Category: South Pacific Islands

Link: Solomon Island Photo Gallery

9th Sept 2011 -at Sea

We are at sea with light winds, but managing to make 5+knots due to the use of our Genoa! This morning we changed out the Yankee foresail and put up the large Genoa sail so we can hopefully keep sailing. As we go further north the winds will be mostly lighter and variable, more rain, hotter and muggier. It’s nice to be out on the water with a gentle breeze and the added benefit of the shade from the large sail:) We had a lovely evening in Uraparapara complete with Chief Nelson coming out to welcome us followed by many other canoes. We “traded” for some fresh pawpaws and spring onions, they were thrilled to get 3 DVD action movies, a cooking knife, 12v cable, empty bottles and even the old engine oil from our oil change that John did this morning as well. We’re hoping that the chief will not take issue with Customs over our visit to their islands since technically we had “checked out” and hence were not allowed to stop at any outward islands, but we had put our check out date as today, so are operating under the assumption that we have in fact left Vanuatu TODAY!?!? It’d be fun to visit the Torres Islands as well, but that would be pushing the issue, so we’re off to check-in at the Santa Cruz Islands, Ndendo which is the most southern port with a Customs agent who will stamp our passports which will allow us to legally cruise around the southern Solomon Islands before completing the immigration and quarantine stuff in Honiara.

 Lata, Ndendo

Last year I spent my birthday in Apia, Western Samoa and this year in Ndendo, Solomon Islands – not bad for a girl who always liked to travel! John tried hard to spoil me yesterday, although I cooked up dinner, spaghetti of course and we opened one of our very special wines. During the day I opened my last Bombay Gin and ate half a bag of Peanut M&Ms – life is good:) We have so many ripe bananas hanging out back I’ll probably end up making some more banana bread and even a banana cake. We’re a little worried about running out of propane before getting to Honiara, so I’ll try to maximize my use of the oven if I bake anything.

What’s really nice about being here is the flat, calm water- for the past two weeks all of our anchorages have been rolly, some so much so that it was a real challenge to walk, sleep, cook, even read a book and we had to keep everything anchored down and closed else it fly across the boat. Now it’s easy to even forget that we’re on a boat, it’s that still:) Of course with that comes hot sun, mugginess, no breeze and lots of bugs! We’re off today to check-in.

For my birthday yesterday John gave me my night shift OFF, so I got more sleep, then he produced a lovely hot cup of coffee for me and allowed me to take TWO showers yesterday to fight the heat:) I opened my last bottle of Bombay Gin and also my only bag of Peanut M&Ms, so life was good:) Just after the sunset last night we were visited by a little boy in a canoe – he was an albino! A bit forward in that he kept saying, “I want….magazines, clothes..” I gave him 2 pieces of candy and a really nice soccer jersey, so he was very, very happy.

We had a long slow sail to Ndendo, mostly with calmly rolling seas, although at times we’d get some large rollers. Your dad read that it’s because of the topography of the sea bottom, sometimes the ocean swells up and gets turbulent because of the hills, valleys and gorges under the water. It’s very, very hot and muggy here, but at least the water is calm and we are sitting flat and still. All of the anchorages over the past two weeks have been rolly, some so much that it was like being at sea which made cooking, walking, even ready and managing to stay in your seat, a bit of a challenge, so I’m really enjoying the lack of boat motion. We must go and check-in with customs and immigration this morning.

12th Sept 2011 – at Sea Again

After successfully clearing in yesterday, we are once again on our way to the next lovely island in this numerous group- probably headed for Santa Ana. Yesterday was an interesting experience as we had to dingy ride 4km across the bay in 15-20kt winds riding in with the swell, around a wrecked Chinese fishing boat, to a beach that was absolutely covered in crushed aluminum cans, glass, etc… Fortunately we were helped by a mission worker finding our way to the government offices, police department and quarantine which were located up a narrow path on top of the hill. About 3 sweaty hours later, lots of handshakes, walking back and forth kicking aside the beetle-nut husks, stepping over the spit….we managed to secure the temporary paperwork necessary for our legal onward journey and frequent stops at other islands before reaching the main clearing-in port in Honiara. EVERYONE here seems to chew, suck, spit on this beetle-nut stuff and their teeth attest to the damage, even the women have red stains, blackened, and missing teeth…a dentist’s nightmare!! At the police station we were processed by the local policeman, and also aid adviser cops from Fiji and Australia who are here to help the government restore order after all of the tensions and fighting a few years ago. The UN is also here installing computers, internet, phone, etc for the provisional government. Nonetheless, the only ATM is broken and so we could not change any money into Solomon dollars. We needed to get propane and fortunately the gas company would allow us to pay in NZ$. John made the trip back over to town with the canisters and had quite an adventure with lots of help from curious onlookers. I stayed on the boat and all afternoon various canoes came by to circle around the boat and gawk. The little albino child who came by the night before, returned with his brother bringing us “apples” which are these small bright red starfruit-like bite-sized fruits. I ended up giving him my one old pair of sunglasses:) Mid-afternoon, Chief Titus brought his wife Margaret to our boat and they proceeded to settle themselves in for 2 hours of chatting, drinking cold drinks, snacks, touring the boat, etc and managed to get one of our soccer balls, rope, sandpaper, saw blades…and left us with a few fruits and veges. Just after they left, two guys who’d helped John in town paddled across in their canoes and stayed until dark, also drinking cold drinks and acquiring a few items in exchange for some small mandarins, etc. Our boat is now fully loaded with papaya, “apples”, cucumber, “beans” (a cucumber looking thing that you peel and chop I guess) and coconuts.

13th Sept 2011

It’s been a lively and sometime boisterous 24hrs so far culminating this morning with a sudden storm gust of 45kts hitting out of the darkness at 5am. Needless to say that sprung me right out of bed and with the winds howling, rains pouring and sea splashing, we managed to bring in the foresail only to look at the chart and see that a freighter was on a collision course with us while the winds were stilling howling 35kt! Lots of excited activity and alas the ship has passed and we are once again on our way at 7.5kt under 20kts of wind which is pretty much what we’ve had all night with a few strengthening’s. It’s all made for relatively fast passage which is good.

