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Update:

 

.. and I know it is going to bring me the usual hate emails, and Bruce has just called me a bitch, but for once we are actually living how you imagine we are living, so I need to confirm all your prejudices.

 

We at the most beautiful place we have ever seen, Mbili in the Morovo Lagoon(8'39.7"S, 158'11.24"E). The sea is calm and turquoise, the sky blue and cloudless and the huge lagoon is spotted with hundreds of tiny jungle-clad emerald islets. At night the sky is stunningly clear, with millions of stars and a very bright moon. Last night we had yellowfin tuna chasing little fish around the boat, and at our last anchorage we were adopted by a school of several hundred squid, who stayed around the boat for 3 days, squirting little jets of ink every time we jumped in to swim. The snorkeling is great, millions of tiny (and not so tiny) colourful fish, huge giant clams with brightly-coloured ruffs and lovely coral, all in crystal clear waters. When we go in the dinghy, millions of tiny raindrop-sized fish jump out of the water ahead of us in a little rainbow arch. On the islands by the boat the birdlife is prolific- parrots, herons and hornbills, and the most unusual thing yet - no roosters! And to top it all off, we are now sick of eating lobster!

 

The downside is the ceaseless flow of carvers, all selling their wares, but as we now have enough carvings, they are very good-natured about us saying no. We have been here a few days, so are becoming part of the scenery and pretty much everyone who wanted to come over, be nosy and "story-on" has, so we are getting some peace at last. Tomorrow (subject to intense financial and trade negotiations) Daemon is joining the ranks of her tattooed crew and getting her own design! We have a carver teed up to come and carve her lintel around the companionway with a local design. Our initial thought was to have what is called "Spirit of the Solomons", which is basically a bunch of different fish. However, that had been niggling me as being just a bit too Remuera (with apologies to the bros in the 'hood!) and when we went to the carvers workshop this morning, I fell in love with a storyboard he had carved depicting local traditions. So yes, now Daemon is on for a story mural of a head-hunting canoe trip, complete with weapons, heads, canoes and other custom objects. Much more us!

 

So, everyone with yachts, you need to get your arses up here! It is insanely beautiful and the security problems don't seem too bad, certainly better than we had thought. Even if you haven't got a yacht, there is an ecolodge (local name for basic small house with about, oooh, no facilities) here, the Tibara Lodge, run by Chief Luton which will do accommodation & 3 meals a day for NZ$40 pp per day. The setting is stunning - one of the houses is over the water, with a verandah you can snorkel from, into a cloud of tropical fish, giant clams and even his enormous pet sea cucumber (not something I would have chosen for a pet, that there you go...). There is also a pretty well intact (apart from being wrecked) wrecked US WW2 bomber plane a couple of hundred yards away. Luton and his brother Clive seem to have been hit with the talking stick from an early age so have spent a considerable time here "storying on" and you'll get lots of stories from them.

 

Going for my afternoon snorkel now...

 

Jill

 

PS: Have learned another of those valuable yachting skills you never knew you needed to know. I can now shower and wash my hair using our new shower device - a 1.25 litre soft drink bottle with holes drilled in the lid. Yup, a measly 1.25 litre to be fresh and clean. Impressive!

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We were at Mbili in'92. Pleased to hear it hasnt changed. The carvings were fantastic, each piece we have brings back great memories of the bargaining needed to aquire it. One bowl took a whole afternoon, we paid for it with money, clothes and fishing lures and lines. The carver caught a large yellow fin with the lure on his way back home, then sold the fish to a dive boat so he felt very rich at the end of the day.

 

The Solomon Is are a great place to cruise just stay away from Honiara!

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I had a game of squash in Honiara, invited by a local . The court was outside i.e. no roof but concrete walls. After 1 min I was sweating like a pig, around 3 min I nearly fainted, after 5 gave up and had a beer instead.

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Update form Bruce and Jill

 

I know, I know, no emails for weeks - what do we do all day??? Well, we've been bloody busy despite the fact we calculated we had moved just over 80 miles in a month!

 

When I last emailed we were at Uepi Resort in Marovo Lagoon, having a ball, swimming with sharks, manta rays etc and generally relaxing. When we left there we picked our way through the reefs in the lagoon to the village of Sasaghana on Marovo Island.(S 08'30.6", E 157'58.6") We had no particular reason to stop there, except to say hi to a carver I bought a head-hunting axe from for Bruce's birthday, but we had the best time! We dropped anchor and were immediately inundated by canoe-loads of pikininis, bringing bunches of flowers and fruit and veges to trade. Daemon looked like a florist shop with several bunches of orchids, ginger flowers and birds of paradise and we had a week's supply of veges - all for a few pencils and balloons! I think we were the second yacht to stop in about 3 years.

 

We went into the village to see Albert, the carver, but he was away showing carvings to a superyacht (place is crawling with them - more superyachts than ordinary yachts) but his wife, Jean was at home and I spent the afternoon talking to her while Bruce tried to resuscitate their outboard. She was great company - very fluent in English, and had been bought up in Honiara, so had a good working knowledge of the outside world. We spent the afternoon sitting on her verandah, overlooking the beach, swapping stories of how life was for each of us, and laughing hysterically.

