Last week we visited Tunung, an island on the NW side of New Hanover. Clem’s place is lodge with a good reputation among divers and nature lovers and Clem, who also works on other projects for sustainability on the island, asked us to take some of the school kids from the island into their no-fishing zone to talk about coral and the role of different species in the eco-system. We did a simplified reef check with them and everybody had a great time counting parrot fish! It was great to work with such smart and interested kids.
We donated our underwater writing boards. If you’re headed this way, please take along some more masks and fins for the kids! Usually we’re not keen on handing out diving equipment as it’s used for spearfishing, but in this case it’s used to raise awareness 
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2025
16
Jan
Reef check with kids
2025
07
Jan
Smurfy pictures
Smurfy's 6 months already! And 4 months with us :-)
Time flies, our boy has already grown up! He's still curious, hyperactive, helping with all projects and occasionally ambushing us. Fortunately he's getting more mature, less crazy and sometimes even cuddly :-)
(20 photos)
2025
06
Jan
Island kids are just incredible :-)
When we got back from snorkeling off Snake Island, the boys from the island paddled by, just as Christian was grabbing a brush to clean the rudder. “Do you want to help him?”, I asked. “Yes, we want to help!”, came the immediate answer in a choir. No hesitation, no discussion among themselves, no asking for money. I got out some more goggles and brushes and with lots of splashing, squealing and joking the whole hull was clean after half an hour. Of course they didn’t just get juice and cookies as a thank-you, but also some supplies for their family.
We had a similar experience already in Vanuatu, when we took our dinghy up on a beach to clean the bottom upside-down. A group of teenagers came by, saw what we were doing, immediately grabbed handfuls of sand and we had the thick algae layer off within minutes–and all that just smiling and without asking for anything in return.
Can you imagine such a scene in Europe or somewhere else in the “western” world? I know for sure that Austrian kids would walk past some strangers doing dirty work, they probably wouldn’t even notice them with their noses glued to their smart phones 
Putting myself into that scene as a teenager I have to admit that my reaction probably wouldn’t have differed from the typical Austrian brat today–except that my nose would have been in a book… So what makes such a difference with the island kids? Probably that they come from a close-knit community with limited resources where everyone has to work together. The generosity and friendliness of the South Pacific Islanders (no matter if they’re Polynesian, Melanesian or some other -esian) keeps amazing us!
2025
05
Jan
Snake Island
Last week we anchored off the smallest inhabited island we’ve ever seen: just a rock with a strip of beach, a few trees (full of noddie terns) and 11 people on it! The 6 boys were thrilled to have a sailboat anchored next to their home (the first one ever!) and kept us company. Usually they paddle to the neighbouring island for school, but at the moment they’re on holidays, just doing some fishing and going to the mainland to work in their garden.
The dad likes to tinker with electronics (we got to listen to radio PNG all day), so we left them some LED lights to run from the battery and a charger for their smartphone–after sharing some drone pics via bluetooth. A typical PNG mix of traditional lifestyle with modern influences
2025
03
Jan
Photos of the Marine Protected Area Nonovaul
Nonovaul Marina Protected Area (MPA), PNG
Most of the reefs in the Kavieng area are overfished--the demand of a growing population and more and more people selling for money on the market. The people of Nonovaul have declared the reef around their island as a Tambu with restricted fishing and down in the south (in front of the village where it can be policed) they have a permanent no-take zone! Sam, policeman and chairman of the committee, proudly showed us around: huge swarms of parrotfish and a biodiversity and biomass like nowhere else around here :-)
(36 photos)
2025
01
Jan
Photos of the Kavieng Area
Islands off Kavieng
The maze of Islands between New Ireland and New Hanover is more than just a quick stop-over: friendly villages, beautiful reefs, a few uninhabited islets, calm anchorages and only a few miles between the different destinations :-)
(34 photos)
2024
24
Dec
Happy holidays!
We wish you all a merry Christmas (or other festivity) and a happy, healthy, adventurous and exciting year 2025!
