Release Date 1/26/2010

Right as I got in the water these people went by on this boat towing a kid standing on a surfboard. It looked just like my youth, with me and my friends skimboarding up and down the river on a piece of plywood. The kid didn’t get a lot of style points, but he stayed up, and they were moving pretty fast…

I had a cold so had to take a few days off of paddling. Plans of doing a massive weekend trip were cancelled, but I finally felt good enough to go today.

I paddled out to Edamango Island again. It is about 2.5 NM away, but the wind was again blowing pretty heavily right out of the west so it took over an hour to get there. I nailed the boat on the reef pretty good coming into shore. It was the classic stay on the back of the wave, but of course I couldn’t and even laying flat on the back of the boat the bow got buried in the water and smacked the rock. I beached the kayak and did a bit of snorkeling.

This is the same island where Kate said all the beautiful blue coral on the beach is a kind of fire coral, so it was unpleasant swimming out to the reef. At points it was only about 1 ft deep with the swell exposing the rocks. I often hear a voice in my head like Homer Simpson “Ha Marine Biologist what does she know, Humph” but I am a bit smarter than Homer so I put my paddling shoes on my hands and managed to get over the rocks without getting stung.

It was overcast and all stirred up by the wind, but this was clearly the best place for coral I have ever seen. There are huge expanses of growing coral all kinds. It was all a dusky gray because of the, overcast day, and sediment. “Crappy visibility” of only 20ft. It must be amazing in the sun on a calm day. I saw tons of little fish and even a few little grouper all less than 2ft long. You can tell the tasty fish, they take off as soon as they see you.

I did a bunch of free dives. The coral is all shallow, at 30 ft it was just pebbly rocks and sand, but if it wasn’t so windy and the current so strong I could have gone out a lot further and maybe found a rise out in the water where there were bigger fish.

It got a little intense at one point as I got around the point of the island because the current got really strong. Like if you don’t use your hands to do the crawl you are going to go backwards and be swept out to sea kind of strong.

I saw a turtle right when I got in the water. Its head was buried in the rocks eating algae, and it totally freaked when it looked up and saw me 10 ft away. They can really move when they want to. I wonder how the locals catch them, and this was just a little guy.

I also saw a really cool black tipped reef shark about 2ft long, cruising in amongst the rocks..

I screwed-up my sinuses by freediving, and haven’t been the same since. I guess I wasn’t officially “better” yet.

On the way back in I saw a great sunset, and as usual the wind died so I didn’t get a free ride in. I couldn’t surf in either because the swell was almost directly broadside.

The next day there was a tremendous storm about 6AM while I was eating breakfast and 2 huge banana trees fell over in the yard. I chopped them up with our machete (bush knife). Banana trees have very shallow root systems and are always the first to go in a storm.

You can’t tell from the picture but this stalk of them weighs about 50 pounds. These were cooking bananas, like plantains in the US, and I made them for dinner. They have a nasty sticky sap in them, that I can NOT get off of the cutting board or the knife. They tasted ok, like plantains, but the dogs didn’t like them at all. I probably should have covered them with salt and butter that’s how I ate it.

I want the “house meri” literally house woman, but means the person who cleans our house to take them. I left her a note, let’s see if it was understandable….

Bikpela Win Bugarup Bananna Tri. Ples Yu kisim dispela I Kai Kai.
Big Wind broke banana tree. Please take them and eat.

Its got one of my favorite Tok Pisin words in it. Buggarup. Eg Buggered-Up, means broken….

Hopefully she won’t chop down all the other trees in the yard, or cook one of the dogs, because what I wrote made no sense…

Truth:
Something about the weather, but I can’t make it out…

Release Date 1/19/2010

1/19/2010

Also no bottle sorry, hope I don’t have to rename the blog….

After a particularly frustrating day at work I went out to paddle. Kate is out of town on a trip with some friends in India, so went out fairly late for a short trip. I paddled out around Nusa Island. It has been very windy lately, and the swell has been big. It is deceiving in the harbor, but once you pass the reef into the real sea it hits you.

This day it reminded me of the Atlantic. The ocean was a dark gray, swell from the sea, and wind waves on top of them. It was impressive. Unlike home it was not cold and upleasant. It was overcast, but still about 80 degrees, and even a chilly willy like me was comfortable in just a shirt and shorts.