PORT MARY – SANTA ANA ISLAND – Solomon Island Group

14th Sept 2011
After our boisterous overnight passage, we arrived into Port Mary at about 1:30pm yesterday and really appreciated being off the ocean and into a protected bay. It was still quite windy, but that just helped the boat sit straight at anchor.

True to form, within a very short time we had visiting canoes. Our first visitors were three teenage girls hoping to score some magazines. If we’d only known how much they were in demand I would have raided the laundry room in NZ for all of the women’s mags and fashion mags. Our Atlantic, Newsweek, etc are not really what they’re looking for.

The teenage boys soon arrived and their main interest was using our boat as a diving platform, or just a place to perch and tease the girls. These boys spent several hours just sitting on the swim step when they weren’t out splashing, turning over each other’s canoes or swimming out to rescue their own canoe since they just let it float away. Soon several smaller canoes each rowed by a naked boy of about 6-8yrs arrived mostly to just gawk. All of the above received some candy from us, ripe bananas and I gave the girls one of my gourmet cooking magazines in a purple UW bookstore bag. After a dinner of eggplant Parmesan, we went to bed early and slept about 12hrs – we were totally knackered from the passage since neither of us had much success sleeping. This is a lovely bay protected from the outside waters by two large reefs.

15th Sept 2011

I traded for some of these really small hot peppers which were delivered still on the branches, so I plucked them off, washed them and then chopped them before putting them in a jar with olive oil for preserving and future use…despite coating my hands with oil prior to dealing with them…I’m just now getting a very delayed reaction and my hands are flaming!! We get so many different peppers, some hotter than others and it’s not always easy to tell what sort of temperature they’ll give out and some of them seem quite mild until they react with cooking, chopping, etc. I should have learned by now to be a bit more cautious. Anyway, they’ll add some fire to my cooking!

John to Jodie: “No Worries”

Talked on the radio this am with some friends on a catamaran cruising ahead of us. They were at anchor and saw a man stroking fast in his dugout and going really slowly. As a budding Doctor – what is your differential?

When he got to the beach, he jumped out of the canoe, grabbed a fishing line that was unseen by our friends and got some help in pulling it in. There was a shark on the end of the line which had swallowed the fish that he caught using the bait that he used so the beech erupted in a community effort to land this live shark and slaughter it right there before our friends. The shark apparently had other plans so the beech turned into a war zone.

“Plumber John”

True to form, John took the skiff back to shore yesterday evening to deliver some Advil to the ailing chief, only to return to the boat with the skiff FULL of teenage boys whooping and hollering with delight as they took turns driving..in this case straight into the side of our boat! Apparently three boys had been scuffling over the controls while dodging the various canoes that were trying to block their way and with John unable to reach over and avert the collision. Fortunately no one was injured and we only have a scuff on the boat since they hit the bow and glanced off. This resulted in another hour of John racing various groups of boys around the bay and just when he thought all was finished, the chief announced that he’d disconnected the broken water tap so that John could fix it! So, more back and forth skiff rides with yet more groups of boys as John tried to find the right bits to fix it. The village of over 1000 people depend on this one tap for their fresh water and the lovely brass fitting is simply worn out so it was leaking and when we’d visited the village earlier in the day John had mentioned that he could take a look at it and see if he had a bit to fix it with. Since it got dark, he wasn’t able to finish the project, so he’s back over there this morning hoping to get the job done so we can leave in time to make our next anchorage which is 48miles away. John really does enjoy horsing around with the kids and the kids absolutely love driving our skiff around. A pack of other young kids and teens floated and crawled around the boat asking me lots of questions and getting treats. This is the first village that we visited where the kids are playing in the water so much and are such good swimmers. They don’t have crocodiles or dangerous sharks here, so maybe that helps, but it is impressive to see all the kids playing in the water and even the really young boys out paddling small canoes, not outriggers, in fact they delight in dumping themselves over and then baling the boat and climbing back in! It’s all second nature to them.

Lots of rain last night, yet it’s sunny and mostly clear this morning.

17th Sept 2011 – Mostquito Cove, Malaupaina Island
We had a really lovely day on Malaupaina Island with our boat anchored in “Mosquito Anchorage” named such not because of the flying insects, but after the HMS Mosquito. The island is very low lying with a large lagoon into the middle which we couldn’t take the big boat into, but were able to dingy through. It’s a magical place with turquoise waters and white coral sand beaches. Reportedly there are crocodiles, but the locals reassured me that they only live in the marshy swamps and rivers on the island and that the reefs are totally safe. The outer reef had some gorgeous snorkeling with healthy corals and a variety of fish, some pretty large. We went to shore and met the chief who had his daughter give us a tour. She’s a sweet 15 year old called Lolinda who walked us across the island to where the families live beside the lagoon, took us to the other side where the ocean dramatically rolls and crashes into the southeastern reefs, and then hooked down a couple of coconuts which her brother sliced open for us to drink. There are only about 50 people living on the island and they basically subsist on fish, their gardens and money they make from their copra productions. Copra is a super important commodity for all of the islanders. They crack open the coconuts, take out the meat, smoke it for several days over a fire and then bag it up in big sacks for the copra boats to collect. A 50kilo bag will bring about $25-35 US equivalent. This was probably the poorest village that we’ve visited and yet the people were super friendly, welcoming and didn’t ask us for anything except they were very eager to catch us crabs or even crocodiles to eat! We gave them two bags of rice, two bags of sugar and some peanuts just as a thank you for sharing their island. The little boys here amused themselves playing with sand crabs that they had on a string leash, the men who only fished out in their canoes in the early mornings or evenings, lazed around chewing beetlenut and watching over their copra fires, the women were busy with children, fishing and other chores. It was really touching as we raised anchor this evening that about half of the village congregated on the old wharf and waved farewell as we left at sunset:)

Now we are on an overnight sailing up to the Guadalcanal Province hoping to arrive in the morning on the southern tip where there is reportedly a beautiful anchorage and very nice resort. John has promised me a belated birthday dinner out, so I’m looking forward to that after recovering from the night’s sailing. Our friends are already there as we haven’t actually been sailing together since we decided to check-in at Ndendo (to be legal) and they have yet to check-in, being experience cruisers and Aussie’s, they are a bit more cavalier than I’m comfortable with. It’ll be fun to meet up with them again tomorrow.

