Ringgi Cove and the Vonavona Lagoon

Well somehow it is now November and later this month we will leave the Solomon Islands and head north to Micronesia, but first what have we been up to since we last wrote? From the anchorage we were at for our last update we motored to Ringgi Cove, a very sheltered inlet in a large volcanic island. We weren't surprised when the first yacht joined us in the bay, as we knew that they were headed our way, but being joined by a third yacht after weeks of being on our own was a surprise! One day we took 'Elenya' out with the crew from 'Raynad' and Bryan from 'Delos' and arranged for a guide to take us on a tour of some WWII sites. The first stop was a shallow dive on a Japanese Hellcat plane. The plane was lying upright on the seafloor and looked almost intact. Bryan armed with an underwater camera took a photo of Jim sitting in the cockpit, which we will post on the blog when we get a good internet connection. Unfortunately, our second site was canceled as there had been in a death in the village that claims custom ownership but the third stop was to explore a Japanese hospital, which was partially tunneled into the hillside. Back at Ringgi Cove we were visited by villagers trying to sell us 'gold' and 'black diamonds' Apparently the story is that gold has been discovered in the mountain and the government is going to start operations (and prevent anyone else going up there) in a month's time. Accordingly all the locals are allegedly trying to gather as much rock as they can before the government steps in! Some of the rocks we saw may have curiosity value but the 'gold' was almost certainly some form of pyrites and I'm sure the 'diamonds' are a correspondingly valueless quartz or obsidian although we didn't see any of these first hand. It kept the guys on 'Delos' amused for a couple of days determining whether it was worth filling the bilges with ore!

From Ringgi Cove, we spent a few very pleasant days in the Vonavona Lagoon. We even had 2 days where we sailed: light winds, flat water and good light made for perfect conditions but dodging coral bommies under sail still made for a few interesting moments. We are now in the greater Gizo area and will probably potter around here until its time to head north.