I went around the two islands out the point to check out the new house we want to rent. We have found a ramshackle house on the coast that the owners want to fix-up and rent to us.

Inside it really looks like a beach shack. It is only about 30feet from the shore, and there is the constant roar of the surf smashing into the reef about 100 yards away. I hope we don’t go deaf.

The big revelation today was that about 50 yards away from the house it looks like I can do a launch, into surf, but not the terrible surf that comes in from the North. Maybe I can keep some of the kayaks under the house. Fingers crossed…. They have to actually do the work and fix it up, since it is falling down, but we are totally ready to go if it happens.

Unfortunately my camera battery went dead, so I couldn’t get a picture of it. I did get a nice picture of the surf crashing into “the blowhole” This was pretty interesting since it is sheer rock right on the coast, and massive clapotis coming out while the surf comes in. The picture doesn’t do it justice. It could be Wales…. This spray is about 30ft high…

Release Date 1/16/2010

Publish Post

No bottle
1/16/2010 paddled out to Rawl left 14:45, back at 18:45. It was pretty windy, wind was from the NW at about 10 or 15 knots, and there was big swell from the NW ~ 6ft sometimes with a very slow period. It was ok to paddle in, but I definitely had to keep paying attention.

I got out to Edamango Island in about an hour. I had my mask so did some rolls to checkout the bottom and took a few pictures. Most of which didn’t really come out. Funny thing about underwater pictures they are never even close to the real thing., specially with my point and shoot camera.

Because there was so much swell it had churned the bottom up, and there was no visibility in a lot of spots, but it was easy to tell where it was clear from the surface. I want to come back here and go snorkeling as soon as I can. I can leave the boat on the beach and just swim out, so I don’t have to worry about losing it. When it is windy and current is strong it is just too stressful to try and do any freediving because I have to keep checking on the kayak, the paddle leashed to the kayak, if I am drifting the surf, etc etc…


After hanging around for a bit I paddled on out to Rawl and did a bit of the same thing there. I then beached the boat and had a snack and a drink before heading back. I did some more checking of the reef here. I think it is as nice or nicer, but I had to get out quite away from the island before the water was clear enough to see anything.

I have been doing the roll over with a mask to check out the bottom, and I keep having a problem where I get disoriented and have trouble rolling back up. There is something about using the mask under water that makes it difficult. I actually find it a lot easier to come up if I just close my eyes and then go into the mechanical roll mechanism.

Release Date 12/26/2009

I have been paddling more and more, but not releasing a bottle most times because of laziness, and the lack of a good supply of garbage bottles.

Kate and I did get out on Boxing Day. We saw a large ship in the harbor that was picking-up a bunch of logs. They just seemed to toss the logs on the ship and tie them all together. These must have been beautiful trees all tropical hardwood.

We did a lot of work fixing-up Kate’s office over the holidays, and some of it was carpentry. It is funny when you go to the lumber yard and buy a 2x4 or a plank. All they have is beautiful hardwood, it isn’t all that expensive, and there is no other option. It makes me sad to think of all the trees that are cut down, and at the same time I am thinking about filling my luggage with boards the next time I go back to NYC for work.

The extremely hard wood, coupled with very crappy and cheap nails makes pounding a nail into a board a very difficult job. I resorted to pre-drilling for a lot of it, or went through 4 or 5 nails for every one that got pounded in.

On 12/26 we went out to Edmago island. We wanted to do some snorkeling, but it was too late by the time we got out there. We found a bunch of dead fire coral on the beach, so if we do go snorkeling here, we are going to have to be very careful. We now have a pile of beautiful blue dried coral. Unfortunately it fades when dry, but when it is wet it looks really nice.

My attempts at fishing have been met with continued failure. We come across these schools of voracious tuna feeding. When we are in the motor boat we have done pretty well catching them, but I can’t seem t o get them in my kayak. Part of the problem is that they move so fast.

When I see them jump I guess they are moving at 20 miles an hour. While they are feeding they stay in one place. I have had to paddle as fast as I can for 10 or 15 minutes to get to them, then I usually get one or two passes through them before they stop feeding and take off.

