Conflict and Debone Groups

We are headed down towards the debone group it was a fair way so we stopped overnight at the Conflict Group the water was so clear, it really is beautiful there are a couple of islands around but no one lives on them it was nice to stop somewhere that you had to yourself. The kids and I had a snorkel around while Ian tried a bit of trolling but caught nothing. Amy was trying to catch an anemone fish that kept swimming up to her. Kathleen and Michael started cleaning the hull of the boat. I started cleaning the rust marks off the sides and touched up a few areas with paint.

We dropped anchor at this sand cay in the the Conflict Group

We went ashore in the night and had a bit of a fire to burn the plastic rubbish we have. It was very relaxing, laying on the beach watching the stars and satellites. We stayed ashore for a couple of hours with mossie repellant on before going back to the boat.

We pulled up anchor and headed to the Debone Group we arrived in the afternoon there were a couple of other boats from Australia there Lady Bubbly and Crusini. It turns out that the people off Crusini knew our boat Linda’s (off Crusini) brother owned it at one stage. A man Martin came over in his canoe to introduce himself he also told us about a Japanese plane that had come down in the war and he would show us where it was, he also knows of what’s left of an American plane on the land, all of which is left is the prop and he could show us that as well.
Martin showed us the plane in the water which we had a look around it was only small we had been expecting something bigger. It only had one prop left and it was bent. The seats were still there it used to carry 2 people. There were a few fish swimming around it and a bit of coral growing around it.

We went ashore and met a family who was sitting around Julie the mum was making a small bag for her daughter Susie to trade with the yachts that come in. Julie also had made some bags which she had for sale for 10kina I bought one and Kathleen bought one off Julies mum with a butterfly on it for 15kina. They gave us some nuts to try which were quite nice. Amy was having a great time trying to get them out of the shell which is really thick and fibrous. A few kids joined her and Julies mum. Julie asked if we would like to trade some eggs and other things like bananas for some clothes for her 2 older daughters who are at school on another island but are 14 and 9. I traded some eggs but we have enough eggs to last us for the time being.

Julie making a basket that Amy traded with her daughter for.

A few days later in the morning we were going to go over to the village and check out the American aero plane that came down in the war but instead Martin came over and then Linda came over to say hello and gave us the visitors book for the island so we could put an entry in and read some of the other ones this book started in 2002. Kathleen started making an entry for us which turned out really good. They stayed for a while before and we talked and I showed Linda some of the carving that we had bought in Alotau.

This is all that is left of the American Aero Plane which crashed. This prop was moved out of the water where it came down and is all that is left.

Linda told us of some good snorkeling around the corner of the island which they have been checking out. We had the rod over the side with a sardine on it for bait something big took it when we Ian reeled it in it was a cleaner fish about 1 metre long Martin said that they were good to eat so we thought we would give it a try. The kids had gone swimming with the cast net to try and net some sardines but didn’t have any success but they did manage to get a large flute mouth in the net which he also said was good to eat but we gave it to him. We also caught a squid with a sardine which was different.

Michael and Daniel fishing in a school of sardines which they were catching with a hand spear made by one of the local men. We traded for it and the boys were very happy with it.