Solomon Islands
14 October 2008
Well, we have finally kicked into cruising mode, and have
slowed the pace right down. We left the dubious pleasures of Honiara after
getting a fair bit of boat maintenance done (new boat lino in a tapa cloth
pattern, new fresh water and bilge pumps), assignments written and posted and
stores reprovisioned. We also avoided becoming parents - one of the women we
bought a stone carving off was so upset we didn't have kids, she wanted us to
have one of her five sons! Honiara was actually better than I expected - the
harbour is very open and exposed, so the water ends up being very clean, with
heaps of sealife - we became "mother" to a school of squid that joined the
tropical fish under our boat - but it is always good to get back out into the
islands where you can't spend any money.
After a perfect days' sailing, our first stop was Tambea
at the north end of Guadalcanal, a lovely bay where the white sand beach and
coconut palms suddenly rise up into a lush green mountain. We were a bit
nervous, as some friends had been woken by drunk guys wanted to come on board
and party in the early hours of the morning, but we were spared anything like
that; our main visitors were canoe-loads of schoolkids who wanted to trade
shells. The only one we wanted was a large conch so we just gave the other
kids balloons. When we came to sail away the next day we found little shells
tucked away all around the decks - thank yous for the balloons, I guess. The
water was lovely and clear for swimming, and the kids assured us that the only
crocodiles were "good ones, they stay in the river". As the river was only a
hundred yards away, swimming was done very close to the boat, with a swivelling
head.
Intensive trade negotiations, Tambea
Our
next stop was a deserted island, Lologhan, just off the coast of the Russell
Group, where, after some fossicking around, we managed to drop our anchor in the
only bit of ground that wasn't a) right on the fringing reef or b)300 meters
deep and tried to ignore the coral bommies about a boat length from our stern.
What a difference a couple of years makes to the level of panic surrounding
reefs! As we were sitting in the cockpit, enjoying the sunset and a rum, a small
runabout came around the island and headed our way, with four guys on board.
Shit, we thought. The security situation here is still a bit loose since the
civil war and this is really the first year yachts have been back in any number
(and by that, you're looking at about 20 yachts in the whole country at any
time) so everyone is a little paranoid. Some people we met in Honiara had their
boat robbed at machete point and there have been reports from others about
threats for money and alcohol, so you can understand our concern. However, these
guys were fisherman who just came over to say hallo and to see if we could spare
any coffee and sugar. We had some excess, so I gave them some, and in return
they gave us a lovely dogtooth tuna! Tuna in wasabi beurre blanc for dinner,
with the remainder smoked for lunch. Mmm mmm!
Lologhan Sunset
Later that night we did get boarded, however. At around 1.30am all hell broke
loose in the main saloon (for those of you who don't know Daemon, the main
saloon is our whole living space - the galley, the dining area and our bunk are
there) with much clattering and banging. I dove for the light switch to see what
was happening and found... a fish, about a foot long, which had launched itself
from the sea through our forward hatch and had landed inside, in the middle of
the boat, and was thrashing about wildly. Bruce cornered it and put it back over
the side, where it is still probably wondering what the hell happened and
speculating on alien abductions! A pretty spectacular jump for a small fish, but
as Bruce pointed out, having a barracuda up your bum can be a very
performance-enhancing experience.
From
there we sailed to the Sunlight Passage in the Russell Islands, and anchored at
Linggatu (09'07.3S, 159'09.7"E), where we stayed for a few days. That was a
pretty amazing place - it had been a US PT Boat HQ during WW2, and it was almost
a jungle river system - you could have hidden dozens of boats in there. The main
drawback was the thousands of pikininis in canoes using us as school holiday
entertainment, hanging on to the side of the boat and chattering away like the
parrots overhead. It got a bit wearing, and by the third day we were doing lots
of boat jobs below decks (OK, we were hiding), baking bread etc etc and trying
to ignore small faces at the windows. Fortunately the novelty wore off and they
left us in relative peace after that. We did some good trades for fruit and
veges with them, and we are still working our way through masses of guavas,
pawpaws, bananas and coconuts.
So that's why they call them Spinner dolphins!
