October and November's cruising expenses

I missed October's months budget because of my parent's visit, first of all because they were here during the end of October and the beginning of November, and also because their visit kind of screwed up those two months' budgets. We were recording costs before and after their visit, but we totally stopped while they were with us as we were spending a lot more money than we would if we were alone, particularly on alcohol and eating out, but also somewhat on groceries. Another reason is they kindly paid for all those extra expenses.

Anyway, here is both October and November's cruising expenses. It's not 100% accurate, but I still think it's a pretty reasonable reality of what we spent, if we had just been the two of us alone. Overall the countries have been pretty cheap for cruising, although food (besides fruit, veggies and a few staples) is still more expensive than NZ, but then it's also quite limited what you can buy in the first place. Solomon Islands is quite expensive for clearing in and out of though. Interesting is also we haven't spent anything on mooring fees (haven't been any) or water (we have almost exclusively caught it all with our rain catchers). Drinks out has pretty much merged into eating out, I may delete it next month if we don't start going out drinking a lot. It's also mostly a night activity and we have spent pretty much all nights on Sophia for security reasons.

Off to PNG and goodbye to Solomon

My parents left almost a week ago and we have now gotten used to having all the space to ourselves again and are over the 'empty boat' feeling. Overall it was a successful visit and enjoyed by all. The biggest problem for my parents was definitely the heat! Solomon Islands are very hot and humid, but at least Phil and I have been eased into slowly over time. We think it was very adventurous of them to come to Solomon Islands and stay on Sophia for 2 1/2 week.

We spent a few days in Gizo on the internet and stocking up Sophia again. And one day scuba diving! It's been five year since I last dived, but to me it's just like bicycling, where my body remembers the movements and feeling (and with that comes all the happy memories of past dives). Phil came along to snorkel, but we have snorkeled so many great places off Sophia, that it wasn't really that special for him. First dive was on Tua Maru, a Japanese 140 m long passenger/cargo ship, sunk during World War II by American bombers. It's definitely not the best wreck I have dived, but it was pretty OK.

Lunch was on the tiny deserted island which again would have been more fun if we aren't used to pretty little islands plus halfway through it started pouring down with rain and we had to sit in the sea to be warm-ish. Definitely the coldest we have been since NZ! Next dive was just off the islands (the site called Grand Central Station). It was on the wall of a reef and we saw some OK things, but like the wreck, it wasn't a super dive, just fairly average. The rain also wasn't doing the visibility any favours either. We saw a turtle, a shark, a lionfish,lots of clown fish and the usual reef life.

We had hoped to be able to clear out of Gizo and one boat which had stayed 6 weeks in Gizo confirmed we could clear out, lots of boats had done it, the only tricky thing was the immigration guy had broken his leg so we'd have to find his house which was over the hill somewhere. But it turned out the customs guy has just left Gizo and gone back to Noro and he wasn't coming back until sometime in December, so we had to bite the bullet and go back to Noro. It was OK though, we left early in the morning and arrived just after lunch and managed to clear out very easily, we spent our last Solomon money and still had time to sail to another anchorage, as Noro apparently isn't super safe on a Friday night. We anchored by Sagharaughombe Island just off Kolombangara. Like Bat Harbour, only a few yacht stop every year, so they were really happy to see us. The next morning a bunch of kids showed us the reef to snorkel and an old Japanese barge, almost disintegrated on the sea floor. One of the older kids did have an old mask and snorkel, but we lent our masks and snorkels to other kids, many of them had never even seen the barge themselves. We also tried to paddle their canoes, which is an awful lot harder than it looks. Every single Solomon Islander has been in a canoe even before they can walk, and so their balance is excelent. Both Phil and I failed to paddle very far, and we flooded and tipped over in the canoes, of course much to the amusement of the kids.

