We arrived in Port Moresby on Saturday morning as expected after an easy and uneventful passage – surprise surprise! We were unsure of what to expect as we had heard many stories about the ‘raskols’ which roam around the streets of Port Moresby mugging locals and tourists alike. This is largely due to a 90% unemployment rate and a really poor salary for those who are lucky enough to have a job.
The marina is a little like Fort Knox with over 30 guards roaming the complex but hence it is completely secure and a little safe haven. There is a huge expat population here with the majority being Australians and within hours of arriving we had already met quite a few of them who live on boats in the marina or are members of the yacht club. The Royal Papua Yacht Club is the most popular club in Port Moresby and has over 2000 members. It has three bars and a huge restaurant with a big deck overlooking the marina.
On Saturday afternoon I struck up a conversation with an Australian called Geoff and we were talking about the junior racing series here (hobies and optomists etc) and he asked me if I wanted to crew the next day in the senior race. I jumped at the opportunity and was asked to meet them at the bar at 9:30 the next morning.
The next day I woke up excited and peered out the window to see a good breeze rippling the water. I went up to the bar to meet the rest of the crew and met Andy the foul-mouthed English skipper (heart of gold) and the rest of the regulars (6 in all). I heard one had dropped out that morning so I ran down to see if Alfred wanted to come with us for the morning and hence we both joined the crew of Racketeer a Farr 11.04 with a racing keel and oversized rig. Not too much competition out on the water with 5 other smaller boats competing. We started 20 minutes later than the first group and beat them all over the line by about 15 minutes but it was awesome fun. My job was on the back of the boat as she had running backstays and everytime we tacked we had to tighten the backstay on the other side with the winches. We came back in at about 1pm and went up to the bar to have a drink on the sponsor! At 5pm after a few too many sponsored jugs of beer I was exhausted but already we had been adopted by the expat community and at present they are all trying to organise us sightseeing trips and a car and trips to the market. Andy also invited me to go out for the wednesday night Wags race which is basically a really informal race around one of the islands in the harbour.
I must admit Port Moresby so far has been entertaining but we have not seen much outside the yacht club. I will update again in about a weeks time to let you know whether we managed to escape from Fort Knox (aka marina) and see some of the local sights.
