A wise man learns more from fools
than fools learn from him.
-Cato-


I'm at loss with what kind of approach to take on writing this page. I wanted to separate my personal experience and leave the nitty gritty to those who are planning to go themselves, and who want to fish out some practical information or tips. This cruise was my very first on my own yacht and it would be a little cocky to start giving advise on general things about cruising overseas. All that information is on the bookshelf of every cruising yacht. On the other hand, talking about the people and the destination is hardly giving any information on anything but my personal experience and my attitudes and values in life.

To accommodate the different needs of different people, I have written two versions of cruising notes; the short version and the slightly longer one. The short one contains all you need to know. The second one contains the rest. I trust you to contact me on if you want to know something specific. I'll be happy to post more on this site, or to reply personally.

Cruising guide to the Louisiades

(The short version)


Getting there
Put the following waypoint on your GPS: S10'42.00 E152'50.00. Avoid any hard objects between your departure point and the waypoint. You will find yourself somewhere close to Misima Island, where you may clear customs, if you like. If you're heading out without a GPS, you are probably quite confident in your skills and don't need to read my advise about getting there.


The people
They are like you and me. Some are shy, some not. Some friendly, some not. Some are greedy, some not. Some are beautiful, some not. And so on. They live there. What more can I say. I didn't meet all of them!

Geography
Islands in the area come in variety of sizes and shapes, and they are all surrounded – as islands are – by copious amounts of water not suitable for drinking.

Climate & weather
If you paid any attention to the latitude I gave on the first paragraph, you will not be surprised to hear that the climate is tropical. As with the weather, well, it changes from day to day and whether you get your hands on a forecast or not, you'll have to live with what comes your way.

Navigation
Continue the same strategy as in 'getting there'. Avoid all hard objects such as reefs and rocks. I presume you will have a chart, and these are all marked on it.


Health & Safety
Eat well and avoid dangerous activities. Please.

Customs & Immigration
Graham is ok. Charles is good. If he finds any drugs onboard, be prepared to share. They'll have their coffee black with two sugars, please. (If you wreck your boat on the reef, the boys will try to charge import duty on it. Refuse to pay, but don't hit them very hard.)

Cruising guide to the Louisiades

(The slightly longer version)

Getting there, Navigation and that sort of things….
The cruising season in Papua New Guinea south of the Equator obviously falls outside the cyclone season; June to December. The area is suitable as a mid-point for continuing both south at the end of the southern summer, and north to Micronesia at the beginning of the southern summer.

I am only qualified to write about sailing from Australia, the only place I've ever approached PNG from. If you are in Australia, you will find it easy to get detailed information, mud maps and waypoints by talking to local yacht clubs. Many yachts travel up to PNG every year and indeed, the area is fast becoming a standard holiday destination for the Aussie cruising yacht.

Southeast winds provide a good run up and obviously the further south you start, the better. We left from Cairns, and had no trouble getting there. There are some off shore currents running westwards and I would advise anyone to head as far east as possible to avoid being blown anywhere close to Moresby later on. (Moresby is a shit hole…) Cairns is the northernmost port to clear out in Queensland and in easterly winds, which are not uncommon, the passage can be challenging.

Two off shore reefs provide perfect resting spots. Holmes Reef, due east of Cairns is easily reached from Townsville. If you take off from Cairns, aim for Bougainville Reef. Holmes Reef has a number of good anchorages as well as moorings owned by a Cairns based dive company. (Call 'Rum Runner' on VHF Ch16 to get permission. Rum Runner uses the moorings every Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.) Bougainville Reef is much smaller and offers no anchorages at all. Two moorings are attached to the NW edge of the reef, close to the reef wall which drops down almost vertically to 800m. These moorings are used by the occasional dive boat from Cairns and one should always be available for you. In northerly winds this reef offers no shelter and in such weather you might have to bite the bullet and keep going.

Approaching Louisiades.
The Calvados Chain, a group of islands that you aim for, is surrounded by a sunken barrier reef. In addition to some of this reef being sunken to depths over 10m, there are also a number of gaps on the reef that you can use to enter the area. The most popular entry is at the Duchateau Islands. The water is clear and navigation can be done by eye ball. Be aware of strong currents running through the passes. The direction of the tidal flow is marked on the chart and the tide times are very similar to those in Cairns. High tide occurs around 8pm at full moon. Strong south easterlies running against a tidal flow can create quite rough seas through narrow passages all around the area and it pays to pick your tide. Currents can easily reach 5 knots in speed.

Don't be intimidated by the old survey dates on your chart. All soundings are accurate and your GPS will tell you where you are. When approaching an anchorage, forget the chart and use your eyes. The clarity of the water is phenomenal, and seeing the bottom may not mean that you're too close. Scattered coral bommies cause some headache in many anchorages. The wind often dies at nights and leaves your boat to wonder around, wrapping the chain around bits of coral. I would use nothing but chain between the yacht and the anchor.

The People
This is a hard subject to write about. Describing people invites personal judgement and whatever you come up with, you're only describing the individuals that you met. My experience is not the same than your's. I'll do my best:

The people in the Louisiades are very friendly and they look up to visiting yachties as representatives of the world that has great material wealth. Visiting another country is generally something none of these people can ever do in their lives. So simply by being there, you represent something they can not achieve. You are a millionaire. Don't confuse this with them being primitive. Most of the villagers know what's out there, they just can't access it like you can.