We have now spent a few nights by Liapari Island where an expat kiwi has a small boat yard, both for local barges etc and for yachts visiting, some people also leave their yachts here for the cyclone season (it's so far north that no full-blown cyclones hit). Phil has done a bunch of work on the engine and we're getting ready for another country. We're planning to clear into Buka on the norther side of Bourganville and it has a narrow passage with a lot of current, so we have been trying to find out the best strategy for that. Fingers crossed that it will work. It's only about a two day passage, so it hardly even counts.

Our verdict of Solomon Islands as a cruising destination is overall great. We have had a good time and haven't had any safety problems whatsoever. Of course we have taken precautions and stayed away from any places where there have been incidents and we always lock up the boat at night and take everthing loose inside, we even bring in our outboard, one advantage of having only a 2 1/2 horses outboard. People are very friendly and welcoming and there are litterally a ton of anchorages, we have only explored a tiny part of Solomon Islands. Furthermore most anchorages are very protected and safe and therefore there's no rolling. Compared to Vanuatu, the anchorages are definitely much more secure and non-rolly. OK, we have been here in the transition period between the SE trades and the NW monsoon, so we have had very light/no winds most of the times, but we would still claim that even in stronger winds, many anchorages would still be very calm. Only two downsides are the crocodiles and the heat. That combination even makes it worse, because it's so hot, but some places you can't cool off in the water because of the crocs. Another plus side (for some anyway) is that there aren't that many cruisers here, we think because of the safety issues, but we're not sure. We have has almost every anchorage all to ourselves.

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Empty boat again

My parents just left Sophia this morning, so she feels all empty now. It's been really nice to have them visit us and experience our cruising life, and they had a really good time (especially once they got used to the heat) but it's also nice to have her to ourselves again and especially to be able to tidy up.

We all enjoyed staying at Zipholo resort, despite the fact that it rained some of the time. My parents decided to stay in a bungalow for the night, and they also had an amazing feast of crayfish (lobster). We visited skull island nearby which is this tiny and very beautiful island full of shrines of skulls of old warriors and chiefs. When it was time to leave it was still quite overcast, so we couldn't continue through Vonavona lagoon, but instead we followed our track back to Diamond Narrows and went through that way and past Noro. We stayed a night in Kale/Bat Harbour on the kolombangara coast. It was a very protected small bay and only a handfull of people lived there. Florida Islands (Rodrick Bay) and this place are definitely the poorest places we have seen, more like almost everywhere in Vanuatu. Otherwise the other places we have visited in Solomon seem to have been a bit better off and people live in more 'proper' houses.

We have spent the last few days in and around Gizo. There are two resorts on a nearby islands, where the snorkeling is excellent (and no crocs!), but unfortunately they don't have very good anchoring, so it's better for day visits. Luckily my birthday was with lovely sunshine and we visiting one of resorts and had a great day first with dolphins playing by Sophia on the way there, then great snorkeling and a nice lunch at the resort. Unfortunately the wind picked up and we had to move back to Gizo before dark. My present to myself is to go scuba diving tomorrow, which I'm really looking forward to, it's been many years since I last did that!

Tricky lagoon sailing

We left our beautiful Sarumara anchorage and sailed further through Marovo Lagoon to Seghe, which is the main town. We needed eggs, very important for my parents' fried egg on toast every morning. Monday morning when we went hunting for eggs, the two shops we found didn't have eggs. The ladies at the small market were only selling bananas, pineapple and betel nuts. We decided to move on and hopefully find eggs somewhere else. 20 minutes after we left it started raining and it was naturally overcast as well. It meant we couldn't see the water colour ahead of us which is crucial when navigating in the lagoon as not all reefs are marked nor on the chart, so we had to turn back and follow our track back to Seghe. The rain was actually good, because it really started pouring and we managed to collect almost 100 liters in a very short while. The rest of the day continued to be overcast and drizzly so we stayed in Seghe.

It was actually quite lucky we came back, because we then ran out of gas (or to be exact we went onto our small spare bottle which wasn't full), and so Phil went ashore to see if he could find some. He then managed to find a third shop that actually sold eggs. We ended up buying a new gas bottle in order to get gas, but that's OK, we can always use more anyway. It sure makes a difference gas-usage-wise to be four people and especially also making coffee several times a day for my avid coffee drinking parents.

