Papua New Guinea December 2005

In December 2005, a large group of the Atlantic Wreck Divers, friends, and family went on a trip to Papua New Guinea – also known as PNG to dive for 10 days aboard the MV FaBrina.  PNG is located in the Pacific and is just north of Australia.  This trip was scheduled to go from New Britain, to Garove Island, then north to New Ireland and the town of Kavieng.

The trip was coordinated by Jim Meenen and Matt Walters.  The rest of the group was Doug Newlon and Deb Taylor, Brian and Terri Brawner, Ron and Toni Wallace, Karen Flynn and Chuck “Yoda” Richardson, Nina ???, and Kathy Carl.

A portion of the adventure of a trip to the South Pacific is the challenge of Getting There.  We initially stayed in New Britain at the Walindi Plantation.  After an overnight here, we boarded our live-aboard for 10 days of Diving on the FaBrina.  While PNG is known for macro dives and the opportunity to see one-of-a-kind sea creatures like pygmy sea horses, we also got an opportunity to do some wreck diving along the way.  Dive Highlights describe just a few of the locations we dove.  See PNG Dive Log for the complete dive log for the 10 days.  About mid-way through the trip, we took off one dive to do a Village Tour on Garove Island.  It was a unique opportunity to get to interact with some people of PNG.

I hope you enjoy this log,

Karen Flynn

A big part of the adventure associated with a trip to the South Pacific, is the challenge of getting there.  Doug, Deb, Brian, Terry, Ron and Toni all decided to tour Australia before meeting up with the group in PNG.  Matt and Jim were doing some advance dives in another part of PNG.  Kathy Carl was also meeting up with us as part of an extended dive trip through the Pacific region.  Only Karen and Yoda were coming in straight from Washington.

 We left home at 3:30 am for Regan National Airport.  Our flight plan was Washington DC to Houston, to Honolulu, to Guam, to Cairns, Australia for a short overnight, then off to PNG.  Our first pleasant surprise was that because we were taking Continental all the way through, we got to check our bags straight to Cairns. 

 
We lost one day by crossing the International Date Line – Nov 31.  We arrived in Cairns a little after midnight on Dec 2 and our heads hit the pillow for the first time at about 2 am after continuously traveling for over 31 hours.  The next morning we ran into Ron and Toni Wallace, and Brian and Terri Brawner in the lobby before heading to breakfast.

 We departed Cairns for Port Moresby, then Port Moresby to Hoskins Airfield, on the island of New Britain, PNG. It was Ron, Toni, Brian, Terri, Doug Newlon, Deb Taylor, Nina (???), Yoda, and Karen all together at this point.

Hoskins Airfield was a typical remote little South Pacific airfield.  Coconut palms lined the runway and a shed style building served as the terminal.  There were a lot of locals awaiting friends and family, as well as cargo delivery.  These island-to-island flights are vital for getting supplies from one place to another.

 The van that was supposed to pick us up was broken down in the parking lot when we arrived, but they loaded our luggage on anyway.  A new, much smaller van arrived and we had to take 14 people in an 11 person van to Walindi. So the AWD divers got pretty cozy with the other couples headed to the resort. The other van – with our luggage - was in the process of being towed out of the airport as we headed out.  We met our new group member Kathy Carl at the bar that evening just before dinner.

 We spent the night of Dec 2 at Walindi Plantation Resort.  This resort had a typical South Pacific feel.  We all had our own individual bungalows, nestled back in the trees.  Each was accessed via quiet paths with beautiful flowering foliage lining both sides of the path.  A volcano in the moutains just above the resort had become active a few months before our arrival.  So we saw smoke plumes all day long, and every so often also got a strong scent of sulfur.  The only thing that was different, and a little disturbing, was that the bungalow had metal bar grates across all the windows, bolted from the inside of the bungalow, and multiple deadbolts on the door, operated from the inside.  It was pretty clear we were supposed to keep people out.

