (one of around 10 churches that we were able to see on these islands). With Lars as a guide we started to walk towards the caves and after a while we got company by some local teenagers that actually showed us the way and of course 10 children just running around. The caves were impressive and had been used as shelter for the Japanese and later the Americans during WW2. Darryl impressed both us and the locals by showing some climbing moves in one of the caves and we later named the cliff “Darryl´s Dare”, as climbers are allowed to name cliffs that hasn´t been climbed before.

We were back in the boat just before it became dark and we had an late happy hour testing the Papua Black that we bought in Kokopo (mix of rum and cola in a can), very good taste. Later Kenneth served a very nice (as usual) meal consisting of pasta and mince meet mixed up with a lot of pineapple.

 

23/11 We woke up in the morning by the smell of Canadian pancakes, ones again Darryl showed us he´s skills in the kitchen. We took up the dinghy and began our journey for the day. Next goal is Wewak but we will make a stop in New Hanover so it will be a day trip and another wonderful night watch (cookies are stored in the boat this time).

After two hours in the boat Charlotta did see some fins and suddenly a group of 50 dolphins started to jump together along the coast. A very very impressive view in the morning, hopefully something that we will see again. The day (just now) ended with 3-4 large Risso´s dolphins or small whales, it is still a discussionon the boat, swimming underneath and in front of the boat.Pos 3:40S 151:50E. Charlotta was almost so happy that we thought she would jump overboard. The dolphin search is completed and the Dolphin Day is going to an end!

 

Now (23/11 at 17.25pm) Lars is trying to kill all ants in the dinghy with the “Instant knockout spray”. He doesn´t save on the spray so I need to stop writing and change place. I think that spray can kill both an ant and a horse!

 

Jonathan with Crew