18th Sept 2011 Taunipupu Island and Resort
We made a successful, much less eventful, overnight sail into Marau Sound and are anchored near the lovely Tauanipupu Island Resort. Our Aussie catamaran friends were already here, so they gave us a big greeting and some much appreciated help in getting safely anchored. A bit of a challenge navigating into this place around the reefs, etc. – another bump into a reef- ugh! Not so bad this time, but unsettling all the same. They can be so difficult to see when the skies aren’t clear and the sun isn’t behind you. At least we made it into the anchorage before the winds and rain hit.  Ruth and I had a lovely time snorkeling the shallows and coral heads – she’s a Masterdiver/Instructor so she’s terrific at spotting and identifying stuff that I’d otherwise miss. We were out for over an hour, including dragging our kayaks behind us in case the current overwhelmed us. The reef and shallows are an incredible nursery of new, healthy corals and lots and lots of small colorful fish and even some larger ones. I found a really exotic looking lion fish – super brilliant colors. We’re going to have a BBQ potluck on their boat tonight. It’s good to be with friends again – now if the rains and winds will just clear off!

20th Sept 2011
After a full day of torrential rainfall with us hunkered down inside the boat, we dressed up a bit, put on our rain gear and paddled over to the resort for a fantastic “birthday dinner.” Since there were no guests at the resort, special arrangements had been made ahead of time, so we had our own private evening together with Ruth and Calvin from the catamaran, Island Sonata. The chef created a delicious dinner of pumpkin & crab soup, pan-seared Kingfish and mango sorbet. Yesterday morning the sun came out, so we took our dingy across to another island for a Anglican church festival – while passing through the mouth of the lagoon John and I spotted below us a very large black-tip reef shark just slowly prowling.

The festival was supposed to have traditional dancing, however, since someone had died the night before, this was canceled. They still gathered for a church service and then feast. We watched as several women carried over baskets filled with foods cooked in packets of banana leaves which they distributed out in small piles over a long sheet of sheet metal roofing. After this was all done and re-adjusted, one man read out names and families/villages came forward and collected up a pile of food and then left! They insisted that we also get a small pile, so we sat down with one of the priests and ate some lovely taro-coconut pudding and white fish. John had a blast horsing around with the kids teaching them his “missing thumb” magic trick, clapping games and spinning them around in circles like airplanes. After returning to the boat, John and I went snorkeling around the shallow reefs of the lagoon – a magical garden of coral and small colorful fish AND one large shark which came swimming right at me! When we got back to the boat a bunch of children in canoes came out to visit and next thing I knew, John was racing around the bay with the skiff packed with kids while towing behind someone clinging to a couple of floats. The kids were having a blast – John included:)

Our friends left this morning, but we’ve decided to stay here one more night and spend some time with a new couple who just arrived last night and also to get some internet time at the resort. This is an incredibly peaceful place with a very protected lagoon that our boats sort of wander and bob around in, it’s the sort of place we could linger for a long time. The villagers are so friendly and polite and the kids are getting very attached to John.

22 Sept 2011
Just a quick note to say that we’re still in the same lovely anchorage. We were going to leave today, but realized that would get us into Honiara on a Saturday night, which is no good. Safety is an issue there anyway and with everything shut on Sat/Sunday, it wasn’t worth leaving this paradise just yet! We had a lovely afternoon lingering at the resort bar using their internet and reading, then in the evening went back and got to see some local dancers. The kids were really great and some of the teenagers were very good dancers. It’s been super hot and sweaty – 36 degrees celsius on the boat! I had a nice kayak around the island in the morning and then went for a cooling snorkel. The water was so clear that I could see the coral and fish just looking over the side of the kayak. It was really pleasant and fun to just paddle about. John has been working on the spinnaker lines so we’ll be able to fly that big balloon of a sail up front during the light following winds. The spinnaker is the pretty, more decorated sail that boats have. Ours is shades of green and quite nice. We’ve only used it once before.

24th Sept 2011 Neal Island
We left our beautiful lagoon early this morning to begin our two day journey to Honiara. We’re anchored at Neal Island to spend the night and finish the trip starting again early tomorrow. Despite all that’s said about light winds in the Solomon Islands, we were blasted with 35kts coming out of the reefs and maintained a pretty quick speed downwind with the Genoa poled out and the staysail winging the other side. Now we’re bobbing about in a good holding, though a bit too exposed, anchorage. At least we’ll do all of our travel in daylight to make for safer navigation. Our new Kiwi friends are also here, so we aren’t alone, although will likely not socialize much since neither of us want to put the dingy down with the winds and swell.

Left at 6:30am again to make the final leg into Honiara. Rainy, squally, rolly night so it wasn’t a problem to be motivated to take off early!! Now we’re having a rather pleasant sail under gray, rainy skies, yet managing 5-7kts of speed without any drama:) Hope to arrive early afternoon.

 

26th Sept 2011 – Honiara , Guadalcanal (Solomon Island Group)
John and I spent the day yesterday getting customs, etc completed and then wandering through the shops to see what was available. Amazingly, we spent the whole day in town finishing up with drinks and fish & chips at the beach bar with some other yachties. All in all, a nice day, although the dust and fumes of the city are at times overwhelming. We’ve been spoiled by clean sea air and quiet unmotorized villages.

John wrote: We are in Honaria – the capital of the Solomon Islands. We will be in this area for a week while collecting a visa for our onward travels to Papua New Guinea, then Palau and then Malaysia where we will leave the boat and go back to ALaska for Jodies Graduation in May. It is baking hot here and humid. We have air conditioning on the boat which is good while the generator is running and sleep naked under fans. Occasional thunderstorms bring torrential rain – maybe twice a week. Laundry does not dry unless a wind picks up. This is 9 degrees latitude south so it will get hotter and stickier as we cross the equator. Can’t wait for that. Alaska looks really cool from here. The couple in the boat next to us are heading for AttA – the outer islands of the Aleutians – from Guam this soming summer and will cruise down the coast to Sitka, spend a winter and then go back and cruis it again. Sounds like the trip Kris and I will do in 2013 if we dare look that far ahead. We would do it this year but it can’t be done with a trip home for Jodie so it has to wait.

