March 19th 2004:

Email from the Ship: We left Noro at 5 pm on 3-16-04 and arrived in Rabaul, PNG at 7:30 am 3-17-04. Rabaul, the once beautiful city nestled in Simpson harbor with a backdrop of beautiful volcanic mountains was destroyed in 1994 when the volcano Tuvuvur erupted. All the roads, airport, restuarants and buildings were buried under the volcanic ash.The earthquake that followed crumbled the buildings.They have been attempting to restore the city with help from the government but even after 9 years much of it looks desolate, However when we were taken to the top of themountain to the station where volcanologist have equipment to monitor the status of the volcanos, the view of the harbor and what was left of the town was absolutely wonderful. Tuvuvur is still smoking and although the day was cloudy I attempted to take pictures to send to my website. We had lunch in the hotel restuarant that was dug out of the rubble and restored.It was good chinese food.

We sailed for Bialia Png at 5 pm 3-18-04 and arrived at 7am 3-19-04. It has pouring down rain. The dock is very small and it is built a long ways from shore with a oneway path or road to get to it. Because of the rain and the difficulty getting on and off the ship, we decided to stay on board today. There is very little to see on shore.

We are loading coconut oil through big hoses so the loading can go on even though it is raining.They will be done loading at 6pm but we won't sail until tomorrow morning. The passage into the dock is too difficult to do at night. We head for Kimbe which is a short sail from here. Both Bialia and Kimbe are on New Britain island which is a part of PNG