24/8/2011 Chemo is spot which should provide us a bit more protection for the increased winds. Mollie and Screensaver depart together, but as we cross a small reef leaving Uepi Mollie signals us not to follow her route as she reads 0m on the depth sounder, meaning that’s at least 0.5m short for us.
We find another route and follow Mollie most of the way where they decide to deviate in search of better diving grounds, while Screensaver errs on the edge of caution with the larger winds coming.
Once anchored in Chemo Crash’s desire for fresh vegetables send us ashore in search of any markets. Screensaver is closed up, and we are soon on the beach talking to locals. We are taken around the village as there really is no market her today, but from the individual people we are able to collect a good deal of fruit and veggies, some of which was picked expressly for us.
With a bag full of goodies we head back to our tender, where we are told those guys in the canoe are stealing from you. As we look out to Screensaver a canoe with two people and a sail is heading away from Screensaver. We leap into the tender and race ( as much as one can with 5hp outboard and 2 people in the tender) to Screensaver, where I drop Crash off and continue the chase after the canoe. With two paddlers and sail they are going pretty quick, and Im just gaining on them. Getting closer I yell at them to stop, but they ignore me. They head towards the shore and I know very well if they get that far, they will get away. They make land fall a fraction before I do, and before the tender has stopped I leapt into the water and forward to grab the tail end of there canoe. Well actually I tripped as I leapt if you must know, and grab the canoe to stop me falling face down, but hey it looked good.
Once I had there canoe they stoped, and I asked them why they were stealing from me and I want what they have taken back. They denied that they had taken anything, and when asked why they were running, they said because I was chasseing them. Sounds like something some American black neighbour hood local thug might say if you believe TV. Anyway I said I don’t believe you and will search your canoe and bags, which I did and found nothing.
Now I’m feeling guilty. I have let the outboard incident get the better of me. Dr Smith: You chased down those poor boys for no good reason, and they had a big knife, you could have sunk us in the tender or lost some crucial body parts, what were you thinking, I know you weren’t…… Yea Yea hindsight is a great tool.
As I return to Screensaver feeling guilty Crash tells me all is ok, nothing seems to be missing, the boat was still shut up, not locked, laptop camera’s wallet ipod etc all present. My guilt is now confirmed, a Scotch is required and some reflection.
A couple of hours latter I go to call the Gypsy on the phone, and its not where it should be. The charger is also missing which confirms I have not simply misplaced the phone. F…. F….. bleep expletive expletive , now I was really pissed. It was getting dark by now and I race to the shore and the guy who helped us with the Veggies was there and told me they are from the other village about 4 or 5nm away my son will go with you to the chief, now, after he changes his shirt. So we set off for the other village. The son assured me we would get it back, but I had serious doubts. When we arrive at the other village, the son said; You stay tender I go talk chief and elders back soon. So I waited with the tender, and he returned in about 10 min later said we go now, com back 8:00am. As we approach Screensaver on our return trip crash beckons me over and says they have taken her money as well. The son says you go check make list of everything, we go back tonight.
On closer inspection a few things had moved around but it seemed the money phone & charger was it. As we head off into the dark. It felt a bit like driving a car on a dark road with no headlights, nothing. I was directed to a different spot this time, and again asked to stay put in the tender. As we return for the second time he again re assures me we will get it back, and we wont get in the Police loop, or run into lack of action by the chief, and if by chance that was suggested he said dont worry I will find these boys myself it will be ok. It seems my guide and spokes person had been one of the bad boys Gambling women, drinking smoking , multiple wife’s, fighting etc, and if he had been in the canoe that ran away I would like to think I would not have been so silly as to confront him as this guy was well built and clearly capable of rearranging limbs.
So at 8:00am the next morning he was waiting in the beach as just as agreed and we returned to the other village. This time he said you go see that man, I stay with Tender all good, you go. He points to a tall man who is holding a plastic bag, and we walk to the chief’s home who is sat there with another elder. The man apologies to me and hands me the phone and charger, with his head down and offers further apologies. He tells me the boys never had the money he doesn’t doubt they took it, but believes it was spent on drugs marijuana and asks what I would like to do. I explained this was not my money, but if you cant get back or its already spent then its to late, but should you find it after we leave please have the chief buy books, or pens or cloths for the kids, as Im sure this it what Imogen would want. The chief, elder and I talked further about these sort of problems, and among other things the chief said that if this was in your country (ie Ozy) you would not have got it back true ? Yes that’s correct but it would not have been stolen in the first place, and of all the other places the boat has been, it has never had to been locked, never had uninvited guests, never had to haul the tender up each night, padlock the outboard etc.
