Release Date 3/7/2011

I went out for a short paddle down the coast. I tried a bit of fishing, but I have continued my streak of zero fish and a lot of frustration with weeds and tangles. I think I am going to try using just monofilament line. It is very hard to manage, but the problem might be that because the water is so clear the fish see the fabric line, even though I have a long clear leader on it.

I went down to Panapai, and I think I found a cut in the reef that we could land in if we ever go down to visit friends who live there. I got back in just over an hour with some fairly viggorus paddling, even though because of the fishing it took over 1.5 hours to get there.

There was a lot of floating seaweed around, and I saw many little islands of crabs living on the coconuts and logs that were floating. Seems like they don’t like trash because its usually light colored, and they crabs show-up too much.

I’m getting ready for another trip back to NYC for work. I leave on Friday. I go via Las Vegas for a conference.

We have all kinds of problems with rats in our office. Kate gave me some hand sanitizer and they chewed into it, drank a bunch, and then chucked the bottle on the floor. Later that morning one of the rats came out and ran by me, they usually don’t do that during the day, but I think he “had a load on.”

I was able to save most of it, and I transferred into a glass jar, but that didn’t stop them; the next night they just nawwed a whole in the top to have their little drinky winky. I guess I can’t leave it in the office any more.

I have added hand sanitizer to the growing list of things the rats have eaten going from less to more toxicity:

Dried Ramen

Milk, they took the whole carton.

Coffee.

Bettelnut

Hand Sanitizer

Super Glue

These are TOUGH animals. I hope they don’t turn on us.

Truth: If possible don’t take things apart.

Release Date 2/21/2011

On Sunday Kate and I went out to Nusa resort to try paddling a double kayak, and it went surprisingly well. We went out to the blow-hole dive site for some snorkeling the same place I went last week. It was a bit rough and the water was kind of stirred-up, but the paddling was fine.

They have a number of double boats out there, We took a fairly short Italian kayak that wasn’t very fast and didn’t have hatches, but it was light and easy to maneuver. They have a much larger 3 piece one that we are going to try next time. The big one is big enough to camp out of. It has hatches and is very long, but it is really heavy.

We are thinking things might be a good solution for us, since Kate doesn’t like paddling as much as I do, and isn’t into paddling hard, but is happy to sit in the boat while I get a good workout. Since there are 2 of us we will probably be as fast as if I was by myself.

On the way back in we came across the most incredible school of small fish I have ever seen. We could not see to the end of it from the surface or under the water, and we swam almost 50 yards apart from each other, and we were both in the middle of it.

We took some videos, but you can’t get a scope of the size of the school because the camera doesn’t see that far under water, but all the shadows and black splotches on just masses of fish.

On Monday and I didn’t have to go to the office. I planned on a big day of kayaking, but I started to work on something and got carried away. The next thing I knew it was 3:00PM and I didn’t have much time left for paddling!

I sure found a nice office, check it out. That white space above and to the left of the monitor is the ocean.




The surf was pretty big, as it has been for a while, so I don’t want to come home after dark and deal with it.

As soon as I got out in the water 2 dolphins swam right up next to me. Because I was so close to the breakers they didn’t hear me, and I got right up to them.


Kate was out doing a visit to one of the communities they work in, and she had to go and set-up a planning meeting. My plan was to get out near Nago island so that I could see her when she came back, but she had landed before I even launched, so I wasn’t even close.

She did do some fishing on the way home, so I had tasty tuna for dinner when I got there. Once I got around past Nusa the sea was very smooth, since the swell was in the other direction and the wind had died. I got a great sunset. In the picture you can see the sun dropping below the Island of New Hanover way in the distance.



When I got back near our house there was pretty good size swell. A guy was driving by me in a motor boat as I was nervously putting on my helmet for the return to shore. He waved, but I noticed later when he saw that I was going in he turned around. I like to think it was to help me, but it might have just been curiosity to see if the white man would be smashed to pieces.

I managed to get past the first really big break, but a big mass of white water caught me and I capsized in the shallow water. The wave was so big that it was plenty deep enough to roll back up. I did loose my pump so I had to actually paddle around a bit in a very heavy tidal rip and the surf to recover it.

I got a good audience of local people on the shore watching, and of course the guy in the boat was waiting for me to get blown out past the breakers again. In the end it was ok I recovered the pump, and was able to paddle back up against the rip tide to our house.

I’m not sure what the best strategy is for this big dumping surf, other than of course the obvious not to paddle in it. It almost seems like I might be better trying to go in sideways since if the boat starts to surf the bow gets nailed into the bottom. I don’t like the idea at all of trying to lay over sideways into a 4 foot wave either.

Release Date 2/8/2011

I went right on to snow and ice in NYC from our vacation and didn’t get back to PNG and into the water until February.

The surf has finally died down a bit so it is only a little bit dangerous to kayak out from our house now, but I make sure to always wear my helmet.

I wasn’t paying attention when this boat pulled out so I missed it, but I tried to hitch a free ride. They were trailing a skiff and then a rope from the skiff. This is an old Indonesian ferry boat that a local guy has bought. It is pretty narrow and has huge outriggers made of trees hanging off either side. This is a very lousy video of it.

Truth: If you look for something you can usually find it.

Release Date 1/8/2011

The picture is from the Sydney Harbor bridge way way up high.


These 2 guys were booking along on surf skis. Paddling the Sydney makes NYC look like a country lane. The traffic was tremendous, but these dudes were going right down the middle of the channel in their skis with no PFDs.


We went to NZ for a vacation over new years. I was too lazy to take a lot of pictures, and I haven’t gotten copies from Kate. I released a note on a piece of wood in NZ a week later. The beaches and coastline were really spectacular.

