Monday 1st October

71 days to go.

Well we are still going. No signs of this trip ending yet. We have been involved with helping to settle disputes between villages and have been told about disputes between villages and logging companies. We have asked hundreds of questions, or more like 20 questions hundreds of times.

We still have fun in the villages. They take us on a tour, showing us their church and their meeting places. A couple of the Kiwi guys have a good knowledge of Pidgin and speak comfortably with the locals. More just entertain the kids. One had a posse of about 20 kids following him around.

They were mimicking his movements. He ended up with them in a line on the beach singing and performing the actions of shoulders, knees and toes. As we were riding out on the boat, Ronnie stood up and put his hands on his shoulders and all the kids started singing and going through the actions again as if he was leading them.

This turned out another tough day. We visited a lot of places, the weather started getting rough, our tiny ship was tossed. However the mate was a mighty sailing man and the skipper brave and true. We managed to get to our overnight anchorage.