Pipisala, Russell Islands
We left the Russells and did an overnight sail to the bottom of the New Georgia
group, entering the lagoon system that surrounds the islands at Wickham
Anchorage in the Kolo Lagoon, where we waited for a sunny day to negotiate the
lagoon reefs. The lagoon system here (collectively know as the Morovo Lagoon
area) is one of the largest in the world, but unfortunately the part where we
entered, Kolo, is uncharted, so crossing to the main part of the lagoon involves
eyeballing your way around reefs, and to do that requires good light. There has
been a move to make the lagoon a World Heritage site, but in true "rape the
third world" style (guess who has been doing an endangered cultures anthropology
paper at Distance Uni?) the logging companies are in here cutting down forests,
and the run-off from the logging is clouding the lagoon and killing the coral,
so the WH site move is on hold until that goes away/wrecks the lagoon. The part
of the lagoon we are heading for is Mbili, the main carving area of the Solomons,
where apparently you have canoes coming out to sell you carvings all day, so we
are girding ourselves for that.
8 October 2008, Mbili
We at
the most beautiful place we have ever seen, Mbili in the Morovo Lagoon
(8'39.7"S, 158'11.24"E). The sea is calm and turquoise, the sky blue and
cloudless and the huge lagoon is spotted with hundreds of tiny jungle-clad
emerald islets. At night the sky is stunningly clear, with millions of stars and
a very bright moon. Last night we had yellowfin tuna chasing little fish around
the boat, and at our last anchorage we were adopted by a school of several
hundred squid, who stayed around the boat for 3 days, squirting little jets of
ink every time we jumped in to swim. The snorkeling is great, millions of tiny
(and not so tiny) colourful fish, huge giant clams with brightly-coloured ruffs
and lovely coral, all in crystal clear waters. When we go in the dinghy,
millions of tiny raindrop-sized fish jump out of the water ahead of us in a
little rainbow arch. On the islands by the boat the birdlife is prolific-
parrots, herons and hornbills, and the most unusual thing yet - no roosters! And
to top it all off, we are now sick of eating lobster!
Daemon lounging at Mbili
The downside is the ceaseless flow of carvers, all selling their wares, but as
we now have enough carvings, they are very good-natured about us saying no. We
have been here a few days, so are becoming part of the scenery and pretty much
everyone who wanted to come over, be nosy and "story-on" has, so we are getting
some peace at last. Tomorrow (subject to intense financial and trade
negotiations) Daemon is joining the ranks of her tattooed crew and getting her
own design! We have a carver teed up to come and carve her lintel around the
companionway with a local design. Our initial thought was to have what is called
"Spirit of the Solomons", which is basically a bunch of different fish. However,
that had been niggling me as being just a bit too Remuera (with apologies to the
bros in the 'hood!) and when we went to the carvers workshop this morning, I
fell in love with a storyboard he had carved depicting local traditions. So yes,
now Daemon is on for a story mural of a head-hunting canoe trip, complete with
weapons, heads, canoes and other custom objects. Much more us!
Chief Luton's ecolodge, Tibara Lodge
So, everyone with yachts, you need to get
your arses up here! It is insanely beautiful and the security problems seem
minimal, certainly better than we had thought. Even if you haven't got a yacht,
Mbili has an ecolodge (local name for basic small house with about, oooh, no
facilities), the Tibara Lodge, run by Chief Luton which will do accommodation &
3 meals a day for NZ$40 pp per day. The setting is stunning - one of the houses
is over the water, with a verandah you can snorkel from, into a cloud of
tropical fish, giant clams and even his enormous pet sea cucumber (not something
I would have chosen for a pet, that there you go...). There is also a pretty
well intact (apart from being wrecked) wrecked US WW2 bomber plane a couple of
hundred yards away. Luton and his brother Clive seem to have been hit with the
talking stick from an early age so have spent a considerable time with us
"storying on" so you'll get lots of stories from them.
18 October 2008
We
are now at Uepi Island and Resort, 08'25.7"S, 157'56.7"E, enjoying some of the
comforts of civilisation - meals, cold drinks and a book exchange! For those of
you poor bereft yachtless people, this is a great place to sample the beauty of
Morovo. It is owned by an Australian couple, Jill & Grant and is far more
westernised with home comforts (running water, electricity) than most of the
other lodges around - the website is www.uepi.com if you want to check it out.
