A LITTLE GENERAL CRUISING INFO ON PNG AND SOLOMONS
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON MELANESIA
In
spite of certain negative points listed below, we found Melanesia to
be, with a couple exceptions, a great place to visit- a true adventure.
We traveled through the Solomons (Santa Cruz, Makira,
Guadalcanal, Florida Islands, Russell Islands, Marovo and Vonavona
Lagoons, Gizo, Choiseul) during October 2011 - Jan 2012, and PNG
Feb-April 2012.
SOME SOLOMONS CRUISING BASICS
Customs/immigration
were simple, fast, and easygoing. We had an extendable 3 month visa.
We met a boat that had actually been in the Solomons for several months
before getting around to checking in.
Places to anchor were somewhat
limited and often deep/exposed. Alan Lucas’s guide was OK, but
sometimes inaccurate. ‘Solomon Islands Cruising Guide’ by Dirk Sieling
was much better with good detail on lots of anchorages. We rarely had
enough wind to sail, but diesel delivery was generally easy to obtain at
larger towns at about US $6-7/gal. Most islands are sparsely populated
with small villages. Supplies and repair services were very limited
and imported goods relatively expensive, even in large cities. Local
produce was real cheap- if you are on a shoestring budget stock up on
used tshirts- you will get a week’s worth of veggies and sweet potatoes
for one or two at isolated anchorages, and between that and rich fishing
you should get by on $500/month or less unless the boat falls apart.
There are several small haul out facilities in the Floridas and Western
Province, but they tend to be booked up. Try Vella Lavella’s Liapari
Bay. The people of the Solomons are extremely friendly and helpful.
Most places we stopped, we were quickly besieged by a dozen or more
canoes full of curious, friendly kids and adults. Pidgin is quite close
to English and we generally had little trouble communicating even in
very remote areas. They were eager to learn about us and exchange local
goods (carvings, sweet potatoes, plantains, island spinach, tomatoes,
cucumbers, peppers, papayas, mangos, and bananas) for manufactured
goods. Popular trade items from us were used clothing, fishing line and
hooks, cheap dive masks, seeds, batteries- especially D size, carving
tools and sandpaper, books and magazines, DVDs, and candy, marbles, and
balloons for the kids. Bring a bag of goods into a village and you will
see a veritable feeding frenzy!
SOME PNG CRUISING BASICS
Customs/immigration
was pretty painless. We applied for a 60day visa in Honiara. It’s
rumored to be a painful process to extend one’s visa. We had no
difficulty finding good anchorages in PNG. We used the Southeast Asia
Cruising Guide, which we don’t like because it is strangely laid out and
only has info on major ports. As in the Solomons, there was rarely a
sailing wind during the northwest monsoon. We had great difficulty
progressing up the north coast Wewak-Jayapura against the NW monsoon in
April- we made three attempts to leave Wewak, and two from Vanimo. It
blew 20-25 knots down the coast, with some nasty squalls, pretty
consistently for the 3 weeks in March we were there. PNG is a lot more
developed than the Solomons, with a number of large cities and
tin-and-wood villages instead of thatch huts. Availability of supplies
and repair facilities in cities was not great, but better than in the
Solomons. Diesel delivery was readily available in towns at about US
$6-7/gallon. Local produce was very cheap (about the same price as the
Solomons) and our manufactured trade goods were in demand in the more
isolated anchorages.
THE SOLOMONS/PNG SECURITY QUESTION-
Solomons
and PNG have some of the most beautiful islands and coral in the
Pacific. Melanesian people are some of the nicest we’ve met anywhere.
During our seven months here we saw only 6 other sailboats and met the
most interesting expats…
But there was obvious political unrest and
violent crime problems in both the Solomons and PNG. The majority of it
in Solomons seemed to be between locals, and was unlikely to involve
foreigners. The day we pulled in to Honiara, the government was
overturned in a vote of no confidence. The city was closed down, riot
police and troublemaking crowds owned the streets, and there were
(fortunately untrue) rumors that they were burning down Chinatown
again. There were three other sailboats in the harbor. One had a guard
aboard, one had been attacked by pirates in the Floridas and suffered
machete wounds, and one had been boarded by opportunistic thieves twice
in the Floridas. That said, we never felt threatened in the Solomons,
and we found it easy to avoid the few trouble spots (eg parts of the
Floridas). We’re glad we went; it was one of our favorite countries.
If you do go to the Floridas, we would highly recommend starting at
Jonny Ruka’s (ask other cruisers or look for the village on the southern
side of the northeastern-most bay off the Sandfly Channel)- he and his
village will provide night-long security boats, information on where to
go/not to go, and a great welcoming feast if you desire.
In PNG,
Kieta, Buka, New Ireland, Rabaul, and eastern New Britain had a pretty
safe and laid-back vibe and not too many rascal problems. Most people
were really, really friendly and outgoing. In Kimbe and point west the
atmosphere in town seemed a little more sullen and aggressive, and we
started hearing expat statements like “Don’t walk around alone” “don’t
go to the Talasea Peninsula”. We felt that these were exaggerated and
didn’t pay too much attention. Once we got to the mainland (Madang,
Wewak, Vanimo), there was a definite aggressive attitude and some verbal
harrassment of Gini and attempted touching from lots of unemployed men
hanging around the city centres.
PNG is very different from the
Solomons. It has a high violent crime rate against both locals and
foreigners. Rape and domestic abuse are very common- estimated to occur
in 90% of families in parts of the Highlands. The justice systems is
pretty much non-functional. PNG is rich in natural resources, but it
would appear that over the past 30+ years most of the revenue from these
has gone into politicians’ pockets, rather than into infrastructure and
services for the people. To anyone planning a trip to PNG, I would
strongly recommend getting a feel for the place by spending a week
reading the online headlines of the two major newspapers- The Post
Courier and the National. You will be amazed. All this was balanced by
the fact that there are many reasonably safe, beautiful destinations in
PNG. Many sailors, tourists, solo female travelers, etc pass through
every year without having any problems. The culture and diversity is
amazing and most of the people are wonderful. For us, PNG was a great
adventure, but maybe not a family destination.
Some of our interesting PNG experiences:
-
While we were in Buka (Bougainville), armed elements of the former
Bougainville rebel forces seized three ships and held them and their
crews hostage. They demanded compensation payments for deaths in a
recent ferry sinking that killed 200+ people. PNG police and army were
powerless to do anything. The affair ended when the rebs released the
crews and towed the ships out to a reef and burnt them.
- Some
young men came out to the boat at night in canoes at Lavinia anchorage
in south New Ireland at about 1800. We heard a bump against the boat
and came out to look around and apparently scared them off. We noticed
in the morning that some things had been stolen- a couple shirts and
trunks, small pieces of hardware and some rope. We had made some
friends in the area who immediately told us who did it, so we went into
the village with them and talked to the chief and got most of it back.
-
The morning we arrived in Madang there were four separate armed
robberies of businesses in town.
