The Crossing

This is a continuation form the previous blog...

I was so stoked to get out to sea, as was everyone else (them probably more than me because they’d been working round the clock for the last month).  This excitement soon wore off for me.  I was taking seasickness meds like candy and it seemed to work for the first 24 hours.  Apparently, a wind blows West to East constantly all day every day of the year across the Coral Sea.  This wind causes the boat to rock back and forth as it goes through the water.  The second evening at sea I was still feeling pretty good but noticed Irene wasn’t doing so hot.  She was cooking dinner so I decided to help out.  Because the boat was rocking anything on the stove had to be held in place otherwise it’d go flying through the gally.  All was good and well until Irene went out for a spew and I was left in the gally holding the pot thinking about the boat rolling and watching the walls go to and fro.  It was like being in a fun house at a carnival.  When she returned it was my turn to go have a spew.  Damn you seasickness.  Each time I was in the gally after that my stomach turned.  Outside I was good.  In my cubbyhole of a room I was good.  In the gally, not so much unless my eyes were focused on something like my computer.  After 2 ½ days of none stop rolling we’d finally made it through the Coral Sea and into the China Straits in PNG.

Our approximate route from Cairns to Kavieng

Andrew came down around 6:30am to get us all up to admire the calm seas, the sunrise and the first sightings of land since we left Oz.  It.  Was.  Beautiful.  The islands, the canoers, the thick, humid air all said “Welcome to PNG”. 

30 seconds before this photo I was asleep
in bed.  Land was a welcomed sight and
calm seas were even more welcomed hence
the smile at sunrise.

The view I was smiling at.

Land ho!

Nothing like a sunrise canoe ride.

While taking it all in Darty called out to me and had me come to the bow of the boat.  There was a pod of about a dozen dolphins swimming along with us.  I ran down to get my camera but by the time I’d come back they were gone.  Unfortunately, every time we saw dolphins something prevented me from getting a photo… I didn’t have my camera on me and they were gone by the time I came back with it, my battery was dead, no SD card, they swam off before I got my camera focused… I found this all to be very disappointing.  Thankfully, Mark was able to snap one photo of one dolphin on the trip.  One picture that I do not currently have so I can't share, but I’m happy that a photo was taken.

Once through the China Straits we set out through the Solomon Sea.  The Solomon Sea was nice and calm and lovely.  It’s really an incredible thing to be one what you thought was a large ship in the middle of the ocean/sea only to suddenly realize how small not only the ship is, but you are as well.  You’re a tiny speck in the world.  I had a Horton Hears a Who moment and I was a Who… and there was no Horton, but that’s besides the point.

There's a small rainbow on the right.

I think this was my favorite
photo of the trip back.

While passing from the Solomon Sea and into the Bismarck Sea we went past Rabaul.  Rabaul is home to the active volcano of Tavurvur.  The last time there was an eruption was in 1994.  I’ve flown into Rabaul and visited there a couple times as well.  After the eruption the town was covered in ash and relocated a short distance away to an area now called Kokopo.  It’s Kokopo that I’ve spoken of visiting in previous blogs.  We steamed passed Rabaul/Kokopo at dawn and what a lovely sight it was.  Just as I came out of the cabin to join Andrew and Mark in admiring the beauty, Tavurvur greeted us with small ash eruption.

A sunrise greeting from Tavurvur.

There's a smaller mountain behind this one
that is actually smoking but you can't tell
in this photo.

Around 11pm that same evening we pulled into Kavieng and dropped anchor.  A short nights rest and the next day began at a quarter past 5 to prepare for customs and the unloading of the boat.  My 3 weeks in Cairns/returning to Kavieng was lovely.  It was a welcomed distraction from the monotony of what’s become the norm after 5 months here.  I thoroughly enjoyed my time working on the boat and at sea, with the exception of being seasick of course.  In fact, I enjoyed it so much I hope to turn time on a boat into a future adventure.

