Louisiades Rally – Part 2 (25th September – 4th October)

25/09
We left Panasia this morning for our new destination which is Panapompom in the Deboyne Group - the actual anchorage we stayed at was off Nivani which is right next to Panapompom.  We had good winds for the 21NM trip.  Again the anchorage is delightful and we are quickly in the water to check out our new surrounds.  We are at Panapompom for one of their major events of the year which is the Panapompom Regatta and Sports Festival and we have a busy couple of days ahead of us

Arriving for the
Panapompom Festival

26/09

We awoke to a rather grey morning which delayed the start of events but gave us all an opportunity to go for a snorkel on the Zero plane that did a forced landing on the island in the Second World War.  This was an awesome snorkel and we got to see a more types of tropical fish in this little area than what we had seen up the entire east coast and we finally we got to find Nemo and Marlin!
 

Great Paw Paw

After the snorkel we all headed for shore for the sing sing and start of the sporting festivities which involved some swimming and canoe races along with a craft and food market in the morning where we made some excellent purchases including bananas, passionfruit to die for, and the obligatory Paw Paw.  The big event for the day event was the Sailau race in the afternoon.  The competition is pretty fierce amongst the 3 divisions of Sailau’s and the prizes of sails, ropes, tarpaulins and cash are hotly sought after – we had many sailaus competing from the area including one that had come all the way from Sudest which is a 3 day sail away from Panapompom.

Getting ready for the Sailau Race

 

The Main Event - Sailau Race

27/09

Our Crew for the Fun Race

Some of the Dim Dims (white folk) partook in a fun sailau race in the morning and in the afternoon the Dim Dims got to take the locals for a sail in the fun race.  We ended up with around 25 on Sally and I think the record for the day was around 75 on both Reliance and Attitude.  The locals are excellent sailors and certainly took much interest in how we Dim Dims do things on yachts – of particular interest was the power winch!   They also seemed to enjoy tacking so we made sure we did plenty of these to keep them happy and we ended up with Captain Sammy steering for the last part of the race.  We met Captain Sammy when he came out to visit us in the morning for Coffee and Bikkies and with his credentials of 25years as a merchant seaman and a sailau sailor we figured we had it in the bag.   

We finished off the day with the presentation ceremony for all the races along with another Mumu (we are certainly getting our fair share of pork and yams on this trip)

28/09

Clinic at Panniet

The rain in Panapompom continued but this didn’t stop a group of Dim Dims (including Gina and I) from doing the trip over to Panniet on the sailaus.  I think we ended up with around 20 of us taking the trip over.  We ended up on a boat called Jelly Fish (which was the Sailau that had come all the way from Sudest for the regatta).  Panniet is a nice village and has a local clinic and primary school.  The clinic is not quite we would call a clinic but certainly plays a very important role in this community and is one of the key groups that the rally donates to.  We wandered around the village and were welcomed by the very friendly locals and ended up dropping in to the trading store where I managed to buy a new red bucket since one of our buckets went overboard a few days previous. 

Trading Store at Panniet

Waiting for the trip back to Nivani
New Red Bucket in hand!

29/09

We left Nivani and Panapompom on our way to Bagaman which is back in the Calvados Group of Islands (the biggest group in the Louisiades).  Not long after we dropped the anchor we had a visit from the famous Chief Gulo who made sure we signed his yachties book and we also gave him some Panadols for his aches and pains (from the discussion we figure he is now around about 85YO although this has also been disputed so who really knows).  The next visitors were Jerry the Muster organiser and Joseph.  We had a pretty relaxing arvo with a swim and snorkel off the back deck.  The people as always were delightful however, as this is one of the most popular anchorages for boats we did find their trading techniques a bit more sophisticated than what we had been used to.

30/09
We had a leisure day in Bagaman before the rest of the rally turned up in the arvo.  Many of the yachts had spent the 29^th in at Kamataal with Jimmy at the yacht club.  We are hoping to get their at some stage during the rest of our time in the LouisiadesAUD$10)

Trading for a Lobster Dinner

1/10

Getting a Tow by Team Rex!

We all went ashore to the main village for the Bagaman Muster.  Unfortunately we had to get a tow in by the Rex team as our dinghy motor is still playing up after the dinghy was flipped over at little Panasia – hopefully we will get it fixed for good soon!!  The muster started with the usual welcome dances and sing sings and we got to wander around the elementary school and again check out the craft market.  Bagaman is re-known for carvers so everyone was keen to check out their wares.  We ended up with our fair share of carvings and also a couple of Bagi which are beautifully crafted shell necklaces which they used to use for currency.  We finished off the day with yet another Mumu and then all the dim dims had to get up for a bit of a dance which was lots of fun and certainly provided much amusement for the locals.   This was a really well organised event and the locals had gone to an amazing amount of effort to make the muster a huge success.  We were all quite amused as they even had a time keeper to make sure we kept on track for the day (we haven’t been wearing watches for months).

