F
or 21 years, Hans
Clemmensen
has sailed to
the Louisiade
Archipelago every
winter, equipping
villages with solar
panels. We had
been contemplating
cruising there
when we came into contact with him.
A Danish-Australian who lives in Cairns,
he told us that the clinic on Nimowa
Island, which serves many surrounding
islands, was out of medication and
equipment. The Louisiade Archipelago
is part of Papua New Guinea, stretching
over more than 160km to the south-east
between the Solomon Sea to the north
and the Coral Sea to the south. There
is a strong tradition of yachties helping
out, especially after their frequent
natural disasters. We would need
to sail all of the donations there in
our Oceanis 37, Essex Girl. This would
be the Louisiade sailing aid project.
We sailed from our home port
of Port Stephens 1,200 miles to
Townsville, a Border Force port, in
North Queensland. Once there, my
wife Anne and I were joined by crew
Laura (a young Danish friend who
contacted us to see if we were sailing
anywhere interesting in her European
university summer holiday), Stephanie
(a remote area emergency nurse), Hanna
and Shannon. All are great adventurers
and travellers. We were unclear if
we would be able to rely on trading
for food so we needed to load food for
six people for eight weeks. Fruit and
vegetables kept well in nets strung in
the saloon. We were overwhelmed by the
generosity of donors, and had to tactfully
refuse things that were not a priority.
As fresh water is limited on the islands,
we fi tted a watermaker that ran on solar
and wind-generated power. Bodies and
clothes were washed in seawater.
The south-east trade winds blow
steadily in winter and should provide
a beam reach in both directions. For us,
the wind was forward of the beam and
20-30 knots. After passing through Palm
Passage in the Great Barrier Reef, we’d
two knots of current fl owing against us.
The Admiralty Pilot says this happens
14% of the time. It persisted until we
reached Louisiade, adding 48 miles’
sailing a day to the passage of 670 miles.
The sea became turbulent with a large
swell as we approached the islands.
Two of the crew were new to sailing,
all were new to ocean passages, so it was
a brave learning curve for all of them.
We had to explain that this passage had
been unusually hard work. We reached
Deijei Rada Pass, a half-mile wide gap in
the reef, in grey, overcast weather after
fi ve and a half days. Fortunately, it was
daylight, avoiding the prospect of having
to stand off overnight in the rough sea.
UNCHARTERED CORAL
Our fi rst anchorage was at Liji Liji,
a bay without villages, so that we could
rest and clean up undisturbed. We then
made our way to Nimowa Island and
the clinic. Anchoring at Nimowa was
the fi rst of many challenges. The only
spot that appeared clear on the chart was
very deep. We were looking at uncharted
coral through alarmingly clear water
when a dinghy appeared with Hans in
it. His was the only other yacht we saw
in our entire time there and we were
grateful to see him. With his expertise
from years of sailing there, he guided
us to a bommie to anchor on. Bommies
are coral columns that usually we would
The crew of Essex Girl at
Port Stephens. L-R: Shannon,
Hanna, Anne, John, Stephanie,
and Laura
rigorously avoid but here, we had to fi nd
one deep enough at low water to anchor
on top of.
The Nimowa clinic has no regular
supply deliveries and was out of just
about everything, but had very capable
staff. Our time there was spent
unloading the medical donations,
helping with patients in the clinic,
inserting contraceptive implants and
training health workers to do this as
the local family planning programme
had not reached Louisiade. The gas
vaccine fridge hadn’t worked for eight
months and the spare part had been
stolen en route. Louisiade was described
as the back page of Papua New Guinea;
mostly never reached.
We had been asked if we could supply
tampons and other sanitary protection
but we considered this unsustainable
and took reusable menstrual cups which
last 10 years and don’t create a disposal
problem. We did wonder if these would
be culturally acceptable but found that
they were welcomed by female and male
healthcare workers alike. We also took
as many Days for Girls packs (www.
daysforgirls.org) as we could carry.
We were told that the islanders are
football crazy so we had been given
41 pairs of football boots, footballs
and shirts. Islanders were pleased
with all the medical donations but the
reaction when the football boots and
balls appeared was overwhelming! Boots
were left with the clinic to be lent out for
games rather than given to individuals.
BANQUETS AND BAGGI
Our last evening on Nimowa was
marked by a feast in our honour
at which we were presented with
baggi (shell necklaces) and woven
hats. We were all very sad to be leaving.
The next day, we faced the problem of
retrieving the anchor. We had followed
the recommendation for coral to put
a fl oat on the chain some distance
back towards the boat, but found at the
fl oating depth, it snagged the keel and
had us suspended beam on to the wind,
so we had abandoned that idea. Both
chain and anchor buoy rope had snagged
around coral. Two crew in the water with
face masks told us which way to go to
unravel the chain and rope – not such
a hardship in a sea temperature of 30°C.
Almost everywhere we had to anchor
in coral, and had the same problems
with chain and buoyline snagging
coral and in spite of the snubber,
THE LEARNING CURVE
