Bagaman

We moved onto Bagaman Island which is 6 miles away. We wanted to go to Bagaman because we had heard that they were having Indepenance Day celebrations that went for 4 days with different activites happening over the 4 days. We didn't realise that it had already been going on for 2 days already at this time. It didn’t take to long and when we got there there were three other boats there. An annocement which came over the loud speaker asking all the yachts to come ashore. All the yachties headed for shore there was a small market fundrasier and the kids were about to start the tradional dancing. The kids put on a good show for us with the dancing that went for around 20mins.

The local children dancing.

I bought some rolls and a baggy necklace for Amy for 10kina the cheapest we have seen so far Amy was the only one who didn’t have one besides Ian who doesn’t Once the dancing was over we were told we could stay with them or go back to the boat to rest there is a choir and a play starting at 7.30pm which we are all invited to come back over for it. We thought we might but then Amy was asleep, Michael wasn’t feeling well and Daniel said that he didn’t really want to go and Ian was worrying about malaria so we didn’t go over. We ended up watching a movie about the animals in Africa .

The following day Kathleen and I set about cleaning the hull of the boat along the water line there is a thick with a slime weed. It took me a lot longer to clean the slime than what it took Kathleen to clean the side of the hull. We then went for a walk on the beach for a little while before going back to the boat for a chill out.

There was an anonncement that came across the VHF radio from one of the other boats who had been recording the celebrations over the last 4 days. They had done a video which the wanted to show the local people and wanted to see if anyone would be able to help them showing the video on laptops. One of the boats had left but the three of us said that we could help out. Ian said that he would stay with the kids on the boat if they wanted as it was yet again a night thing. We were later told that we were all invited to go over for a meal which the women had prepared beffore the presentations began. for the races and competitions happening over the past four days. We decided that we would all go over we would just have to cover up a bit and use aeroguard.

Dinner with some of the other yachties.

We had a meal of yams, rice, pork and rolls which was quite tasty we had had a late lunch that Kathleen had cooked at 3pm so we didn’t eat much but it was still nice. We were asked to move outside of the hut we had eaten in and all the kids came and sat in front of us and sang. Rob played a guitar and we sang no more tears in heaven or what we could remember anyway. Then the kids sang again then we sang twinkle twinkle little star and the hokey pokey which went down well with everyone.

Amy singing and dancing with local kids.

The presentations came next all of the yatchies received either a hand made bag or a carving of a canoe, Amy was presented with her very own baggy necklace which no seemed to know about. Then came the prize money given the races. Then we showed the movie that Rob had put together which was a huge hit with the locals who enjoyed watching them selves on the screen. Amy had allen asleep during the speeches and Daniel was not far off away from sleeping either. The video went for about 40 mins and then it was time to headback to the boat at least there was a good breeze which helped to keep the mozzies away no one saw any there were a few sandflies around but even they weren’t to bad.