After the rainy day we again had beautiful sunny weather and could continue. We then exited the lagoon and sailed over to Tetepare, and unhibited island with no proper anchorage, but we managed to tug into a small bay close to the shore in 25 meters of water. It was another hot day, so we had been looking forward to a dip, but even before we got the anchor down, we spotted a big crocodile swimming near the shore, so we changed our minds.

Yesterday we sailed further north to just past Munda. We had hoped to make it to Vonavona Lagoon, but the last leg was going right against the setting sun and again that means we can't see the water colour ahead of us, so we had to stop. Now we're in Vonavona Lagoon by Lola island and Zipolo Resort which is great, as it means the cook (me) gets a rest and we have internet again (which means photos on facebook). 

Anchored in paradise

We have been in many paradise places on our trip so far, but now for the first time we have it all to ourselves. In Tonga we were often sharing anchorages with other boats, and in Vanuatu and Solomon so far we have usually anchored by villages. Naturally good anchorages and bays are where people live, so we have never really had an anchorage in total privacy until now. We're in Marovo lagoon in the Western Province. It's supposedly one of the biggest lagoons in the world and it has been proposed for a world heritage listing (but put on hold until the plundering of the land is done!!!). Actually it's made up of several lagoons in succession of each other.

Back to Honiara: we spent two nights there, my parents in a air-con hotel and my dad got well again. The doctor told him the best thing to drink is green coconuts, which I had already tried to tell him. He's not super keen on the taste, but he did drink some. He has now worked out it tastes a lot better with a bit of rum and a splash of lime in it. We plunged my parents into the deep end and did a 26 hour passage directly up to the Western Province, skipping Russel Islands on the way. Luckily it was a most pleasant trip, hardly any roll and only light winds and no wind overnight so we had to motor.

We stayed a few nights at Mbili where we were approached by about six different dugout canoes, some with several people in them, all wanting to show us their carvings. Marovo lagoon is knows to have a lot of skilled carvers and to be a good place to acquire carvings. It's often one of the only ways for the locals to make money. Anyway, we already got a few in Roderick Bay, and we don't have much room for carvings, so it was a bit limited what we could buy, yet we still ended up with a several more, but unfortunately we had to turn down a bunch. We were still happy to be shown all the beautiful carvings and admire their great work. It was also a beautiful bay, but unfortunately there are crocodiles in the area, so we couldn't snorkel, but we did hang off the ladder on Sophia once in a while to cool down a bit.

Now we're anchored by Kokoana Passage a little further north at place called Sarumara anchorage. It's on the outer edge of the lagoon, so there is only a thin strip of land and therefore no village and therefore no dugout canoes visiting. It's nice to meet the locals and trade veggies and fruit etc, but sometimes it's also nice not to have a constant stream of visitors. We haven't seen any other yachts since Honiara, so we have it all to ourselves. Yesterday we even had a bit of a breeze (but still protected from chop) to help cool us down, make it even more perfect. We also spend A LOT of the time in the water cooling off.

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Parents onboard Sophia

After two nights and three days in Tavinipupu we sailed to Honiara overnight. That passage was the busiest passages we have ever had navigation-wise. There was a few island and reefs we had to pass in the dark and in total 6-7 ships/boats passed us coming up and down the coast to the capital Honiara, only one of them on AIS and with proper nav lights.

We arrived early morning and were quite appealed to find the anchorage extremely rolly. We literally rolled from gunwale to gunwale. Honiara is notorious for being a bad anchorage: poor holding, rolly, squally and lots of thefts. But almost all boats have to stop there to clear into the country. I rowed ashore by myself to pay our entry fees with customs and immigrations (we had done the paperwork in Lata) while Phil stayed on board in case conditions got worse. Luckily it improved and by midday it was much better, and we hardly experienced more rolling the next two nights we were there.