 

From there we went to Seghe, an fairly nondescript town, whose fame is an airstrip, currently being resurfaced. Bruce spent most of his time there trying to fix a diesel leak that has plagued us, and I got the story-on with canoe job. In one of my encounters I met Paul Kito from Tiroliloso Village opposite Seghe, who gave me 3 pineapples and wanted me to let other people know he sold produce. So, if you are near Seghe and need supplies, Paul's your man!

 

We had met up with Gar & Nicole on Dream Keeper who had been anchored with us in Uepi, and convinced them to come around into the Nono Lagoon with us to see the artists and carvers of Mbareho Island (S 08'34.6", E 157'48.9"). We had enough carvings, but were interested in woodblock prints from the only 2 artists working in that medium in the Solomons, both of whom live on Mbareho. As luck would have it, the first person we met there was one of the artists we were looking for, Aldio Pita, who then took us on a long carver tour of the village (Gar & Nicole were looking for bowls, so no pressure on us!) and then showed us his work. We bought a couple and then traded to get a 6 foot long piece of canvas we had on board printed with his designs. It took a few days, but the result is great, and looks really good on the wall by our bed. We had a great time there - the US Navy blasted a path through the reef to the outside, which is navigable by dinghy - a real maze through groups of islands, up tributaries, tiny streams etc, but a fun trip, with beautiful snorkeling at the end.

 

From there we went to Matakuri Lodge (S 08'39.7" E 157'52.02")(Bob: Benjamin & Jilly say hi to Pam Oliver) where we sat out a 24 hour thunderstorm, with one of the most spectacular lightening displays I've ever seen. I guess that is going to come with the territory now we are getting closer to the equator, but it doesn't mean I have to like it!

 

From there we headed over to Rendova Island, finding a quiet, uninhabited bay where we could hide from carvers, and then on to the bright lights and big smoke of Munda/Lambeti. Well, it has three stores, a bakery (foul bread, more air than substance), a petrol station, a beer store, a police station, a bank (with ATM, which was embedded in a giant 12' x 12' cube of concrete to prevent any entrepreneurial "self-service") a Telekom (internet computer in Honiara being fixed, no lines to NZ available), a vege market, which as Bruce pointed out was more of a drug market than a vege market, as it specialised in betel nut) and a diving resort with cold drinks and a great view. However neither of the 2 things we desperately needed - cooking gas refills and ground coffee! A pall of desperation is hanging over Daemon!

 

Bruce decided he wanted to go into VonaVona Lagoon to Zipolo Habu Resort for his birthday, so we picked our way through yet another series of reefs and shallows and anchored at the resort, where we are the only guests! (S 08'18.3" E 157'09.8")This means I get to commandeer the best beachside hammock with book and resort dog while Bruce goes exploring and photographing gross insects. It is pretty amazing - white sand and fish playing a couple of meters off the beach. (I'm running out of superlatives for Western Province!) We are having dinner there tonight as a birthday treat - coconut crab!

 

This morning we did a dinghy excursion to Skull Island, one of the local tambu (taboo) sites. It is where the skulls of the old chiefs and warriors are kept, as well as the graves of some more recent deceasees. It was quite magical - it is only a small island, and you follow a path for about 20 meters where you come across a huge mound of coral, with the crevices studded with skulls. On top of the pile is an old shrine, pyramid shaped and about 3 feet high, filled with skulls. There are also traditional artifacts, such as conch shell war trumpets and shell money in the crevices. Mind you some has been replaced with non-traditional stand-ins, unless teapot handles were a traditional treasure for headhunters.

 

We now plan to diesel up at the local fishing port, Noro, where fuel is the cheapest around, then head to Gizo to pick up our mail, reprovision (god, I hope they have coffee!) and clear for PNG.

 

Well, that's enough for now,

 

Love to all, and if anyone feels like emailing us, well, we wouldn't be averse...

 

The Daemons

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Update.

 

So Long to the Solomons!

 

Well, been there, done that, got the t-shirts and sure as hell want to go back there. We had no idea what to expect in the Solomons when we planned the trip, but we had a great time and met some great people.

 

After my last email we refueled at Noro which was great value. They're geared up to large cargo ships so the fuel was good, cheap and when pumped in the tiny amounts needed for yachts, had a seriously under-reading measuring system. After that we headed around to Gizo, the second largest town in the Solomons, and my, what a complete shithole it is! It was hit by a tsunami in April last year, but frankly, I think that probably improved it by washing some of the rubbish away. It is one main dirt rubbish-strewn street with a few stores selling general items (and none of them had coffee, which may have coloured my view of the place slightly), a couple of banks, a Telekom branch, hardware store, bakery, butchery (shack with a freezer of meat-ish products), a bottle store, a vege market and a couple of hotels. Oh, I forgot the Post Office, which after much asking where it was, turned out to be a small unlabeled blue fibro shack on the waterfront. We spent a few days there waiting for a parcel and clearing Customs and then headed up to catch up with a bunch of friends at Mono Island, in the Treasury Group at the top end of the Solomons.