I tried spearfishing one day, but that didn’t go so well either. The day I went the current was very strong like 2 or 3 knots. It was too dangerous to try and drift since the boat moved so fast in the current and the wind. I would go down for a minute, then have to chase it for a long time to catch-up to it. Instead I dove down and tied my kayak to a large rock with my toe rope. Then I would swim for 10 or 15 minutes as hard as I could to just 20 or 30 yards upcurrent to make a dive.

At one point I did see a fairly large fish, and I dove down to check him out, but as soon as he saw me the fish headed up toward me (this is not normal behavior, and can be a bit disconcerting – the hunter becomes the hunted and all that) When he got closer I realized why, it was a remora!

Remora have a large suction cup on the top of their head, and they attach themselves to other large animals, usually sharks, and get a free ride. This annoying fish bothered me for the whole rest of the time. He kept getting closer and closer, and looking at my soft white underbelly. Fortunately he didn’t attach himself to me, or I would have gotten and industrial sized hicky…

One other day I did go scuba diving with an outfitter, Scuba Ventures. This was really nice. They took us to a great place that had tons of fish. I saw lots of large mackerel and barracuda. I even saw a huge grouper on the reef. The local chief who controls this area forbids fishing there, and it is too far away, so I won’t be going back with my speargun, but it was nice to see what might be possible.

I included some pictures of them trying to move Kate’s storage container. The little forklift wasn’t quite strongpella enough so we had to empty the container first, and even then it could only lift it about 6 inches up in the air. See if you can see the tires in the pictures, when the guy lifts it, the tires go almost all the way flat because of the weight.

One day I saw a beautiful rainbow at the end of the day as I was coming in. You will have to squint to see it in the picture.

The sky here is often just incredible in the late afternoons. The air is very clear, and there are these great colors that often peak through the clouds. It is most spectacular when it is a bit overcast. In the same view of the horizon you can see clear blue sky, 45 degrees in one direction it will be almost black because of a storm, in the middle all the other possible shades. I have taken pictures, which actually look pretty good, but nothing compared to seeing it live. I have seen this type of sky at some time on almost every day I go out. There are a lot of late afternoon storms, and when you can see the entire horizon there is almost one somewhere off in the distance.

On 1/10/2010 I went for a 4 hour paddle by myself. I am slowly trying to get back in shape, I think I’m getting used to the heat. I went out past the Lissieng resort almost to Manne Island. I want to do a trip out through Albatross passage to the other side of New Ireland. In 2 hours I got most of the way there, so I could easily do a day trip if I left in the morning.

On the way back I found a whole bunch of grapefruit someone had dumped in the water. This was similar to the huge orange slick we found one day off of Sandy Hook in NYC. They were edible, but really tough and not very juicy.

On this same trip I also came across a small sea bird standing on a floating coconut. It was like he was just taking a rest bobbing up and down on the waves. He seemed perfectly content, and didn’t pay any attention to me.

I would have to stay overnight, but someday I would like to get all the way to the Mite Island where Kate got our dog Mitey. I need to go past Manne Island, and through the Albatross Passage. I’m wondering if there might be heavy currents in this pass since it is pretty narrow between two large islands.

The chart doesn’t show anything, but my charts are from the US Defense department, and I think were originally created for the war. They have things on them about not anchoring or “bottoming a submarine” in the harbor because only the surface has been swept for mines.

I have been spending a bit, but not enough, time going through the Tok Pisin book trying to learn t he language. The most fun thing to do is just leaf through the dictionary, the variety of racist, and funny terms is hilarious. One I saw recently is “longpella pik” longpella means tall or long, almost always used for a person. Pik is pig or pork, but when you put the two together it is what cannibals call human fesh, basically long pork, since a person is taller and thinner than a pig. It is a little funny that a fairly new modern language, it can’t be more than 150 years old has a word for human flesh. It really wasn’t that long ago that they were eating each other, yikes!!!

12/26/2009 Truth breeze and shade are good.

Release Date 12/6/2009

I released this message off of the South Coast of New Ireland about 120 miles south of Kavieng. Kate and I went down to a resort called Rubio Plantation for a few days. It was a nice break to get away, and a really pretty place.

We released the bottle while snorkeling and free diving. We were checking out the reef when we found a huge Danforth anchor, and we started a salvage operation. It was too big to lift, but the owners of the resort gave us a float to tie to it, and they were going to bring a boat and bunch of strong guys to do the lifting later on.