My parents arrived on the Thursday and were met by 33 degrees heat. They had been quite cold on the airplane but I promised them they wouldn't be cold the next 2 1/2 week! We had thought we'd leave the same night and sail overnight to Russel Islands, but it wasn't rolly, so we stayed the first night in Honiara. It meant we had better time to eat more ice cream, buy cheese, wine and beer!

Another boat we had met in Tavinipupu told us about a nice bay in the Florida group where they had just spent a few nights, so we decided to check it out, also because it was only a 6 hours sail to get there. Roderick Bay Hide Away is a lovely little village (one big family). They came out in canoes to help us in and took a stern line ashore as it was quite steep right up to the beach. They also have a mooring, but another yacht was on that already. We were immediately invited ashore to join them that evening for a pot luck dinner, as they were having a farewell party for the other yacht. They had cooked up a lovely sea food chowder, grilled fish and several kinds of root vegetables, some baked into a kind of cake. The table was fully covered in beautiful flowers, we each got flowers around our neck and even the drinking coconuts were decorated with flowers.

The next day we were guided around the village, saw the guest books from previous boats visiting, a photo album another yachtie gave them, and we walked over to a bigger village where the school and church is located. We also snorkelled on the reef and they showed us a small group of giant clams. The kids came out to us several times with tomatoes, beans, nuts etc, but unlike many other places they didn't linger, but they were very polite and super friendly. It's really hard to pick the nicest places/people, but this is definitely one of the top ones, mostly because of the super kind and honest people.

We're now back in Honiara as my Dad is sick and needed a few nights in a nice air-con hotel and also to see a doctor. He is slowly on the mends again and hopefully soon we'll head to the western province. There has just been some civil disturbances in Gizo this weekend, some violence and arrests, so we need to keep track of the situation and possibly avoid it, but we'll wait and see.

We're now in Maurau Sound, which is located at the south western part of Guadacanal. We had a super nice sail to here from Santa Ana, with only light winds and no swell for the most part when in the lee of the land. We're tugged into this tiny anchorage between the island of Tavanipupu (with a fancy resort that makes amazing ice cream) and another island with a typical Solomon village. Right behind us we have beautiful coral and the lovely light turqoise blue hue of shallow white sand and the snorkeling is pretty good. Great spot.

When we were at Santa Cruz we heard that Prince William and Kate were in Solomon Islands about a month ago, being out of the news loop, that of course was new to us. Anyway, it turned out they actually stayed one night here at the resort, pretty cool! They build this big wooden fence around one of the bungalows and that's where they stayed.

My parents are arriving in Honiara on Thursday 25 October, so we can only stay another night here. They are staying with us on Sophia for 2 1/2 weeks, the plan is for them to fly out of Gizo. It will be very interesting for all parties, I'm sure, but we're really looking forward to it. I'm grateful that I have such a chilled and relaxed boy friend :-) If anyone starts getting on the edge, we can hopefully just find a hotel where they can stay a few days if necessary. 

Antoher passage and something about crocodiles

We stayed 3 nights in Graciosa Bay on Santa Cruz. It was just so nice to be at an comfortable (ie, non-rolly) anchorage and just chill out. We had a fun day in Lata checking in and getting a few things. So far our experiences with officials and bureaucrats in Tonga, Vanuatu and Solomon have only been very pleasant and we even enjoy the experience and chat with the nice people and it hasn't taken us longer than half a day at the most at times.

At Shaw Point where we were anchored is a rural agricultural college where young kids are taught agriculture, mechanics and carpentry. It's run by a church and about 30 students are enrolled all from around the Santa Cruz region. We were shown around by Michael, one of the priests (not sure if he used that exact word) after spending half an afternoon with him and his family, including a 2 1/2 month old super cute chubby baby girl. So far Solomon people are just as friendly as the super friendly Vanuatu people. Back to the school, unfortunately when one of the teachers left last year, he took with him all the carpentry tools. There are no funds to buy new tools, it will take several years to raise the money. This means the carpentry class is all theory, which understandable is quite frustrating for both the teacher and the students. If any cruisers come by here, any wood working tools would be much appreciated.