 

Mono has a thing for NZers, as the NZ troops were in charge of liberating the island from the Japanese in WW2 and each year they have a NZ Day celebration in October. We were told that "NZ is a part of Mono" - that would certainly make it their largest suburb! They don't get many yachts up there and when we arrived with Tokimata, it made six of us in the bay, and the locals were beside themselves with excitement. When we arrived at 8.00am after an overnight sail, there must have been 30 or so canoes furiously paddling around to greet us. Not really conducive to good anchoring to have several small canoe-loads of kids paddling under your bow offering you limes and coconuts while you are having a fight over where to anchor (him - close to shore as less chain required to be put/out pulled in (manual windlass consideration), her - behind the other yachts - less flies, mozzies and kids).

 

There are heaps of war relics around the village and we went with one of the locals and the crew from Tokimata to see some of them. Tokimartian Peter was up on all the types of wrecked planes etc, but to the untrained eye it looked like an enthusiastic case of West Auckland fly-tipping. Has become known in-house as the "Junk in the Jungle" tour. Our guide Louis was very enthusiastic and keen to please, often to the detriment of the local flora and fauna. It got to the stage where we were too scared to comment on stuff. Admire an orchid stem in a tree? No problem, seconds later it would be wrenched from the plant and presented to you. I tried to photograph a huge butterfly the size of a swallow feeding on a hibiscus flower: "You like butterfly???" "Yes, it's lovely" WHANG - giant paw snatches butterfly from the flower. Missed that shot, but do have one of a rather stunned butterfly being held spread-winged between two huge hands.

 

The local girls were very friendly as well. One of the other yachties is Lars, a 40-something Norwegian anthropologist, rather good-looking and traveling alone. Poor Lars got stalked incessantly - he had canoe-loads of teenage girls paddling out to make assignations and every time he went on deck there would be impassioned cries of "Lars! Lars!" from the girls on the shore. All the local women were trying to work out how to marry off their daughters to him. He was cursing his conscience for not letting him take advantage of teenage girls. We moved down to a lagoon on another part of the island, and, as the villagers know what is happening on the boats before we do ourselves, there was a greeting committee that had paddled down to shout "Lars!" at him from the shore.

 

We had been trying to track down some carvings of stone net weights that we had seen in Honiara, and had thought, naah, we'll see heaps of those in Marovo, which is where they are supposed to originate. Wrong! We never saw another one, but it was a good way to rid of carvers - just hold up the one we did buy and say "We want another one of these" and as they didn't have any/didn't know anyone that made them, they'd paddle off dejectedly. So, it came as a surprise to find the one carver making them was now living in Mono (pretty much the ends of the earth, Solomons-wise) and that we knew his wife from Honiara. He made us another weight and avoided being given any of the children they offered us when they found we didn't have any, so we were very happy campers. We also got a lovely local paddle with carved handle (NZ$12), so next time we're up that particular creek, at least we'll have a paddle! There was much discussion when they were making the paddle for me - what length should it be to fit me, how big a blade etc - I didn't have the heart to tell them I just wanted it for decoration.

 

After a few days there we set sail for Kokopo on New Britain in Papua New Guinea. I use the term "sail" loosely - we motored for at least half of the trip, as there was no wind at all. The rest of it was extremely pleasant, sailing along on a broad reach in 7 knots of wind, even managed a BBQ while under way, a pleasant change from being hunkered down in rain and gales. It took 3 days and we arrived in Kokopo at first light this morning, and are anchored by a yacht we know, Osprey, off a resort(04'20"S 152'18"E), waiting for Monday so we can clear Customs and get some COFFEE! (We ran out 3 days ago and things are a wee bit tense)

 

Kokopo is near Rabaul, which used to be one of the best towns in PNG, however the area is very volcanic, and in 1994 the local volcanoes erupted and covered it in ash, so most stuff has moved to Kokopo, about 10 miles down the coast. Ken on Osprey took his boat down to Rabaul last week to check it out, and came back with it covered in ash, so we'll probably just check it out by bus. The volcanoes are across the harbour from us, and there is a constant rumbling and booming, with clouds of ash being shot into the air. Visibility is very poor because of the constant ash haze - it was very eerie coming in during the night, with all the smoke and volcano flashes, not to mention the ever-present lightening storms.

 

Well, that's it from us, just going to spend the afternoon relaxing after the trip, and trying to deal with the heat - we are only a couple of hundred miles from the equator, so life is pretty sticky at present.

 

Jill & Bruce

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But thank you all for your concern, and yes, we are aware that a certain amount of cannibalism is still in existence in PNG, but that is mainly in the Highlands, and we are out in the northern islands, and everyone here seems pretty friendly. The horror stories of robbery, rape & murder are mainly from Port Moresby, Lae & to a lesser extent, Madang, the people here are very proud of being honest. As one guy told Bruce, "One man tries to steal your wallet, the man behind him punch him in the face!" Despite this, Bruce did end up on the wrong side of the law, and nearly spent a night in gaol with three of the other skippers. This came about when we cleared in at Kokopo last Monday. As we do in every country, we notified Customs of our arrival and waaited on board for the usual boarding party to come and clear us. Normally Customs advises Immigration & Quarantine and they all arrive at once. So, five booted officials arrive on the boat, check our booze, stamp our passports and inspect our fresh fruit & veges, and then tell us we can go ashore. A mass exodus to town occurred, and we managed to secure some coffee before heading back to the boats where the resort owner greeted us to say Quarantine we looking for us and were severely pissed off. When they came out, they wanted to cart the skippers off to the lockup for breaching quarantine law by going ashore without being cleared. It turns out Customs & Quarantine aren't speaking, and the people looking at our veges were just Customs being nosy. When we explained, Quarantine calmed down and all was sorted amicably. Would have been a sight - four scrawny white guys in the Rabaul lock-up!

