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Moths came on board for a visit...
May 30, 2008 - Day 326 (2.4870N, 134.9358E)
While waiting for the Papua New Guinea Customs and Fisheries Authority officers to come on board in the morning on Tuesday, the day of our departure from Wewak, PNG Fisheries Observer Elizah Lucas called me out on the observation deck of the ship’s bridge. The small sunny space was covered with at least 20 moths of various sizes. They were nothing like what I had seen before. Having crossed an entire ocean to come from where I had lived and now being on a different continent could explain the discrepancy!!!
Most of these butterflies were large, almost the size of my palm. I could easily encourage the large brown-black colored ones to walk up on my hand by placing my fingers in front of their head and nudging. The other large ones with a brown-mustard colored body had wings which appeared like leaves and which did not fold as close to their bodies. These latter ones were more alert and flew away when I nudged them. They were on the floor of the deck, on the clothes lines, on the piping...
One particular butterfly had the uncanny appearance of a tree leaf with its wings folded. The wings had the perfect shape and patterns of a leaf. It had evolved in the nature to camouflage itself among the trees. Of course the same camouflage had no use on the white paint of the deck siding. I enjoyed studying its details while it allowed me... I am sure each one of these had a Latin name, and I did not have a reference book to tell me.
The PNG officers arrived by mid morning on a small boat with an outboard engine, and Captain Antonio Pagaran called me down to the meeting room where the papers were being reviewed, licenses verified and passports processed. The officers could not believe that I had rowed all the way from the United States and had been at sea 312 days before being towed to PRIMROSE. They had seen the size of my boat, which was tiny by any standards they had known. Was it OK to stamp my passport, I was asked by captain Pagaran since I was not landing in PNG. The passport was practically new. I had just replaced it when my last passport fell apart at its stitched binding earlier on the Atlantic crossing due to moisture. All I had in the new passport was a visa for Australia where I had intended to arrive. Now, the Philippines was going to accept this man of the sea without a visa. I gladly accepted an exit stamp from PNG.
By about noon local time on Tuesday, the exit process was complete and we pulled anchor. We set course due NNW toward waters outside of the 200 nm economic zone of Indonesia. Any piece of land, even unoccupied, had a 200 nm economic zone around it. If I understood it correctly, permits are required for any type of fishing vessel to enter within 200 nm of land. We had permits with PNG. Indonesia’s area of concern was west of 141E longitude. To the north was the economic zone of the Federated States of Micronesia. If caught fishing in such zones without a permit, a company operating the fishing vessel could be charged with “economic sabotageâ€? and issued stiff fines. Once in the free zone, we first delivered equipment to a sister Frabelle ship, then set course due west toward the Tobi Island of Palau.
The effects of the easterly flowing counter current were evident in the average speed of our vessel. The first couple days on our westerly track, the speed was about 9.5 knots. By the time we passed just south of the Tobi Island where we changed course due WNW toward General Santos City, our speed had increased to 11 knots.
Erden.
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Brown-black colored large moths walked up my fingers without a fuss.
These large brown-mustard colored moths were not as cooperative.
The PNG Customs Officers came on board to process a pile of passports for everyone on PRIMROSE.
