Events of Thursday 27th February 2020
I'd been to Port Moresby once before, in 2015, on my first trip aboard 'Caledonian Sky' under the title 'From the Coral Sea to the South China Sea'. All my posts on that trip (in reverse order of posting) can be found here.
In 2020, We sailed into the broad, natural harbour at Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, on a warm, sunny morning. After the disappointments of failing to visit any of the Solomon Islands and then being refused entry by the Provincial Authorities in Rabaul we were quite relieved to finally dock. The quay we moored at was a large, barren concrete expanse (with a number of apparently new road vehicles in store).
The quay we moored at was a large, barren concrete expanse (Port Moresby's Docks 2020)
At a nearby jetty was the 'SMS Tangguh'. A bit of research later revealed that this Landing Craft, 50m long 12m beam Indonesian-built in 2007, was one of the smallest ships operated by Wintermar Offshore Shipping based in Indonesia, which serves the offshore oil and gas industry in Asia.
Landing Craft 'SMS Tangguh', 50m long, 12m beam, Indonesian-built in 2007 (Port Moresby's Docks 2020)
In the opposite direction, another jetty was the home of three similar landing craft, in military grey.
Three Landing Craft in military grey, with new construction in the background extending the city (Port Moresby's Docks 2020)
I was initially surprised at the lack of on-shore activity, until I discovered that, in 2018, the international cargo terminal had been relocated further into Port Moresby Harbour, about 10 km away, at Mokutea Island. The safe waters of the harbour still provide an anchorage for ships awaiting berths, so I recorded what I could see.
General cargo vessel 'Vimaru Pearl' 101m long, 20m beam 8,889 Summer DWT, built Nishi Shipbuilding, Japan, operated by Eastern Dragon Shipping in Vietnam (Port Moresby's Docks 2020)
'Kmarin Jasmine' (with prominent external hawse pipes through which the anchor chains pass) is a bulk carrier operated by Kmarin Group in South Korea. The KMarin fleet of 66 vessels includes 10 Gas Carriers, 15 Tankers, 38 Bulk Carriers and 3 Container Ships.
Bulk Carrier 'Kmarin Jasmine' 180m long, 30m beam 37,430 DWT, built by Hyundai Vietnam in 2014 (Port Moresby's Docks 2020)
'Kumul Arrow' is a hard-working open hatch gantry crane vessel operated by Gearbulk which I first saw during my 2015 trip. It's 187m long, 29m beam, 41,619 DWT and was built by Hyundai Heavy Industries in 1985. The two gantry cranes probably each have a capacity of 40 tonnes with 13 cubic metre grabs. The view below of her starboard side shows how the grabs discharge over the side via conveyors. She appears to be a regular on the China-Port Moresby run.
'Kumul Arrow' in 2020 - an open hatch gantry crane vessel operated by Gearbulk. 187m long with 29m beam and 41,619 DWT it was built by Hyundai Heavy Industries in 1985. The two gantry cranes probably each have a capacity of 40 tonnes with 13 cu. metre grabs. This view of starboard side shows how the grabs discharge via conveyors. (Port Moresby's Docks)
Careful study afterwards showed that the vessel in the background (black hull, yellow funnel) is an oil/chemical tanker operated by Turkish K Tankering and Ship Management, part of the Kaptanoglu Group which, among other activities, builds ships. I found the brief family history here interesting. Further study suggested that this tanker is berthed on the opposite side of Port Moresby Harbour at an oil terminal forming part of the small Napa Napa oil refinery operated by Puma Energy. There's a Wikipedia article on Puma Energy here
Looking to the north, I could see the Poreporena Villages, built out over the waters of the harbour on stilts.
Poreporena Villages (Port Moresby's Docks 2020)
I'm afraid it was little consolation that the national government in Port Moresby had confirmed that the actions of the provincial authority in Rabaul in preventing our landing was not lawful. The expedition team displayed copies of correspondence between the Governor of the East New Britain Provincial Government and the Hon. Jelta Wong MP, Minister for Health and HIV/AIDS based in the National Capital District of Port Moresby on the ship's notice board. The Minister's letter is below:-
Minister's reply to Governor, page 1
Click for larger size
Minister's reply to Governor, page 2
Click for larger size
The additional sailing time from Rabaul to Port Moresby meant that all the passengers were being transferred directly to Port Moresby Airport to catch the charter flight to Cairns which had been part of the original programme. There was time for breakfast on board, although not quite in the leisurely fashion we'd previously enjoyed, before a convoy of, I think, three rather run-down coaches arrived to collect us all. After we'd confirmed that our heavy luggage was on the dock, it was bundled into the luggage hold of the appropriate bus and we clambered aboard for the drive to the airport. I found a seat near the back of my bus and after a few extra checks that we had everybody, the buses set off. We had two local guides on the bus who told us a little about the city but with a noisy engine, windows open for ventilation (there was no air conditioning and the electric fans weren't working) and no public address system, their commentary was completely inaudible beyond the first few rows of seats.
Our bus to the airport: Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, 2020
Our route to the airport took us by a modern dual carriageway through undulating terrain and suburban sprawl.
View from bus to the airport: Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, 2020
On arrival at Jacksons International Airport, each guest had to retrieve their heavy luggage from the hold and drag it into the airport terminal. A check-in desk was opened to deal with our charter and I found myself near the end of a queue with my fellow guests. The first two passengers were quickly checked-in and issued with boarding passes, allowing them to take the escalator up to Departures. Check-in continued, with heavy luggage taken away by conveyor, but no more board passes were printed, so as each passenger was dealt with, they were asked to wait nearby. There weren't many seats in the check-in hall but, fearing a protracted wait, I secured one. Nothing happened for some time, except that the building became much busier as passengers arrived for other flights, were issued with boarding passes and continued to departures. Then, one of the Expedition Crew travelling with us announced that the problem had been sorted. We'd supposed to have caught an aircraft at Rabaul on the original schedule and transited through Port Moresby. Apparently, the airline had not cancelled the bookings for the Rabaul-Port Moresby leg, so the airline computer would not issue boarding passes for Port Moresby-Cairns because we'd not checked in a Rabaul. If that was the case, I wondered, why had two boarding passes been printed and why were we able to check-in our heavy baggage? However, I waited as patiently as I could and, eventually, about six named printed boarding passes arrived and were distributed to the lucky passengers. Thereafter, every five or ten minutes, further small batches of boarding passes appeared until there were just three of us, including the writer, disconsolately waiting for boarding passes. Finally, these arrived and at least security and immigration were fairly painless. The airport's Duty Free was very modest by modern standards and I found my fellow passengers waiting in the restaurant and bar area. By this time, I'm afraid, I was just keen to board the aircraft - I'd found the transfer from the ship particularly tedious.
At last, we boarded the Air Niuguini Boeing 737 which took us the 522 miles to Cairns in around 1 hour 35 minutes. Simple, but welcome, refreshments were served during the flight.
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
I'd made an earlier visit to Papua New Guinea in 2015. The short time I was in Port Moresby during that trip is described here.
My pictures
'Caledonian Sky' 2020
'Caledonian Sky' Bridge 2020
Port Moresby's Docks (2015 and 2020).
Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (2015 and 2020).
