In every bay we can't get the anchor down before several dug-out canoes paddle out to us to trade fruit, lobsters, bush greens, and wood carvings for clothing, "soccer boots", and tools. And it's been exciting to see Guy's fleet of boats doing so much to help everyone. The doctors on "Happy J" and "Engarde" saved a local girl's life yesterday. They did surgery to remove a stingray barb and gave injections of antibiotics to bring down the horribly putrid infection. The jerry can of "zoom" we brought (PNG name for outboard fuel) was used to ferry her on a banana boat "ambulance" to the nearest hospital in Misima after the surgery. The hospital doesn't have a doctor and only has limited supplies, so the surgeon sent along all the necessary drugs and needles with her to present to the nurses when she wakes up from the anesthesia. Each boat is carrying several boxes of medical supplies for that hospital when the fleet gets to Misima in a couple days.
Snorkeling unspoiled reefs and exploring pristine beaches has its hazards in the tropics. Even us "dimdims" (PNG name for white people, because we do such stupid stuff) have gotten horrible tropical ulcers (red swollen infections that grow within a matter of hours) from coral scrapes and insect bites on the legs. Without antibiotics we'd have to med-evac a lot of the cruisers back to Australia to avoid losing limbs. Even the young healthy guys get them. An Australian guy got a fishing lure deep in his foot and couldn't get it out with his own bolt cutters, etc. So his wife tracked down the rally boats and got the doctors to do surgery on him.
We are now in Blue Lagoon surrounded by several beautiful beaches and spectacular coral reefs:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=-11.136583,152.764633(Time:21%3A33+GMT%2C+Sep+29%2C+2010%20Latitude:-11.136583%20Longitude:152.764633)
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