There never was child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him asleep
-Emerson-
PNG LOST AND FOUND
It's uncanny how my life managed to slip into the 'safe' and familiar surroundings that I referred to in the beginning of my PNG story. For months I carried a sense of failure with me. I felt that I had let down Phil, after all he had put every penny of his - and more - into our cruise. Apart from a new EPIRB, the empty brackets on board Aliisa reminded me of what was lost. I was still angry.
I started a 'new' life in the Whitsundays, working in a resort reception. But I never settled in. Something was incomplete and after little over a month I resigned and headed back to Cairns, a week sail north. I found myself soon rowing my little plastic tender 'Titanic' from my old mooring at Fitzroy Island to my old 70 hours a week -job. The inflatable was by now beyond repair and thrown away.
On Easter Sunday even little 'Titanic' got stolen by some french yacht that sailed north towing it behind. I felt like the world is telling me something. I put 'Aliisa' on the market for AUD$ 58.000. I felt defeated and tired of everything. I was planning to take the cash for selling the boat, hire a beach front hut somewhere in Mexico and write a book or two. Very romantic idea, but would I ever do it?
MESSAGE FROM MISIMA
One early morning in the office I received e-mail from Misima. It was from a trade store owner - possibly the only one in Bwagaoia who had an e-mail account. I did not like the message. Some people had taken offence from my previously published article detailing the events in PNG. My honest account of my feelings in the midst of dramatic events was perhaps a little too honest and personal. I did not mean to offend anyone. I just thought that safe writing - like safe life - is boring. I responded quickly and disabled my article from this web site. While my passionate writing had 'stirred up a hornet's nest' in Misima, the e-mail that told me so caused the old wounds of anger and sadness to open in me. I desperately wanted to shed the memories of the theft that threw me four years back in my cruising plans.
But there was something else. Apparently the thieves had been caught and 'most' of the stolen property was now in Misima Police station. I started corresponding with Jeremy, the store owner. Jeromy - after his first, rather ungenerous message - soon turned into a friendly contact and offered me all his help. He would update me on my chances to retrieve my stolen items. I wasn't quite sure how to feel about the situation. I certainly wasn't celebrating. A report of my expensive electronics lying in a room in Misima police station didn't mean that I would ever see any of them. Even Jeremy admitted that he had not seen them himself. I was suspicious. To get even a pair of socks back would be a miracle.
I was told that all stolen items were held as evidence and released to me only after the trial. 'So when's the trial?' -I asked. Well, there is no court in Misima. The judge must travel from Alotau, something he does only a few times a year... Then came the election and the associated unrest and violence across the PNG. Months went by and I heard very little news.
I worked myself to exhaustion and saved every penny I could. Late June I had saved enough to buy myself a tender and return a plastic canoe that I had been using, to the National Parks ranger. (Thank you Brendon!) After pulling 'Aliisa' out of the water for a new paint job, I fell in love with her again and took her off the market. What a stupid idea, to sell her!! She was all I had. To renew my wows with 'Aliisa', we went for another honeymoon and I spent three fantastic weeks sailing from Cairns to Cooktown and back. It was a sailing holiday I've never had before. A good friend from Fitzroy Island, Paula, made wonderful company and a brand new Zodiac with a brand new 4hp outboard proved to be worth the AUD $3500 that I paid for them.
Late July I was back at work and life was not too bad. The new inflatable with a good outboard took me exploring around Fitzroy Island and 'Aliisa' looked prettier than ever with her new make up. (Thank you Paula for doing half the work too!) We decided to quit work and seek more adventures by sailing up to Darwin.
But before leaving Cairns, I felt, I had to put PNG to bed. I decided to call the police station in Misima. The police chief told me on the phone that the magistrate could not come to Misima because they had no accommodation for him. He also told me that he's going to Alotau for a few weeks and asked me to call him again after he returns. I decided not to wait any longer. After hanging up, I dialled the number for the Australian High Commissioner in Port Moresby. He promised to give Misima a ring and then call me back.
The call from Port Moresby came an hour later. The message was very simple; if I drop the charges, they will release the thieves and send my gear back! I had never pressed any charges; I just wanted my stuff back! I felt almost embarrassed. I felt that I had wasted the High Commissioner's time. Maybe this is what the police already told me but in my cynical suspicious and angry state of mind, refused to hear. Is there hope? Could it be that all the stories of corruption in PNG had made me a racist?
