After Grass Island we sail to Nimoa, our most easterly anchorage, stopping for a few nights at Hati Lawi where we're able to replenish our water supplies since it never seems to stop raining. We collect rain water for washing and drinking in a large tarpaulin which covers the cockpit and doubles as a sun shade. Unfortunately, the water-catcher’s getting a bit old and tends to overflow when the water collects in one spot, so one of us has to run around in the rain, tipping water from one side to the other while trying to avoid the overflows! We arrive at Nimoa at 10am on Sunday morning – church time. As Nimoa has a large mission station and PNG people are generally pretty religious, I feel duty-bound to attend. PNG custom dictates that men sit on one side of the church, and women and children on the other - the children seem to either a)be fast asleep or b)have their heads stuck at a permanent 180 degree angle as they spend the entire service staring at the new dim-dim in town (that's me). The men and women harmonising together sounds wonderful and the church is decorated with wonderful murals showing traditional PNG art. I stay for the singing, but I sneak out when the sermon starts – I can’t understand it anyway since it’s in local language (well that’s my excuse....).

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