 

We had a nice week (apart from a hideous night with a surprise on-shore blow, which broke 2 boats from their moorings in our bay and gave the rest of us a sleepless night) in Kokopo anchored off the Rapopo Resort. We did a bus trip up to Rabaul to see the town, and it is a moonscape. One part of the town in buried in ash and the other end, near the port, is being kept open by bulldozers clearing the constant ashfall from the roads. Rabaul was a main Japanese base during WW2, and there are a lot of relics still here. We visited the main submarine base and also the barge tunnels carved in the hills where the transport barges were craned on to rails then hauled into tunnels and hidden. Some amazing construction work...

 

We are currently anchored at Mioko Island in the Duke of York group about 10 miles off the coast of Rabaul (04'13.8"S, 152'27.3"E), which is very beautiful and well-sheltered, but every second canoe wants to charge an anchoring fee, which is a bit tiresome. There has been a 150 foot superyacht complete with helicopter and about 4 motorboats in the lagoon for the last month, and the locals think everyone with a yacht has that much money. If only. We had a great day in at the school graduation/prizegiving today, although the speeches by one of the local reverends did go on and on and on for some time. No-one else was listening either - everyone was just wandering around under the trees, setting up betelnut stores, selling likliks (rudimentary ice lollies) and having a good catch up, so we just chatted as well. After the ceremony was over (9.30am - 2.30pm!) we had lunch with all the bigwigs (saveloy chow mein, a new fusion dish) and then went back out to find a custom dancing session in full swing, which was pretty amazing! Well, the inevitable happened and I ended up dancing, dragged into the fray by Salome, a very forward lass, sporting a bright red parrot on her head and a matching betel smile. How could I refuse? I dragged Fran from Melric in as well (the Melricans were the only other white folk there) and we were a huge hit, nearly caused a riot, and the big-stick guy had to beat the crowd back, literally. We were duly anointed with a cloud of talc over our heads, which is a sign of approval, when, as exhorted by one of our other teachers, Agnes, we shook our booties. The crowd roared....

 

The only danger we can see here is to the local pikininis, who don't understand the danger of approaching yachts to trade shells and limes before the yachties have had coffee. They get up at 4.30am, so think 6.00am is a perfectly sensible time to bang on the hull and call out to you. We try to keep a low profile, but as I told Bruce, a grown man crawling around on the floor of the boat avoiding a bunch of kids is pretty pathetic. He has now taken to giving the first lot balloons and lollipops on the condition they keep the others away. As Bruce says, poor buggers, their lifestyle is so different they have no idea why you come out at 6.30am and fire the flare gun though the bottom of their canoe. There is currently a small riot going on outside as to who gets first go at lime trading. Vitamin C overdose is incipient.

 

We will probably head back in to Kokopo tomorrow and clear Customs (you have to clear each port here, sigh) and come back up here on our way to Kavieng on New Ireland, where we intend to spend Xmas with the three other yachts we are traveling with.

 

Well, that's about it for me at the moment, time for sundowners on Melric. That should confuse the pikinini flotilla for, oooh, 2.6 seconds.

 

Cheers,

Jill & Bruce

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Happy New Year to you all!

We are currently anchored in a bay on Tsoi Boto, in the East Island Group of New Hanover in PNG (02'.27"S, 150'27"E) having a quiet day. We got bored witless in Kavieng waiting for our mail and other stuff, and after nearly murdering a couple of shop assistants when we tried to buy an icecream (you couldn't imagine how such a simple exercise could be turned into a textbook case of customer frustration), we decided to break free from the cruising pack and go out on our own. Although it is enjoyable to meet up with the others, traveling in a pack means you don't get to meet and interact with the local people as much as you do when you are by yourself.

 

We had a great Xmas Day, spent on Long Tall Sally, eating and drinking and talking crap. We talked to our families by cellphone and I got in some geriatric kitty time, feeding their 23 year old cat, Jade, crab (remarkably strong and insistent for his age, at least where crab was concerned!) so was a happy girl. Also got in parrot-time with Rowdy, a parrot belonging to the local charter yacht couple. We had another mud crab debacle, this time one escaped from his bonds and bucket on deck during the night (making us nervous about his whereabouts for the next couple of days) and the other from his bonds, and then from the pot when Bruce tried to cook him. These things are quite sizeable - one feeds two people, they have bodies the size of a dinner plate, and the claws the size of my hand, so you really, really don't want them loose in the galley! After much prodding with tongs he was encouraged back into his bucket (crab, not Bruce) and then quickly dumped into the pot where he was transformed from crab to Xmas dinner! We celebrated again on 27 December, as it was our 30th anniversary, so the standard of meals lately has been superb!

