A beautifull sail past Oema atol again along the coast of Bougainville. We wanted to check in at Kieta in the south of Bougainville and then slowly sail northwest along the coast to Buka. On route the officals tell us that pleasure craft cannot check-in at Kieta and they ask us to come to Buka instead!…

and our nice plan drops into the sea…

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passing an active vulcano while sailing northwest along the coast
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the anchorage near the capital of Bougainville Buka as seen from Sohano island
While walking around Sohano island on Christmas day several families invite us to join their Christmas celebration, such friendly people!
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a jolly bunch of women embrace us and we all dance the afternoon away on Abba's Dancing Queen๐Ÿ˜„๏ธ
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their children show us the way back to the jetty and we showed them the boat
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many banana boats pass through this anchorage, day and night
Look disco lights on Malaka Queen. Happy hour every evening while dancing into the night!
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Merry Christmas!
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here is the place to go to town and to fill up the diesel and petrol jugs
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local chocolate, local coffee, we are in heaven..
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bought mushrooms at the Buka market
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Stefan cooks: onions + a bulb of good garlic in a bit of olive oil. Slow cooking makes the onions sweet which compensates against bitterness, then chopped and added the mushrooms, added bit of soya sauce. Thats all. Delicious!
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the Bougainvillians fly so many different flags, for every province or township there is one
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the hundreds of banana boats around often make their own flag. This is the flag of the autonomous region of Bougainville
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unfortunately all good things will come to an end, we had a wonderful time together!
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it was long known that Yasmin would leave Malaka Queen eventually and Bougainville is a good place to do that
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so at newyear's day 9:00 Bougainville time Yasmin leaves Buka by ferry
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see you again some time Yasmin, you are a star!

And as I dinghy back to Malaka Queen it hurts like I just lost my daughter and I miss her dearly already...