Life on the Chain Gang

Mark celebrating the availability of locally
grown carrots at the market

After waiting a month for the ship from Lae to bring our new anchor chain, it was finally due to arrive on Monday. Unfortunately, the ship was stuck in another port because two other boats were unloading ahead of it. The ship eventually showed up on Wednesday and by the time it was unloaded and unpacked, it was Thursday morning before we could get our chain.

Around Kavieng

Blow holes on Nusa Island

We have taken advantage of the supplies in Kavieng to stock up for the next couple of months. Kavieng has better than average provisioning for a South Pacific town filled with mostly Chinese-owned shops. The bellwether for us is usually ice-cream, but this town even has such hard-to-find gems as potatoes (yes, the lowly potato becomes something you crave and usually can't have), cream cheese and bacon. We even scored lots of avocados and mangoes, which are apparently out of season. The other day, Mark and Conrad caused much amusement amongst the locals as they lugged a package of 40 rolls of toilet paper down the street.