Back in Time...Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea in general gets a bad rap, for its crime and various very harsh issues in the cities like Port Moresby. In general the cruising in Papua New Guinea is like nothing you can experience any other place in the world. When you are a custom to a world of Starbucks, ATM's, on line shopping, SMS, blah blah blah...It is simply amazing to see such insular and primitave living.

Their really are not any cruising guides for this area. You come here and you are on your own. You need to be self sufficient, 100%. Most areas are not even surveyed or charted. Charted areas the GPS Datum's are way off (GPS shows you about two tents of a mile off your actual position!) Daylight navigation in the coastal areas is critical to see the reefs.


As soon as your anchor hits the bottom near the villages you are greeted by dug out canoes. Many just want to have a look - very few yachts come this way. We may be the only big sailboat this year. For some of the children we may be the first white people they have seen. The stares of curiosity are unnerving.Papuan villages are so insular that 750 different dialects are spoken in PNG. Backpacker and traditional tourism is non-existent without any road infra structure. The only way around the country is by boat or by air. In general PNG only gets about 15,000 tourists a year. Mostly coming to trek or dive.

Very few private yachts make the effort to cruise these areas. In a way, I hope it stays this way. Their are not may places in the world where life goes on as it did 1000 years ago. Can you imagine a culture where money has no real value...a place where neighbors live cooperatively, working together to exist off the land and sea. As monetarily and creature comfort deprived as the Papuans are these are some of the most kind, innocent and proudly contented people I have ever come across.

Making the effort to cruise PNG is incredibally rewarding....