Leg 6 Alotau - Louisiades

Leg 6 began early afternoon on Monday, 7 May as we cruised SE out of Milne Bay.

Darkness fell by the time we reached the charted shoals between Shortland and Hakalihi (Grant) Islands but we passed through easily enough before skirting south of the Engineer Group by night with just enough breeze to sail gently along. There are a few lit channel markers around the Shortland Reefs that offer back up to the GPS for confirmation of position and we used them as best we could.

Big bucks private island

The Ship Pass entrance to the Conflict Group permits a wide and easy entrance to the lagoon but to be sure we timed our arrival for dawn and made our way across to Panasea Island. Here we planned a short stop to visit Conflict Resort, a small and exclusive luxury island hideaway. We had no booking or invite but thought it worth a look.

The best anchorage in the conditions was actually off the N end of Panasea Island, back out through a narrow and shallow pass from the lagoon that was generating a turbulent overfall with the incoming tide as we motored through.

 

And airstrip

The private island resort (www.conflictislands.com) has its own grass airstrip, is well manicured with walking paths through the jungle and neat guest cottages looking out over a pure turquoise bay.

The easiest tuna I ever caught!

It's a ‘price on application’ hideaway and probably doesn't hope for ad hoc visitors like us. However, everyone we met was polite and inquisitive about our trip. The fishing in the area is excellent and as they had a surplus from the mornings outing we were given a super fresh tuna to restock the fridge!

Nivani Island approach

Not wanting to overstay our welcome we moved on towards our nights destination of Nivani Island in the DeBoyne Group.

After crossing the very busy north south shipping lane (Australia’s mineral wealth heading for China!) we entered the lagoon through the western passage and enjoyed a fine afternoon blast across to our anchorage just NW of Nivani.

Martin

Local elder Martin paddled out to meet us in his canoe. As well as trading for some limes, bananas, coconuts (and pearls), the following morning he also led us to the wreckage of a WWII Zero fighter lying in shallow water just a short swim off the beach. Chris even took his outrigger canoe for a spin.


We saw plenty of sailing outriggers in the area, many coming down to fish the outer reef from the bigger communities on Panapompom Island and just as we were leaving we managed a very quick morning trade with a passing ‘sailau’ for another bucket of crayfish.



From Nivani we headed out of the southern Nivani Passage for the crossing to Cormorant Channel and the entrance to the Panasia Island anchorage, our last planned stop before we would head for Cairns.

Fish were hitting the lures but unusually we were having trouble keeping them on the hook. Eventually we landed a nice Skipjack tuna that Colin elected to administer. Unfortunately, a last wriggle whilst he was de-hooking the catch saw it slip from his grasp and back into the blue! There goes dinner! Good job we had the crayfish.

'Fish o...

A jagged ridge of rock, rising from within a pristine lagoon, Panasia is a spectacular island. It is remote and generally uninhabited (there are a couple of temporary huts on the beach which were unoccupied when we arrived) which only adds to the sense of discovery as you approach.

'Er...fish off!'

The instructions we had on which was the best channel to pass through the reef were a little vague, even in the cruising guide, and we made an incorrect choice which led to us creeping over the narrow sandbar with just one foot of water below the keel at one point before making it through to deeper water.

A tense time for Pat on the helm with Chris’s diminishing depth readouts getting louder in his ears!

Once again, the mast spreader lookout position came in very useful for advising the helm on the hazards ahead and best route to take. From our eventual anchorage, the far deeper ‘correct’ channel was a more obvious, much closer to the island than the guidebook appeared to suggest and we noted it for our eventual exit.


A quiet night in a beautiful spot and a chance for us to review and prepare the boat and ourselves for the water we had to cross to Australia. We planned to leave Panasia the following morning, cross the lagoon and exit into the Coral Sea via a passage close to the west of the small Duchateau Island group, also uninhabited though there is a popular anchorage here for boats having just completed the crossing from Australia.

Panasia Island

A little over 500nm at 7kts would take us approximately 3 days and have us able to arrive in Cairns sometime on Mon 14 May to face the rigours of Australian Customs, Quarantine and Immigration. A quick satphone call ahead to confirm they had our previously emailed arrival information turned into a long call as it turned out they didn't and wanted all details of every crewmember read out over the line!

Expensive!!