On the beach where I released the note we saw a penguin sitting up in the cliff. We tracked him from the water and found him sitting up in the weeds staring at us like Burgess Meridith.


No Truth: (there was no room on the piece of wood).

Release Date 12/21/2010

I went for a short afternoon paddle. I hadn’t been out in a long time…

I went by my favorite spot for surf pictures, the blow-hole. And got a short movie. This would definitely be a 5 star plus landing. Paddle up on the rocks at high tide, and land, then get the hell out of the boat quickly before the next wave.

Kate made this note for our “haus meri” describing how to feed the

dogs and asking her to keep an eye out for the top to her water bottle.

Truth: Christmas is coming.

New Paddle Date 1/15/2011

Ok So I haven't been paddling and I'm in NYC with no drysuit and a ton of work to do, so I'll be spending a lot of time inside.

On my last trip back here I brought my broken paddle blades back and sent them to the "manufacturer" Onno Paddles. I love these paddles, and I felt so stupid when I broke mine by sliding the boat out of the rack with the paddle in the cockpit.

Patrick the owner of Onno is a great guy, and he very kindly offered to fix the broken one. I bought my first Onno when I broke a Werner paddle and they wouldn't fix it. Werner wouldn't even give me a discount or a break because I admited I broke it doing something stupid. Their solution was to throw it away and order another one, my solution was to find another manufacturer.

The problem with buying paddles through the mail is that the shipping is a killer so I ordered the fixed one to be put on a 2-piece shaft and then I ordered a new 1-piece. It came in this really cool wooden coffin/box. You don't get this with that mass produced crap from Werner!! Check it out...

Release Date 11/15/2010

I went out for an afternoon paddle. It was slightly overcast, so very comfortable, but the sea was surprisingly rough. It was a combination of 3ft plus swells with a lot of wind, and wind waves that made things very confusing.

I planned to go fishing, but abandoned that because it would have been too difficult to deal with a fish if I hooked one in the rough weather.

I just went out for 2 hours down the coast and back again. I paddled at a good clip and got a decent workout. At one point I was feel proud of myself for braving the surf and the rough sea when I noticed there was a guy out fishing in his outrigger canoe. His only safety gear was half a coconut shell for a bailer. I can’t imagine how they get the canoes with no bulkheads out through the surf. He said the he “slip here” and pointed to the shore. He wasn’t afraid to go fishing, in fact that is what he came for. Note his feet hanging over the side, his only concession to the rough sea.



I saw, or actually just saw the last bit of the most amazing thing. I looked over my shoulder and saw a big 3ft long fish flying through the air going straight back into water from over 5ft high. It must have jumped all the way up in the air, like 10ft and turned over and I saw it on the way down. I have never seen any fish jump anywhere near that high, and wish I had been closer, and also seen it from the start.

On the weekend Kate and I watched a huge pod of dolphins swim by our porch. They were little ones, and jet black stretching out for 100s of yards. We estimated there were over 100 of them. Also saw a bunch of frigate birds 25 or so flying around in giant circles gliding on the thermals.

Last Friday was a very interesting day, very much a day in the life of in PNG. We both had difficult mornings at work struggling with bad infrastructure and difficult people and situations.

Some guys came into Kate’s office with two tags they had taken off a sea turtle. A large turtle had climbed up on the shore to lay eggs in the middle of the night. It basically came right up to their shelter, dug a hole and started laying. The guys stopped it, ate the eggs, and were presumably planning on eating the turtle when they saw the tags. They brought the tags to Kate’s office, it took almost a week for them to get a ride and make it up to our town.

Kate has worked on sea turtle projects before, so she arranged a field trip out to see where it was caught, and if it was still alive. It turns out they hadn't killed it; they just flipped it over and left it on its back. Turtles aren’t limber enough to turn themselves over, and people don’t have fridges, so this is a good way to keep your food ready. They held off eating it because the tags might mean it was a special turtle or something. It sat there for 6 DAYS in the sun with dogs nipping at its flippers dying a slow death.


When we got there it was still alive, so Kate took all the necessary data points, and the local guys helpped her put the tags back on and they let it go. The tags were from Australia which is on the order of 1,000 miles away, so it made a very long journey!


This area of the coast was very beautiful. It is much calmer because it isn’t exposed to the surf like our side is. I think I could paddle all the way down here in a day, and get a ride back, so I’m thinking about doing that someday. We also saw a really cool archeology something, but it is secret now, so I can’t post any info on it.


Kate later found out that they aren't sure where the turtle was tagged.

Apparently some researches had taken these tags out for a research trip, but they never returned. They were out off the coast of Australia on the Great Barrier Reef, and they never returned. Their organization assumed they had capsized and were killed.


When we got back to town we went to “the club” associated with the golf course for a light supper. We feel so fancy now that we belong to a golf club and have dining privileges!

We started talking to an older ex-pat who had lived in the country for over 30 years. He was telling us various stories and getting loaded. Then he started yelling at the security guards working at the club because they were coming in, buying beer, and reselling it through the gate. It is not possible to buy beer after 5:00PM here in the store.

He made a stink because it was a violation of club rules, then when they did it again he grabbed a young guy and started throwing him around. One thing led to another, including the ex-pat’s kids getting scarred and starting to cry, it took 10 people to keep them apart.

The white guy left, we waited a while then we left too, but in the meantime somebody put bottles and nails under our tire so we got a flat before we got home. Presumably they thought we were in league with the other guy.

This is the 2nd time since we have been here we have befriended someone in a bar, then they get drunk, and make and ugly scene and we are branded the “friend of that a-hole xyz” While Kate and I were changing the tire 3 local guys in their church clothes showed up and helped us change the tire so the night ended on a nice note.

Truth: Reorganization Cleans things up