 

We set out from Kavieng the day before yesterday and motored a whole 10 miles to a very scenic (palm trees, clear turquoise waters, nesting turtles etc etc) island called Nusalomon, which was owned by Ranson and his family. His young son, Barfort, took us on a tour of the island and we got to see a lot of the Japanese bunkers and bombed guns from WW2 and to smell the pig that Barfort had speared a few days ago (Barfort is 9, or maybe 10, no-one can remember and distinctly feral) and which had escaped to die in the bush. We stayed and talked with them for a while and then as we were going back to the boat, Ranson's mother gave us a lovely gift of some gorgeous cowrie shells. They came out later and we had a good evening storying-on on the boat.

 

From there we headed up inside the barrier islands that shelter New Hanover from the sea, and these were the ones that took a battering during the recent storm surges. We haven't been ashore much yet, so can't tell how badly things are, but when we anchored here yesterday, Bruce thought the village was derelict until the ubiquitous pikinini canoe fleet headed our way. We have divested ourselves of the remnants of our trading clothes and our "deserving case" t shirts, so I am trying to convince Bruce I can use the space to buy more carvings to inject some cash into the villages. I won't repeat his comments. He is scathing about my canoe paddle collection, the philistine!

 

Last night was New Year's Eve and as I had had a couple of semi-sleepless nights from the heat, I was so knackered I was asleep by 8.45. Current joke is I saw in New Year on Chatham Islands time. I tried to explain to one of the locals yesterday that we would celebrate on NZ time, so New Year would start at 9.00pm local time. The concept of different time zones around the world was utterly incomprehensible to him and he sort of got the expression I get when trying to grasp the rudiments of quantum theory. Probably completely messed with his mind. Just talked to the others in Kavieng by SSB, and they sound very sorry for themselves, so I'm glad we were here!

 

Anyway, that's about it from us,

Take care and all the best for a great New Year.

 

Jill & Bruce

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Hi all,

We arrived safely in Malakal, Palau after a 15 day trip - the longest distance-wise and equal in duration to our ill-fated Fiji trip (where we spent several days hove-to in gales). Even managed to arrive Friday morning to avoid the swingeing overtime charges for Customs, Immigration, Quarantine, Health and Transport, so that was a relief!

 

The trip was pretty good - the last day out was horrible, with squall after squall coming through all day, with the wind reaching 35 knots then dying to nothing in the accompanying downpours, and shifting direction with each phase of the squall. As usual it happened on my watch, so I spent a miserable wet 4 hours struggling to keep the sails filled and the boat moving. It wasn't helped by a patronising voice from below suggesting I could take the boat into the wind a little in the calms to keep her sailing, and I made the 697th sail adjustment for the hour. I briefly contemplated heading below with a winch handle to beat the skipper to death, but then another squall arrived and I had to deal with that. I settled for the puerile satisfaction of shouting the same thing at him when it kept happening on his watch. The responses in his case were unrepeatable and were usually accompanied by an upraised digit. Despite this episode however, it was great to be back working as a team together, supporting each other and working out solutions to problems together. After a month in harbour staring at each other across a tiny cabin, we like each other again - the saying about harbours rotting ships and crew is very true.

 

Apart from that and a couple of very light wind days where we had to motor, the sailing was a true pleasure, mainly 15 knots from astern,and restored my joy in passage-making after all the smitings we had down south. The sheer pleasure of sitting in the cockpit watching the ever-changing sky and waves during the day and the stars at night is hard to beat - you achieve a certain state of grace, at least until the next squall arrives to rudely bring you back to earth.

 

After Melanesia Palau is like dying and going to heaven! Melanesia was fascinating and never boring, and we had some amazing experiences, but it could also be very depressing with the extreme poverty and dirt and lack of functioning infrastructure, especially in the towns. Palau is an odd mix, like one of those holograms that shows a different picture depending on the angle you look at it from: it is either a prosperous Pacific city, or a seedy Asian one, or more often, both at once. However it has supermarkets with things you'd want to buy that aren't out of date/stale (in Melanesia in general only the expats get most of their food from the supermarkets - it is too expensive for the locals who subsistence farm), the streets are clean and the infrastructure works. Bliss! And to top it off, one of the tour places here, Sam's Tours, runs the yacht club, which provides free moorings, hot showers, a dinghy dock, a shuttle bus to town (all free), internet access and has a great bar and restaurant! And gives you discounts for being yachties! After PNG where they wanted to charge US$50 to anchor without providing any facilities and then wanted you to fix stuff in the village, we can't believe how good it is! The staff are all incredibly friendly and give you hugs and call you by name - after a long trip it nearly made me cry. We got moderately slaughtered on our first night in with the sheer insane pleasure of finding great hamburgers, fries and cold margaritas at reasonable prices, and being able to eat them in a very romantic setting while watching the sunset. And 15 days of sleep deprivation adds an interesting edge to it all.

 

The bay here (07'20"N, 134'27"E) is stunning - there are heaps of little limestone islands, and the moorings are tucked amongst them. We'll spend a week or so here sorting out our boat jobs before heading down the lagoon to the amazing-looking Rock Islands marine reserve. This place is dive central and has is full of people from all over the place who come to dive. Bruce is planning to do an introductory dive with them in a few days.

 

Well, must sign off, it is time for yet another real, private, stand up shower with unlimited water. The indescribable bliss of it all!

 

Mechikung!