We continue to be blown away by the spectacular beauty of this place - no wonder
they are considering it for World Heritage status.
Bruce on the Uepi Resort volleyball court
We ended up spending about 8 days in Mbili,
four of them having the boat carved by James. The result is spectacular, if a
little disconcerting with screaming decapitated heads - very Munch-like. It was
fun having James on the boat, as he is a great guy, but as with most Melanesian
deals, you get the whole family as well, all requiring lunch and
morning/afternoon tea, so I was knackered by the time he finished, and the
domestic goddess persona was wearing thin. During the first day, we had him and
his uncle, John the next day we had Jame's wife Mili (and their son
Desmond) who had been bought out for a cooking lesson as James & John had been
very impressed with the previous day's bread and biscuits. Mili and I wedged
into the galley, no small feat as neither of us are small women and we made
bread and cake for her to take home. The next day was the sabbath (Saturday, as
they are SDA) so work stopped, but James bought us out some of Mili's masimasi
for our lunch. Masimasi is the local version of laplap, in this case, grated
pounded sweet potato made into a dough, stuffed with nali nuts, and cooked in an
earth oven. One of the better versions I have tasted, but still in the "consume
infrequently" section of the food pyramid. After the carving work was done
(cost: NZ$90 plus some trade stuff), James took us to his stretch of beach where
he is going to build an ecolodge and then took us out to the village's tambu
(taboo) island. This is where they retreated to in times of attack, and also
where they hid all their kastom items. It has since been ransacked, but there
are still a few skulls and spears in niches in the cliff. Kastom is still strong
here, despite the Christian veneer. A young child was taken by a crocodile down
the lagoon a couple of weeks ago, except, according to John when storying-on,
no-one actually saw the crocodile do it, so it may have been devils. These
devils must be very busy, as Peter (below) suspects they were responsible for
making the old kastom clam shell money, which no-one knows how to make nowadays
as the shell is the consistency of quartz and is too hard to work with
conventional tools.
James Ody carving Daemon The finished artwork
After
we left Mbili, we headed for Mbatuna, the local big smoke (ie: has a health
clinic and a trade school) about 2 hours up the lagoon from Mbili for the
Thursday market, as we were getting low on veges. However, we got sidetracked by
a guy in a canoe, paddling furiously, trying to catch us up (we were doing 5
knots), who turned out to be Peter who wanted us to come and look at his island,
Savae, where we could rest (it had been an arduous 1.5 hour journey!), and to
look at his ecolodge site*. Yes, there were carvings involved, but in a very
low-key way. We ended up staying by his island which was a tiny perfect gem of
an island, turquoise water, water sand, coconut palms, yada yada yada, and had a
wonderful night eating BBQed fish we bought from a passing canoe and watching
the full moon rise over the islands. It doesn't get much better than that.
Savae Fish Market
The
next morning we headed in to Mbatuna in time for the 10.00am market, where all
the locals bought their produce to sell. The market started at 9.50am, after
prayers and the berating of moral offenders (it's a strong SDA village) and it
was full on - a total scrum! It finished at 10.30 when all the stuff had been
sold. Fortunately we can hold our own in such scrums now, and we are now topped
up for veges. We ended up spending the night there, as the people were so nice,
and had young men from the trade school swimming out to story-on about sailing,
our travels, the boat etc, with Bruce holding court from the deck while they
hung off our dinghy. Much to my amusement, Bruce has become a lagoon legend -
everywhere we stop they all think he has done
weightlifting/body-building/martial arts to get such muscles! Bruce puts it down
to having a manual anchor windlass and better access to protein than the local
diet permits. (OK, all of those that are familiar with Bruce's whippet-like
build can stop smirking now!)
