Day 92 – January 22
After overstaying our visa for nearly 3 weeks we have officially checked out of Papua New Guinea! I never thought this day would come. In preparation for our departure we headed down to Kokopo in the back of Dave Flynn’s pickup to stock up on groceries. First, we stopped by his house to pick up his family, all 10 of them, and while we were waiting we ran across a rusty old Japanese helmet and inside the helmet was a human skull with a bullet hole through the forehead. Dave told us that he found them in one of the tunnels near his house. A bit disturbing.
Day 93 – January 23
Since we have plans to depart Rabaul tomorrow and could be away from the internet and phones for a month I decided to head back into Kokopo to use that internet one last time. While waiting at the bus station, a local woman began telling me that her daughter had just been accepted to a university in Canada and both she and her daughter were planning to take a trip over there in May. It would be her first trip outside of Papua New Guinea and likely the first time she will experience what it feels like to be “cold”. She was very excited about seeing the flowers come up (in the springtime) and the leave fall off the trees (in the autumn) but said she didn’t want to be there during the winter (too cold for her) or the summer (too hot, just like being in Papua New Guinea). I quite enjoyed talking with her and seeing her excitement.
Day 94 – January 24
After spending the morning running a few last minute errands we finally set sail leaving Rabaul. We had hoped to anchor at Escape Bay, on the other side of Mt. Tavurvur, but the winds were blowing from the NW creating huge volcanic ash clouds (what the locals call a dusty day in Rabaul) so we decided to scratch that idea and head for the Duke of York Islands, 3 hours away. Once there we anchored in crystal clear water and were so happy with our decision to move away from the ash.
Day 95 – January 25
Calm clear waters in the morning meant time for a great snorkel. The remainder of the day was spent working on boat projects (specifically varnishing). A local woman named Joyce paddled over in her canoe and brought us a huge bunch of bananas and a few coconuts. In exchange we gave her several items of secondhand clothing which made her day.
Day 96 – January 26
Today was pretty much the same as yesterday – a morning snorkel and afternoon boat projects. We traded more secondhand clothing when Joyce’s brother paddled over with more coconuts.
Day 97 – January 27
For the last 2 months we have had a pretty major leak on the hull of the boat. Bill had wanted to try and find the leak before heading 700 nautical miles across the Pacific Ocean to Micronesia. Since the water in the Duke of York Islands was ideal for this task (crystal clear and no crocodiles) Bill put on his scuba gear and luckily found the leak which turned out to be more like a gash. Using underwater epoxy (which is the best invention ever) he plugged the hole and we had a celebratory drink of Bundaburg Rum with orange juice.
Later that day we witnessed a funny sight - several local boys drifted by in the strong current, hanging onto coconuts and bamboo sticks for flotation. We believe the boys had come from a very overloaded (to the point of sinking) banana boat that had motored past us earlier that morning. The ocean conditions that afternoon were much more dangerous and they surely would have sunk the boat if they had tried to motor with as many people as had been in the boat that morning.
Day 98 – January 28
Overnight the rain came down so we tried our fresh water collection technique. Basically we have a canvas sunshade with a hole in the middle. When it rains we invert the sunshade and attach a hose to the end of the hole. The other end of the hose goes directly into the water tanks under my bunk or Becky’s bunk. Because the hatch needs to be open for the hose to come into our cabin that means the rain also comes in. The hatch is mainly over my bunk so I got quite wet and have a very unpleasant night’s rest. But we fully filled up our water tanks so I was happy to take one for the team.
As soon as the wind picked up we left the Duke of York Islands and headed south. The current was strong – 2 knots – and was luckily in our favor. We attempted to anchor at Put Put Harbor on the island of New Britain but because of strong thunderstorms it was not possible. We sailed east across St. George’s Channel trying to reach the island of New Ireland before sunset but it was not meant to be and around 7pm we decided to hove to and drift aimlessly until early morning.
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