In the morning, I already reached Beagle Bay. Huge, full of navy vessels, I even pass a submarine, wow! I am so happy after getting through Torres Strait (in fact, I still can’t believe it) and Dundas Bay that the adrenaline rush leaves me sleepless. I take out the maps and all the documents about Darwin that I gathered before getting here. The current is unfortunately opposite to what it should be, I sometimes think I got to some shallows. I try to call someone on the radio. They send me from one place to another. My handset radio (the stationary set broke down) does not reach whom it should, but there is one good soul who passes my message on. Tacking, manoeuvring between ships going out of port, and regular runs for passport number and infinity of other things is not an easy task for just one person. Before I reach the destination point, my GPS dies. I run circles around a paper map trying to find my way. Finally, I enter a tiny harbour where I moor my yacht to a pontoon...

06/07/08, 2000 Zulu time, 10ºº30’S; 133º54’E, Arafura Sea, on my way to Darwin, Australia. I am sailing. After such close contact with reefs and islands, having “only” ships around me really is a piece of cake. After some time, I find oil in the bilge. Again. How come, where is the leak? I spend a while thinking (in the long run, this activity is really tiring), but now that I’ve already experienced that, I’m an expert. I look for an open bottle of extra oil, and… I find it. The lid has fallen off. Once is just an incident, but it has happened to me twice over the last few weeks. Gosh! A phone call from Ustka. I visualize a glass of juice on the promenade, with my friends. I miss Ustka, I miss my home… In the meantime, Tanasza gets a short wave, similar to those of the Baltic Sea. New navigation lights are so bright that I don’t dare to look at water, afraid to see crocodiles, jellyfish, venomous snakes, or something even worse. I clean my first aid kit,...

Friday 1800 Zulu time, 3rd of June 2008, Arafura Sea, position 10º48’S; 137º50’E, wind 15-20 knots, unfavorable current, sunny day, squalls at night, plenty of ships around… I wrote S-T-R-A-I-T in capitals on purpose. Sailing here all by myself meant SOMETHING for me. Very few loners would call this "a piece of cake", although some did say it was just beautiful, with an engine and no wind, plain sailing, so to say... Still, the majority wouldn't be willing to take the route I planned. Well, I wasn't particularly happy about it myself, as I wasn't there in time for a weather window, but couldn't wait and had to go. You can probably guess what a weather window is, but let me explain it just in case. The window is a really nice thing. You carefully watch the weather before leaving a port, analyze it for some time to learn how it works in a given region, compare forecasts with reality. In the course of time, you more or less know what is going on with the weather, and, from...

My friend invited me for scuba diving and I was so sorry I couldn’t go because I fell ill. I finally wanted to see the famous fish, that like soft tissue and usually they attack the divers eyes'. Obviously I wanted to look at them through the diving mask. Getting well was a very long process but thanks to it I met Chris, who presented me to the manager of the Curtain Brothers dockyard. (www.curtainbros.com.pg). Jason offered me to haul out my yacht and store it till my comeback from Poland. Is it fool’s luck ? I agree and sail from the yacht club to the dockyard. Local shipman, who knows all the coral reefs in the bay is going with me and makes me feel safer. They made a special support for Tanasza and there are 110 guards watching it day and night. I don't know if you are aware of the fact that Port Moresby is known as the most dangerous capital city in the word. It's not...

 May 2008 I am back at the Royal Papua Yacht Club. I was here a few months ago butfeel like I never left. I found a piece of my blog I wrote during my firstvisit, would you like to read it? October 2007 Port Morseby, Papua New Guinea It's good I entered the harbor yesterday because today the wind is toostrong. Yesterday was perfect, sunny, a bit of wind, and even the enginewas working for a while. The entrance to the harbor leads through a hugecoral reef. I strongly advise not getting there at night as the lightsdon't always work and the only thing that helps you navigate through thereef are 2 sticks that reach out of the water, that are hardly noticeableeven by daylight. It's even harder to connect with the harbor officialsvia radio. So I eneded up sailing between reefs, trying to call out tosomeone. While waiting for assistance i was wondering, what is it that wePoles know about Papua and its citizens? Monika Branicka certainly knows a lot because soon she will come...