Commodore
August 10, 2025

Monday 11 August – birthday celebrations

We went for a snorkel at the pass with the steep, deep drop off. Kruno and Claudette came with us, and the underwater photos are thanks to Claudette. It was a lovely long snorkel with the sunlight catching the wall beautifully. We saw a white tip shark soon after getting in, thankfully it never followed us. Lots of fish and some very nice coral. We saw some big fish that we think were blue fin tuna, with lovely glossy white bellies

It is Anthony’s birthday today, he is crew on Lella. Couldn’t believe he was 43, Jen crew on Profasea baked him a vegan chocolate cake. She used to work in a bakery, no wonder she could bake such an impressive vegan cake. We were invited by Kruno onto Lella at 2pm, for us that is the hottest part of the day, luckily they have a big awning over the trampoline and we had a very jolly celebration of Anthony’s birthday with the delicious cake. Jen’s husband, Carey the other crew on Profasea, came with all his jewellery kit to make Anthony a birthday necklace which was a nice touch. He is a big beach comber and makes some nice bits and pieces, I think I may follow his example. I’ve picked up so many lovely shells, plus I have so much Caribbean jewellery that needs repairing. We have friends coming out from California to visit us in PNG, in fact it ‘s Rowan’s best man and his wife, friend from Rowan’s uni days. We have loaded them up with spare halyards, pumpkin seeds , and my jewellery making threads!

We went and had a walk around the island, sadly the windward side had quite a lot of rubbish on it, but Rowan did find the most amazing clam shell. We try not to take too many shells but this was way to special to resist!

An early night for us as we are leaving very early for our next day sail up the islands. About 60 miles, it will take most of the day , we are crossing fingers there is some wind. We have stayed longer than intended as there is no wind.