As predicted the wind was strong all weekend, so we stayed put in Sewa Bay in Normanby. The locals paid us several visits and we began to build friendships with some of them. Their lives were simple, but not that easy. On Sunday afternoon a man from a Catholic mission from the far side of the bay paid me a visit, asking for the captain. He then advised me, in all seriousness, that he had heard that pirates intended to pay us a visit that evening and we should consider leaving. I thanked him, with a straight face, and he left. Charley and I wracked our brains for his motive; our best bet was that he believed we were corrupting his flock, whatever his motive we thought it most unlikely that pirates would take him into their confidence. Needless to say no pirates came.
We could not have left that evening as the weather was too bad, not that we wanted to. Next morning at dawn, five o'clock in these parts, I pulled up the anchor. Many of the children of the small village waved us goodbye, I don't know if they always start their day that early but I doubt it. We hoisted the main and put two reefs in it, even though the wind inside the bay was only six knots. We asked a man that had been outside all night fishing about the wave heights, he said that they were OK. To begin with they were, but as we went further from the narrow entrance the wind increased. The most we saw was thirty two knots. We were well prepared and Charley was feeling better so we were content with our situation. The current against was two and a half knots on the near side of the channel, this decreased as we made our way, hard on the wind, to the other side, we then tacked and made some progress to the east. This continued for about five hours, after which we entered a buoyed channel between islands and reefs. We were then about twelve miles from our starting position. The channel was ten degrees further from the wind but still not enough for us to sail our course. We had to put several tacks in, but each one was easier than the last. The wind was about eighteen to twenty knots and the waves were small due to the islands. After about ten miles we left the last mark to starboard and our course alteration left the wind on our port beam. With a clean bottom and a relatively light ship we took off, seven and a half to eight knots, both boat speed and over the ground, as the tide was on our beam as well. The next eighteen miles took only two and a half hours. There were one or two rogue waves so a bit of spray came inboard, but it was sunny and warm so that mattered not. The next two waypoints were harder on the wind but only a little. The earlier delay meant that we had missed the helpful tide in the China Strait, and that meant an unhelpful tide to come, the pilot books spoke of three to six knots. As we entered yet another narrow channel, the multitude of islands ensured flat water despite a reasonable breeze, the three knots against was easily overcome by our six to seven knots of boat speed. Our hopes of anchoring in daylight increased having seemed impossible earlier in the day. A couple of tacks and a final flourish and we arrived ready to anchor at Samurai Island. We saw people on the jetty and anchored, ten minutes before it was dark. The day began rather difficult but ended one to remember.
Next morning after breakfast we lowered the rib and added the outboard, even though the dock was only fifty metres away. Rowing against a three knot current was not an option. As soon as we stepped ashore a lady said"I saw you last night, my husband is the Customs officer, and he is away for a month". She then went on to explain that we would have to go to another port for our outward clearance, the nearest being Alotau. I immediately thought of leaving PNG without clearing out, but the next country would be Australia and their officials have a reputation to uphold, so I doubt that they would be sympathetic. We knew that there was a shop and a market on the island so we had high hopes of improving our stores. Both were a huge disappointment. I won't, but I could from memory recount the entire stock of the market. We returned to Loggerhead, disappointed.
The linear drive to the autopilot had given up on the last leg but fortunately I had a brand new spare, exchanging old for new was one of the jobs I intended to do before we sailed to Australia, now I did it before we sailed north again back into Papua New Guinea, while I did that Charley backed fresh bread. We then made ready to sail, we would of course have to pass through the China strait, and as before the tide was against us, this time at up to four knots. We persevered and just before dusk arrived at Alotau. I fished on the passage and had one bite, something so substantial that it bent the hooks while freeing itself. As usual anchoring was difficult, the shore was steep to, and the only area we could find that was shallow enough was close to a reef.
Next morning, after a sleepless night, we saw how close we had been to disaster. A coral wall was only three metres away; the rudder would have been the first thing to touch. Yet again our luck was in.
We readied the rib and went ashore, the supermarkets were full of edible provisions, and I even bought a case of beer. The customs paperwork was effortless and so we returned to the yacht. I then made two trips to a garage for diesel, we pulled up the anchor and motored back towards the China strait.