Thanks for reading and travelling along with us for another year
We send you slightly sweaty kisses from summery hot Papua New Guinea,
Birgit, Christian and Smurfy
2024
16
Dec
Clearance and shopping in Kavieng
Checking in in Kavieng is a pleasure: we had done our online-evisa (50 USD per person) and sent off an email with a prearrival notification beforehand, so when we arrived in Kavieng we simply anchored in front of the friendly Nusa Resort (they take separated rubbish, so make sure you keep burnables, recylable plastic and cans separate!!), took a taxi boat over to town and went to see Martin, the cumstom’s guy. Martin stamped our passports (visa valid for 2 months) and wished us fun exploring PNG–all within 5 minutes, with a big smile and no further fees…
Then we were free to explore the town: smiling faces everywhere (most of them with bright-red teeth due to the nasty habit of chewing betelnuts), better than expected shopping at the numerous supermarkets + hardware stores and great produce at the cheap veg and fruit market. We love PNG!
From the anchorage we just flagged down one of the many passing boats, turned out to be all-ladies
Got a sim
Checked out the many supermarkets
Got some essentials for Christian
Bought some things to give away at the second-hand shop
Did not buy betelnut…
But lots of fresh goodies at the market!
2024
14
Dec
Finally back in Papua New Guinea!
In 2005 we spent 4 weeks travelling PNG as backpackers, flew to Port Moresby, on to Madang and did some great diving before riding a series of trucks up the highland’s highway. We had a great time (despite travel warnings and expats who told us we’d get killed if we attempted that trip) and vowed to come back soon. Well, it took us a while, but now we’re back
PNG is a big country with many islands, vibrant and very diverse cultures and a multitude of languages: more than 800 languages are still spoken, but fortunately for us PNG has one common language for everybody and that’s Tok Pisin, a pidgin language based on English with lots of Melanesian words, some French, Spanish and even German loanwords and it’s quite easy to learn! Many people also speak good English, which makes conversations even easier (we’re still working on our Tok Pisin).
Like most islands here in the South Pacific, PNG also got “discovered” and “colonised” by various European nations (even though the local inhabitants had discovered it about 40.000 years earlier): in the 19th century the Dutch controlled the western half of PNG’s main island while the Germans and the Brits divided the eastern half into two adminstrations. In 1906 the British transferred the administration to Australia, which took the Southern part from the Germans during WW1. After the war the Australians remained in control of Papua (formerly German) New Guinea (formerly British), while the western part of the island remained Dutch (and would be granted to Indonesia in 1962 resulting in ruthless exploitation of its resources and suppression of its peoples, but that’s another story).
Papua New Guinea became independent in 1972 and the people are proud of their country, flags everywhere and children singing the hymn proudly at school events, even though PNG is struggling with corruption, lack of infrastructure, pollution (like most developing countries–and the developed ones that really should know better sadly as well) and numerous companies (mostly foreign) are exploiting the forest (logging) and the earth (mining). Of course there are still travel warnings in many places due to tribal fighting, but nowadays also because gangs of youth (out of control and on drugs and alcohol according to the villagers we talked to) add to the crime statistics with violent attacks both on locals and tourists.
For now we have only encountered friendly people, the vibes on the outer island and in Kavieng (the main town of New Ireland) are really good and we feel as happy and welcome here as we did 20 years ago! The islands still look lush and beautiful, at least some of the reefs seem to resist the crazy high temperatures (over 31 °C already in December) and all kinds of squawking and chirping birds are flying over Pitufa. We’ll take our time exploring the outer islands this summer
2024
14
Dec
Book recommendation “Seenomaden”
Before we even went sailing for the first time we were already inspired by Doris’ and Wolf’s stories and photos. After watching their presentations about the magical places they visited with their SY Nomad we were even more determined to go cruising… Of course I read Doris’ book then and loved it! In the meantime we have met Doris and Wolf out here in the South Pacific and were lucky to be on the same route with them for a while and found out that they are not just great sailors, but also lovely people to hang out with
“Frei wie der Wind” is still available on Amazon and so are the sequels “So wild wie das Meer” and “Hart wie das Eis”. All three are great reads and highly recommended–IF you speak German. Unfortunately there are no English versions…
They’ll also be doing another round of presentations in the new year, so if you’re in Austria, Germany or Switzerland at that time, check out the dates on their website and be ready to get whirled away by their highly professional and entertaining show to the sunny South Pacific, around the world or to the frosty Northwest-Passage!