Craft Market

Ladies getting ready for
the Pem Pewa

2/10

We left Bagaman and did the 5NM trip to Blue Lagoon for the beach party.  Blue Lagoon like its name it beautiful and after some snorkelling we wandered ashore to get involved in the party which including cricket, sand castle building and volley ball tournaments.  Whilst it is nice to have the locals visit it was nice to have a day to ourselves. 

3/10

Before heading over to Hoba Bay (all of 2NM away) we managed to make a loaf of yummy bread and then wandered over to the reef at Blue Lagoon and had an awesome snorkel with some of the best coral we have seen to date and we got to find another Nemo family.

Dancing at Hoba Bay

We went ashore at Hoba Bay and got to meet Chief Bernard who was looking after us for the afternoon.  The locals at Hoba Bay put on a great afternoon for us which included some of the best dancing we have seen.  The rest of the afternoon was filled with cultural activities whereby they showed us Dim Dims how they make baskets, mats, bagi, light fires which was quite enlightening and was great to get involved.  We also got to do some more excellent trading for sweet potatoes and tomatoes.

The School Bell

Louisiades Rally – Part 1 (17th – 24thSeptember)

YES WE ARE BACK!!.
Currently sitting at the fuel dock at the Breakwater Marina in Townsville waiting for customs clearance and quarantine - yes we are flying a yellow flag.

Wow what an adventure we have had in the Louisiades.  Unfortunately I don't think I can come close to describing what an amazing place it is and the wonderful people of the Louisiades but we will give it a go to at least let you know what we have been up to for the last 5 weeks - amazing how quick it went and how reluctant we were to leave and now we can't wait to get back there again.

We have broken the adventure into about 4 parts and will upload it over the next week and will try to fit in as many pictures as we can as a picture is better than all the words.

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The Crew Pre-Rally

After the week of food shopping, rally & safety briefings, customs clearance and myriad of other jobs the morning of the rally was finally upon us!  We all met up at the Yorkeys Knob Boat Club for our final weather briefing and confirmation that we are finally going to head on our way.

On Our Way - Grafton Passage

Back to the boat for the very final preparations, let the lines off and finally we are on our way.   It is quite a surreal feeling to be leaving Australia and heading to another country as this is my first time doing a truly blue water ocean crossing (unless you count Tasmania as another country!)  We departed from Yorkeys Knob and head upwind to the Grafton Passage (don’t they know that cruising boats don’t go to weather!).  Once clearing the Grafton Passage we are into the Coral Sea proper.  The weather is fine and the winds fair (approx. 15-20knots SE) with a 2-3mt swell running.  We dined on a lovely chicken curry before settling in for our first night at sea.

The rest of the voyage was pretty uneventful and the time at sea all becomes a bit of a mish mash of events but we all settled in well to the 520nm voyage ahead of us.   One advantage of heading north into the tropics is that the weather gets warmer every day which is pretty nice although the cabin was starting to get quite steamy for the last couple of nights of the trip which was a bit uncomfortable but it did mean that you didn’t mind too much getting up in the wee hours of the morning to do your shift as the conditions were a lot more pleasant on deck than down below.   The course for most of the trip was a cracked reach and the wind varied from 10-25knots so not all bad however, with the short swell the boat did see a lot of green water and to make it a little tough we were pushing into a 1-1.5knot current, which also wanted to take us north, for a fair whack of the trip.  We are now looking forward to what could be a very quick trip home on Sally.  We must give praise to Sally as she did an excellent job on the way over and really could not have performed better.  We have put in our bid for the winning menu at sea which consisted of Lamb Shanks with a Red Wine Jus accompanied by creamy mash and a side of baby peas and corn – we are still waiting for the results!!

Lobster Dinner - Duchateau

 After exactly 4 days we finally arrived in paradise and entered the Louisiades archipelago via the Duchateau Passage at 10.00am on the 21^st of September with five boats arriving ahead of us and 7 still at sea.  Our first anchorage is at Duchateau Island and after dropping anchor the first thing we all did was jump in the water for a refreshing swim and bath – please note that the water temp is 27.5^oC.   The rest of the arvo we spent sorting out ourselves and the boat as well as a bit of R&R before heading into the beach for drinks and Lobster on the BBQ - not too shabby for our first night!

Track into Pnasia Anchorage!

