We approached the lagoon and entered through Redlick passage which was easy to navigate, even with an overcast sky. Once inside the conditions were better but still the wind was up over 20 knots. We came around the southern side of Nivani and anchored in 4 metres of water on a coral shelf between Nivani and Panapompom.
For the next few days we had strong winds and lots of rain squalls. We found that after a good wash down we could bung the deck drains and siphon water into drums sitting in the cockpit. This worked well and is easier than trying to catch rain off awnings as the wind blows rain off and not much gathers.The island of Nivani has no village and was owned and ran as a copra plantation by an Australian named Dusty Miller. The island is now owned by the villagers on Panapompom and has their gardens on it. The other feature here is a Japanese Zero fighter plane that is in 2 metres of water. We went for a snorkel on it and was impressed how well persevered it was. One wing and the some of the tail was missing but otherwise it was all there.
Anchored here in between the two islands we have been able to watch the prowess of the villagers on their sailing canoes. School was on holidays and the kids are often out on their small sailing canoes charging across from Panapompom to Nivani and back. They remind us of Hobie cat sailing on Lake Macquarie.We had a dinner guest one night. Anton, an American off the boat Mara, who was slowly (seventeen years so far) single-handing his way round the world. His next stop was Malaysia which is quite a trip from here. Two more boats arrived the next day. Southern Lights with Trevor and Sue aboard and much to Courtney and Anna's delight, Saltaire with Jo, Jemma and most importantly Jomin aboard. We were ashore having a BBQ when they came in and joined us. The kids had great fun toasting marshmallows and generally playing with sticks in the fire.
We had heard that the largest island in the Deboyne Group, Panaeate was well know for canoe building and the way to get there was by sailing canoe. We started asking if we could go. Akariba came out and said his father, Nathaniel, had the largest canoe at Panapompom and he could arrange a trip. He failed to return that afternoon so we assumed that he couldn't deliver. The next morning was Saturday and rainy and we were enjoying a lazy morning with no school work when Akariba turned up with news that we and Saltaire could go but we had to be ready in half an hour as the soccer team was going too. We (and Saltaire) were in two minds whether to rush to get ready to go or give it a miss. We decided it would be rude to not go so we went to Panapompom and met the rest of the passengers.
The canoe was indeed the biggest we had seen yet. A rough estiimate put it at 8metres long. We hung around as more and more people arrived. We all piled in and the 25 of us in all comfortably fitted into the hull of the canoe. The crew hoisted the sail and we were away! The canoe was easily doing about 10knots and this was fun! We sailed away from the island and then when it was time to jibe the crew untie the tack of the sail and ease the sheet and swing the tack walking it along the length of the boat and then tie it to the other end and the rudder - a paddle held and pivoted by jamming it in place with the foot, The sheet is set on the other end and away we go in the other direction.
When the rain squalls came this was no problem as they had a tarp rolled up along the length of the canoe which we lifted up over our heads. In no time we were at Panaete. We came ashore and soon realised this was a very populated place with several trade stores and many buildings with iron roofs.
We expected that canoe building would be done at a particular spot by a select group but soon discovered that canoe building was family project with a canoes in various stages of construction out the front of many houses. They are all the same design and the largest being the same size as the one we travelled on. After we had a long walk up along the village we went back to the jetty and sailed back. Unfortunately the soccer wasn't on. We sailed back and this time beat upwind as the crew impressed us how well they read the wind shifting as the rain squalls came over.We got back and all agreed it was a great day out and wonderful experience.
We had several more days at Nivani enjoying the company of Saltaire. Courtney and Anna were extremely glad to have someone to talk Pokemon to.
From here we sailed to Brooker or Utian Island. This was about a 15 mile run and placed us back in the main Louisiade lagoon and ready to run back along the Calvados chain.