2024
04
Dec
Book recommendation
A fellow sailor has written and illustrated a super-sweet book about an octopus and his adventures. It’s for very young readers from 2 to 7 years old. German only though… “Olli Oktopus findet eine Taucherbrille” is the first part of a series and available on Amazon!
2024
29
Nov
3 months of Smurfy!
During his third month aboard, Smurfy turned from a savage, but sweet kitten into a rebellious teenager with severe anger issues ignoring all boundaries and testing his limits daily. We tried all the usual tricks we had learned with our previous cats and also did some reading in cat psychology studies: never play with hands but toys, offer punching balls to get rid of aggression, make meeping/howling sounds when bitten/scratched, ignore him when he’s too aggressive, etc. Nothing worked and we used up a whole package of antiseptic cream on bites and scratches (the Western South Pacific is famous for skin infections…).
Then he started pooping in the garden (after using his toilet from day 1 as a kitten) and again I tried to explain, reason and plead, then proceeded to shouting and ended up hitting him (I never hit Leeloo in 21 years)–all to no avail. When I caught him with his bum still in a herb pot I grabbed him and threw him overboard. That finally did the trick: after quickly climbing back aboard and getting a shower he looked quite contrite and he’s much sweeter and gentler now. It seems he finally realised that he’s not the big alpha cat here aboard and that we’re nice to him not out of weakness, but because we love him. Of course he knows that nobody can resist his mischievous freckles and the sweetest, little dotted belly in the world
2024
25
Nov
New tattoo
I was quite unhappy when I spotted some spider veins on my boobs last year (of all possible places…). I had them lasered, but they quickly reappeared, so that wasn’t a solution. Planning our journey to Europe last August, I had the idea of a cover-up tattoo, got in touch with an artist in Turkey and liked her sketches. On the way back we did a stop-over in Istanbul and I got my tattoo: a mixture of delicate, ink-drawn leaves in black and purple, water-colour-style semi-transparent flowers. I love them! Much better to show off purple flowers than purple veins
2024
20
Nov
Cats don’t need swimming lessons
Falling over board and drowning is the biggest danger for a ship’s cat. Smurfy’s a reckless climber and we could not persuade him to be careful–he insisted on climbing on solar panels, balancing on the railing and other crazy stunts. We were eagerly waiting for him to finally fall in, so he would learn his lesson in a safe anchorage instead of on passage (where he has to wear a harness and leash now). In the meantime we let him climb up his cat ladder on the stern from the dinghy and even from a boogie board we take with us in the water (he curiously follows us down the steps when we go swimming anyway…). Now the big SPLASH has finally happened… He surfaced, swam determinedly and very fast to the stern (without a moment of confusion where to go) and raced up the ladder. It took maybe 4 seconds between SPLASH and being back aboard and having a freshwater shower…
So cats need neither life vests nor swimming lessons, but a sturdy ladder and training definitely pay off!
2024
17
Nov
Underwater pictures!
Underwater Wonderland
There are very few untouched coral reefs left in the South Pacific. We have found one and were at anchor there for over two weeks without land in sight. Unforgettable encounters with fishies, who are not afraid of divers, as they don't know about spear guns. We spent several hours every day in the water just enjoying their natural behaviour :-) Too often elsewhere, we encounter hardly any fish and those we see, quickly disappear under a rock to hide in panic... Despite very warm water temperatures we were happy to encounter some healthy coral!
(44 photos)