The BIG Banana

After some discussion the rally group decide to head over to Panasia Island on the 22^nd.   The entrance to Panasia is a bit difficult being very narrow with many coral bommies in the lagoon so midday light is essential for a safe entrance so we left from Duchateau at 11.00am to make sure we hit the entrance at 1.00pm.  The rally organisers did an excellent job of leading us into the lagoon and we managed to work our way around the lagoon and eventually dropped the pick in the beautiful Panasia lagoon (see photo below).    You soon find that as soon as you arrive at an anchorage a dug-out or Sailau (sailing canoe) turn up to say hello and see what items you might be interested in for a trade.  The people are incredibly polite & friendly and the kids smiling make your heart melt and we can’t help but want to give them plenty of stuff including the obligatory lollies.  Mark did an excellent trade and we ended up with four lobsters for dinner along with the biggest banana that we have ever seen.

"Hex" at Panasia (Sailau!)

Anchorage at Panasia

Panasia Lagoon

On Friday 23^rd we are off in a long boat around to the south side of the island for a walk up to the limestone caves followed by a mumu in the village.  The track up to the caves is a bit rough and rugged and you have to climb up and over a very rickety ladder to get into the caves but we are greeted with an amazing limestone cave and huge pool of crystal clear water – again we can’t help ourselves and are in for a swim.   The Mumu was great although we had quite a bit of trouble identifying the food types that were in the spread but it was lots of fun and again the locals were a joy to be with. 

Limestone Caves - Panasia

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Panasia Welcome

For the trip home in the long boat the weather had turned a bit as there were some rain squalls around so the seas had chopped up quite badly but the sailors all jumped on board with great intrepedation for the trip back.  Robinson (our driver) did warn that it would be a wet trip home and he wasn’t kidding.  Gina and I were in the back of the boat and before we had gone very far at all we were both drenched and encouraged by Robinson to do some bailing as the rear of the long boat was quickly filling up and the drain just wasn’t quite keeping up – our off the beach sailing skills finally were put into action!  Eventually we arrived back at our anchorage and hop into the dinghy for another very wet ride back to the boat. 

After a busy couple of days we are staying on board for a quiet night and will be enjoying Gina’s Tuna Putanesca for dinner.

Little Panasia Village

The action around here never stops and today (Saturday) we are off to Little Panasia Island.  The original plan was to go over in the long boat but as it hasn’t arrived we are going to tackle the crossing in our little zodiac – this was always going to be quite an adventure.  

Skull Caves - Little Panasia

The trip across was pretty smooth apart from getting through a few breakers on the outlying reefs but after negotiating these we arrive safely on the sandy beach of Little Panasia.  There is a small village on Little Panasia and we are made very welcome on our arrival.  As the bay seems quite calm we decide for the first time ever to anchor the little dinghy off the beach instead of dragging it up the sand – could this be a bit mistake???  After a picnic lunch we are taken on an expedition to see the Skull caves.  We have been told that the skulls and bones remaining are that of the rival island which attacked Little Panasia many years ago but the chief was able to overcome them and the remains left at what is now called the skull caves.  The walk was pretty exciting in itself being up and down dale over what was a huge coral bed which is now many metres above sea level. 

Walk to the Skull Caves

Upon arriving back at the village we find that the locals have rescued our little dinghy which had flipped.  We at first thought that it was all OK as the motor started first go but that was about it and we ended up getting a lift back with Buddy & Helen from Desire and Little Sally got a tow back with the Altitude team.  No major harm was done and after a good clean out she is back and running as good as new (well for a bit anyhow!).

Official Welcome Party

Although we have now been in the Louisiades for a few days now tonight is the official welcome party and another Mumu.  It was also time to present some donation items from the rally which were very much appreciated and awards were handed out for the Yorkeys Knob to Duchateau

Cairns, Yorkeys Knob and Rally Preperation (6th - 17th September)

Super Yachts @ Marlin Marina

After checking out the range of super yachts tied up at the Marlin Marina we headed off to Yorkeys Knob on the 6th September.  The trip is only a couple of hours so we were tied up by early afternoon.  On the way we had a go at making another version of bread which turned out to be a real winner and looks like the option that we will be making out on our trip to the Louisiades.

Our Second Loaf

For our first night at Yorkeys we were lucky enough to catch up with John & Cathy (good friends of Mark's folks) that now spend there winters up north.  We were very lucky to catch them as they were heading off to Singapore on the 7th.  We had a great night and very much thank them for their hospitality.

We weren't at Yorkeys for long and we met Guy Chester - the rally organiser - and started getting into the swing of getting ready for the Louisiades Rally which is scheduled to leave Yorkeys on the 17th.