Will Work For Passage

Yet another 2 months has passed and my visa was up again which means I can either extend it for another month or get the heck out dodge.  The original plan was to extend it and then fly to Sydney in October for a few weeks, but then an idea popped into my head and I ran with it.  Friends of mine had their boat in Cairns, Australia to do a refit.  I asked them if it would be alright I flew down there and helped work on the boat for a couple weeks then road back to PNG on the boat.  They agreed and about 36 hours later I was on a plane, a very small plane (we’re talking like 30 seats and only 15 passengers half of which were crew members) Oz bound.

For such a short trip it makes for an extremely long day.  I took the 6am flight from Kavieng to Port Moresby, which is about 1 ½ hours, and there I waited until 4:30pm when my 2 hour flight to Cairns left.  To kill time I took a shuttle to a nearby hotel and surfed the internet while sipping on a latte.  Mmmm life is good. 

When I arrived in Cairns we went straight to the boat which was quite the sight considering the boat was out of water in a ship yard.  This is the first time I’d seen a boat out of water.  I wondered how it all worked but figured rather than asking questions I’d just wait and see.  The boat sits on a slip which is basically a couple pieces of wood under the haul and chains ran from side to side holding it up.  I would have thought it’d have taken a great deal more to hold a boat up out of water, but not so.  Looking at the boat I was sure it would have threatened to tip over at any moment, but while on the boat not once did it feel anything but fixed in place.

The PNG Explorer up on the slip prepped and
ready for a new paint job.

The first morning it was time to suit up and get to work.  Andrew (boat owner) handed me a pair of coveralls and a paint brush and away I went painting the bottom of the boat with antifouling (paint that keeps critters from growing on the boat).  Rolling a 23 meter boat by hand takes a bit of time.  After the first coat was done I was pretty happy.  My hands and shoulders ached and I had a few blisters but felt satisfied seeing the once white boat a lovely shade of red.  Then the boys said, “We’ll do a second coat tomorrow.”  Should have known there’d be two coats.  So day two was spent painting more.  Then day three we did a third and fourth coat.  Painting is a rough gig if you’re not painting fit.  I’ve spent the last 6 months doing next to no manual labor with the exception of carrying luggage.  Three days of painting did me in, but it was good.  Doing manual labor is great because you’re body aches but you see instant results which makes it feel worth it.  Though, I will say, painting red on white is far more gratifying than painting red on red… on red… on red.

Working on the first coat of paint

The halfway mark for the first coat of paint

Gotta leave your mark... Aix (like Yikes without the Y
which is Irene), Becs, and me having some fun finger painting

All done with the antifouling (red).  4 coats and 3 days of work.

Then the day came when it was time for the boat to go back in the water.  Yet another thing I’d wondered about.  How the heck do you get a boat back in the water?  Well folks, there’s a giant machine that has slings on it that picks the boat up and drives it to the water… Uhhh, AWESOME! Dark and early - the sun had yet to rise - the boat began her trip back to the sea. Everyone stayed on board and went along for the ride but I hopped off to snap some photos. I took about 400 too many photos of the same thing.  The boat went back in the water and all the beautiful painting I did went under water to remain unseen until the next time she’s pulled out of water to be stripped of that lovely paint job and repainted again… and again… and again.

Early morning and raining getting the boat
back to the water.

Why did the boat cross the road?  To get back to the water, of course!

The slot where the boat goes back into the
water just before the sun rose.

Her first swim after a big refit.

Goodbye lovely paint job.

With the boat back in the water it was back to the grind.  The boys (Andrew, Darty, and Mark) went back to cutting and drilling and welding and I went back to painting and organizing and cooking with Irene (one of the boat’s crew who came down from PNG to help with the refit).  We did take one evening off though to take Irene to the “disco” as she requested.  When I arrived she was so excited about the prospect of “going to the disco” that there was no way we could not go.  One evening we went out to a nice Japanese restaurant for dinner then into the first club we found.  After a couple hours of dancing we went for a wander and then headed home.  All in all it was a good time and Irene got to experience an Australian “disco”… priceless!

She floats!  Whew!

This is why I love Cairns... so pretty!

Irene taking a little breather before more work.

Darty working hard on the toilet block.