Even in the most remote areas there are people who have seen movies, TV, news papers etc. They know the world you're coming from but they no nothing about the struggles about living in that world. They don't understand stress and burnout. But they know that you probably have some spare batteries for their walk man, to play the Guns'n'Roses album someone gave them six months ago in the walkman someone else gave them last week.

They want what you have and you want what they have. They want to have a lot of 'stuff' and you want to relax, unwind and get away from the life of a lot of 'stuff'. All the people I met were just like you and me. With dreams about their future. Young men dreaming about a woman. Young women dreaming about having a family. Mothers caring for their kids. Young kids wanting to play and explore.

There is a certain kind of 'superiority' in a white man. The people want to agree with you and you will not hear anyone saying no to you. On the other hand, there's a certain superiority that the villagers have over you. After all, you're in their world and they're the ones laying out the rules. True friendship is hard to achieve.

Treat everyone according to your gut feeling. Don't offer lavish gifts for nothing and don't accept their gifts without giving something in return. The longer you stay in one village, the better. As long as you let people in your yacht and into your world you have a chance to get to know them. And if you don't get to know anyone, all you see is nice beaches, pretty villages and lovely islands. Nice, but the world is full of them. It's hardly worth your effort to see just islands and beaches in PNG.

Inviting locals on your boat and giving out cups of coffee and cigarettes goes a long way. They'll suss you out pretty quickly. If you pretend to be something you're not, they'll pick it up. We lost some of our 'friends' after we run out of things to give. Some of them are greedy. Offer yourself, your help, your friendship and your trust towards them, rather than material goods.

The schooling system in PNG ensures that everyone, even the kids in the smallest villages on the remotest islands, receive the very basic education including the basic command of English language. Religion comes strongly with this education. The missionaries have done a lot of good things here. (That sentence was very hard for me to write, because I feel strongly about the destruction of many indigenous cultures by the Christians.) I'm not a Christian, and I leave all religious issues alone. But the fact is that before missionaries, violence and theft was prevailing. An old well educated ex government representative now living back in his island village made an interesting comment about his people. "On the outside we are very friendly and kind, but underneath we hate our neighbors and fight like cats and dogs"

We asked another villager why he thought that missionaries had been good for PNG. He said: "People don't fight and steel as much as they used to." We saw plenty of evidence of fierce rivalry between families and villages. If you anchor your yacht at a bay that has several villages, they will compete for you. The village that makes the most yachtie friends, will prosper the most, as they will get that important western stuff in return for their vegetables and carvings.


Trading
Trading is an inevitable activity in this area, just like it is in our own western world. They just don't trade with money like we do. Trading is the medium that makes you meet people. No one in the Louisiades will paddle their canoe to your boat simply to say hello when you first arrive. Sure, if you stay a week or more, you will make friends who like to come and visit just for the pleasure of the visit.

If you are strongly against smoking and don't want to encourage others to pollute their lungs, then you miss out on getting to know many villagers. You make friends by trading with them, and unfortunately a lot of them are smokers. My approach was to do my best to provide what they want and most of them wanted cigarettes.

Some yachts have lots to give and give very little. Some have very little and will give everything. This means that there's no 'exchange rate'. If someone wants a T-shirt for one papaya, that's fine, as long as you've got plenty of T-shirts and you're dying for a papaya. So trade according to what you have to give and what you want to buy. The villagers sometimes accept almost anything and sometimes ask for too much. This is confusing and there's nothing you can do. Play it by ear. Tell them what you have and ask them for things you want. Some useful currency includes sugar, cigarettes, T-shirts, batteries, music tapes, goggles, masks and snorkels, fishing line and hooks, pocket knives and lollies.

Many villagers like to promise you a lot. They probably have good intentions, but the goods are not always delivered. It is pointless to insist on the same trading ethics than in the western world. If you are generous and trusty, you will only get ripped off occasionally and even then the damage will be small. Remember that you DO have heaps more than the villagers, and getting a bad deal when trading is not a silly thing to do. It is the right thing to do. But giving lavish gifts for nothing will create greed and inequality among the villagers.

Phil, Marcia and Nathan in Misima Guest House

Health
Malaria is the most obvious health hazard. Fortunately the problem is not as bad in the islands as it is on the mainland PNG. Some cruisers choose to take preventative medication, some people choose not to. We took nothing. I understand that the effects of the medication itself can be as bad as malaria itself. I hardly saw any mosquitoes at the anchorages and even in the villages they were few and far between. I don't wear a helmet when I cross a road. There is a risk and I accept it.

There are no requirements for vaccinations. If your cruising guide tells you that there are, the PNG officials don't know about it. You will have a valid tetanus and Hepatitis A and B. That's all you need. (Take plenty of Panadol or Aspirin and basic band aids and antiseptic cream as both are frequently requested in the villages.) All cuts and scratches get easily infected in the tropics and you should take more antiseptic cream than you think you need. You will need more than you think.

I can't think of any other health issues. The water is usually collected from rain and safe to drink. The amount of medical supplies in your first aid kit depends on your fear of getting sick and your fear of dying.

Weather
The weather changes constantly and even the best meteorologist can only predict accurately to about 72 hours ahead. Thunder storms and squalls are more frequent in the hot months, during the southern summer. During the southern winter south east winds prevail.

Weather is what it is. In the Louisiades it's mostly pleasant. Sometimes it's not. You get what you get. How would I know what the weather will be like when you get there? Good luck.