A Short History of Everything Since Honiara...

We've been a bit remiss in the updates, part of the problem is that it is too hot to be sitting inside typing. The sweat is pouring off me as I write this. Its going to be another hot and humid evening. Thunder and lightening overnight has been standard for sometime now. We are approaching the end of the tradewind season (and into the NW monsoon) which means light winds (although I think that may be the norm here anyway). We have motored most of the way from Honiara to here - here being Mbasroko (Mbaeroko, Bairoko) Bay on the mainland of New Georgia Island in the Western Province. Today we managed to sail for a very short time only. For several hours the sea was glassy calm and we could see turtles and also flying fish leaping from the water and flying away. As I write this, Jim is busy entertaining the local kids, who have come out in a canoe; lots of giggling going on.

The last couple of weeks have been spent in and around the greater Marovo Lagoon. Here, a central island is surrounded by fringing islands and reefs and the interior is dotted with small bush clad islands. We have been snorkelling and diving and we are getting a bit spoilt with good dives. Marovo Lagoon is also famous for its carvers, whom you get inundated with at some anchorages but Jim has enjoyed trading/buying some small carvings; some of the work is quite impressive. At one anchorage we explored the wreck of a WWII plane (B24) that had crashed at the end of the bay. The alumininum was in amazing condition and you could see the fuselage, propellers and engines and also several large holes presumably where it had made contact with trees on impact. From here we also watched the daily back and forth flights of hornbills who fly over during the day to eat narli (sp?) nuts and back again in the evening. They have a very distinctive (and loud) wingbeat.

When we left Honiara we had a quick trip to the Florida Islands where we motored through a passage between the islands and anchored for one night at a small uninhabited island. We would've liked to do some diving here but a few yachts have had unpleasant experiences here (the 2am knive weilding thug variety), so we decided to give it a miss. We managed to catch a wahoo in the Mbole Passage, one of very few fish we have managed to catch in the Solomons - we have seen heaps of wahoo while underwater so our lack of success is definitely down to our fishing techniques (or lack thereof!). From here we motored (again) to the Russell Islands: deep anchorages, pouring rain and beautiful reefs. Unfortunately, the weather didn't play ball for diving (a W wind when we needed the prevailing SE for the anchorage to be tenable). Another motor saw us at an island called Mborokua according to the chart and Mary according to everybody else. This is a small island between the Russells and New Georgia with a beautiful little cove which is just too deep and coral filled to make for a comfortable anchorage (particularly if the one night you are there it is windy after, and followed by, days of calm), but we stuck it out for one night as we met up with a group from Honiara who were camping on the island and diving. We enjoyed some dives with them, especially being able to dive from their boat which avoided all the problems we have with the logistics of where to leave the dinghy etc. Also discovered the local dive boat mooring in a lovely calm spot... we'll know for next time. From here we did an overnight drift to Peava just outside of the Morovo Lagoon our last stop before we entered the lagoon proper and hopped (and even had a couple of lovely sails!) through, and in and out, of the lagoon. And that is a very brief outline of what we have been up to since Honiara! Its now time to head outside with a cold drink to enjoy the sunset.