Venama islet - "Great anchorage" (Sudest south coast)
▶ Our episodes filmed here
Our photos
Stories from our visits
We crept in through the pass and the lagoon on a moonless night, after just under four days from Townsville, and woke to a calm green bay. The first people we saw were rigging a small hand-made sailing canoe on the beach (Sep 2023).
Gideon showed us his home-made speargun: a carved stock, a sharpened steel rod and a rubber strap hooked into notches (Oct 2023).
The school fundraiser was a whole day of volleyball, fires and spear throwing, with fresh shellfish and water eels sold for K5 each (Sep 2023).
Poppy joined the men's soccer game, the first woman ever to play with them. She scored two of the three goals, and for the rest of our stay people called out 'sista sista!' (30 Sep 2023).
Gideon's family threw us a farewell feast and took in Sally, the kitten we had been given and could not take home to Australia. People said yachts usually stay on board and leave after a few days, and that we had lived like family (May 2024).
The guide
- Position
- 11°36.59'S 153°30.55'E
- Our visit
- Our first anchorage in the Louisiades. Arrived at night on 21 Sep 2023 after a 4-day crossing from Townsville and stayed until 3 Oct (diary; the six Venema episodes). Back again about 19 Apr-10 May 2024, our last anchorage before sailing home.
- Ashore
- Small island used only for fishing - a nice spot that isn't right next to the main village. Kayak/dinghy up the river and ask for Gideon; walk along between houses to the main part of the village on this side of the bay. Kindergarten school, sailing canoes and lots of paddle canoes. On Saturdays everyone goes across the bay to the main village for sport.
- Anchoring (us)
- We came in at night (Sep 2023) through the lagoon round Fairfax Reef in 30-40 m, motored the last bit round a small reef and anchored in about 10 m behind Venama. Calm, with reef showing all round in the clear water. Nobody lives on Venama: it's used for fishing trips.
- Ashore (us)
- Fishermen paddled out on our first afternoon and told us we were welcome to stay. Gideon's place is up the river by kayak, through a gap in the mangroves (blue kingfishers; mind the crocodiles). He walked us through the village: sago-palm houses on kwila posts, family gardens, three churches, the school, and the committee man at the main village across the bay. Saturdays everyone crosses for soccer and netball/volleyball. The school ran a fundraiser in Sep 2023 with games and food stalls (eels K5 each), so school supplies are a good gift.
- Trading (us)
- We gave rice, tea, clothes, fishing line and hooks, diving goggles and spear-gun rubber. People gave fish, giant clams, coconuts, bananas, pineapple, sweet potato and lemons, and often cooked for us. Prices people quoted: gold about K150 a gram, fuel about K4 a litre (2023).
- Water (us)
- Sudest was in drought in Sep-Oct 2023 and the creeks here were dry; we washed in a tannin-brown creek but took our drinking water at Pamela.
- Notes (us)
- Day trip to the barrier from here (29 Sep 2023): mostly sand flats with small bommies full of life, hard paddling against current, and a 30+ kn squall on the way back. We came back in Apr-May 2024 to wait for a weather window home: nearly a month of strong trades before a short, still rough window, so arrive with food and cooking gas to spare. We could not refill gas at Kavieng and cooked on fires; green mangrove wood burns even when everything else is wet (2024).
- People
- Gideon - up the river (2023); George - very friendly (2023)
Our sketch map
Drawn by us from OpenStreetMap, Sentinel-2 and our GPS. Not for navigation.
More in the Sudest (Vanatinai)
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This guide is free for everyone, sailor or not: explore the islands and watch our episodes right where they were filmed. The two of us made it from our own visits, footage and a lot of late nights over the maps.
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This guide is a set of personal cruising notes shared in good faith. Information can be out of date or wrong, and positions can be out by hundreds of metres. It is not a substitute for official charts and notices, your own eyes, local knowledge, or professional medical, legal or customs advice. You use it at your own risk: the skipper alone is responsible for the safety of the vessel and everyone on board, and the authors accept no liability for any loss, injury or damage arising from its use.