Tuesday 16 September – back down the Ysabel Passage

We woke up to wind but sadly we would be going straight into as we head down between the East Islands and the big New Hanover Island. We had to do it with engines the whole way, we had to be on serious look out for shallow patches, the charts are not accurate here. It was a very scenic passage down to Nusalomon Island about 8 miles away from Kavieng. Rowan organised some diving with Doreen the S African dive master for tomorrow.

We were easily anchored in the sandy little bay by lunchtime. We went and had a very long snorkel on the reef nearby for a couple of hours in the afternoon. The coral was in really good shape and the fish life was fantastic, huge schools of different fish, some we have not seen before. It was an excellent snorkel even though it was cloudy, little squalls would rain on us every now and then.

We had a good chicken curry in the evening and enjoyed some of our bottles of wine!