2:30am and we were getting the anchor up, Rowan had planned it well, it was slack tide so no worries about getting the anchor up. I sat up front with our spot light torch, looking out for obstacles. There were a few fisherman out in canoes in the main channel, all whistling like crazy when I shone the torch on them. We still had 2 knots of current against us, Profasea was crawling behind us but at least had no waves to contend with.
Once we were out of the land shadow, we had a good sail across to Nissan island about 60 miles away. The wind got up in to the low twenties, which PolePole just loves, we sped across very comfortably. We got to the entrance into the atoll, there was quite a mean chop at the entrance with tide meeting a good wind. With our two engines it is no problem, more daunting for Profasea. We went up to the northern anchorage as it has the best write up and got the anchor well bedded in the wind. We have read the best thing is to go straight away to the chief with gifts to get permission to anchor and then you will have no problems.
We had barely got the anchor down when the first canoe visited us, father and two sons going spear fishing, very friendly. We told them to show us their catch when they were returning. We headed into the village with our goodies, loads of kids and ladies greeted us at the beach, very welcoming and helpful. Rowan has another sore on his leg which isn’t looking good, so has started a course of antibiotics, we are desperately trying to keep it out the sea, tricky when you go in by dinghy, but managed to keep it relatively dry. Rowan got whisked off to meet the chief in the House Boy building which is tabu for women to enter. He was gone ages, while the women looked after me, we went and sat under the beautiful big shady trees on the beach. Rowan had been offered very sweet coffee and a welcome speech. They then proceeded to beat their drums with long reeds tied together, this sound carries to all the villages in the atoll, over a thousand people, telling them that they have guests who are welcome to explore the whole atoll. Chief Maruis came out to meet me, a very friendly old soul who was very happy with his gifts. A very sweet lady called Anyeta, looked after me, she is single, her husband died a few years ago so she is back on the family land. Her sister Marla is a teacher at the kindergarten school, we were glad to have taken in lots of exercise books and pens.
Profasea got in around 5pm. We invited them over for some foccacia bread and humous I had made on the way over. We were all pretty starving, the bread was wolfed down. We discovered that we had all remained on Solomon island time and had not changed our clocks forward by an hour to PNG time. Could be why we misinterpreted the tide table at Buka. We all crashed early, it had been a long day
Kary on Profasea took a photo of us leaving Buka island, once daylight arrived
The entrance to Nissan atoll
The narrow entrance between the light blue waters
The chop and turbulence of tide and wind in the pass
Clear blue waters
Where we are anchored in Nissan Island
Our anchorage
The village in front of us
Visitors as soon as we dropped anchor….. Charlie and his two sons going spear fishing
More canoes visiting
Rowan at his welcome ceremony with the House Boys
Beating the drums to tell the other villages they have welcomed guests to the island
The kids waving us off
Charlie and his sons back with their fishing haul
Not a bad catch in a couple of hours
Jen from Profasea, admiring the sunset
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