28th Sept 2011 – Honiara Harbor  – BANANA BOAT ENCOUNTER
So, great story on Raynad… I was sitting outside in the cockpit last night while John finished up a couple of things and then we were going to go over to the yacht club for drinks and dinner again when..VAROOM – one of those typical South Pacific island fiberglass boats, zoomed right over the middle of our dingy!! Mom and Scott may remember the type of long boats that carried huge numbers of people and raced around everywhere without regard for speed limits, and seemed to enjoy seeing how close they could pass by our boats?? No joke – it was awful to witness this huge fiberglass banana boat as it roared behind our anchored boat and hit right in the middle of the dingy, their boat ending up high-centered on top while our dingy started stinking below it. Of course ALL kinds of profanity came out of my mouth as I jumped up and over the cockpit, while John struggled up from down below exclaiming that my language was being a bit extreme until he saw what had happened -was happening!! Amazingly they actually tried to rev their engine with hopes I’m sure of fleeing the scene, but they were stuck. Long story short….after bailing it out, the dingy is surprisingly ok (we think) although a bit battered on the cover, one of the oars was split, the casing for the outboard was broken, and the engine had been briefly submerged, but John eventually got the motor running again on all cylinders and has patched up the cover. The guys gave us their names, but we don’t expect much to come of it. Would be nice if they fixed the paddle/oar at least, or something?? I guess we’re lucky that the boat wasn’t as packed with people as they usually are, otherwise the damage probably would have been horrific. This is not a good place to try and repair or replace an inflatable dingy. Our Kiwi friends were thinking ahead and actually took photos of the boats, the people, etc (he’s an old P&I Insurance guy -as one of his past vocations) so maybe we’ll have some good photos??

Otherwise, we are good. Checked-in and paid up for up to 3-months in the Solomons. Have ordered our duty free booze (2-cases of Bombay Saphire gin!! plus misc others.. .clearly a priority:), cases of milk, tonic and misc food stuffs…we’re hoping to leave Honiara for a few days and then return next week to hopefully pick up our passports with their Papua New Guinea visas stamped inside so we can go there Nov-Jan

2011/09/29 – 08-52.69S / 159-59.96E
COMMENT: Fought the monsters and anchored just at dark Sambani Island
2011/10/01 –  09-00.17S / 160-13.59E
 Anuha Island with Silent World super yacht!
So, here we sit anchored next to the super yacht “Silent World” in Anuha Island bay. It’s funny because we met the owners and guests at the resort in Tauanipupu Island several days ago. Their super yacht was delayed due to crew sickness from making the passage between Caines and Honiara to pick them up, so they ended up as the guests of the resort at Tauanipupu Island and we met them while we were anchored there, spent some time chatting, etc….so here we are after five hours of sailing/motoring our way along the island toward this magical spot and just as we round he corner to the anchorage here comes their super yacht and it’s a seeming race to the spot!! Raynad put her foot forward but of course the super yacht was faster, so they set their chain first and thereafter commenced a funny dance about the bay. Their multi-million dollar boat will not sit calmly at anchor, but dances around at 180+degrees, so it took a bit of fancy work on our part to set our anchor in 40m and manage to be safely away from them!?!? Recognizing us from the past, they invited us over for a drink, and despite John’s grumbling, following our afternoon snorkel/swim and canoe visits, we set out for their boat at sunset and enjoyed chatting – always interesting to hear about the lives of the rich and famous:)

Gourmet chef Kris then fixed a lovely filet mignon w/ bacon and ratatatou sort of local garden mixture side (actually came out quite yummy) w/ cab wine served in the now cooler cockpit…life is good on Raynad and we have no schedule to keep in the morning unlike our neighbors who must get back to catch flights home to work(:

A note MUST be made that the ShadeTree is now a “must have” feature on the boat including he modifications without poles – it is SOOOO hot and sunny here that even the garbage bags melt and I cannot walk the deck without shoes. Thank you Jodie for bringing that monster over. We’ve now systematized it for quickly putting up and taking down and no more rattles on the life-lines. Last night the rains and winds howled for about 30-mins and all was well onboard snuggled beneath the ShadeTree and enjoying some terrific pasta primavera:)

TULAGHI HARBOR – MALIAILI INLET

3rd Oct 2011 Tulaghi Harbor – Maliaili Inlet – PIRATES!!
Last night I was awakened at 2AM by the noise of a canoe knocking against our boat. I jumped up and switched all of the deck lights on, only to find that two men were already climbing around on our boat and trying to see in the windows, seeing if they could open the hatches, etc. I ran back and woke up John just as they started to rattle the companionway door. Hearing that, John leapt out of bed and shouted at them through the seaberth window to “Get off our boat!” At which he got the response of a panga being slammed into the window! When they returned a 2nd time, John blasted our airhorn out the window, they thrust their knives into the window, missing John, but leaving nicks and davets in the window and frames. We ran around the boat and confirming that ALL the windows were tightly shut and locked. Fortunately, earlier in the evening some boys who were visiting our boat warned us about some yachts having problems with thieves, so for the first time ever, we had shut and locked the main hatches, locked the dingy and outboard, locked all of the outside deck hatches and stowed things away below – and after an early evening visitation by two lone guys in canoes, we also took out the mosquito net in the companionway and so when the unwelcome visitors threatened us in the night, we already had the strong boards and door securely locked from the inside. There ensued a very scary night with these guys coming back 3-times, each time trying to smash or force open the doors and more angry that they couldn’t get in the boat. We flashed our full deck lights, blew the airhorn, then finally just settled on all lights out as we cowered below hoping and praying that they’d go away, wondering what theft and damages they might leave us with. They stayed on the boat until about 4:30-5am when they finally left, but since we couldn’t be sure, we stayed locked up below until 7:30am when we started to see other regular canoe traffic.

Through the night, we whispered with each other while sitting in total darkness on the floor of the salon, discussing past, present and future travel concerns. This event combined with the banana boat running over our dingy and the fact that we are getting more and more canoes/visitors to our boat who just linger, come aboard uninvited….we have no privacy and clearly our security is a concern, made worse by the fact that ventilation is so important with the rising heat and humidity. We’re seriously thinking now that we’ll try to join up with our Kelvin and Ruth on Island Sonata and just cruise back through the Louiseades of Papua New Guinea and on down with them to Cairns. Australia and NZ are seeming good options just now. Going north alone just doesn’t seem as inviting as it used to.

