OVER the Christmas and New Year the Kalibobo Spirit made a private voyage around the Bismarck Sea departing on Christmas night with invited guests including Dr Ila Temu, his family, Eddie and Ute Haring and Andrew Barter’s family. The master on this trip was Sir Peter Barter, the engineer was Andrew Barter with a crew of six.
The first stop on Boxing day was Pam, a tiny island in the Admiralty Group in Manus province. Ila Temu’s wife, Mondi surprised her family with an unannounced visit and a family reunion and dinner was arranged.
During the night, the Talio blew up to 35knots and the vessel dragged its anchor, but quick action of the crew avoided any damage.
For those that know the Bismarck Sea, the Talio winds that blow during the wet season come with a vengeance usually at night.
The Kalibobo Spirit then continued north, past Lou Island to the Manus mainland where we anchored. Sir Peter flew to Lorengau whilst the other guests went by zodiac through the channel. The Administrator, Wep Kanawi gave Sir Peter and his party a lift to the stores and market.
From Lorengau, we headed in an easterly direction to Rambutso Island arriving late in the afternoon but not too late for a relaxing swim in the crystal clear waters in a sandy lagoon. It was unfortunate that time did not permit a visit to the village, but the ship was grateful to the lone canoeist that piloted the vessel to a safe anchorage and left without us thanking him for his help.
Overnight the Kalibobo Spirit continued eastward to Tingwom Island located off the northern tip of New Hanover in New Ireland.
We went ashore by zodiac where Sir Peter spoke to the people about past and future cruise ship visits and made acquaintance with Dr Jephro Usurup’s family who is now the CEO of Modilon Hospital.
Tingwom Island has been a destination for a number of cruise ships including the Clipper Oddesey and the Oceanic Discoverer.
Ekonia Passingan, a village elder told Sir Peter of the high cost of travel to and from Kavieng resulting in trade stores on the Island having nil stocks.
He said one way fare by banana boat from Tingwom to Kavieng was K250 each way. Because of this the population of 30 living in four villages rarely left Tingwom and the education was restricted to Grades 3 and 5 with a total enrolment of 50.
Whilst Kavieng was a distant destination, the people of Tingawom travelled more frequently to the New Hanover mainland where health facilities were available.
From Tingwom, the vessel travelled to the NE of New Hanover, entered the Northern Passage and cruised through the passage to Tsoi Island where the Kalibobo dropped anchor whilst the guests took a zodiac ride to Tsoilik, a newly established guest house built on anidealistic sand peninsular with aqua blue lagoon and a small offshore island.
The guest house currently has four guest rooms, a new block is under constructed to provide a further 12 rooms and a small conference room. It is owned and operated by the landowners. Reports from previous guests who stayed at Tsoilik Guest House rated it as tops!
At Tsoilik we met Peniel Kekesek who 38 years ago joined Talair as a traffic officer and was encouraged to become a pilot, he then joined the PNG Defense Force and on the eve of his retirement renewed his aquaintence with Andrew Barter who he used to babysit after he was born in Goroka. Peniel is now in the final stages of building a house on Tsoi Island for he and his family and waiting for the PNGDF to pay out his retirement.
We then travelled in an easterly direction to Nusa Harbour and Kavieng where the ship anchored off the Malagan Beach Resort and guests toured Kavieng by road and Nusa Harbour by zodiac.
Ila, Junita, Mondi all went fishing and returned with sufficient fish for us to eat for the remainder of the voyage.
The following morning further visits ashore the children were given rides in their raft towed behind the zodiac.
We left New Ireland and travelled due south to the Witu Group arriving on New Year’s eve at Garova Island, one of the best anchorages in the South Pacific formed by the crater of an extinct volcano with a perfect anchorage beneath the picturesque St Michael’s Catholic Church which juts out in to the harbour.
On arrival, the Kalibobo Spirit held off for a hour to wait for a heavy rain shower to pass and as the anchor was being lowered a PA system invited everyone to St Michael’s for what is known as the “Craters Volley Ball Tournament”.