Mark and Darty positioning the walls of the
toilet block for Andrew to weld them into
place. The blue glow is Andrew welding.

Fresh name stickers on a fresh paint job.

When the tide was low you could see under the dock
we were at which I though was pretty cool.

Putting the truck on the back of the boat.

Now time to put the jet ski on.

Not gonna lie, even though the boys said they'd both fit I still had
my doubts, but here they both are fitting.  It was a tight squeeze.

I've heard stories of this gorilla suit, but this is the first I'd
seen it. Apparently every once in a while Andrew puts on
 the full suit andrides his motorcycle around town and
people in Kavieng go nuts. Another time he ran through
 a village chasing a dog and then a pack of dogs turned
on him and sent him running.  He, dressed as a gorilla,
had to climb a tree to escape them.  The villages
went crazy from what I heard.

Mark with the gorilla head and Irene (Aix) with the hand.  I have
no idea where this came from but it was pretty funny looking
up at the boat from the dock to see this.

On another outing to run some errands before we headed back to PNG I learned a very important lesson about words having multiple meanings.  I brought a camera enclosure from PNG to Australia to be serviced for a friend.  The storeowner picked up the camera enclosure, but I went to the store to pick it up once it had been worked on.  I was told it was in the arcade.  I repeated back “Inside the arcade?” to which the storeowner replied “Yes, in the arcade.”  Hmmm, curious.  I envisioned a “take a right at the pinball machines then a left at Pac Man and it’ll be straight ahead” kind of arcade.  After walking around for a solid 30 minutes and asking for direction repeatedly only to be sent in all different directions I started to lose it.  Thankfully, Irene was with me and suggested we go down a little ally thing and sure enough, there was the camera shop… right inside the ally, or arcade as it’s called.  In the moment I didn’t laugh, but after the fact I had a little chuckle to myself about how ridiculous it would have been to have a scuba diving camera shop inside a game arcade and promptly added that word to my mental dictionary.

All the days are a blur so I’m not entirely sure what happened between the boat going in the water and us heading out, but A LOT happened.  New dunny blocks (toilets and showers) were built.  New bunks were built.  New flooring was put in.  Freezers were installed to store $10,000 worth of meat (we’re talking about 8 freezers… it’s absurd.  The first charter is a 30 day charter and the group they’re taking insisted on buying a ridiculous amount of meat to send back to PNG for the charter.) More painting. And then unloading two storage units worth of stuff onto the boat.  When Friday September 13^th arrived Andrew cracked a bottle of champagne on the bow of the boat, we drank another bottle, and 4:30pm we were off to sail across the Coral Sea. 

Champagne bottle on the bow of the boat
(that was the bottle we drank not the one
that was smashed on the bow).

Pulling away from the dock. 

A happy captain Andrew ready to get back to
Kavieng to see his family.

Goodbye Cairns.  Until we meet again...

This was the first lamb roast I'd ever made.  Lamb roast is
an Australian classic dish form what I learned.

Irene pulled these out of the cupboard and
said, "Umm what are these?"to which I replied
"Those are taco shells and we're making tacos
tonight.  Prepare to have your tastebuds forever
changed."  For those of you who don't know I'm
a big fan of Mexican food.  Chips and salsa are my
favorite meal... yes, meal.  And I also love burritos
and tacos.  Sadly, the taco shells were off so these
tacos weren't too amazing, but Irene now knows
what a taco is.

The first day I mentioned craving cheesecake
and Becs was kind enough to make a homemade
cheesecake.  It was DELICIOUS or as
the Australians say RIPPA!

Strawberry cheesecake with fresh strawberries.
Doesn't get better than that!

Irene's reaction to having cheesecake for the
first time... "OOOWWWWW" This picture
was followed by a fit of interpretive modeling.
Yes, Irene began dancing/posing because she
was so excited about the cheesecake.  One of
the greatest moments of the two weeks in Cairns.

A prawning boat was parked near our boat and they were kind
enough to share some of their catch.  Those are the largest prawns
I'd ever seen.  I put my finger there so you can get a better idea.

Irene made an awesome meal from the prawns.  So good!