The good thing is, we are both totally fine and unharmed and other than a couple of small damages, including their smashing our real boat horn and damaging two port hatches, we survived the incident with only our fears to contend with.

4th Oct 2011
So the list is expanding:
1) inside starter for the engine, inside remote to bring up the anchor…wouldn’t that have been great if we could have started up the engine, lifted the anchor and started motoring out – could have given them a bit of terror as they try to rescue their capsized canoes, etc!! especially since crocodiles were an issue in that mangrove pool that we were anchored in! Now THAT would have been justice if their canoes had capsized and the crocs had gotten them.
2) electric fence – super idea!!
3) more bells and whistles – sirens, flashing lights, etc to alert surrounding boats/villages of a problem
4) definitely going to try and get some bear spray (it’s illegal in lots of places and of course not allowed on planes, so hard to get)-you’ve got your Dad thinking now and he want to mount a remote control pepper spray in the cockpit, if in future someone tries to break-in on us, we can flood their faces in pepper spray!!
5) flare gun?? I wouldn’t personally try the panga since these folks are quick, fast and efficient with the use of these tools and we are not, same goes for guns.

Yes, part of our deterrent in going forward was that the messages of caution increase as we move northward, especially into Papua New Guinea, so we were being a bit cavalier in thinking of going there in the first place, although many have said that the outer islands are fine, just like here, it’s when you get close to the cities and congested areas that the problems arise, the issue is that it’s impossible to not at least on occasion get near those places because of port clearance issues, etc. So, the Louiseades of PNG are not a problem at all and are actually sort of part of the Australian patrol. Things in the Solomons have improved, but they had lots of civil conflict not that long ago and there are some hot areas remaining. The Australian and Fijian police are in fact here as part of a “peacekeeping” infrastructure building program. I guess we’ll report our incident today so they are alerted to the rising problems in that area and can maybe do something about it.

 Oct 5, 2011  – At sea  

We’re just going to set off on an overnight passage directly up to Uepi this morning, hopefully arriving to navigate through the Charapoana Pass by around 9am.

Targeting of cruisers has continued around here with the boats Delos and Infinity getting boarded Tuesday, the thieves stole 2 BCDs and 3 regulators off of Delos, but the Infinity guys saw them and went in pursuit. A punch-up ensued and they managed to ge the regulators back, but not the BCDs. Last night those two boats posted a 24-hr watch and we all monitored channel 16 and at about midnight, three of the banana boats came alongside Delos. We haven’t gotten the updates from the night, only heard some of the discussion on ch16 when the boats were first spotted lurking about. We remained locked up tight!  We’re looking forward to hopefully getting away from the Guadalacanal areas and into some more peaceful and friendly island cruising.

09-25.66S /  159-57.31E – At sea again

Setting out this morning and sailing overnight to try and arrive at the lagoon entrance for the Uepi Island Resort in New Georgia tomorrow morning. Things have continued to be a bit tense here for the yachties. Tuesday night some intruders first tried to board the boat Infinity which has about 12 people onboard, but when encountered by their night-watch (big German guy) they left, but then later went over to the boat Delos, a great boatload of 26-32yr olds (3 guys, 1 girl)whom we met and socialized with in Malekula, boarded and stole 2 BCDs and 3 dive Regulators. When the captain Brian shouted out after the guys, the guys on Infinity took pursuit, a punch-up ensued with the result of getting the 3 dive Regulators back, but not the BCDs and someone reportedly got a broken nose. Last night, all of the boats kept on ch16 and Delos and Infinity both kept nightwatches. Sure enough at about midnight, three banana boats were stealthily lurking about. We don’t yet know the outcome of the evening, but they seemed to be focused on those same two boats. We’re hoping that the torrential rains that started at about 1am calmed things down abit, but we heard and saw far too much activity back and forth by these 3 local motorized banana boats.

2011/10/06 – 08-52.19S – 159-07.01E
On route to Morova Lagoon -overnight passage-saw dolphins!!

2011/10/06-  08-30.60S / 158-20.19E
COURSE: 293T
SPEED: 4.0
Slogging with wind, rain, lightening on the nose!

UEPI ISLAND,  MOROVA LAGOON – Solomon Island Group

UEPI ISLAND RESORT (link)

2011/10/07 – 08-26.24S / 157-56.91E
Anchored at Uepi Island – raining but calm and peaceful:)

Too beautiful to leave! Lovely snorkeling and diving:) Quiet!
This is such a beautiful, calm and restful spot that John and I have decided to just stay here for another night even though our friend’s Ruth and Kelvin on Island Sonata left at 6:30am to make their way toward the next anchorage. John and I had a terrific day yesterday, including some great snorkeling for about 2 hours with me coming nearly nose to nose with what turned out to be a “harmless leopard shark”!?!?  And then a long dive with the resort dive master in the reef passage where we saw lots and lots of black tip reef sharks, a school of barracuda, some amazing fan coral, feisty Solomon Trigger fish (they have pink rather than yellow markings and are much bigger- they kept nipping at John’s fins and do pretend charges – very funny) and even a sweet turtle resting under a beautiful fan coral who somehow convinced himself that we couldn’t see him – it was really sweet. When the turtle finally took off, he swam up and over my head so close that all I could see was his underbelly as he swam over! That was TOTALLY cool:) Kelvin and Ruth came over to out boat for happy hour and dinner last night and we had an uproarious time talking about everything from education to cruising. Ruth is a brilliant woman with a vast knowledge- she has her doctorate in science education – both John and I really enjoy talking with her. She went snorkeling and diving with us yesterday and her super delight in the undersea world combined with her skill as a former divemaster/instructor made it all the more exciting for us. Kelvin is a super nice man who is very mechanical/technical as he operated a large commercial refrigeration business in Australia, so he and John can discuss various machines, engines and components for long hours. They are keen for us to come back to Cairns with them, however, we are having second thoughts on this after our discussion last night realizing that it was not feasible to go from here directly to south of Brisbane as we are technically sailing from the reasonably cyclone safe area of the northern Solomons into the cyclone season of Australia!?! Since we don’t really want to dodge cyclones in Aussie-land and are not really keen to just leave the boat in a safe inner harbor for six months like they do, we’re back to thinking of continuing north only going more eastwards toward Kiribati, or the Marshall Islands and on north toward Hawaii. We’ll keep you posted on our decision.