Bruce at the BBQ

Guy soon roped us in and we were helping to sort out donation goods on the dock which were going to be distributed between the 15 yachts partaking in the rally. At this point we were trying to identify how much we were going be given to take on Sally as storage is going to be at a bit of a premium on the boat but figure we will be able to squeeze most of it into our stall shower so looks like bathing is off for a while!

Saturday arvo and our new crew Bruce and Gina flew in and before we knew it are off to the bar for a catch up drink and meal.  We thought Sunday would be a good opportunity to take a day off before the chaos started so we headed into Cairns for a day of rest and relaxation.  The rest of the week was a bit of a blur with provisioning, last minute boat preparations, rally and safety briefings as well as a number of social events which was lots of fun as we have pretty much met all the other crews on the rest of the rally by now.  Today (Friday) we are doing our final briefing and customs clearance and all being well with the weather we will be departing on our 520NM voyage to Louisiades tomorrow morning.  We  will be out on the rally for 5 weeks and expecting to make landfall in Australia again till around the 24th October so will be out of communications for a while.

Sorting Trade Goods for the Rally

There maybe some updates on the Rally Website on http://www.louisiadesrally.com or you will have to wait until we get back in October. 

Dunk Island to Cairns (30th August to 5th September)

The Rebuilding of Dunk Is.

Well we did try to do the walk around the other side of Dunk Island but didn't get very far due to the destruction of Yasi.  The nice thing is that Parks are doing a lot of work on the island and we have been told that the walking tracks will be completed in the next month or two and the camping area is also being fixed up so even if the resort doesn't get back to life there will still be lots of other reasons to go to the island.  Despite all the devastation of Yasi there are plenty of signs of the vegetation fighting back and in this climate it does grow back fast.  Apart from all the other re-vegetation that we saw there were also plenty of coconuts starting to sprout along the beach front.

We ended up spending another day at Dunk as it is a very nice anchorage.  On Thursday (1st September) we decided to up anchor and move on to Mourilyan Harbour.  The trip to Mourilyan was pretty quick as we had a stiff breeze behind us and were doing 6.5knts with only a heady flying.  Along the way we were lucky enough to see quite a few whales again including a juvenile whale that must have been suffering with ADHD as it was breaching all the way past us and only around 100mts from the boat.  There is not a lot at Mourilyan Harbour apart from the sugar wharf, some fore-aft piles and some fishing boats but it is a good spot to stop for a night. 

The original plan was to go to Fitzroy Island for a few nights.  Fitzroy is one of the few holiday island resorts that is still doing well so we were hoping to go and enjoy a few days hanging out drinking cocktails around the pool and stuff but Hughie decided not to co-operate and the forecast was to blow for about 5days.  Plan B which involved a night in at Cape Grafton was put into action but also proved not to be such a good idea as when we went and had a look we were not able to get in close enough to get out of the swell.  So after a few quick calls we managed to get a berth in at Marlin Marina a night early which was excellent news and made us both very happy.  The trip up the channel into Marlin Marina at 4.30pm on a Friday was exciting in itself.  During our travel up the channel we had to deal with 2 ships, 1 dredge, about 12 charter vessels as well as a 30knot cross wind trying to blow us out of the deep water.  We both needed a stiff drink once we had tied up and had a well deserved shower. 
The Marlin Marina has excellent facilities.  Think we have rated the shower roses as the best up he coast plus it is located bang in the middle of town which means everything (including the pool and plenty of bars) are very accessible.

Freshwater Station

As we are staying at Marlin Marina till Tuesday before we head up to Yorkeys Knob we decide it would be a good idea to book a tour up to Kuranda  on Sunday (this was highly recommended to us by Rick aka Jacques Cousteau).  We were picked up bright and early on Sunday morning and the first stop was at the Freshwater Station where we caught the train up to Kuranda.  I don't remember all the facts but it is an amazing bit of engineering as the tracks go through a huge number of tunnels and cuttings as well as passing over lots of bridges.  Kuranda is a bit more commercial than my last visit in the 80's but in essence it is still an old hippie town with lots of stalls in the markets etc.  Mark has even got a bit hippie and is now sporting a very nice leather bracelet!!

Kuranda Rail

Barron Falls

After a wander around the township we decided to go to the butterfly house which is just amazing and very much worth a visit if you are up this way.  We were lucky enough to join up the escorted tour which was very informative about the secret lives of butterflies.  After a great time in Kuranda it is over to the SkyRail Station for the trip back down through the rain forest canopy - what a neat way to travel through the rain forest.

