- Date: May 5, 1987
- Location: Pearl Island, PNG
- Subject: Exploring the Pearl Island Wrecks (Daga daga Bonalua Island)
Dear WaterFairy:
Yesterday was a blast! Bright and early, even before breakfast, we left Samarai to have a few hour sail to Pearl Island which is just of the coast of Sariba Island. It was a light breeze and fairly sunny, but some clouds, to give us some shade.
Capt was in heaven, sailing along, steering the boat with his girls. His girls were in heaven, because we were sitting and reading while Capt was doing all the work. Occasionally, he would ask me to trim the sails, which meant pulling this sail in or letting that sail out. We found the island and the anchorage, just as Ian described it, and followed his drawing of where to drop the anchor. Oh my…. what a lovely place this seems to be. I could not wait to get out and look around.
After a quick lunch, Mom, Capt and I jumped into “DingDong” and went exploring around the island. Capt got some good advice and ideas to go and explore the wrecks from Ian Poole so we did not waste much time goofing around, and just went straight to the good stuff.
Capt decided once we got close to the inlet, he was going to turn the outboard motor off and just row us around. The water was so clean and lovely blue, and so clear we could see the bottom was mostly white sand and the brilliantly colored fish were EVERYWHERE. Big ones, small ones, colorful ones, fast moving ones, slow moving ones. It was hard to focus on any one spot.
We slowly made our way to the shipwreck barges that were half in the water and half out of the water. Capt said the wrecks were from WWII, when the Germans were in the area, trying to take over the world. I am not sure how much of what Capt says is true, sort of true or just his story-and he was sticking to it! His story sounded like Ian’s story, so perhaps it is true. Mom said this will be a good subject to research when we get to a library, until then there is info in the cruising books and the book Ian gave me. I will be looking at that later.
Anyway, the barges act as a man-made reef, attracting fish because there is food (algae), and shelter, a good place to bring up baby fish. The only problem is the little fish attract the big fish and become lunch. Mom says for most wild animals, it is really all about eating or being eaten. The rusty hull of the barge allows oysters and barnacles to grow, which also attract fish. The local people built a bridge and walkway out of bamboo and palm thatch. It starts at the beach and goes out to the barge and all around it. I guess that’s some good fishing.
We jumped out of “DingDong” in waist deep water, dropped the dinghy’s anchor and got our snorkeling gear on. So much to watch and it was so sunny that everything was easy to see and spot. There were some pretty large fish, and lots of groups of tiny little fish. I liked looking at the bottom to see if I could find any shellfish like a cawlery or conch. No luck today. It was neat to pop my head up just above the water and look across to the shore and see the huge coconut palm trees and the village huts, which looked so small compared to the palm trees. The huts look like they are made out of bamboo and I am looking forward to seeing one in person. so cool. I could hear the roosters crowing, they never seem to shut-up, maybe they are having a contest to see who is the loudest or can go the longest. I can also hear the kids running around, they look like they are playing some game.
We spent the better part of the afternoon exploring and snorkeling. When we got back on board, I took a little nap. Mom said I better rest up for tonight’s beach party, it’s going to be a late one.
5/5/87:
Last night’s beach party was held on a beach in front of Ian’s house. I could tell he had a lot of beach parties on his beach because there was a HUGE pit for the fire, surrounded by coral rocks and 3-4 wooden benches built into the sand and a wooden table to prepare the food, which was near the fire pit. Before we left Sacha-B, we packed all our food (hamburgers and sausages, sliced potatoes and onions- wrapped in tin foil and corn on the cob) into a 2 gallon bucket. The bucket had a rope tied onto the handle so we could lower it into “DingDong”, or pull it up from “DingDong”. In the other bucket were our plates, silverware, napkins, a few home brewed beers for the grown-ups, and a bottle of ice tea for me. Oh, the most important, some marshmallows to roast in the fire. Mom calls the buckets our “party-on-the-go. ” Capt calls it “a lot of work”, which I think is hilarious because Mom and I do most of the work when it comes to food. To be fair, Capt does the rowing, so maybe it is “a lot of work” to row with the two buckets of party mix.
