January 14, 2004
Today we're at sea, heading north towards the Equator, close reaching under genoa and full main, in light wind, a gentle swell, and blue skies. Its nice going, and good to be at sea after a slightly too long stay in Kavieng, Papua New Guinea. But yesterday we finally got our alternator back from the repair shop, installed it, finished our provisioning, got our clearance, and made our final preparations for getting underway. We left this morning at 10:00am, a pretty civilized departure time if you ask me.
So where to now, you might ask? Us too. We don't know for sure, but it will either be Ninigo Atoll or Palau.
Ninigo Atoll is a collection of islands and coral reefs 390 miles west of here, part of Papua New Guinea, but isolated from it. It is reported to be a friendly and beautiful place where the south sea life is lived in a traditional fashion, mostly because they don't have any choice. Since it is so far from anywhere, few, if any trade ships go there, there are no stores, and nothing to purchase. They don't run outboard motors because they can't buy gas. What they do have on Ninigo, we've heard, is terrific sailing canoes, big ones, and plenty of sailing skills to make them go. We've hear stories of 30 to 40 ft canoes which can really fly, and the Ninigo people love to make them do it, too. We'd like to see and photograph these canoes.
The problem with sailing to Ninigo, and why we might not get there, is that this is the season of the Northwest Monsoon, with typically strong NW winds. In those winds Ninigo is upwind from Kavieng, and it would be a rough beat. Right now the wind is a light Southwesterly, and it's easy sailing, but if those Northwesterlies fill in, and we get tired of slogging to weather, we'll bail out for the alternate destination, and our true objective, Palau.
Palau is 1140 miles northwest, in the North Pacific. It too is reported to be a beautiful place, with great dive sites and good shopping (and it used to be part of USA). We know we can get there, or at least we know we'll have favorable winds for that passage. We just have to keep going north until we hit the NE trade winds, and then surf off to the West to Palau.
Meanwhile, we're settling in to our passage, watching for squalls, and enjoying the sail.
Fred & Judy, SV WINGS, The Bismark Sea
(02 degrees 05 minutes South, 150 degrees, 46.7 minutes East)