The resort is a cocoa plantation (that is the plant they get chocolate from NOT the plant they get cocaine from that is called coca!!). They include a fresh chocolate desert with every dinner, and you bring your own booze.

In addition to the free diving we went for a hike to a waterfall up in the hills.

You can’t just go hiking, you have to have a guide in PNG because there are no hiking trails, and almost every inch of land is privately owned. The guide is usually a member of the family that owns the land.

It is always a bit intimidating when you show up with your backpack, hiking shoes, water, sun protection, etc etc, and the local people aren’t even wearing shoes. It quickly becomes embarrassing when you can’t keep up with them, and the little 5 year old kids tagging along, are going faster than you are, and are not breaking a sweat.

We enjoyed getting into the forest. They took us to a swimming hole with a nice waterfall in the background. I very cautiously edged out on a log to jump in, but of course the locals just jogged across the log like it was a sidewalk to do their jumps.

We had to drive down to the resort. Nobody has a sign, so the directions were go 220 Km and look for 2 carved fence posts. We learned a number of things on this drive:
-The pavement stops at 180KM, so you have to go slower than usual.
-The odometer on Kate’s truck is off by almost 10%. We went way past the resort…
-If you give Papua New Guineans a ride, they will sometimes leave machetes (bush knives they call them) in your truck. We gave about 10 different groups rides, and got 2 new bush knives. Everybody out in the country from little kids to grown-ups walks around with a giant knife in their hand. I can’t imagine why they would leave them in our truck. We think maybe they were not thinking straight because white people never pick them up. We did feel bad about it since most of the people are very poor, and they were probably quite upset when they realized they lost their favorite tool.

We saw a number of guest houses and places to stay. I hope to someday take advantage of them and do a long kayak trip going from guest house to guest house.

I am just recently back from a work trip to NYC, so this was a great way to spend my first weekend back in the country. While I was away Kate went to an island where the people living there had moved away, and abandoned all their dogs. One of the dogs was a cute little puppy, so we now have a brand new doggie.

His name is “Mighty” because the clan who owned the island is called the “Mite” clan. He was full of ticks, fleas, skin problems, and worms. Fortunately there was a vet visiting one of the local resorts, and were able to get him checked out. He got a vaccination, some frontline flea treatment, and we are giving him de-worming pills. They don’t have special de-worming pills for dogs. You just go to the pharmacy, get the people pills, and break them in half.

We had talked about getting a puppy when we first got here, but we “decided” that we wouldn’t do that. As soon as we started feeding the neighbor’s dog, who we renamed “Stinky” we were afraid he would be too territorial. Stinky is a nice dog, but he is vicious whenever another dog comes around and he has some food. I once watched him almost choke to death while trying to eat a big T-bone and growl at the other dogs at the same time.

Stinky is not as dumb as he looked. Once Kate made it clear that Mighty was here to stay, Stinky became very friendly to him. They now cuddle-up to sleep, and Stinky even puts up with Mighty play biting him. See the video of Mighty attacking Stinky.

Stinky is also a pretty good watch dog, but he has a bad habit of attacking people on the street in front of the house, and only attacking about ¾ of people that come into the yard. A few weeks ago he went after somebody cutting through the yard. The guy jumped out of his flip flops and ran away. Stinky spent the rest of the night chewing up the flip-flops. If you just feed a dog regularly they quickly become bigger and stronger than all the other dogs.


Release date 12/13/2009

I went out for a paddle on Sunday. I didn’t get on the water until 13:45, but I got a good paddle in since I didn’t get back until 17:15. I still haven’t been paddling much and I’m not in shape for it.

It was fairly windy, which the wind coming from the West at about 15kts.

I went down to Usineen Island, then around Usineen Lik island, I got to Limonack Island and turned around.

There were people living on Usineen Island, but I think Usineen Lik might be uninhabited, it was very small, and I didn’t see anyone.

I did a bit of fishing on the way back, but didn’t catch anything.

The paddle back was a slog, the Wind which had been almost directly from the South when I started, shifted to the West a bit for the ride home. I was paddling the Meridian which does not have a skeg, so I had to fight for much of the return trip. After a few hours I was pretty tired and just wanted to be home.