 Matt Walters and Jim Meenen had a delay getting to Walindi from Toufi until Dec 3 (about 10:30 am).  We had the whole day to occupy ourselves so Ron, Doug, Yoda, and I went diving with the Walindi shop.  Our boat was “Ema”.  Our dive guide was Junior.

• Trolled for dolphins before the start of diving – it felt like being a fish in a net
• Dive 1 – Kristy Jayne’s Reef (87deg, 46min, 89’max)
• Coffee/tea break and lunch on Restorf Island
• Dive 2 - Susan’s Reef (88deg, 56min, 80’max)

We returned around 2:30pm, showered and packed our bags and waited to board the FaBrina.

e loaded on to the FeBrina and met John, the Captain, and Chrissy, his wife and “hostess”.  Ron and the Captain became instant friends because the Captain had cigars he was willing to share and Ron had barely had any since leaving home. 

Our first dinner was absolutely wonderful and an indication of the rest of the trip – the food was great!!  The usual course of the day on FeBrina is: 

• Awake at least about 6:00 am (continental breakfast available)
• First Dive brief at 6:15 am
• First Dive at 6:30 am
• Full, hot, made-to-order breakfast following the first dive
• Second Dive brief at 9:15 am
• Second Dive at 9:30 am
• Third Dive brief is at 11:15 am
• Third Dive is at 11:30 am
• Buffet lunch of soup, salad, and great sides following the third dive
• Fourth Dive brief at 3:15 pm
• Fourth Dive at 3:30 pm
• Some type of hearty snack out before the evening dive
• Fifth Dive Brief at 6:15 pm
• Fifth Dive (night dive) at 6:30 pm
• Drinks and a delicious dinner following the night dive
• Fast asleep in the room by about 9 pm

Alfie “Wago”/“Wahoo” – one of the dive guides who also did a lot of work on the fills and getting gear set up 
Elisah “Hollywood” (top of ladder) – one of dive guides as well.  Hollywood found a golden cowrie near the end of the trip. 
Josie, the “General” (middle of ladder) – She was incharge of the dive staff.  She is a PNG native from Rabaul and was just great at pointing out the miniature sea life. 
Stella (left, back row standing) – She played pranks on Ron, Yoda, and others and giggled and took photos all along the way.  She was a lot of fun. 
Loraine (right, back row standing) – She attended to the cabins, laundry, and did much of the prep for all of the wonderful meals.  
Raddi (left, front row seated) – She was the ships engineer, evidently one of the only woman engineers in PNG.  Raddi also helped out on the back deck getting folks in and out of the water and did a lot of the dingy operation to pick up up from drfit dives 
Valia (right, front row seated) – She also attended to the cabins and inside chores along with Loraine.  Valia was probably the most quiet and shy person among the entire staff.

Dive Highlights

 Shark Dive on Inglis Shoals (Dec 4)

They put out a bait bucket to bring in the sharks.  We saw grey reef and white tip sharks.  There was a very friendly moray eel that positioned himself just below the bait bucket to catch bits floating away.  He routinely came up right next to the divers for some great pictures.  For the second dive on this same site, we again went and spent a good amount of the dive playing with the moray.

 WWII Japanese Zero (Dec 5)

For the last dive of the day we talked them into going to the WWII Japanese Zero.  It was found in 2000 under an entire cover of coral.  Once the coral was removed it was nearly totally intact.  It is very close to shore.  They really didn’t want to go because the rain over the last several days had created bad vis on the wreck.  Once we got there is was essentially East Coast wreck diving vis on the northern wrecks – so we all felt at home.  It is in very good shape and Matt got some really good pictures.  That evening we got an early start on the 8 hour crossing to a location they call the “Crater”, which is Garove Island.