Anyway, for today we are settled and happy and going to just enjoy this stunning lagoon. We’ve had no canoes come out and visit our boat, which is truly special up in these parts. It’s so seldom that we get any privacy. That combined with the lovely scenery and calm anchorage makes it hard to just up and leave. John’s busy as always with boat projects, always something to fix and improve. Right now he’s working on things to make the boat more locked up and secure. He’s a great man to have along on such a voyage:)

We had a very restful day yesterday, lots of reading since it clouded up and started raining from about 10am onward, breaking a bit in time for a lovely happy hour on the back deck. We sat in our deck chairs with our feet up on the dingy looking out over the multiple blue hues of the lagoon watching the canoes out fishing, listening to the bird calls, enjoy absolute peace and tranquility. This was a much needed rest after all of the excessively negative encounters of the Honiara/Tulaghi Harbor areas. Our anchor got stuck on coral so we spent over an hour trying to break it free and fortunately just when it was looking hopeless and in need of diving, it made several loud bangs and came lose! Now we’re on route up the coast of New Georgia to another anchorage where our friends Ruth and Kelvin will be tonight as well, so no doubt we’ll at least enjoy another happy hour together:) Not much wind so we’re motoring on the glassy seas, although there are angry looking stormy rain clouds on the horizon. We’ll probably get a washing.

2011/10/10 – 08-02.18S / 157-35.43E
 Mbaene Harbor lots of mangroves and crocs! Logging operation

We have a “pet” coconut crab onboard!  We were awakened at 6AM with our first canoe vender of the day and by 8am we’d purchased/traded with about six different boats- we bought pomellos (sort of like grapefruit only sweet,) eggplant, beans (a funky cucumber looking thing – not great, but ok when stir-fried,) peppers, limes/lemons, and lastly a LIVE coconut crab (for 60 Solomon $s = about $9US) Immediately reminds us of Scott’s birthday when he devoured an entire crab for his lunch celebration – remember Scott?? So, do we kill it, steam it and eat it….or release it back to the coconut trees tonight?? Scott and Jodie will no doubt remember our sailboat experience with live lobster – I know what Jodie’s response would hve been, but now that you’re in the hunter-gatherer mentality, maybe you’d do the dirty work for me?? I’ve been warned that the claws will literally clip your fingers off – so beware!! Not surprising since they use them to crack open coconuts – hence the name and the sweet tasting meat. Right now he is tied to the back deck where I’ve tried to keep him from escaping and hanging himself over the side, something he keeps trying to do. I have provided a bit of shade with cabbage and banana leaves. He needs you Scott to look after him:)

Our anchorage last night was near a Chinese logging camp – we were fortunate to find terrific markers showing us the way up the winding lagoon of Lever Harbor. We never did find the clear entrance for the Mbaena/Toghovae Lagoon where we had intended to go. Charting here is sketchy and the waypoints in our guidebook are frequently inaccurate, so every approach and anchorage is a bit of a crap shoot. Pretty stressful sometimes, hence the necessity for settling down with a nice cold GT after finally setting a safe anchor – or at least that’s our excuse:) Anyway, we saw several crocodiles, some exotic birds and enjoyed the relative peace and tranquility of the bay. We had some total monsoon-like rains for about 3 hours, so we closed up the boat early, ate dinner and settled in with the aircon for about an hour before going to sleep. Unfortunately the air conditioning only works with the generator on, but we have one 12-volt fan we can keep running all night and THAT is a total lifesaver for sleeping. 

We’re now on route to Enoghae Inlet where we’ll meet up with Kelvin and Ruth. They were ahead of us yesterday and since they couldn’t find the entrance to the harbor, had gone on another 12 miles, so we didn’t meet them last night. We’ll keep you posted as we progress along.

2011/10/11 –  08-11.25S / 157-18.02E
 Enoghae Inlet overnight.

2011/10/12  – 08-14.30S /  157-11.82E
Nora on New Georgia Island

RINGGI COVE  2011/10/13 10:51 –  08-07.11S / 150-06.89E
Ringgi Cove -Beautiful lagoon surrounded by magroved and volcanic peaks

 

We had a magical evening last night in Ringgi Cove – tranquil water reflecting the lovely blues, purples and golds of the sunset with Mt Veve (1775 meters high) and Mt Tapalamenggutu (1695m) partially swathed in misty clouds.  

 

 

 

 

We were enjoying happy hour on Island Sonata so could sit out on the front pontoons and just take in all of the sights and sounds.
Earlier, John had seen a brilliant hornbill. Some local carvers came by and I ended up buying some more wood carvings, so I guess you all know what your Christmas presents will be!?!? Woke up this morning to yet more magic with the sunrise in the east and a full moon still shining in the west. Definitely some photo moments – we were all our clicking away last night and this morning. John and I enjoyed our coffee sitting on the front deck looking across the cove to the mountains. Just to add an extra touch of beauty, nestled along the shore were a few classic raised Polynesian thatch homes.

2011/10/13 – 08-07.67S : 157-03.71E
On route to Gizo, 0 wind, glassy water– Now we are motoring our way to Gizo, already sweltering in the heat. No doubt this will bring some pretty intense afternoon rains as the moisture builds over the mountains.

2011/10/16 –  08-06.88S /  156-52.88E
Beautiful Mbambanga Island by Sanbis Resort and Kennedy Island

2011/10/20 –  07-56.67S /  156-42.79E
 Liapari Island

We’re pretty much outside civilization now, so no internet except in Gizo. We had an unexpected storm last night with up to 35kt winds, so it was not very restful. At least we’re in a very protected lagoon, so we’ll likely stay here a couple more nights. Our friends on a NZ boat are about 80+ miles from us and we may try to meet up with them and cruise around the islands here. We’ll probably stay in the Solomon Islands until mid-Nov, or maybe even into December. Jim and Tori on Elenya will be here until January. They will then head north to Micronesia and we’re going more east toward Tarawa and/or Majuro before making our way to Hawaii. If the weather allows, it’d be fun to be in Hawaii by early Feb so I can attend their WhaleFest event in Maui, but we’ll see. Eventually, we’ll make it back up to Alaska, but we’re not yet sure of the dates. I have jury duty in Sitka for the month of May, so will be there then regardless of
where the boat is.