Ulysses Butterfly

Bird Wing Butterfly

Today (Monday) and we have a few things to buy and a few jobs to do so it will be a day hanging around the marina (and maybe a trip to the pool if the sun comes out a for a bit) and all going well we will be out of here tomorrow and up to the Half Moon Marina at Yorkeys Knob for the final preparations before heading out to the Louisiades.  As we have been moving north we have been meeting up with more of the rally folk which has been lots of fun.  So far the group seem really friendly and also there is quite a diverse range of boats and personalities so it should make for an interesting 5 weeks out and around the Louisiades.
 

Townsville to Dunk Island (23rd - 30th August)

We ended up spending an extra day in Townsville as the forecast was not so promising which meant we were able to catch up with John & Bev Waugh from SBSC and joined them for dinner at the recently redeveloped Townsville Yacht Club.  It was great to hear of their adventures and compare notes.

Strange Whale Behaviour

We ended up leaving Townsville on Tuesday morning and decided to head directly to Orpheus Island and had a lovely days sail in light trade winds.  The day was quite eventful as we had many close up whale sightings as we approached Pioneer Bay at Orpheus.  The first encounter was a whale breaching at the back of the boat (only around 10 meters away). The second was watching a whale that appeared to be doing headstands in the bay for the rest of the afternoon -must look up google to check out the reason for this strange behaviour although we are pretty sure it must have something to do with the young calf that was sticking close by.  The next morning and the encounters continues - we were down stairs having our normal quiet breakfast only to be disturbed by some strange noises outside - when we looked out the companion way we had a whale again at the back of the boat and slowly made his way down the side of the hull.  We have attached the photo we managed to take not that it is very good but it does give you and idea of how close it was. 

Our Close Encounter

Hinchinbrook Island

After all the excitement and interactions with the wildlife we left Pioneer Bay on our way over to Lucinda which is the southern entrance to Hinchinbrook Channel and has to be crossed with tide as it is quite shallow.  We dropped the anchor at a little spot next to Haycock Island in the pristine wilderness that is Hinchinbrook.  We haven't mentioned it yet but they have a military base at Townsville and we have been watching the F18's doing their stuff on a regular basis and today we got to see them up real close and personal as they did a drive by down the Hinchinbrook Channel at what seemed not much higher than mast height - the noise was quite deafening and the serenity was no more!!.  We thought we would try out a bit more wilderness and spent Thursday night in Paluma Creek.  There is not a lot in Paluma Creek except lots on mangroves and a fair share of sand flies - luckily we have very good fly screens on Sally but sun downers were had down stairs!

Our First Loaf

Friday morning and we are off to Cape Richards but decide to stop into Cardwell on the way.  The beach off Cardwell is quite shallow which means we end up parking around 2NM off shore - this is quite a hike when you are in a little inflatable with a 3.3HP motor but we did make it and managed to find some flour so we could have a go at some bread making.  We got to Cape Richards and decide to drop anchor at Macushla Bay for the night.  Next morning we head ashore hoping to find the walk we did in 2003 over to the other side of the island and also up to the Cape Richards Resort but with no luck and we figure that the effects of Yasi have covered the old trail.  We wander up to the anchor off the old Cape Richards Resort which has now shut down (another victim of the GFC) but this time we were waved off the beach by some of the local folk but not really quite sure what they were doing there anyway - all very suspicious.

By this stage we were a bit over Cape Richards as we were really hoping to go ashore for some walking so Sunday morning we head off to another old favorite - Dunk Island.  We have heard that the resort was smashed by Yasi and it now looks like they may not reopen as they can no longer get insurance which is a bit sad as it was such a wonderful place to visit.  On arrival we can confirm that the resort and island has really taking a pounding from Yasi although the vegetation is already showing good signs of recovery.  Luckily Parks are doing quite a bit of work here and are clearing the walking trails and fixing up the camping ground which is fantastic.  Monday morning we pack our stuff and head off and see how we far can go on the island circuit walk.  We figure we got half way around the island before we came to the end of the clearing works so we wandered back along our tracks and up to the lookout at Mt Kootaloo for a spot of lunch.  On the way back we run into the workmen that are clearing the trails and they confirm that in time the rest of the walk will be opened which is excellent news as it really is a lovely walk..  Apparently they are running a triathlon here on the 11th September hence the rush to get the track open and safe.

Dunk Island Resort - Post Yasi

We have run into a few old friends here at Dunk as it is a popular anchorage so their has been plenty of socialising both on the beach and also on the aft deck.

Today (Wednesday) we are going to try the other end of the walk which takes us up past the airport and up past the artist colony but somehow don't think we will get too far but will have a go.