18/08/2020
In the morning, I saw two special yachts, one is a two-mast trimaran named Shanda, which was designed and personally built by a famous multihull designer Shawn Arber for himself, so this is only one of the kind. J, who had recently joined the trimaran community, would naturally go for a visit, and when he came back, he was praising its design and interiors. J sent Bob a message about the ship, and Bob said that he was on that boat sailing 30 years ago.
(Figure 2 from internet)
Another uniquely designed big red yacht is called Gaiasdream. The design looks a bit like a traditional Austronesian canoe. It has a main hull and a outrigger attached to it for balance and there’s no front and back, so it can go from both ends. There was a ‘#bigredyacht’ printed on the mast. I checked it on the Internet. This is a fundraising yacht that brings education and medical supplies for the Loisiades Archipelago in Papua New Guinea. Yvette Wijnen is the designer. She was inspired by the Pacific outrigger sailing proa.
(Figure 2 and Figure 3 from internet)
Recently I was reading a book “Argonauts of the Western Pacific” by Bronislaw Malinowski, the funding person of modern anthropology, who started field study. The book described an exchange system called “kula” in the eastern archipelago of Papua New Guinea, also described related witchcraft, religion, trade and daily life of the local people. The canoes used by the locals for Kula exchange is similar to Proa.
(Image source internet)
Speaking of Kula exchange which is very unique and interesting, that is, red shell necklaces and white shell bracelets were exchanged as precious gifts between islands, one in clockwise direction and the other counterclockwise. Those treasures cannot be hold in the same person’s hand for too long and must be given out again. People risked their lives at sea to carry out such exchange rituals with no economic benefits, completely subverting the Western assumption of an imaginary ‘Primitive Economic Man’ on a low level of culture, should be actuated by pure economic motives of enlightened self-interest with least effort. Reciprocity is important in a primitive society.
After lunch, we went onshore to explore. First, we went to a cave with aboriginal rock paintings. Along the way, there are signs telling the history of the Ngaro (Ngalangi) people. They lived a hunter-gatherer life in these islands since 9,000 years ago until they were forced to move out as laborers by settlers… There is also a device there you could listen to the “stolen generation” telling their beautiful cultural and sad stories.
Then we landed on another spot to see the waterfall, but only found the waterfall was almost dry, and the water flow was not much more than from a tap. We climbed along the dry rocks to the top of the waterfall, where there was a lagoon. The climbing process requires the use of hands and feet like a lizard, which is a bit challenging but we had lots of fun.
Sea Journal 