There is supposed to be good Tuna fishing in Albatross pass further to the South, so I’m going to leave a bit earlier, and take a faster boat next time so I can make it all the way down there.

I did see a pretty big Turtle on the way home.

Truth: “Sometimes things don’t fit”

12/16/2009
No bottle release…
I went with Kate to one of the villages she works in, a place called Kavalik on the Tsoi Islands about 30 miles West of Kavieng.

They were having a ceremony commemorating the “King Tide” event of one year ago. The King Tide was a period of exceptionally high tides accompanied by rough seas. It did a huge amount of damage here.

This village was especially hard hit because their houses are very close to the water and very low.

The ceremony was really interesting. They had different senior members of the community come up and describe a period of time during the 3 or 4 day event, what they saw, and what happened. Kate then gave a little talk as well.

After that there was some Christian singing by the choir, and then some traditional music and dancing. I’m going to try and put a video of it up.

We joked with the older guy with the Ray Charles haircut and sunglasses that the song must be about killing white people. He just smiled, but he didn’t say “NO”. It is clearly about killing or fighting. Notice the little kids. The ones on the left have toy axes, the ones on the right knives. The key elements of the dance step are stabbing and chopping motions. At the end of our visit they gave us the 2 big placards the guys are holding up. They were carved wood, and made just for this presentation.

I posted a picture of Kate starting her speech. You can’t tell, but she is trying to decide if she should have the village punish me. They really like her there, so I have to be on best behavior when we are there.

There is also a picture of me eating something naughty from the CITES banned list. “What I thought it was lamb, I didn’t know” Kate refused to eat it.

On the way back we caught some Tuna that we had for dinner, see the picture of me with the fishing line. I am hauling the fish aboard, look in the water for the fish. They are amazingly fast swimmers, and when they are feeding you will often see a 10lb fish launch itself and fly out of the water. I’m still trying to get one in my kayak, but I can’t paddle fast enough to get in the feeding frenzy before they move.

Release Date 11/5/2009

I quit work early to go for an afternoon paddle.

My plan was to try and see some of the stand-up paddle boarders surfing. There was a big group of them in town at Nusa Resort this week, but they must have gone down the coast somewhere because they weren’t at any of the 3 breaks around town.

I puttered around in the waves for a while, and then decided to paddle around Nusa and Nusa Lik as the sun was setting.

It was a picture perfect afternoon, the worst of the heat was over, and there was a slight following seas, so it made for a really nice paddle.

I went by the dive site called the “blow hole” I took a video that should say why. It must really be dramatic if there is any real surf here since the waves just pound into the rock here with no break from the reef. I will definitely have to come back, but not get too close!!

I also got to see the airplane landing. It always makes a very dramatic run right over the northern corner of the harbor. It is a great view out of the plane, and an even better one if you are sitting in the water watching it swoop down on you.

It was a really nice afternoon, especially as it started to get dark. The sky was so very very clear, with really interesting looking clouds and beautiful colors. I am including a couple of pictures that started to capture it. The pictures after the sun has just set show a bit of the colors.

One of the nice things about where we live is that the sun sets over the water, just like it does on the West Coast of Florida. From the harbor the sun sets over Nusa island, you have to go up and down t he coast or get out in a boat to see it set on the water. I couldn’t stay out long enough to see it set over the water because I hadn’t been into the harbor entrance from this angle, and I didn’t want to wander into a surf break in the dark, but I took the pictures back on the land side of the island.

There were some cool looking boats in the harbor on my way back in. They looked a lot like the pole and line tuna fishing research boat. They might have once been tuna boats, but have not been converted to ferrying cargo. Yes the name of the one in the picture really is “Elf Ride #2” It didn’t seem to have any Elves on it, maybe they were on shore leave hunting for WW II relics or something.

I’m writing this in the Brisbane Airport on my way back to the US for a few weeks of work, and no paddling. I had a really long layover in Port Moresby. I am a member of the “Executive Club” the Air Niuginni club for business travelers. Kate and I joined it because we were told that it would keep us from getting bumped. It also gives us an added baggage allowance. The little clubhouses are nice, there isn’t one Kavieng, but almost other airports seem to have them. Free food and booze while you are waiting, as well as comfy chairs and soap in the bathrooms, you can’t beat it.

