This morning we raised the anchor at 9:30am sharp and proceeded out of the channel and into the sea to the West of Tabar Island. Our goal is the Feni Islands, specifically Ambittle Island which is the larger of the two or three little islands which make up that group. The weather is calm and clear with 25-30% cloud cover and about 5k of wind from the SE. We expect to motor the 120 mile distance to Feni and arrive tomorrow morning at about 9:30am. Our planned speed is between 5 and 5.5k.

By 11am we are just about at the Southern tip of Tabar and conditions remain the same. Seas are very calm with no appreciable waves or swell. The mountainous spine of New Ireland can be seen easily to our SW and the island of Lihir which lies about 30 miles to the SE can also be seen clearly. All of these islands are mountainous and can be easily seen from a good distance off. The string of islands, beginning with Tabar and ending with Feni, are the remnants of a mountain range which must have stretched the entire distance between them, parallel to New Ireland. Gold is mined on Lihir and reports we heard in Kavieng are that a mine is also being set up on Tabar and that small amounts of gold have also been found in the Feni Islands as well.

At 8pm we are between Lihir and Tanga Islands and conditions remain the same. We are maintaining our speed at about 5.4k over ground. Winds are a bit higher at 7-8k but the sea remains very calm with no noticeable swell. A few rain showers can be seen in the area.

At 11pm we motored right through a fairly sizable rain squall with wind up to 15k from the South but it lasted only for about 15 or 20 minutes. After it passed the wind remained at about 10k until about 2am when it came back down to the 5-7k range.