Mbatuna Market Preacher
From
there we headed to Uepi, where we are currently WITH ANOTHER YACHT! The first we
have seen since Honiara! We breakfasted together this morning to thank them for
their help yesterday (more on that later) and have just got back from swimming
with the sharks off the resort reef. Yup, you read that right, I have managed to
overcome seeing Jaws at an impressionable age and had a whale of a time (no pun
intended). They were just small black tip reef sharks, about 5 feet long, and
they were everywhere! You got into the water at one jetty in front of the resort
dive shop, then drifted amongst millions of fish - huge thick swarms of them -
along the reef edge, where the sharks would come out to check you out. On our
first pass we only saw about five, all individually, but by the second pass the
whole shark village had turned out and we were surrounded by about 20 of them,
very
inquisitive and swimming up to look at us. Absolutely amazing, and even more
amazingly, neither of us were scared. That had something to do with having
billions of fish around that were of a more snackable size than us. And reef
sharks not actually being a noted man-eater. But hey, they were sharks, OK??!
OK, so that's the good, now for the bad and the bumpy, just so you know it is
not all snorkeling and sundowners out here. The first sphincter-clenching moment
was when we were in Mbili and had shifted anchorage into the small lagoon by
Luton's ecolodge so we could do some snorkeling on the coral. The anchorage was
about 6 meters deep, but had some bommies in it, one of which was a bit close to
the boat for my liking, but which the skipper assured me we no problem. Yes, you
guessed it, a sudden 30knot squall come out of nowhere, at 1.30am, straight
onshore, and it was Daemon meets the big bad bommie and a hasty nighttime
retreat back to our initial anchorage - thank (insert deity of choice
here)
for chartplotters with your previous track on so you can follow it out and avoid
lumpy bits. Our rudder is slightly frayed, but since it is a giant slab of
mahogany, it is not a problem and can wait for the next haulout to sand and
paint.
The big, bad bommie lying in wait...
In Mbatuna, we had a similar squall, complete with lightening etc, but no coral
problems this time. We were just getting back to sleep when we head a bang and a
trickling noise - one of our diesel filter sight glasses had exploded and was
pissing diesel into the bilge. Fortunately we had a spare, so only lost a litre
or so, but not what you need at 2.00am.
Our 3rd drama was coming into Uepi yesterday and trying to work out what all the
sticks on the reefs surrounding the reefs mean. To cut it short, we made a wrong
call, bounced over a bunch of bommies on a shallow reef and ended up in a deep
basin surrounded by more shallow reefs. Analogies of rivers and paddles comes to
mind... We dropped the anchor and Bruce headed off in the dinghy with a leadline
and managed to find a route out to deeper water, which was a bit nerve-wracking
as it involved heading in very close to the beach and navigating through water
with only a foot or so beneath the keel. By the time we were doing this, the
crew on the other yacht, Dream Keeper, had arrived back from diving, and helped
guide us through by dinghy. Solid drinks and a nervous breakdown all round!
Bruce dove down this morning and the only damage was some paint scraped off the
bottom of the keel. The joys of sailing in uncharted waters. We'll try not to do
that again!
5 November 2008
When I last wrote we were at Uepi Resort in
Marovo Lagoon, having a ball, swimming with sharks, manta rays etc and generally
relaxing. When we left there we picked our way through the reefs in the lagoon
to the village of Sasaghana on Marovo Island.(S 08'30.6", E 157'58.6") We had no
particular reason to stop there, except to say hi to a carver I bought a
head-hunting axe from for Bruce's birthday, but we had the best time! We dropped
anchor and were immediately inundated by canoe-loads of pikininis, bringing
bunches of flowers and fruit and veges to trade. Daemon looked like a florist
shop with several bunches of orchids, ginger flowers and birds of paradise and
we had a week's supply of veges - all for a few pencils and balloons! I think we
were the second yacht to stop in about 3 years.
We went into the village to see Albert, the carver, but he was away showing
carvings to a superyacht (place is crawling with them - more superyachts than
ordinary yachts) but his wife, Jean was at home and I spent the afternoon
talking to her while Bruce tried to resuscitate their outboard. She was great
company - very fluent in English, and had been bought up in Honiara, so had a
good working knowledge of the outside world. We spent the afternoon sitting on
her verandah, overlooking the beach, swapping stories of how life was for each
of us, and laughing hysterically.
From there we went to Seghe, an fairly nondescript town, whose fame is an
airstrip, currently being resurfaced. Bruce spent most of his time there trying
to fix a diesel leak that has plagued us, and I got the story-on with canoe job.
