pos 11:07.85S 152:42.08E

Bagaman Island

Sunday 10/5 21.00

 

We left  Irai at 06.00 on Saturday morning for the +65 NM sail to Moturina Island in the Lousiades. We had nice 9 hour crossing with full sails. Only one thing did not work out for us, the fishing!!  We put out one line and after a while another one on the other side of the boat. That was the start of our downfall!! After a couple of hours we got a bite on the first line and it was screeching off the reel. When we finally got the line wound in it was tangled into a ball with the other line. Off course we lost the fish and the hook in the end and had a big tangla to sort out. When we anchored at Moturina Island we still had not sorted all of the tangle and some was still in the water when I reversed to hook the anchor. Resulting in 25 m of line around the prop!!

 

We arrived to Moturina Island late in the afternoon and decided to wait until the morning with a visit ashore. We woke up on Sunday with the Church bell ringing, normally an old gas bottle banged on with a piece of metal.

After breakfast we heard some children singing and went ashore to explore. It turned out to be lots of school children practising their songs for the celebration of mothers day that was taking part at 12.00. The Village had 700 inhabitants, most of them children. The children come from all the surrounding Islands and are boarded at the school from a young age.

 

We decided to move on to a small neighboring Island for some snorkeling (Panua Keikeisa Island). There we met some women and children sitting under a tree. Their husbands had taken the sailing boat (outrigger) to go  fishing not caring about Mothers day celebrations. We had a lovely walk along the beach and a beautiful snorkeling swim. After lunch we sailed on to Bagaman Island (trying to fish on the way with no luck!). when we anchored in the bay we where soon surrounded by children in different floating contraptions. They were happy anyway with a lollipop. We also had a visit from a man that sold Ewa a wood carving and promised to bring us some Crayfish in the morning.

We finished the day with a nice grilled steak and Sannas special mash made from Sweet potato.

 

All is well,

Lars and crew