We had a stormy night last night, so it was good that we were still in this very protected lagoon. Yesterday was just lots of rain, no wind, so we had the ShadeTree up and enjoyed the cooler air and reading out in the cockpit – I finished a huge book. But just after dark, the winds started up and increased to 25-35kts, sort of cyclonic in that they started from the South and now are from the North. Nothing in the weather forecasts alerted us to this. It’s still gusting and blowing this morning, so we’ll probably bring the ShadeTree in if it doesn’t stop in the next hour. Hate to take it down and then have the winds stop and want it for shelter from the rain and/or sun.

27/10/2011

We’re still anchored next to the  Sanbis Resort  (link)
close to Gizo. It’s such a nice spot to just relax since we don’t get any canoe visitors trying to sell us carvings or fruit/veges or just lingering around the boat, the water is pretty clear, there are some nice coral heads to snorkel around and because it’s inside the main reef, it’s also pretty calm and protected. John and I were out snorkeling yesterday, I swam toward the shore while he was checking out the anchor/chain and under the boat and I came nearly nose to nose with a black tip shark! The shark wasn’t at all startled, just made a small change of course, I of course just sort of froze and watched. These are usually not sharks to worry about, and usually they scuttle away, but this one was pretty relaxed. When I eventually got back to the boat, there was a large barracuda under the boat, just hanging out there. That was very cool. He was still there when John got back and he wanted to drop a line over to try and catch it, but I said the barracuda was too pretty to kill.

I’m up with the sunrise again, can’t seem to sleep past 5am, even when I stay up later. We’re going to go pick up some oars that we’ve had a local carver make for us to replace the ones that were damaged by the long boat running over our dingy. We’ll hope they work out ok. John glued and repaired the old one, but it’d still be good to have another option.

28/10/2011

We’re back in Ringgi Cove having surprisingly met up with two boats- Elenya (Jim and Tori whom we’ve been keeping in contact with) and a boat of 20-30 yr olds from the USA called Delos whom we’ve met in Vaunatu and in Honiara, they were all on our boat last night for drinks and lots of talk of their diving adventures. It was a great evening:) Now it’s a misty morning following a night of thunder and lightening. We may go for a shore hike today. Tomorrow John and I may go diving with Jim and Tori. It’s the Sabbath here since this cove is 7th Day Adventist, so not activity ashore in the villages so we went walking ashore today with the cruisers from the other two yachts – pretty mellow as the day was misty overcast, hot and rather gray, but we all enjoyed stretching our legs a bit on the logging roads. After returning, we ended up with three teenage boys on our boat playing my guitar! They were lingering about and after some conversation, I found that one of them liked music and playing the guitar. I asked if he needed guitar strings and then gave them a full set, which they then asked if I had a guitar that they could play. All three climbed aboard and we had a 2 hr music session with us by their request trying to record their songs onto my laptop. There was also some roaring about by the three in our dingy and your dad going to their village, and attempts to load the music on a cellphone…..all when we were supposed to be on Delos for dinner. Nonetheless, it was a fun afternoon/evening. We ended up at a BYOM BBQ on Delos and again really enjoyed their company. So fun to be with such great people for a few days:)
08-18.31S / 157-09.77E
 Lola Island in Vonavona Lagoon, New Georgia Island

I’m up before the dawn, seems my body clock is on a 5am wake up schedule.

Not a problem though since we were asleep by 9:30. We’re now anchored out in what’s called Vonavona Lagoon. New Georgia Island is comprised of a central volcanic mountain with the Morovo Lagoon on it’s eastern side and Vonavona Lagoon on it’s south and western side. On Sunday, we went diving on one of the wrecks in the northwestern side of the lagoon, a downed spitfire from WWII, I even sat in the cockpit! The Vonavona Lagoon is surrounded by island and reefs and is a sort of vast shallow lake (ave depth 10meters) with more reefs, sand bars, and islands dotted around inside. We’re anchored next to Lola Island where there is a small resort. It was quite a piece of navigation work yesterday. We went down past Noro through the Diamond Narrows before entering the lagoon where we then twisted and turned around, sometimes through narrow and shallow reef passes until we eventually made it over here. The electronic charts just say – uncharted and only accessible with local knowledge, so we had to rely on the hand-drawings in our guidebook and our own visual navigation. Some beautiful scenery – lots of turquoise and green waters of various shades. Quite flat and very spread out, so most of my attempts to capture it on film are disappointing. The rising thunderheads were threatening us with rain and made the visibility at times a bit more difficult.  

I’m looking forward to sunrise which may be quite nice if the clouds don’t take over. I looked outside and the sky overhead is clear – dark black with stunning starts – yet there are still occasional flashes of lightening on the horizons. These days we are having almost continuous electrical activity in some part of the sky. The water temperatures are already at about 29 degrees Celsius, the air is easily 34-38+, and humidity is high. There are some predictions floating around of early cyclones this year and we are now cruising in their birthplace. Usually they start up here and grow as they travel south and either east or west gaining momentum and strength as they meet they go. Cyclones are rare up here and usually not powerful – we’re at 8 degrees south and typically you’re considered out of the cyclone belt at 5 degrees (up to 7 or 8) south or north of the equator. We’ll leave in about 2 weeks and make our way to Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands which are at about 2 degrees north.

01/11/2011
We had a rather lazy day yesterday- did some snorkeling and then spent much of the sporadically rainy afternoon discussing our onward journeys. We have several passages to make and were trying to firm up the approximate dates and routes. We finished by joining Tori and Jim at the resort bar for drinks. Today we’ll move onward through the lagoon and look for another lovely anchorage.