As we return to Screensaver my big guide friend tells me that it was the farther of the kids who handed me back the phone, and he chased them down last night, ordered by the chief not to come back without it. The younger boy will be whipped, and the older boy will be handed to the Police which I’m lead to believe is what happened in Hunda over the outboard.Dr Smith: So you believe that cocker mainy story, last time you gave them $1000 SD for stealing your outboard not a bad deal for them, and this time they get to keep probably more from Crash,don’t forget these guys are cousins to your guide, all sounds like a good ploy to me…….Who knows
26/08/2011 Tulina wasn’t far and we were both keen to leave. Shortly after arrival as the canoes turn up Crash tells the next lot of visitors and canoes that arrive your all a bunch of thieves go away we want to be left alone we don’t trust you any more tell all the villages what happened in the other village.
27/08/2011 Mbili is a little spot in the western corner of the lagoon, and its also and ideal place to make our jump to the Russel Islands from. Once again we are lucky enough to raft up with Mollie and enjoy their company. We enjoy some snorkelling but Crash returns to Screensaver after cutting short her paddle with concerns about croc’s. In the end she feels more comfortable when I go for a swim because there is other bait for them, and I’m in the water and Crash is on her board. I explained that Crocs aren’t stupid they know the difference between meat past its use by date, and younger softer meat that doesn’t need tenderising, Dr Smith didn’t understand the logic. I swam to a near by Island then the beach and back to Screensaver, in clear, sandy very nice water. To date we had not seen a croc anywhere in our travels in spite of trying to find them a few times. I have no doubt that they are around but like Ozy they are not on every street corner (or every sandy beach), they are territorial and generally stick with what is there area, and hence the locals normally know. Most attack stories seem to be accompanied by hunt for the offending crock, who shortly after becomes hand bag or a trophy.
Of course if your a local and don’t ware shoes then you are born with flippers for feet, and have soles imbedded tha allow you to walk on the coral
A local boy attempts to row Screensaver’s tender and soon gets the hang of it. Crash looks at the boys mates along side in their canoes as they attempt to race back and says look “Look at the white boy rowing”. The local boy in the tender turns to his mates and says, “Please sir can I take your picture” clearly a very common phrase from the white fella’s.
28/8/2011 Mibili Passage was a nice spot and we didn’t get to many visitors which was nice. Swimming was good and the water was pretty clear.
The next hop was down to the Russel Islands and as we departed the tranquillity of the lagoon was soon lost. A squall came in packing around 35 knots, and we had been geared for about 25-30 so it hit us fairly hard. The main escaped and within a few seconds we had all our mainsail out. As we headed into the wind and the sea, with waves crashing all around, and Screensaver digging up a bit of green water, the mood and tension’s were raised, as were our voices and sense of urgency. The rain once again pelted us like needles while we fought to regain control. Alarms sounded as the Gail warning went off, the depth sounder squealed under 2m of water due to something swimming under the boat, we were in at least 50m of water. None the less all these things elevated the drama and the words “if its not fun don’t do it” along with “I have no major driving schedule” rang out. We radioed Mollie who was pushing on said we are turning back,
Mollie pushed on and it later settled down a little for them too. Screensaver had another attempt the next day but turned back again.
On our third attempt we decided to get up around 2:00am, but confronted with thunder and lighting, I returned to bed. Of course the day was beautiful because we had decide not to go but it as a ploy on my part. Se “He” thought we weren’t going so gave us a great day, where as in fact at around 10:00am we pulled out. The wind was down, and the nose, but I had plotted a tacking route pinching the wind by motor sailing meant it all should be fine. Dr Smith: You are arriving at night, you don’t know if Mollie will be there and you are going inside a reef do you really want to turn Screensaver into a pin cushion….. He had a good point but if worst came to worst then we would sit somewhere protected among the islands until daylight.
At about our halfway point we were motor sailing at around 6.5 knots, and without warning in abut 5-10 seconds the wind swung 45 degrees and jumped to around 18 knots. All of a sudden we were doing 8 knots, the motor was doing nothing and we just had a sailable line. The next few hours saw us heading straight for the the Russel Islands group, our destination. We managed to contact Mollie who were still there and said they would hold dinner and turn on all there lights for us. Ken confirmed the entrance had at least 25m so as long as our chart wasn’t too far out we should be fine. Dr Smith: So what in the world makes you think the chart will be right, and doesn’t need to be moved…Ken confirmed he had minimal offset. As we approached in the pitch black Crash said there are Dolphins. What was extra special about this was that the water was also phosphorescent and seeing the Dolphns swimming through this illuminated water, in the pitch black was sight to see. They looked like drunk torpedoes as they ducked and dived, coming right at the boat and veering off. There wake left a trail and their tails lit up. This was again another first and something I had never seen before. As they splashed about and then departed, on Crashes shirt were a couple of spots of phosphorescent that had splashed up and now glowed.
An hour or so latter we inch slowly through the coral entrance to where Mollie is waiting all lit up to enjoy dinner and a quite drink.