 

Jill & Bruce

 

PS: Breaking news! Daemon is achieving centrefold status - she is going to be the feature boat in the April edition of Latitudes and Attitudes USA yachting magazine. We are now referring to her as Miss April, and hoping the staples in her navel won't affect her water-tightness. They bought the three articles I sent them, so really getting into this writing stuff!

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Hi all,

Yes, it has been a while, thank you for reminding me so often! We are still in Palau, just blown away by the place - and to think we nearly bypassed it!

 

We finally dragged our consumer-satiated asses out of Koror (bars! shops! museums! restaurants! supermarkets with real food (OK, American & the veges are shipped from the US via Guam, so are either frozen or sludge when they arrive - the tomatoes actually peel themselves after a day in the fridge. Gross)) and have made it down to the Rock Islands, which are pretty damn spectacular! We are currently anchored in a very cool little lagoon (07'16.6"N, 134'17.7'E) formed by a bunch of surrounding islands, hiding from all the dive boats (hundreds!) that whizz past all day, every day. Water temp is down to 28' so swimming actually cools you down at last. I have just got over a foul cold from the taxi driver who took us on the trip around Babelduap last week, so that has slowed us down a bit. To visit the Rocks, we had to get a boat permit (US$20 for 30 days) and a permit each (US$25 for the Rocks or US$35 for Rocks & Jellyfish for 10 days) - nice wee money-making venture!

 

Well, Bruce now has tried diving, and not so keen as he thought he was, but thought it would probably improve when you had done it more. We also toured the main island with four other yachties, chipping in to hire our favourite driver for the day (hint: how to tell you have been somewhere too long - you have a favourite driver). It was pissing down when we left, but improved as we went along. Saw some very cool old meeting houses (bai) and some old monoliths which were quite spooky, but nowhere near as spooky as their new parliament buildings! If Howick wanted a parliament building, sorry, capitol building (US rules here!) they would employ that architect! It is a huge monstrosity, up on a hilltop in the middle of nowhere, and looks like a cross between the White House and Hugh Heffner's fantasy of a Greek temple with a giant dome on top. To top it off, it is made out of fibreglass, which has then been sponged in "authentic earth colours TM". There are these huge, obscenely squat columns about 6 feet across, which just echo hollowly when you knock them. The buildings have huge chandeliers hanging out front, which look as if they have come from the bargain big at a giant version of Lighting Warehouse, and the whole thing is decorated in "authentic" local symbols, such as the money bird, which unfortunately looks like a farting chook. Sorry, shudder, got carried away there. Shame they didn't use the bai as a pattern for the building - they are very cool. Long thatched structures with a steep canoe-prow roof, painted wooden sides and faces. Inside they have rafters which are painted with scenes from local legends. I have been trying to think what legend could explain three men with fish attached to the end of their penises, but am drawing a blank there... if you have any thoughts, please don't tell me.

 

I have decided to collect traditional local money, so now can buy a beer (or a bride, depending on where & exchange rate) in Vanuatu, Solomons, PNG and now Yap (small circular stone pendant, replica of the giant stone money wheels excavated from quarries on Palau) and Palau (woman's money beads, made out of glass and clay, in the same way ancient Egyptian glass was made. The ones I have are genuine old ones, not replicas, so rather special).

 

We just had an amazing day, one of those "peak experience" days, when you are just on a high, and all the discomfort and trials are worth it. The most amazing time was this morning when we dinghied past turtles, herons etc over to Jelly fish Lake where we climbed up the island to an inland lake and swum with bazillions of jellyfish. When you left the jetty there were only a couple about, and you sort of thought, yeah right, big deal, not even that pretty jellyfish, then as you got further out there were more, and more, and more, and MORE until you were hanging suspended in a green-blue jellyfish soup, where there were more translucent golden jellyfish than water! They were bouncing off the lens of the dive mask and you had to fight your way through them - it was like being in a lava lamp! They ranged in size from pea to almost soccer ball. We got back to the dock after an hour and a half and just sat there trying to work out whether we had just done that or dreamed it, it was so surreal. AND we managed to get in and out before the tour boatloads of Japanese tourists in wetsuits outnumbered the jellyfish!

 

We came back to the boat for lunch then went around the corner to see the giant clams. I have been fooled by that description before, and snorkeled around to look at one or two examples, but here there were hundreds of them, some about 3 feet long, and with lots of different coloured lips, and surrounded by tropical fish - really pretty.

 

Well, that's about it from us, we'll start making our way back to Koror to get ready for the Philippines trip, but I'm sure you'll hear from us before then.

Jelly good show!

Jill & Bruce

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Hi all,

Still in Palau - we enjoyed it so much we extended our visas and have been getting all our boat chores done and hanging out down in the Rock Islands. The weather in March has been superb, much better than in February, so the place has been even more spectacular than ever - it really is a yachty's paradise. The islands are all close together, so a couple of hours gets you from town to a deserted island of your own, especially after 4pm when the dive boats go home. The reefs aren't nearly as scary the second time out, as you have some idea of how accurate the chartplotter is (not bad) and what you are looking for.

 

Currently the place is crawling with film crews - there is a French version of "Survivor" going on on some of the islands (you can imagine French film-making types blending into the local shorts/t shirt dive culture - NOT!) and a National Geographic crew is filming here as well. We are sorely tempted to sneak over to the Survivor area and do some food drops etc to screw up the game.

