Solomon Islands .. April 2010

Solomons April 2010

It seems that we have been doing very little of consequence these last few months. It has been a few months of finding nice spots to wait out the Cyclones season before moving south, observing the Pacific Island cultures and trying not to be judgmental from a 1st world perspective and meeting friendly new cruisers.

Oh.. did I forget to mention we “RAN AGROUND”.. on a reef.. the Captain says it was a minor navigation error and gave him the opportunity to clean the hull while we were high and dry!!! The able seaman not at fault.. off watch and getting coffee for the commander at the time. Anyway no harm done we sat on the reef for 24 hours and John from Blue Moon came out to us and chiseled away some coral from the bilge keels and at high tide Auspray pulled us off.

Have met up with Auspray, Trish and Kevin (pity he’s a NZer and avid All Black supporter). We have been talking to them on the HF radio Sheila Net for the past 4 months and now they have really nice faces. David and Kevin dingy off to the satellite TV here at the Loa resort Friday and Saturday evenings to watch the Super 14.
See that the “Waratahs” are leading for the moment!!
Trish, Sarah and Able seaman follow at our leisure to have quiet chats and beers watching the sun go down.
Fish and squid have been plentiful in this lovely lagoon Vona Vona and each one of the boats seems to snaffle a trevally with a hook and line overboard each day. The Blue Moon kids are a whiz at catching squid, despite John’s moans about black ink all over the boat.. perhaps that’s why the Captain isn’t keen on squid catching on Pura Vida.

Shopping in the few island towns has been a bit fraught. Its like going back 50 years .. all counters with the food in tins on the shelves. And no variety or little delicacies. But we did get some mince and sausages.. !!
But in Gizo we had two surprises. The first was a wonderful lunch (hamburgers and chips) in a real restaurant (the Gizo Hotel) with chairs and tables and service and cold beers.
The second was Gazza the Rat from Gizo jumped aboard Pura Vida. Rat number 5. Only able to make a 2 night stay before caught in the kindly rat trap and assigned to the watery depths.
And of course there is the added problem of getting money. Since Westpac ballsed up delivering new cards to PNG we only have a Visa card and that means using the bank teller to withdraw .. one and half hours to get permission from Honiara to ring the Visa authority to withdraw!! And then of course we still have to pay a service fee.

Always at the back of our minds is the safety of the boat. A number of boats have been robbed when at anchor.
We had 2 drums (60l in all) of diesel lifted from the front of the boat in the Islandsnear Kavieng. A few men kept David in conversation at the back at night while the others cut the securing rope and took the drums. Pretty useless to them.. they need petrol not diesel. And now we use the chain not rope.
And the Captain “donated” his crocs to a new home in Albatross Pass. They were left in the dingy. Not happy, David!!

So now its Easter Monday and we will be moving from this comfortable anchorage of two weeks to explore more lagoons, trade for carvings and more fruit and vegetables.