Starlight Lite
3 Perfect days and 2 gorgeous nights sailing the secluded bays and anchorages of the inner Milne Bay Islands Group.
- Sail from one stunning anchorage to the next each day. You can help sail Starlight, or just relax and enjoy the ride
- At night we anchor in secluded bays and behind sheltered islands and wander ashore to meet the locals
- You can swim and snorkel right off the boat in many places. In other places, we'll use the yachts tender to access stunning reefs
- Enjoy some serious fishing straight off the yacht and we'll often share our catches with locals on the islands we visit.
There's no better way to explore the inner islands, bays and reefs of Milne Bay than on board Starlight, a long distance expedition sailing yacht with a touch of luxury. Starlight boasts 3 cabins including a stateroom with it's own ensuite and the entire yacht is air-conditioned thanks to our onboard 240v generator. She's about 50 feet in length and perfectly capable of a round the world voyage stepping off pretty much anytime!
There's so much to see and do in the Milne Bay islands area. There are perfect anchorages literally everywhere, there are fringing and offshore reefs with abundant marine life and many that have never, ever been snorkelled or dived on. Islands surround the inner Milne Bay, providing anchorages, fringing reefs, beaches, tropical jungles, coconut trees and the perfect environment for local families and small villages to thrive in their subsistence life revolving around the ocean.
By day, we'll sail from anchorage to anchorage, making up the itinerary as we go depending on the prevailing wind and tide at the time and on what our guests say they'd like to see and do. Typcially, we find small anchorages with beaches and fringing reefs and nearby families and villages for you to explore and enjoy by day and by night, we snug up into the secluded bays and light a fire on the beach before retiring to our familiar cabins on board.
Most islands offer snorkelling straight off the beach or the yacht lying to it's anchor. The fringing reefs of the islands are stunning and visibility is often in excess of 20m. The waters are changing twice a day with the incoming and outgoing tides and this means there is plenty of food for abundant marine life to thrive on the pristine coral formations.
Fishing is also outstanding, and we'll often troll lines between anchorages to proivide for our mostly seafood diet on board. As we often catch fish larger than our needs, we'll share our catch with locals when we visit their family settlements in their bays and islands.
In even a short 3 days, we can reach all the way out to Nuakata Island, which is definately a highlight as it is a larger island and offers a larger community living in isolation from Mainland Papua New Guinea. We may also end up at Leilei Gana, Boiboi Waga and other nearby tiny islands that are large enough only to host a single family.
You'll often make long term friends and travelling companions with the other guests onboard and it's common for our guests to build lasting friendships with the locals in their remote villages and family settlements. After the adventure, many people with spare time travel further either with a guided Wild PNG adventure or independantly using our Wild PNG accommodation on the remote islands and the Wild PNG banana boats to get around.
Catch a taxi from Alotau to Levis Bay (about 200 Kina) about 25km east of Alotau on the road to East Cape. Or you can travel like the locals do on a public motor vehicle (PMV) for about 12 Kina each way. Just catch the one to East Cape and tell the driver your joining the sailing vessel Starlight at Levis Bay. He'll drop you at our 'front door'. Or, you can book your pickup and transfers from Wild PNG Trabnsport using the link at the top of this page.
Bring your swimming and snorkelling gear if you have it. We have a small quantity of sizes available for rent on board if you don't have any, but it's better to bring your own and gaurantee your fit. If you have some fishing gear, you can bring that too. If you want to drink alcohol, you'll need to get that in Alotau before you head out to Starlight along with any snacks and softdrinks you'd like for your trip. We won't be pasing any shops along during the adventure.
All meals and accommodation while on board.
You can rent snorkelling gear on board although sizes are limited. Rental helps us replace and keep them in good condition for all our guests. You can also rent fishing gear on board if you'd like to try that and we rent it for the same reason.