 

A couple of days ago we dinghied out for 3 miles to German Channel (a 3 meter deep channel blasted through the reef early last century to let ships bring phosphate in from one of the outer islands, and one of the primo dive spots)and snorkeled the barrier reef there. It was quite amazing - zillions of types of fish and coral, turtles, reef sharks etc. The real adventure started when it was time to come back and our outboard wouldn't start. Some friends had given us fuel for taking them diving, but their mix was 50/1 not 100/1 which our engine uses, so consequently after the long run at half throttle (to avoid getting swamped by choppy waves) the spark plug got coked up and wouldn't fire, and without tools, Bruce couldn't fix it. So there we were, stranded on the reef, memories of the left-behind divers on Great Barrier Reef springing to mind and wondering how long it would be before we started drinking our own urine and sucking fish eyes for liquid. Bruce didn't help matters by standing up, pointing in front of the dinghy and shouting "Look! A turtle! Oh no, it's HEAPS bigger than a turtle!" - uneasy silence as the "Jaws" theme suddenly plays in both our minds. However, the stranding wasn't too bad as a) we had a VHF radio we could use to call for help, and B) it is easier to catch a dive boat at German Channel than a bus in Queen Street (Auckland). After an agonisingly long wait of, oh, about 15 minutes, one stopped and gave us a tow back to the boat. SAVED!

 

Yesterday we discovered a hidden lake, accessible only by kayak at very low tide through a long archway in one of the islands. Very cool! Today I achieved one of my "things to do before turning 50" (next Monday! EEK!) goals and snorkeled naked with the jellyfish at Jellyfish Lake. (OK

 

Tomorrow we plan to head back to our secluded anchorage on Ulong and hunt out some Yapese stone money wheels that were quarried and left there, then head on back to Koror and get ready to party on Monday at the yacht club with whoever is left in the bay. I hope to get our website updated in the next couple of weeks with our photos, so will let you know when it happens.

 

Cheers!

Jill & Bruce

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Very very cool. Am sitting here with a very full in tray and now can only think how nice it would be to be in some exotic location. Doesn't feel like summer anymore. Have taken to wearing a jacket and thick socks. :mrgreen:

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Hi all,

Well,the time has come - we're hauling up the hook (well, dropping the mooring actually) and heading off to the Philippines tomorrow morning, After a couple of decidedly dodgy weather days, today was a scorcher and we got all our boat chores done in time for farewell drinks at the yacht club There are three of us leaving tomorrow and one the day after, so the cruising fleet will be very diminished - I foresee redundancies at the yacht club bar!

 

OK, better sign off and get some sleep before it all turns to chaos in the morning, Palau having bureaucracy down to a fine art, but not yet grasping the concept of efficiency - a nasty combination! The weather is looking great, so fingers crossed for a good passage.

Cheers,

Jill & Bruce

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Be very carefull in the Philippines.The whole country is totally corrupt.Dont be fooled by expats who will tell you some places are safe.And if you find yourself in an anchorage where they still dynamite the fish I urge you to leave as soon as you can.

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Mabuhay!

Well, at last we have made it out of the Pacific - bet you all thought it was never going to happen. The trip from Palau was mixed - the first couple of days was absolute heaven: we couldn't keep the smiles off our faces, and we did our best-ever day of 155 miles. Then the squalls hit... the next few days we a bit untidy, lots of rain and bursts of wind in the squalls. This was particularly unpleasant at night, as it was so overcast there was not enough light to see the squalls coming, and we got hit by one with 40 knots of wind which over-powered the self-steering and crash-gybed* us, ripping our preventer fitting from the boom. Fortunately there was no other damage to crew or boat, but we hove-to until first light so we could check it all out.

 

After 5 days we arrived at the entrance to the San Bernardino Straits, the entry to the Philippines and the exit from the Pacific. We were stalking this, as all the pilot books put the fear of god into you about transiting it, using such phrases as: "8 knot currents" "strong eddies" "whirlpools" "tidal rips" "standing waves" "main shipping passage" and recommends "least alarming" stages of the tide to pass through, and the charts all had hundreds of taniwhas** drawn all over them. We anchored at Biri, a small island outside the pass to rest up, wait for better weather and the "least alarming" state of the tide. We spent 2 nights there and on the second day were besieged by boatloads of young locals who had never seen a yacht before. Apparently we were the first in living memory. We also met our first pirate, but he was only 6 years old, his gun was plastic and we bought him off with a lollipop.

 

The next day we gritted our teeth, girded our loins, dusted off all the other cliches and headed out into the pass. What an anticlimax! After all the angsting, there was only a couple of knots of current and no shipping! I almost went back through to wait for the full moon and a screaming wind and tide so I could get some value for all the emotional energy I'd expended worrying about it. The sailing was so good we did the 70 mile trip to Donsol in one hit.

