A Cholera outbreak In PNG made travel inland difficult. We particularly wanted to see some traditional costumes but all the festivals were cancelled. The Australian government even sent troops to help restrict people's movement. Fortunately Madang, where we were, remained uninfected.
The New Guinea people were charming, almost everyone called me "Sir or boss" and all spoke good English as well as Toc Pidgin. New Guinea has at least 800 languages, a third of the world's total.
The engine seawater pump was the first priority, I soon removed it but the only shop in town selling bearings and seals did not have the required sizes. Several possible sources were established including some from England, but fortunately someone discovered them in Port Moresby. The pump was soon repaired and re-installed.
We met for meals with some of the other cruisers at the Madang club; most of the members were Australians. Ostensibly a fishing club although I didn't see any landed. One crew we met were from a tug towing a barge on passage from Singapore to Australia, they had already attempted the Vitiaz strait and had returned to Madang after being un-able to make enough way. There was a noticeable Australian influence in the town and I presume the rest of PNG, even the bank notes and coins are similar, this was very good news, the food was edible and a big improvement on Indonesian to our tastes. The people appear to me to behave like a cross between Aboriginals and Caribbean's. They are very laidback. There would appear to be plenty of unemployment as the town is full of people not doing very much, although I understand that there is no social security.
It took us a few days to find our way around the town. It has several "fingers" into an inland sea, the tidal range is no more than a metre and we soon found the easiest way to get around was in the rib rather than walking.
We bought some carvings and traditional shell work, and would have bought more but for lack of space on a small yacht. The other yachts soon left, they had heard about a weather opportunity to get through the Vitiaz Straight, which is between New Britain and the mainland. Several people at the club advised us that it is very difficult to make way against the waves and current unless the winds are light. We continually watched the weather and looked for opportunities to travel inland.
We watched the final of the Australian Rules football competition at the club on the television, in an attempt to assimilate with the new culture. Apparently it was an exciting match, to me, it was unintelligible.
We heard and read much about the people from the central highlands; murders seemed to be common, either during theft or as part of a tribal retaliation, vehicles travel in convoy, where there are roads. Much of the country is without a road network; the only quick means of travel is to fly. Some people were unknown to the outside world until the 1970's. I wouldn't be surprised if there were some still living in the jungle that has never met an outsider.
Cocoa is a substantial export, there were several ships loaded at the nearby dock while we were there, another unusual crop for us to see was Tobacco, dried leaves were on sale at the market, and these were then rolled into small pieces of newspaper for smoking.
Most evening's locals surrounded the yacht, either to listen to our western music or to discuss our passage from England with us, occasionally jealousy got the better of one of them, one chap declaring that he owned the bay that we were in and we must pay him 100 kina. As soon as I said no, he dropped his demand to 20 kina. Another time in town a scruffy looking man waved at Charley as she photographed some bats high in a tree, he then said they were his bats and he didn't want them photographed. Charley soon put him straight. As the days passed we learnt more about the culture, a favourite subject for discussion was the bride-price. The tradition is for the groom to pay the bride's family for the right to marry, this could be cash or goods, but was often a mixture of the two, pigs are a sign of wealth and several would normally be included in a bride-price. Wealthy men can take more than one wife, when daughters marry the investment brings a return, as the groom has to pay. Married men often live apart from their wives, sometimes with single men as women are believed to have magical powers; young men go through an initiation, in part, to deal with these powers.
Despite our attempts, no trip to the highlands could be arranged, so we began to watch for some lighter winds to depart with. We did visit some villages near Madang, these were very well kept, and the people interesting. One village had a cassowary in a cage; these are like emu's only less docile. On the 1st of October, two years to the day, since we left Southampton, we motored out of Madang. We were much wiser about PNG than before we arrived.
The first 24 hours brought a mixture of wind directions and strengths, just after dawn on the second day we entered the Vitiaz strait. The grib files led us to expect light winds, but the reality was quite different, it soon rose to twenty knots and the current against us was over two knots. We made for the shore to find relief from the current, in the bays there was always slack water or a counter current but around the headlands no such luxury existed. A three metre swell from a long fetch to the south east made life unpleasant. In one of the bays I filmed the remarkable scenery just before a wave covered the yacht, the camera was soaked, and we also very nearly lost our oilies which were in the cockpit drying in the sun. If that wasn't enough excitement, within half an hour a swarm of bees decided our cabin would make an interesting new home, we quickly closed everything and dealt with the persistent ones. They were remarkable; they flew straight into the cabin as though following a scent trail.
The Tug and barge made another attempt at the strait, they were unable to get close to the shore and the full current reduced their progress to almost nothing. We soon passed them, after several hours they gave up again and returned to Madang. Quite how they are going to get through the strait is a mystery to me.
We managed to make progress by a combination of "pinching" with the aid of the engine and choosing where to sail. In the afternoon the wind died for a while, reducing our progress, and then rose to twenty five knots plus. Just before dusk, which at this latitude is six pm, we sighted another yacht ahead, Magic Roundabout, English, heading for New Zealand; we met them for drinks (ours), at an anchorage ten miles further on. A well deserved nights rest at a place called Finch Haven, more accurately Hafen because many of the place names are German; the north east of the island was stripped from their control after the First World War and given to Australia to administer.
The next day was spent reorganizing the yacht; diesel from the spare containers was put into the tank, the steering cable slackened slightly, and a stoppage in the water maker rectified. Four young boys brought us some coconuts and a request from the village elder, who they called the big man, for two bottles of whiskey, I soon replied that I had no whisky. After an afternoon sleep we motored south again.
A full moon all night, so bright I could almost read, but little wind so we motored south and then east. Next morning I filled the aft tank and all the ready use bottles with fresh water from the Schenker water maker. Our route south east was well offshore, at least ten miles, but the area on the charts was un-surveyed, it was still surprising to find reefs so far from land and in water that was otherwise a hundred metres deep. One moment plane sailing, the next we could see a colourful garden below us with only a couple of metres of water over it. We might not have been paying attention if we hadn't seen the sea break on similar reefs nearby. The second night was not so pleasant, thunderstorms and torrential rain, I filled all our buckets with rainwater for rinsing out our washing.