Papua New Guinea

Dawnbreaker
Lars Alfredson
Wed 18 Nov 2015 05:07

pos 6:39.80S 154:36.49E

 

Sailing starts, heading off to PNG!

 

After some preperation in Gizo we went off to Noro to get the last stuff before our trip to PNG began, fuel and passport stamps were the last pieces. In order to be able to leave Noro early we went for the fuel pump at 07.30 am (as the dock also is used by the local ferries). We found some guys on site and everything did look good, except that we couldn’t start filling up. 45min later we realist that it was due to a big power yacht. It came around 08.15 and was done at 14.00pm, then we got the hoose. I guess the biggest boat goes first clip_image001

But it gave us time to sort out our passports as they immigration was working according to Solomon time

 

After filling up we went to a lagoon nearby in Kolombangara Island for the night. It offered 32,2 degrees in the water and a very exiting river trip with the dingy. We followed some locals in their canoes, who were picking up some fresh water from the local source. We ended up in a river split point with a very small village in the middle of the jungle. Charlotta and Darryl slept well in their hammocks and the next morning (17/11) we started the sailing trip for the PNG boarder.

 

17/11 A beautiful sailing day had begun, it was sunshine, 18-24 knots wind and we had 1,5 day to Rabaul in PNG. But as normal the wind kind of disappeared and the time to destination is now still two days. But it does really matter as time is one of the things that we got a lot of. The day also included some morning fishing, one 5kg and one 9kg which now gives us a good base for lunches and dinners going forward, Charlotta got see sick (as she suspected would happen) without losing humor , we had our first night sailing with beautiful stars, we passed Treasury Island and at 6.00am we crossed the PNG boarder. Kenneth ran up to raise the PNG flag and after a couple of hours Darryl made us astonishing Canadian pancakes breakfast. A new day (18/11) with sailing had begun clip_image001[1]

 

18/11 The crew (at least Charlotta and Jonathan) was a bit tired in the morning (we always pass out after pancake breakfast). And now in the afternoon is more activity on board, some swimming in Solomon Sea with 5000m depth, Man Over Board training with Kenneth´s cap as bate, unfortunately the training didn’t go as planned and the cap will now start a new life with some native, and some reading/ sleeping according to our normal routine. Lars and Kenneth also invented the 12.00pm traditional bear. We hadn’t really heard about that tradition before but according to Lars and Kenneth was it clear as crystal. They talked about “the new time settings in PNG etc”, we didn´t complain clip_image001[2]

 

The time is now 14.45pm (when writing) and we are west of Bougainville Island, heading towards Rabaul with two days to go

 

/Jonathan with crew