 |
| I almost forgot!!! While we were at Panapompom there was a fun race for all the yachts on the rally. There was only one rule - that we carry as many of the locals as possible on each yacht. This is a photo of Catherine driving the boat .. you can see we had a cockpit full. |
 |
| There were people sitting all over the top and the front of the boat as well! It was a fun day we decked the boat out in all the flags we had - all the yachts were very colourful. However, I found it a bit stressful. The thing that worried me were the 2 mothers with very small babies sitting on top of a heeling yacht breastfeeding!!! They didn't have a care in the world. I was worried they would get thrown off and finally got them to move into the cabin with their beautiful babies. |
US - Now
An update of what we're up to at the current moment.... George is still in his cast (7 weeks is going be a long long time!) and we're staying at Tim's house to make it easier for him to move around. We are so lucky to have such a good friend living here in Cairns! Thank you Tim!
We would very much like to get the boat further south and away from the coming seasonal threat of cyclones. Storm season officially starts up here in the tropics on Nov 1 - but, they haven't had a cyclone before Feb/March for decades. The weather isn't good for moving south right now. Its blowing hard from the Southeast consistently. We need the north easterlies to make the journey down the coast bearable. We've looked at options like moving the boat to a sheltered marina up the coast or arranging for a company to move it from Cairns Marlin Marina (where it is now) if a storm comes. So far they're all options and we haven't decided what to do. George thinks he and I will take the boat down the coast - with me doing everything and him sitting in his cast telling me what to do. I don't like that option and can tell you right now that isn't going to happen! Tim is going away for 5 days next week and we'll stay here to dog sit and then decide on how to move on.
So, for now, we're Cairns bound.
More Louisiades in pictures
 |
| We had a few days free after all the activities in Panapompom so we moved to an island called BoboEina along with the yachts Eclipse and Glide. We became great friends with Robert, Lauri and Dan on Eclipse and Kathy, Geoff, Janine and Mick plus the 5 kids on Glide! This is the 3 of us at anchor off BoboEina. |
 |
| There was a large hill looking down on BoboEina and Guy had said if we climbed the hill and took pictures we would wipe off all our rally fines (we never knew when we had earned rally fines but they were brought up towards the end to help raise more money for the local people). George, Catherine and much of the gang from Glide plus Lauri from Eclipse climbed that hill with the help of Sam and his family of 7 kids that lived there. |
 |
| It was Catherine's birthday so we all chipped in for a bracelet for her. The locals make necklaces called 'baggies' out of shells and coral. We asked Sam to change over a necklace to a bracelet ... this is his house and him working on the change over. |
 |
| After the bracelet was finished Sam and his family gave us a sing song. Beautiful. |
 |
| Birthday party and cake for Catherine aboard Glide. Great Night. |
 |
| Next stop with the whole rally back together again was Bagaman Island - a larger community with a school. Here's the Captain walking down the welcome line with his new lei. Bagaman Island has master wood carvers and their work is so lovely .. its amazing to see the sometimes primitive tools they use to create beautiful pieces for trade with visitors. |
 |
| At Bagaman we had a whole program of traditional dancers and songs. The only downside of the day was the slaughter of a pig for the festivities - pretty much in front of us. I realise that's how the people have to live - and that it was very special to do that for us - but Catherine and I were very squeamish about it. |
 |
| Tug of War on the beach. After a few busy days at Bagaman we moved to a place called the Blue Lagoon - which had an uninhabited island. All the yachties enjoyed a party on shore with tug of war games and lagoon cricket. It was good to have a day off from village life and just let our hair down on our own. The view and the lagoon was lovely. |
 |
| Donald - from Silvergull - and Catherine on the beach at the Blue Lagoon. I loved Donald. He was our rally elder and he had the best and most cool attitude towards everyone and all the local people. |
There is so much to show and tell about our trip. Hope I'm not boring any readers!
Tomorrow I'll tell you about the armed robbery and kidnapping that we found ourselves smack in the middle of in Misima.
No comments:
Post a Comment