Of course, Ian and his wife, Lisa, were there, and their 5 kids (ages 16-3). Tonia and Dave and their two little kids ZuZu and Chleo, from yacht Nauset were also there. They are heading back to Australia after 2 years of cruising through PNG and the Solomon Islands, and a few other people who I didn’t really meet.
Mona Lisa, Ian and Lisa’s daughter, was there. She is about my age (14) so we hung around most of the evening, and took ZuZu and Chleo with us. She took us around the beach and we looked for shells and bits of coral. I picked up everything and loved everything because they were all so new and beautiful to me. Mona Lisa said she hardly ever finds anything worth picking up because she only needs to find the perfect specimens. I guess that makes sense to me because she is on the beach-ALWAYS and for her whole life. Mona Lisa is planning to go to boarding school in Australia next year. She said she is happy to get away from the small island to see things new and different and get a good education, but a bit scared because she will look so different from most of the other students, not really black not really white. I think she is just beautiful. Her skin reminds me of Mom’s coffee when she adds cream. Mona Lisa has a few little freckles on her nose and her curly hair has a bit of red on the ends. But the most striking feature she, is her eyes because they almost look golden with tiny little brown flecks!
We did not get back on board until well after midnight. Not to worry, Mom said, “tomorrow we have nothing to do and all day to do it!” Capt said “You girls can waste your day, but I am going fishing in the morning!” Mom said, “OK boss, bring us back some dinner, and don’t wake us up when you leave!”
So today I did sleep in, and barely heard Capt’s Kookaburra call as he left to go fishing. I started to do some reading and drawing. During most of the morning, there were wooden outrigger canoes floating by Sacha-B. And in the canoes are the village kids, sometimes 3 and 4 to a canoe. There is usually one or two kids with paddles and they quietly and gently paddle the outrigger. I can hear them talking softly and looking up at the boat, taking in all the details. They are just as interested in my home as I am of their homes. Mom asked the kids if we could visit their village later in the day. The oldest kid said he would go ask the chief and come back out to let us know if it was OK.
Half an hour later the kids came back and said we were welcome to visit the village. We told them we would be there when Capt got back from fishing, which would be after lunch. Mom got a little bag of sugar together and two fish hooks as gifts to the chief. When I asked her what she was doing. She said, it is always good to be generous with the chief, they are letting you in their home.
After a quick lunch, we piled into “DingDong ” and landed on the beach. We were greeted with a bunch of smiling, happy kids from the ages of 1 to about 14, and a few adults. We were guided into the village, along a narrow path through the jungle. The village had about 8 huts made of some kind of bamboo wood and palm fronds woven into mats that were tied together with twine. In the middle of the village was a fire with an iron pot bubbling away. Most of the huts had flowers and walkways lined with seashells. Oh my, I loved walking around, smelling the fire, listening to the kids talk, laugh and giggle. Mom met the chief and gave him the sugar, which he seemed to like, but not as much as the fish hooks! We only stayed about an hour and ended up on the beach, at a place where some of the men were working on making the dug out canoes. Of course Capt was chitchatting with the boat builders, and Mom and I with all the kids wandered down to the beach looking at the shells and such. We got a good view of Sacha-B from the shore.
Once we finished our village tour, we came back to Sacha-B, with an escort of kids in the dug-out canoes, we climbed on board and then jumped into the water from the boat. AHHHHhhhhh, it was so clear and beautiful and warm, but refreshing. The canoe kids thought that was great fun and a few of them jumped into the water from their canoes. We paddled around for about an hour. Great way to spend the day.
Capt caught some coral trout during his morning fishing trip so he gutted and cleaned them, and I followed Mom’s instructions and put sliced onion, lemon, salt and pepper in the body cavity, and put thin slices of carrots and potatoes around the fish. Wrapped them all up in tinfoil and cooked them on the grill. We sat in the cockpit, eating our dinner and listening to the sounds of the village getting ready to end their day.
Off to bed to do some reading.