In one of my encounters I met Paul Kito from Tiroliloso Village opposite Seghe,
who gave me 3 pineapples and wanted me to let other people know he sold produce.
So, if you are near Seghe and need supplies, Paul's your man!
Carver making nautilus shell inlay for the bowl in the foreground, Mbareho Village
Aldio Pita working on our wallhanging at his studio in Mbareho
We had met up with Gar & Nicole on Dream Keeper who had been anchored with us in Uepi, and convinced them to come around into the Nono Lagoon with us to see the artists and carvers of Mbareho Island (S 08'34.6", E 157'48.9"). We had enough carvings, but were interested in woodblock prints from the only 2 artists working in that medium in the Solomons, both of whom live on Mbareho. As luck would have it, the first person we met there was one of the artists we were looking for, Aldio Pita, who then took us on a long carver tour of the village (Gar & Nicole were looking for bowls, so no pressure on us!) and then showed us his work. We bought a couple and then traded to get a 6 foot long piece of canvas we had on board printed with his designs. It took a few days, but the result is great, and looks really good on the wall by our bed. We had a great time there - the US Navy blasted a path through the reef to the outside, which is navigable by dinghy - a real maze through groups of islands, up tributaries, tiny streams etc, but a fun trip, with beautiful snorkeling at the end.
From there we went to Matakuri Lodge (S
08'39.7" E 157'52.02")(Bob: Benjamin & Jilly say hi to Pam Oliver) where we sat
out a 24 hour thunderstorm, with one of the most spectacular lightening displays
I've ever seen. I guess that is going to come with the territory now we are
getting closer to the equator, but it doesn't mean I have to like it!
After
Nono we headed over to Rendova Island, finding a quiet, uninhabited bay where we
could hide from carvers, and then on to the bright lights and big smoke of Munda/Lambeti.
Well, it has three stores, a bakery (foul bread, more air than substance), a
petrol station, a beer store, a police station, a bank (with ATM, which was
embedded in a giant 12' x 12' cube of concrete to prevent any entrepreneurial
"self-service") a Telekom (internet computer in Honiara being fixed, no lines to
NZ available), a vege market, which as Bruce pointed out was more of a drug
market than a vege market, as it specialised in betel nut) and a diving resort
with cold drinks and a great view. However neither of the 2 things we
desperately needed - cooking gas refills and ground coffee! A pall of
desperation is hanging over Daemon!
Munda drug market
Jill doing hammock duty at Zipolo Habu Resort, VonaVona Lagoon
Bruce decided he wanted to go into VonaVona
Lagoon to Zipolo Habu Resort for his birthday, so we picked our way through yet
another series of reefs and shallows and anchored at the resort, where we are
the only guests! (S 08'18.3" E 157'09.8")This means I get to commandeer the best
beachside hammock with book and resort dog while Bruce goes exploring and
photographing gross insects. It is pretty amazing - white sand and fish playing
a couple of meters off the beach. (I'm running out of superlatives for Western
Province!) We are having dinner there tonight as a birthday treat - coconut
crab!
This morning we did a dinghy excursion to
Skull Island, one of the local tambu (taboo) sites. It is where the skulls of
the old chiefs and warriors are kept, as well as the graves of some more recent
deceasees. It was quite magical - it is only a small island, and you follow a
path for about 20 meters where you come across a huge mound of coral, with the
crevices studded with skulls. On top of the pile is an old shrine, pyramid
shaped and about 3 feet high, filled with skulls. There are also traditional
artifacts, such as conch shell war trumpets and shell money in the crevices.
Mind you some has been replaced with non-traditional stand-ins, unless teapot
handles were a traditional treasure for headhunters.
Skull shrine, Skull Island
Skull mound, Skull island, VonaVona Lagoon
Daemon in VonaVona squall
23 November 2008
Well, been there, done that, got the t-shirts
and sure as hell want to go back there. We had no idea what to expect in the
Solomons when we planned the trip, but we had a great time and met some great
people.