The tournament is organised by Mathias Takae Headmaster of the St Michael’s school and enthusiastically supported by the teachers and the community from all over the Witu Group of islands.
Following an impressive march past, Mr Takae spoke of the need for the youth of the Islands to stand together as one and to build a strong link between the divided clans of the Island to work towards self reliance through physical, social, emotional and spiritual means and respecting each others integrity.
THE tournament aims to promote skills of the code, select players from Witu to participate in the WNB Provincial Games held at Kimbe annually.
Mr Takae acknowledged tournament executives Joe Vakongai, Jacinta Langom, Brian Galue and Fedlis Nuliu who organised coffee nights to raise funds for the tournament.
Each year the tournament is held in different venues in the Witu Group and efforts will be made to request funding from the new local MP for future tournaments.
On New Year’s Eve the headmaster and tournament executives joined us on board the Kalibobo Spirit.
Juanita Barter, wife of Andrew sighted hundreds of box jelly fish which were attracted by the lights of the Kalibobo Spirit. These jelly fish are amongst the most poisonous in the world, but this did not deter the young Jordan Barter and Murphy Temu from swimming during the day from the ship (obviously the box jelly fish were resting during the day!)
The final two days were spent at Unea Island (Bali) where a heavy depression, wind and rain showers prevented activities ashore but this did not deter the excited people from Kumburi Village No 1 and No 2 meeting the vessel and guiding it to a safe anchorage under Mt Kumburi, a 2000’ peak above the anchorage.
In the afternoon, rain showers reduced, wind abated and a decision was made to continue the voyage overnight to Long Island. Whilst wind and rain had abated, the seas remained moderate and the guests would have been thankful for the stabilisers fitted aboard the Kalibobo Spirit.
At Long Island, guests went ashore whilst Sir Peter and Ila flew by helicopter for an inspection of Lake Wisdom to collect water samples from various areas in the lake so the water could be analysed to see if it could be commercially bottled and sold as “wisdom water”.
Sir Peter said if the tests proved positive he would assist the people to establish a means of establishing a bottling plant either in the island or at Madang, if successful, it would provide some economic assistance to the people who for many years had been denied Government services. Everyone returned for lunch whilst the vessel sailed to Basamuk, the site of the Ramu Nickel processing plant, unfortunately arriving just at dusk. The only thing we caught in Basamuk was a piece of China, we hooked the anchor cable of a huge pile driver used to construct a new wharf for the massive Ramu Nico Project. It was freed without any problem the following day.
This was the first cruise to the Islands in the Bismarck aboard the Kalibobo Spirit. The previous vessel, the MTS Discoverer made numerous voyages through the Bismarck, the Solomon Seas and of course the Sepik River. The trip was made to test all equipment aboard, for pictures to be taken for the production of brochures, advertising material and to prepare itineraries for future expedition and diving charters to this exciting part of the Pacific. Upon the conclusion of the voyage, Sir Peter said he was impressed with the vessel, the places visited and most importantly the friendliness of the people they had met in Manus, New Ireland, West New Britain and Madang.
For further information look up www.kalibobospirit.com or call MTS on 852 2766 and ask for a brochure.
The Kalibobo Spirit is a 100’ luxury motor yacht powered by twin Scanias. It is fully air conditioned, equipped with zodiacs, a helicopter on selected cruises, full diving equipment, satellite telephones, flat screen TV’s in each cabin and accommodation in 6 queen size cabins, 1 stateroom, 1 twin bunk and 3 single cabins - all with ensuites. In addition there are cabins for 8 officers and crew.
The vessel is based in Madang at the Madang Resort Marina and available for charter for overnight voyages or day charters where it can accommodate up to 120 persons.
The vessel is under PNG and Queensland Survey and is equipped with stabilisers, underwater sonar, radar, depth sounders, GPS and auto pilot.

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