Sailing Canoes

Before long boats arrived the transport between the islands are the sailing canoe. Because of the isolation of the Lousiades the canoes are still widely used for trading between the islands.

tacking

The hull is symmetrical and to tack they reverse the direction of the boat and move the tack of the sail to the other end of the boat.

One of the jobs of the crew is to continuously bail out the boat.

The sail cloth is a mixture of  tarpaulins and donated old cruising sails. 

Panapompom Island 19/9/2010

Panapompom Island is an excellent anchorage in a large lagoon that has many  easy entrances.

The Australian Reef Pilots have a operation based there. They place pilots onto the bulk carriers that are to pass through the Hydrographers passage  on the way to Hay Point or Abbot Point coal loaders. The Bulk carriers that are going to China or Japan pass through the Jamard passge that is just to the west of the island.

This area was in the middle of the battle of the Coral Sea  fought during May 4–8, 1942. There is a Japanese Zero in 2m of water just off the beach.

 


























The guardians of the wreck are very aggressive to trespassers and will attack you no matter the size difference

Panasia Island 16/9/2010

Panasia island has an excellent anchorage , but the entrance was a narrow passage between the coral reefs.

It was the first time we had an opportunity to trade with the local people. Each family has an area of land where they grow bananas, yams, pumpkins, papaya. It is a slash and burn cultivation and they can only get 1 year of use out of the soil and then they have to go to a new area and clear it for the next season. We traded T shirts and fishing hooks for their produce. The main request was for soccer  boots.

Plenty of lobsters where available for trading for a T shirt

 

The people are Melanesian and the language spoken is Misaman, and is only spoken in the Lousiades and every one can speak English well. We are called "Dim Dims" in their language  and they take quite delight when we say "Dim Dims".

The archipelago is remote and does not get much assistance from the PNG government, so the cruising yachts are very welcome in the area as we are a good source for clothing, tools and medical supplies.

The trip across the coral sea. 11 of September

We departed Yorkeys Knob at 10:30 of the morning of Saturday the 11 of September. There were 26 boats in the rally ranging from a 17.5m Beneteau to a 10.6m Alejuela in the mono hulls and the largest catamaran was 16m long, we were the second smallest boat in the fleet.

We sailed through the Grafton passage at 1700 hours into the Coral Sea with a pleasant 15knt south easterly wind and then changed coarse to 50 degrees true slightly above the rumb line. As we got further from the coast the wind started to go slightly more to east, and ranged from 110 degrees to 131 degrees and the wind strength never got above 25knts and the seas were moderate.

By the second day the wind was consistently above 20knts, so we put 2 reefs in the main and put up the number 4 jib on the inner forestay, a bomb proof combination. The boat felt wonderful and Pukey the auto pilot had a very pleasant job. The apparent  wind was from 45 degrees to 60 degrees and this caused the occasional slam.

16m cat Le Belle

Landfall was spotted 1200 hours on Tuesday the 14 of September and we made our way through the Duchateau passage to the anchorage,where  we put the anchor down at 1430 in 10m of water after 4 days of sailing and 580nm of distance.