Friday 21st February 2020 - Thursday 27th February 2020
On Friday morning, we had made a very pleasant visit to Ureparapara (as described here) but we were back on board in time for lunch.
With all our planned landings to various destinations in the Solomon Islands cancelled because of emergency measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus infection, we were now faced with over five days at sea to cover the 1,000 nautical miles to reach our intended destination at Rabaul in Papua New Guinea.
Whilst we enjoyed lunch on board, the ship started the long journey in very calm sea conditions, making around 13.5 knots. At 5 p.m. guest lecturer Roy Clare gave another well-received lecture talking about some of the historical explorers who sailed these waters before another splendid dinner.
During Saturday 22nd, the expedition team laid on a variety of ship-board entertainments with lectures, yoga and whisky-tasting on offer. Various islands of the Solomon Islands chain were a hazy presence a few miles away on the starboard side. The picture below is the best image I managed to snatch of the Solomon Islands!
View of the Solomon Islands, and unidentified ship, from 'Caledonian Sky' (Crossing the Solomon Sea)
The in-cabin entertainment provided further distractions, when required. My cabin (or 'suite' as Noble Caledonia not unreasonably prefer) had a large, wall mounted flat-screen television facing the two armchairs. In addition to a handful of satellite television channels, the live 'Ship Channels' offered a view ahead of the ship, commentary and slides when lectures were being delivered and a ship position display, derived from the ship's Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems (ECDIS). ECDIS integrates electronic charts, radar, ship position derived from GPS, the Automatic Identification System (AIS) and other ship systems. There's a post with a description of the use of AIS and ECDIS here. The ship position channel was a favourite of mine, allowing me to monitor our progress. It became apparent that our this part of the Solomon Sea was used by a fair amount of shipping, as shown by the picture below with our ship (red icon) heading more-or-less north west towards the green island on the left called New Britain and our intended destination Rabaul. Two ships on similar tracks were, to port, 'Nol Genesis' and, to starboard, 'Sunrise Serenity' whilst heading south east was 'Sevilla Knutsen'.
In-cabin ship position display showing 'Caledonian Sky' (red icon) heading 308 degrees at 13.4 knots, with 'Nol Genesis', 'Sevilla Knutsen' and 'Sunrise Serenity' in the vicinity (Crossing the Solomon Sea)
Click for larger view
'Sevilla Knutsen' was close enough for me to attempt a picture through my cabin portholes and, after the trip, I confirmed the details of this Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) tanker.
'Sevilla Knutsen' LNG tanker of Knutsen OAS: 290m by 45.8m 97730 DWT built DSME (Daewoo, S. Korea) in 2010 (Crossing the Solomon Sea)
Because our course was roughly north-west, at 2.0 a.m. on Sunday 23rd the Ship's Clocks moved back another hour and, during the day, in addition to Holy Communion by the Reverend Sarah Clare, more lectures and entertainments were available. The Captain, Ulf Peter Lindstrom, invited all passengers to a Cocktail Party at 6.30 p.m. followed by the Captain's Dinner in the Restaurant on deck 2.
Monday 24th followed the now-familiar pattern but with the anticipation that we should arrive in Rabaul Harbour around 6.0 p.m., so passengers were encouraged to congregate on deck to watch our entrance to Karavia Bay, with its Bee Hives island rock formations and surrounded by currently-dormant volcanoes.
Approaching Rabaul, Papua New Guineau, from the sea. The Bee Hives island rock formations are just visible far left.
Passengers expectantly watch our approach to Rabaul, Papua New Guineau.
Rabaul, Papua New Guineau, from 'Caledonian Sky', at sunset as 1- and 2-man canoes fish.
The ship remained in Karavia Bay awaiting clearance to dock whilst the passengers went to dinner, held in the open air on the Lido Deck as the 'Caledonian Sky BBQ' with a wide range of food on offer buffet-style.
Caledonian Sky BBQ, 2020: the amazing buffet table.
Caledonian Sky BBQ, 2020
After the splendid meal, some of the staff demonstrated their singing talents and then the tables on which the buffet food had been laid-out were cleared away to leave a dance floor for the guests to use.
Caledonian Sky BBQ, 2020: Staff demonstrate their vocal talent.
Caledonian Sky BBQ, 2020: Passengers enjoying dancing.
Sadly, we were not welcomed by the Provincial Authorities in Rabaul and, after some hours of wrangling, at 11.30 p.m. the Captain decided that we would leave Rabaul and sail for another two and a half days to the capital of Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby. So we remained at sea on Tuesday 25th and Wednesday 26th, finally arriving at Port Moresby on a warm, sunny morning on Thursday 27th February 2020.
Related posts on this website
This post is in the series labelled 'Tropic of Capricorn’. The first post is here.
Clicking on the 'Next report' link will display the post describing the next events. In this way, you may read about the trip in sequence.
Next report
Alternately, clicking on the 'All my Tropic of Capricorn reports' link displays all the posts on this trip in reverse date-of-posting order.
All my Tropic of Capricorn reports
My pictures
Crossing the Solomon Sea
Rabaul, Papua New Guinea, from the sea in 2020
'Caledonian Sky' 2020
'Caledonian Sky' Bridge 2020
Lectures aboard 'Caledonian Sky' 2020
[Text added & pictures embedded 29-Mar-2020]
