Rowan woke me up at about 3:30 am, we were 8 miles to the entrance of the narrow pass into Buka, he needed a sleep before going in. We switched off the motors and had the sails down so we were just drifting in the right direction for a couple of hours. The current rips through the pass, with the tides, so we had to wait for slack tide at about 6:30am, plus much easier to navigate in daylight.
We had various dire warnings about checking in here, the German boat Trinity thought we would be killed if we came to PNG, he was very vocal about it. On the other hand we heard from a couple of more balanced yachties, saying it is fine, be respectful and they are good people. The last yacht to enter Buka a couple of weeks ago, had a bad experience, they are a very meek American couple with two young kids on a tiny boat, travelling on an extremely tight budget, with no means of communication on board. They were messed about, and then a taxi ripped them off. In the great scheme of things not bad but for a naive couple and young kids, it must have been daunting. He makes money doing rigging jobs as they sail about, they were based in the Fiji marina where we were for a while, we got him to do a few jobs us. Anyhow we were slightly anxious as not many yachts check in here, it is the island of Bougainville which has had a raging civil war, and is desperately trying to gain independence from the rest of PNG. ProfaSea was way behind us and were running late.
Daylight broke, I let Rowan sleep in a little longer, but then had to wake him up to catch slack tide. We still had about 2.5 knots against us. But we cruised through the channel between the two islands, we then had to take a branch off the channel and anchor opposite a little island. It was a relief to get the anchor down and for it to hold well in the current. The houses opposite us on the little island were big and very smart looking. We soon realised we were on a water taxi highway, as they bombed back and forth coming really close to us to have a good look. The locals here in Buka are very dark black and all seem to chew beetle nut, they certainly look a little sinister when they smile and you see their blood red mouths!
Rowan had done a brilliant job of contacting immigration and customs before arriving. We said we were happy to pay their water taxi fees for them to come out to the boat. We had got PNG currency in Honiara (capital of Solomon Islands) so we could pay them, unlike Profasea. We had thought both boats would be in by 10am but Profasea took longer and then had a terrible time coming down the channel not during slack tide. Her small boat had 2-3 knots against her and her max speed is 5, she was surfing down the waves not able to correct the steering as she did not have enough forward power. All a bit hairy for her as she had got the tides so wrong. Any how the officials arrived with us on the dot of midday as planned and two men and 3 woman boarded. They were all extremely friendly and helpful, especially the switched on women. We gave them ice cold drinks which were appreciated and the customs did a glance around the boat, more in awe of it, than checking for anything. We thought they were delightful, all had mobile phones and wanted pictures of us and the boat. We paid up and they went to Profasea who finally made it into the anchorage,. Once again we had to help Claudette out, she didn’t have money and her visa was not right so they could not let her into town to draw money at the ATM. We think she is a bit of a liability, we had to pay for her checking out of Solomon’s, she paid us back with a bank transfer, but she really chances it. We said we would pay in US dollars as we did not have a lot of local currency. The officials came to get the money from us in a water taxi. By this stage we thought it was safe to go into town, and the easiest way was by water taxi, so we asked to join the officials, who were delighted. Claudette’s visa did come through finally.
Maggie from customs asked what we wanted to do, we said we wanted go out for lunch and buy some eggs. She said she waould go with us, which was great. The water taxi station in Buka town was heaving, with loads of people milling around. She recommended a place for lunch out of town on the beach front, we asked her to join us which she readily accepted. She got us a taxi and off we went. The town was very impressive a lot smarter than Honiara, excellent road, and a smart taxi. Lunch was great on the water front, big security gates to get in. We laughed as Maggie joined us with a beer, opting for the highest alcohol content! She kept her customs jacket on, and wasn’t daunted by the fact that a rather official group was sitting further down from us. She said they were from the capital. We had a very good meal, and had to speed up as the shops close at 4pm. We managed to get to the supermarket just in time and rushed to the egg fridge, exactly where Maggie had told us to go. 5 dozen lovely brown eggs (2 for Profasea) and we were out. It was a very good supermarket, way, way better than anything in Honiara.
Maggie put us on the water taxi to get back. She was a complete hoot, and had us in stitches with her stories. She is a trained accountant and her husband works in a government finance team. They are not from Bourgainville, she wants to go back to their home near Port Moresby where her two daughters go to high school and live with her sister. They get one of the big smart houses on the little island that we look onto, its government accommodation. We were very pleased to have ventured into town, we certainly never felt unsafe at all. The overriding feeling was it was a lot wealthier here, every car was a smart Toyota, the supermarket was huge and impressive. Maggie told us it is the richest island in PNG, it has huge gold and copper mines, it is the reason they want independence from the rest of PNG. The PNG government is totally corrupt, the officials had told us the papers front page today, was that some government official has stolen all the money from electricity payments and there is going to be no electricity in a few days time.
We had a conflab with Profasea as to our departure, we had planned to be in and out in daylight. Rowan worked out the tides and decided we should leave at 2:30am at slack tide, and get some sleep until then. Profasea had thought about going out the southern pass which Rowan thought was mad as there are so many reefs, the charts are not at all reliable and should be done in daylight only. Claudette decided to follow us out. So we all went to bed very early to get some sleep.
Impressive sunrise
The narrow channel of Buka to our anchorage, with the densely populated little island of Sohano next to us
Dolphins rushing out to greet us at the entrance to Buka
Jumping for joy, so nice to see so many dolphins
So many dolphins
Always a church somewhere
Interesting little dwellings along the way
In the channel
Buka port bigger than we expected
The branch in the channel to our anchorage
Once anchored looking back to Buka town
The shoreline
Sahano Island with a memorial for the Japanese from WW2
Misty mountains in the distance
Water taxis whizzing back and forth either side of us
On the taxi with the officials
At lunch with Maggie
Car park only had Toyotas!
Our water taxi back to PolePole, the Bougainvillians are known for being very dark black
Another little island further down from us
A little sailing outrigger canoe. Interestingly every canoe, like in Vauatu has an outrigger. In the Solomon Islands none of the canoes had outriggers
Ugh Boobies have had made a terrible mess on board, we had at least 4 on board early in the morning
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