 Krackafat Reef (Dec 6)

“Krackafat” is an Aussie slang term for a “hard on” and its part of the boat slogan – Krackafat diving.  This reef is just one big bummie with a good bit of current on top.  There is a good size octopus in a debris area at the top and a big black lion fish that hangs out at the mooring.  Natives come over to visit and trade with the boat, so coming up from the dive you get some good shots of natives in canoes from underwater.  The natives trade fresh produce which they grow, for stables that are hard for them to get like rice and flour, but are carried in quantity aboard the FaBrina.  This is apparently the custom throughout the islands and the boat stocks up a lot of extra items to be able to trade.

 First Muck Dive (Dec 6)

Muck diving is diving off the reefs in the areas close to shore were there is not much coral or vegetation and the bottom is mostly “mucky” sand or silt.  We saw a number of sea slugs, nudibranchs, manta shrimp, blue ribbon eels, and finally two very frisky cuddle fish.  One of the cuddle fish had a half eaten fish sticking out of his mouth.  The next day we did a dive at the same location – just a little earlier.  Josie says it is best to be in the water about 5:30 pm if you want to see Mandarin fish.  We did find them but they are really a lot smaller then they look in the photos.  They are also pretty fast movers. 

Sanko Maru (Dec 10 and 11)

The Sanko Maru was a Japanese freighter sunk in a WWII bombing that now lies on its starboard side with a big crack just aft of the bridge.  There is a two-man sub off to the side about 70 feet out in the sand.  Everyone was happy to be diving a real shipwreck, and with all the chattering when we got to the surface, you can sure tell we’re wreck divers at heart.  It was good to see a wreck after days of looking at tiny little critters on reefs – so we did 3 dives here and should have done a fourth. 

We exploring the cargo holds and aft to the stern.  The prop is missing but the hub was there so Brian speculated that the prop was not on when she went down.  That might also explain why there was almost nothing in any of the cargo holds either.  There was a few ways you could penetrate into the aft steering station.  There was a big combined compass and helm unit there.  As you came out on top there was a nice porthole just lying there. 

Headed towards the forward part of the ship, there is a large boxy section out in the debris field which ended up being confirmed as the bridge.  There are a ton of cables, and that usually is typical of a bridge. Down at the sand level, looking into the holes in the aft section of this piece, there is an uncovered base for a telegraph.  The cover over the cable was missing, so the base could be moved around and it was not attached by chains at the base.  The head of the telegraph appeared to be intact, but it was lying on its side, so I could not see the condition of the faces or indicators.  Continuing forward of the bridge there is another cargo hold to explore.  In the bow area, there is a speaking tube and several large winches on top of the forward deck.  

 Village Tour on Garove Island

 After our morning dives at Garove Island on Dec 7, Dicky Doyle came over to the boat and took us on a land tour of the local village.  Dicky was born in Rabaul and has spent his whole life in PNG.  He came to Garove to be a cocoa farmer 40 years ago and has been here ever since.

 Once we entered the village, we were entertained by the local children doing native dances.  Once the dances were over, we began out walking tour of the village.  We were immediately surrounded by small children that followed us every where on the tour.

 For the first half of the tour, the village children warmed up to us enough to hold out their hands to touch us or they just wanted to smile at us.  The women in the village also stopped their chores and chatted with us.  As the tour went on, the children got more curious and bold and began asking our names and proudly told us each of their names.  By the end of the tour they were asking all sorts of questions about us.

 This was especially true of the teenage girls who surrounded Deb, Nina, Terri, Toni and I at the end.  They were very curious about our age, whether we were married, and whether we had children.  The girls seemed truly amazed to learn that most of us were not married and did not have children.  I think they were even more shocked when they heard most of us were in our 40s, and Toni was even older.  It turns out that the life expectancy in the village is to their late 40s or early 50s.  So to these village girls, Ron and Toni should have been dead years ago and most of us “poor” unmarried, childless women did not have much longer left.

 Ron showed a number of the teenage boys a few finger games like the “church and steeple”.  The boys then proceeded to show Ron their finger game that made a butterfly.  It was a special experience getting to interact with these children and all the villagers.