It is a good idea to hit the sandwiches hard and early when they come out. Kate ate some in Kokopo a few weeks that had been sitting around for a while. Egg and Ham salad laying around in the tropics, I’m not that tough. I just had cookies. Today I was the first one in the club so I know they were fresh.

My flight landed in Port Moresby at 8:00AM, and I don’t leave for Brisbane until 4:30PM, so it’s a really long layover. I went right up and banged on the door of the club, but a grouchy lady told me to go away and come back later. It was classic PNG where she was pissed off telling me it was too early at 10:00AM, but then came out and found me in the lobby when it actually opened and sweetly invited me to come in, she had just made sandwiches. Then gave me a big smile and told me to have a nice flight. If people are pissed off here, they get over it quickly, or maybe they aren’t really pissed off, I just can’t figure it out sometimes.

The little shops in the airport were open, and I’m thinking this might actually be a good place to buy souvieneers. The baskets were really nice, and just a tad overpriced. The coffee was only K1.50 more than it is in the market in Kavieng. One place was actually selling beautiful tortoiseshell jewelry. That is totally wrong and illegal, but some of the pendants were beautiful. I was tempted, but I’m still feeling bad for the little bit of turtle meat some guy gave me last month. Fried in butter it was better than steak! Someone told us again that they saw a turtle for sale in the market on Friday. I have to make a point of going on Fridays. I am just going to buy them and release them.

PNG is one of the only places where we can be big spenders. I joined the “Kavieng Club” last week. We can now use the clubhouse facilities, including the golf course, and entertain our friends and family. We were advised that white people didn’t need to join anyway, and are always allowed in but we felt we ought to, especially since I have been playing golf there.

Kate took her staff to the club to celebrate the end of the field season, and one of the guys won a giant meat tray. This is an Australian thing, they have a drawing in the bar for a tray of meat. This being PNG they didn't actually have any meat on hand, and we had to come back. When we came back there was still no meat to be had, but we got some money and a voucher for the butcher. A family membership for the two of us for the rest of the year was 50 Kina, about $20. The Executive Club is 500 Kina, so I only have to drink $200 worth of beer and eat a bunch of sandwiches. They have wine too. No hard liquor, but they probably don’t have that in other airline clubs either. I think I have already saved $200 on overweight baggage, so its all gravy from now on.

I’m always impressed by people’s luggage. Today one guy checked a giant mellon or squash. I was waiting for my bag, and this big vegetable came buy on the belt with a tag that said “Fragile” looped around the stem. There were also a bunch of split opened cardboard boxes with different kinds of bananas. Kate told me in Vanuatu she saw a puppy taped into a box with just his head sticking out. That I would like to see.

I still haven’t found my pet pig. Kate tried to buy one for me for my birthday. She posted a sign down at the market with a drawing. I’m not sure where I was supposed to keep it. I’m sure we aren’t zoned for agricultural pets, and I don’t think stinky would like it if I let him run around the yard. I’d want to train him to be a watch pig.

Truth: Clouds can be beautiful

Release Date 10/24/2009

Kate and I planned to go to Rawl island and have a campout on Saturday night. Rawl is about 3 or 4 NM from Kavieng. It is a cool little tiny island. I went there about a month when some guy took me fishing. Although it is small it has a huge tree with an Osprey nest on it.


Kate knows the people who’s family owns it, and we got permission to stay over. In Papua New Guinea somebody owns everything.


We left to paddle out there around 15:30. We did a bit of trolling and lollygagging around, and arrived about 17:00. We had to paddle around the island to find a spot with no surf, but there was a calm sheltered beach on the south side.


You can see from the picture that the island is probably only 20 or 30 yards in diameter.


There is a perfect little grassy tent site up over looking the beach.


I started to feel kind of bad after we landed. Kate knew I was sick when I turned down booze and a campfire after dinner. Those two things, and a midnight swim are some of my favorite campout activities.

I felt worse and worse as the night progressed, didn’t sleep well, and couldn’t eat anything in the morning, so we paddled back home. That wasn’t fun in the boiling hot sun, but by taking a few swims on the way we made it home.

I managed to fit 3 little kids on my kayak back near the dock. I think I could do 4 or 5 before the boat got really hard to keep upright. The problem is if I flipped I would bean them trying to roll up. The local kids are always very curious about kayak paddling, since they are used to their outrigger canoes.