Thinking that everyone in Misima is just lying to me, cheating me and giving me false hope is prejudice thinking. Was I being a prejudgist, racist, cynical? But that any of the stolen goods would be in Misima police station, 10 months after the theft, was too unbelievable. To have someone actually put them in a box and send them to me was - for me - beyond a miracle. Surely this was some sort of a joke?
On the evening of 6th August 2002, ten months after the theft in Misima, I laid my fingers on the keyboard of my lap top and composed two letters. The first one was to the PNG police. It congratulated the police for their work and stated that I wish not to proceed with any criminal charges. The second letter was for Misima Mines - the gold mine that operates on the island. I was requesting their assistance in sending my belongings to Cairns, Australia. The mine operates a charter plane three times a week between Cairns and Bwagaoia. I faxed both letters to Misima Mines. The police station doesn't have a fax machine and advised me to use the mine office fax.
Next day I returned to the 'rock'. (Fitzroy Island where Aliisa and I live.) A week went by and I heard nothing from PNG. I kept working 60-hour weeks in the front office of the resort on the island. Only a tiny part of my brain remembered the PNG issue, the rest was occupied with answering work calls, serving customers, taking reservations and all the other nitty gritty of keeping up with a few hundred daily holiday makers occupying the island.
On 16th August - 303 days after most of the valuables were stolen from my yacht in Misima Island in Papua New Guinea - I received a phone call. I was standing in the reception of Fitzroy Island Resort. Peter yelled out from the back office: 'Lauri, Chris for you'. "Chris who?" -I thought and took the call.
'Hello, this is Lauri'
'It's Chris from the Cairns international air freight. We have two boxes here for you.'
'Where are they from?'
'From Misima'
I started shaking. What could be in those boxes?
I had a good chat with Chris. I was too nervous to even ask how big the boxes were. Chris told me there were two lists attached. One was titled; 'Items recovered' and was a list of items in the boxes. The other list was titled: 'Items not recovered, lost or given away'
There is hope for humanity. There are good people out there. If I had my gear stolen in Cairns, or any other city in Australia, I would not have a snowball's chance in hell in getting anything back. When Phil and I sailed away from PNG, we thought our chances of retrieving anything would be much less. We were wrong. And the reason for this happy ending is not me being lucky. The reason for me having some justice is that there are some good people in PNG. There are some good people in all places in the world. I'm still quite convinced that there were some deductions from the recovered items; some of my belongings belong to people that didn't steal it in the first place. But .........
Four days later I jumped in the Fitzroy Ferry and made my way to Cairns. I arrived at Cairns International Air freight with a bottle of Jim Beam. I wanted to reward the only people I was confident hadn't taken a souvenir from my property during its travels from PNG to Cairns. This thought is unfair, of course. The notion of 'given away' on the list did not mean that the police had taken or given away anything of mine. It referred to items that had been sold or given away before the police found the thieves. If the police had retrieved all goods before we left Misima, I would have certainly given them something back. But by now there wasn't much left:
A bag of loose sockets, 6 screw drivers, toiletry bag, two music tapes, $30 in coins, two mouldy shirts and one pair of shorts, a broken camera, a first aid box - almost empty and a surprising amount of stainless bits, shackles and hose clamps. I didn't get my GPS back but I did get my EPIRB. The only item of any significant value was a submersible hand held VHF radio, which was as good as new and in full working order.
I was in a mood to celebrate. I was three weeks away from sailing to Darwin and now that I had the VHF back, I rewarded myself with a new hand held GPS from the local chandlery. I was in high spirits when I walked off the Fitzroy Ferry carrying my new and lost and found toys, ready to load them on board.
I walked off the island ferry on to the jetty and noticed that my Zodiac was not tied to the jetty. A practical joke by the maintenance guys, for sure! I left the boxes in reception and walked into the staff quarters looking for Antox, the mischievous maintenance supervisor. What Zodiac? There was a Zodiac at the jetty last night...
While Antox run out and drove off with his boat in a desperate search for my missing tender, I started to realise that this was no joke. The AUD $3500 tender and outboard that I had bought six weeks earlier, was gone.
While I was in Cairns, retrieving perhaps $500 worth of goods from PNG, someone stole my new tender and outboard. No suspects, no clues. I didn't have the energy to go off my rocket. All I could do was to sit on the darkening beach, stare at the mountains on the mainland and cry.
This story was to continue with a trip through the Barrier Reef, Torres Strait and the top of Australia. But now it ends here. There will be no trip to Darwin. I refuse to buy some cheap shit tender for a long voyage, and I certainly don't have the resources to replace what was stolen with a new one. I could still go but right now I don't feel like it.