Main street, Gizo
After leaving VonaVona we refuelled at Noro which was great value. They're geared up to large cargo ships so the fuel was good, cheap and when pumped in the tiny amounts needed for yachts, had a seriously under-reading measuring system. After that we headed around to Gizo, the second largest town in the Solomons, and my, what a complete shithole it is! It was hit by a tsunami in April last year, but frankly, I think that probably improved it by washing some of the rubbish away. It is one main dirt rubbish-strewn street with a few stores selling general items (and none of them had coffee, which may have coloured my view of the place slightly), a couple of banks, a Telekom branch, hardware store, bakery, butchery (shack with a freezer of meat-ish products), a bottle store, a vege market and a couple of hotels. Oh, I forgot the Post Office, which after much asking where it was, turned out to be a small unlabeled blue fibro shack in the middle of the market on the waterfront. We spent a few days there waiting for a parcel and clearing Customs and then headed up to catch up with a bunch of friends at Mono Island, in the Treasury Group at the top end of the Solomons.
Gizo Market. Spot the Post Office. No, we couldn't either.
Mono has a thing for NZers, as the NZ troops were in charge of liberating the
island from the Japanese in WW2 and each year they have a NZ Day celebration in
October. We were told that "NZ is a part of Mono" - that would certainly make it
their largest suburb! They don't get many yachts up there and when we arrived
with Tokimata, it made six of us in the bay, and the locals were beside
themselves with excitement. When we arrived at 8.00am after an overnight sail,
there must have been 30 or so canoes furiously paddling around to greet us. Not
really conducive to good anchoring to have several small canoe-loads of kids
paddling under your bow offering you limes and coconuts while you are having a
fight over where to anchor (him - close to shore as less chain required to be
put/out pulled in (manual windlass consideration), her - behind the other yachts
- less flies, mozzies and kids).
There are heaps of war relics around the
village and we went with one of the locals and the crew from Tokimata to see
some of them. Tokimartian Peter was up on all the types of wrecked planes etc,
but to the untrained eye it looked like an enthusiastic case of West Auckland
fly-tipping. Has become known in-house as the "Junk in the Jungle" tour.
The Tokimartians, Pete & Rachel inspect a dead plane
Our
guide Louis was very enthusiastic and keen to please, often to the detriment of
the local flora and fauna. It got to the stage where we were too scared to
comment on stuff. Admire an orchid stem in a tree? No problem, seconds later it
would be wrenched from the plant and presented to you. I tried to photograph a
huge butterfly the size of a swallow feeding on a hibiscus flower: "You like
butterfly???" "Yes, it's lovely" WHANG - giant paw snatches butterfly from the
flower. Missed that shot, but do have one of a rather stunned butterfly being
held spread-winged between two huge hands.
The butterfly shot I got...
The local girls were very friendly as well. One of the other yachties is Lars, a
40-something Norwegian anthropologist, rather good-looking and travelling alone.
Poor Lars got stalked incessantly - he had canoe-loads of teenage girls paddling
out to make assignations and every time he went on deck there would be
impassioned cries of "Lars! Lars!" from the girls on the shore. All the local
women were trying to work out how to marry off their daughters to him. He was
cursing his conscience for not letting him take advantage of teenage girls. We
moved down to a lagoon on another part of the island, and, as the villagers know
what is happening on the boats before we do ourselves, there was a greeting
committee that had paddled down to shout "Lars!" at him from the shore.
We
had been trying to track down some carvings of stone net weights that we had
seen in Honiara, and had thought, naah, we'll see heaps of those in Marovo,
which is where they are supposed to originate. Wrong! We never saw another one,
but it was a good way to rid of carvers - just hold up the one we did buy and
say "We want another one of these" and as they didn't have any/didn't know
anyone that made them, they'd paddle off dejectedly. So, it came as a surprise
to find the one carver (John) making them was now living in Mono (pretty much
the ends of the earth, Solomons-wise) and that we knew his wife Vivian from
Honiara. He made us another weight and avoided being given any of the children
they offered us when they found we didn't have any, so we were very happy
campers. We also got a lovely local paddle with carved handle (NZ$12), so next
time we're up that particular creek, at least we'll have a paddle! There was
much discussion when they were making the paddle for me - what length should it
be to fit me, how big a blade etc - I didn't have the heart to tell them I just
wanted it for decoration.
Carver John, Vivian and our
potential daughter Becky
From Mono it was off to PNG.