The last night a big cat from New Caledonia came into the anchorage. It's the first other yacht we have seen since Peterson Bay, so we were excited to see them. It was a big group of Germans that had chartered the cat from Port Vila and up to Santa Cruz to visit some of the very remote and very seldom visited islands around there. It was actually because of them that the two customs and immigration officials were in town. They kindly invited us to stay for their dinner, a lovely mahi mahi, yummy.

We have now done the 200 miles passage from Santa Cruz to Santa Ana, which is at the bottom SE corner of the main Solomon Island group. It is actually even a little bit south of Santa Cruz! It's another lovely anchorage, big bay sheltered by two fringing reefs, charming village with lots of happy kids, a big freshwater lake in the middle of the island where we had a nice swim, and best of all: no crocodiles (yay). Yes, since northern Vanuatu, we're now in crocodile territory, the dangerous saltwater kinds. Luckily they are not everywhere, but mainly where there are rivers and mangroves.
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Arrived in Solomon Islands

We have had a fast passage, about 200 miles, which took us 48 hours, but we were actually slowed down to only a scrap of head sail half the last night as not to arrive in the dark. We have had winds from 5 to 20 knots even gusting up to 29 knots, though mostly around 15-20 knots. A highlight was catching a small skipjack tuna just outside Ureparapara, first fish in almost 3 weeks since Malekula. The police officer in Sola did say that they had a problem with Asia fishing boats illegally fishing in Vanuatu waters, but they don't have any boats to go stop them, so there's not much they can do about it.

Speaking of which, I forgot to mention in the last blog that in Sola both police and customs officers had been to NZ and loved it. The police officer was educated at the police academy outside Wellington and had been stationed several places in NZ (and PNG, told us NOT to go to the highland and cities there!). The customs guy had been playing tuba with the army band, being based in Canterbury, but had visited many places in NZ with the band. They were both very happy to talk about NZ with us.

Back to our passage. Weather wise it was interesting that we had several showers-squalls during the day time, but none at night, but on the other hand, we had some lightening at night, especially the first night, but we never saw any at day time. Lightening is not good when you're a sail boat with a tall mast, but it did seem to be far away from us and upwind and we could never hear any thunder, Strange. Anyway, it meant that our most important electronics, such as a handheld gps, vhf, spare computer and sat phone lived in the oven the, whole time, as that is supposed to possible save them (faray's cage, not sure, can't google it?) in case of a lightening strike (which in lucky cases only take out all electronics, unlucky being when it makes a few exit holes in the hull). The moon was being particular unhelpful as it only rose about an hour before sun rise and then only a tiny sliver, so it was pretty dark nights with only some stars.

Now we're in Graciosa Bay on Ndende. We are anchored by in Shaw Point, directly east across the bay from Lata, as it's the most safe and comfortable anchorage. And comfortable it was, no rolling whatsoever, bliss after so many days of constant movement. Unfortunately the bridge to town is washed out, so we couldn't walk to Lata as we had hoped, but instead we caught a ride with a small local (church owned) boat across the bay to Lata. Normally you can't officially clear into Lata, but only kind of provisional, but when walking across town looking for the police station, we were approached by three different guys, three times. The custom and immigration guys happend to be in town because a cruising ship is arriving this afternoon and finally the quarantine guy also found us. They were all super nice and shared the same office, we came to see them after we had been at the police station/

Two things to indicate we're in a new country: betel nuts and canoes. Here they don't drink kava, but instead they chew betel nut! It makes their mouth and teeth blood red and it isn't exactly attractive. We have even seen 10 year old kids and nuns with tell tale red teeth! Around the streets are these red splatters on the ground, making it look like lots of accidents happen, but it is just betel nut spit! The dugout canoes differ because they don't have any outrigger, they are just plain single hull canoes.