 

We had been heading to Donsol on the Bicol Peninsula in the south of Luzon ever since we saw a promo DVD about the Philippines which showed people swimming with whalesharks there. Whalesharks are the biggest fish in the world and (THANK GOD) pretty much vegetarian, filter-feeding on plankton & shrimp & any small fish that get sucked in during the process. Bruce had been all moony about them since seeing ads, heavily featuring whaleshark photos, for a brand of watch worn by someone researching whalesharks that was on the back of several New Scientist magazines we had on board, and so we decided that would be our first stop. (Yes, actually that is pretty much how we work out our itinerary) We duly arrived, anchored and the next morning headed into town to change some money as we couldn't buy any Philippine pesos in Palau. That was when the excitement started. We were helped to tie up at the steps on the riverbank by the town by a fisherman called Potpot, who then took us on a tour of Donsol, which is a small fishing village. We didn't really want the tour, but his English wasn't good enough to explain what we needed (nor our Tagalog good enough)It became apparent that frivolities like banks were not part of the Donsol infrastructure. Minor panic was setting in, as the tour was heading to Potpot's church to meet his pastor. Just what we needed, we though, especially since it was a small break-away born-again church. However, the pastor, Noel, was great. He spoke reasonable English and told us we needed to go to Legazpi, about an hour away, to change money. Slight problem, as we had no pesos for the jeepney fare. No problem said Noel, I will lend it to you, which he did. We were really humbled - these people have no money (we went to visit Potpot's family later: he and his wife & 3 kids live in the slum by the river in a house of bamboo slats covered with plastic rice bags) and yet they trust us on first meeting to take what must be a considerable sum for them and to bring it back. (Which of course we did, with a gift to the church & to Potpot for minding our dinghy). They also had no concept of a yacht, and when we said we didn't need accommodation as we slept on our boat, they thought we meant the dinghy, as Daemon was out of sight around the corner. We bought them out to see the boat yesterday afternoon and they were so excited. They all dressed up especially and were waiting on chairs outside the church (small one-roomed broken down concrete building with a dozen plastic chairs) for us to pick them up.

 

Our trip to Legazpi was an eye-opener. We boarded a jeepney*** decorated in the style of a dilapidated 1970s cinema: all mirrored ceilings, padded & buttoned vinyl walls, requisite number of religious icons without which it is illegal to depart the depot etc and of course the inevitable background music at high volume. If you ever wondered where the cheesey music of the seventies & eighties went to die, it is the Philippines. They are really big on whiney white guy stuff ("Everything I Do I Do For You" "How Am I supposed to Live Without You" "Total Eclipse of the Heart" etc etc etc) which has now tragically embedded itself in my brain on a repeating loop. We were the first in so got the choice seats. It was an education to see how many people would fit in. The Land Transport Safety Authority in NZ would have a fit. I'm not sure they even have regulations about the passengers that sit between the driver and the driver's door. Bruce has now stopped sulking about my insistence on buying emergency medical and evacuation insurance before reaching Asia. This was reinforced when we got in a motorised tricycle to go from the depot to the bank. These are motorbikes with a semi-enclosed sidecar. I have seen upwards of six people in a sidecar... Right of way seems to go to the most pure of spirit, with much crossing of self by the driver at intersections, overtaking etc.

The bank was another saga that I don't have the strength to go into, suffice to say that 2 hours in a queue is bearable if the airconditioning is good. It would be even more so if they gave cash advances on foreign credit cards...

 

Yesterday morning we were up at dawn to swim with the whalesharks. Was that amazing or what???? We went out on a banca**** with our new friends Sheila & Mike on Kantala who sailed in to Donsol the day after us, Tim the Welshman and two German guys as well as the banca crew and Omar, our guide. We headed out about 15 minutes into the bay and circled until we spotted the first whaleshark and then jumped in and snorkeled over to swim with it. Wow. Just wow. And wow again. They are so amazing - that one was about 9 meters long and the head must have been 2 meters across. They are very chunky and covered with polka dots and very, very graceful. We could keep up with it, and on several occasions we were only a couple of feet away from it. It was almost impossible to get good photos as a) it was too huge to get in one shot B) the visibility wasn't great because of the plankton-rich water and c) YOU WERE TOO DAMNED CLOSE! I have lots of photos of bits of shark that I can probably jigsaw into one photo. We swum with that one for about 20 minutes before it dived. In all we saw 5 whalesharks ranging from 4 to 9 meters and had another 20+ minute swim with one. Tim the Welshman is a real whaleshark fanatic and was beside himself as he had spent US$7000 to see them in the Galapagos Islands and had only seen 5 in a week, and then only for a minute at a time, so 5 in 3 hours for NZ$30 was a pretty good deal. Very, very awesome.

 

Today we are motoring flat out to get to Marinduque Island in time for the Easter Sunday Moriones festival held there. Apparently it is a reenactment of the lesser-known biblical story of Longinus the Roman centurion and his miracle. Stripping it down to what actually happens, a bunch of guys wearing Roman garb and carved masks chase the Longinus character through the town and fields and catch him twice, from which he escapes both times, then catch him a third time and behead him. According the the Rough Guide, this being the Philippines, costumes are not limited to centurions and the hundreds of pursuers include Miss Piggies and Madonnas. This I must see!

 

Sorry for the book-length of this, but it has been a mind-blowing couple of days!

Palaam!

Jill & Bruce

 

PS: A reminder that Daemon is feature boat in the April edition of the US sailing magazine Latitudes & Attitudes. Get your copy now!

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