Sunday 14 September – Heading up to Tsoilik while we have wind

We were up around 8 am picking up the anchor, to catch the wind to sail up the island of New Hanover. Rowan’s weather app is saying today and tomorrow are the only windy days for the next few weeks. It is very hot, we are definitely experiencing the doldrums. We planned to go out to sea and return in a few days wiggling our way down the the channel between the islands when we return to Kavieng. Grant and Judith leave on Friday so we need to be back in Kavieng then.

So much for the wind it barely got to 10 knots but we managed to slowly sail the whole way up which was a very gentle experience for Judith who is prone to seasickness. We found a place to anchor that was marked by a boat in 2017, the local chief wanted to charge them K100 so they left. Yachts don’t come this way at all, but the Aussie manager at Nusa Resort gave us some useful suggestions, they come surfing up here. There is also a South African character who runs the diving for Nusa Resort, Dion has been living here for 20 years, he had a bit of advice too. A real adventure!

We got behind the island to the marked anchorage, happy to see the shallowest depth of 9m in the pass. The water colour is phenomenal, and the white beaches are very picturesque. We anchored easily enough in a big sandy patch and then went into the village to say hello to the chief. As we were getting ready 3 outriggers appeared, all teenage boys, who wanted to trade. We said we were heading into the village and would trade with them there. Amazingly the one boy was severely disabled with both his hands and feet all deformed and club like. He never batted an eyelid, he paddled with his feet and baled the water out with his foot too. Quite incredible, cheerful and totally engaged like the other kids, he couldn’t walk on his feet, so shuffled along on his bottom at speed. We arrived at the beach to be told the chief wasn’t at his home, then we were told we could walk to where he was, we were taken on a long circuitous route back to where we started. It didn’t matter as it is a tiny spit of land and was a very scenic walk through their village, very neat and with wonderful hedgerows marking out the streets/pathways, obviously no cars here. We just got back to JeldiJeldi when the chief arrived, he was quite transactional. Not our usual dignified chief. We need to return tomorrow to pay to enter the marine area.

Back to the boat for a South African BBQ with boerewors, Rowan even checked with the NZ butcher to make sure it was kosher, amazingly the skin of the sausage was made from pig, Grant and Judith were happy to peel it off. It was a gorgeous sunset too after another downpour.