2011/11/02 – 08-10.65S /  157-02.75E
 Snake Island in Vonavona Lagoon
Yes, we are now anchored next to Snake Island in another part of the Vonavona Lagoon. It’s reputed to have sea snakes, but I didn’t see any when snorkeling around there earlier. Jim and Tori are going to night snorkel and see if they spot any…I’m off to bed. We had an interesting day today starting with a lovely, cool morning (me up at 4am this time- ugh!?!?) where I enjoyed some stretches on the deck with my hot tea while waiting for John to wake up and join me for coffee. Mornings really are my favorite time now since it’s usually clear and a bit cooler. By late afternoon the clouds have moved in and there are always several thunder, lightening and rain squalls. This morning we upped anchor and navigated our way through the most incredibly narrow channels, around coral heads, sand bars, lots of small islands and reefs…all done only with the assistance of a very crudely hand drawn map from our guidebook. The charts just say, uncharted and navigable only with local knowledge! Had a few exciting moments, but overall it went well with the shallowest bit coming to just under 1 meter beneath our keel – no grounding or bumping this time:) Took us about 3 hours to go only 5 miles, so it was slow and hot with me being mostly out on the bow. After anchoring, Jim and Tori took me drift diving on the outer reef wall! It was great. John volunteered to man the skiffs so that he dropped us in at one spot and then came and picked us up down the way. Some really nice fish and corals, but mostly it was just a very relaxed and enjoyable dive. We’re going to do one or two more with them tomorrow at different places. It’s great to have friends/cruising buddies who are great divers AND have extra gear for us to use. It was a mistake not to buy our own dive gear before leaving NZ, we’ve missed many great opportunities to enjoy the underwater world. We’re enjoying the Solomon Islands again now that we’re away from the Honiara – Talaghi Harbor areas. It’s really quite remote here and most of the people are very friendly. The volcanic mountains draped with trees, the lovely lagoon and bays, and the morning mists often remind us of SE Alaska – only MUCH warmer! Sure wouldn’t mind a few of those cooling breezes right now though:)

2011/11/03  ( 08-07.15S / 156-53.75E)
 GIZO AREA Next to “Fat Boys” 

We (or rather I) had a fun day yesterday with Tori and Jim doing another dive on the outer reef of the Vonavona Lagoon. Saw some large fish including a school of Barracuda that we all agreed were definitely “checking us out”!! Also found a group of three Lion Fish – sort of a momma, papa, baby fish group, a good sized lobster, a small turtle and a couple of White Tip reef sharks. It’s been very enjoyable diving with Jim and Tori, unfortunately though since they are drift dives, one person must man the dingies and so far that person has been John. We sailed the rest of the way through the lagoon and then across to the Gizo area and are now anchored beside Fat Boys – a local resort restaurant located over the water. We stood Tori and Jim a meal out as our way of saying thank you for the diving. Today we’ll dive a couple of passes in and out of this lagoon. It’s been such a treat to be able to go with them and not only enjoy their great company – Jim and John really get along well and have lots to talk about between boats, engines and maritime stuff (Jim was in charge of large ships crossing the oceans for over 20 years and then was Asst Harbor master for Auckland,) but to have a chance to finally do some diving. Turns out Tori has her PhD in chemistry and wrote articles on new drugs for an independent publication – also did some peptide research at Auckland U. She’s very quiet and does not talk about herself at all, so it’s only because Jim blurted it out the other day that we now know. When first asked, she only mentioned that she worked with the Maritime Museum and had her masters license.

2011/11/05 (08-02.67S / 156-48.55E)
Near Sepo Island diving on the WWII wreck of an old Japanese freightor

CHAOISEUL ISLAND & TURTLES

After fueling and “checking out” in Noro, we set sail at sunset for the Chaoiseul Islands.  We had an excellent passage buddy sailing with our friends Jim and Tori on s/v Eleyna.

 

The turtle sanctuary was amazing! The pictures say everything, however, the journal continues afterwards.

 

Nov 16, 2011

Arnavon Turtle Reserve
Choisseul Islands, Solomons

We have just had the most amazing time here at the Arnavon Community Marine Conservation Area at Kerhikapo Island in the Choiseul Province of the Solomon Islands. This marine reserve was started 17 years ago by the Nature Conservancy to promote and protect the breeding grounds of the Hawksbill Turtle. Not only is this a lovely little island/atoll refuge to break our long trip, but the staff here were super friendly and helpful. Yesterday afternoon we hiked along the beach and viewed all of the nests of turtle eggs that they were trying to protect from the Megapode birds by covering with fencing material, then they post a sign with a nest number and the date the nest was created. They keep track of each nest, including counting the eggs laid and then if possible, the number of baby turtles that hatch…so we got to help with two of the nests yesterday!! It was incredible to watch 148 and then 180 baby turtles scratch their way out of the sand and then immediately head for the sound of the ocean. We got to hold them and no matter which way we would turn, they would turn themselves toward the surf. Our task, especially with the first group which were on top of a small bluff, was to help facilitate their safe migration into the surf. It was totally amazing – they were incredibly cute, super focused, resilient and full of gusto to get into the water and swim as quickly as they could away. We watched with amusement as masses of little turtle heads popped up as they made their way to sea:) Unfortunately for the second nest, the sharks were also alerted to the new hatchlings and we were powerless to do anything as we watched the feeding frenzy of the little black-tip reef sharks swarming around our newly launched baby turtles:( very sad, but of course also part of nature. The focus here is to protect the nests, help the hatchlings make it safely into the surf and try to protect the breeding turtles (Chinese fishing boats tend to come in and try to scoop the big turtles up – but unfortunately there is no real enforcement or consequence for them.) They don’t have any tanks of turtles, all of the turtles come and go from the wilds.

After dark, we all tried walking the beach for about 3 hours hoping to come upon a turtle laying her eggs in a sand nest, but alas, no luck. Lots of exercise though and since this followed our all night passage out of Noro, we were all totally beat and ready for a good night of sleep.

Click on the following links to see photos:

VANUATU Photos w/Jodie & Scott

VANUATU Photos w/ Scott & Grandma (Fran)

VANUATU Photos: Onward w/ John & Kristy

MASKELYNE  ISLANDS: Additional Village and Island Explorations

 

PORT SANDWICH FESTIVAL

VANUA LAVA FESTIVAL

Santa Maria Island- Vanuatu