Kuna's whereabouts

Change

2010-09-30T20:21:00.000-07:00

Yacht Kuna has changed ownership. However, more info will be posted on this blog from the author's future travels in the Solomons.

Marine Resources Management on North Vella Island

2009-09-28T18:06:00.000-07:00

Coastal Solomon islanders rely on fish and other marine creatures for their protein diet but the environment is under severe pressure, mostly from population growth and uncontrolled harvesting, which decimate the reefs located closest to the villages. Villages up in North Vella are large, up to 1000 inhabitants. Fish is used for food or sold at the nearby markets, here the big market of Gizo.

Women also harvest shells in the mangroves (called Sibele in local language). They find them by feeling them with their feet in the soft mangrove mud.

Worldfish also helps people creating and implementing new marine resources management plans so communities take control of their resources and look after them, more closely for a better sustainability. The challenge here (it is also the object of yet another DVD project) is to weave and revive traditional reef management into newer, more science- based techniques. It is not always easy because communities are often suffering from the lack of leadership.

This breakdown prevents the respect of rules such as Tambu reefs, which is a way of protecting the reef that tribes have used for thousands of years.
For example, in some villages, traditionally, a reef was closed when a man died, so it could be remembered. The chief has the right to re open the reef for special occasions such as feasts for weddings, etc..

In the region of Jorio, which encompasses 20 miles of coast on the North west of Vella LaVella island, a new management plan was started in 2008. It consists of protecting some reef and mangrove areas and rotating opening and closure of the various reefs when the resources have recovered on them. Sign posts help making other communities aware of the closure but poaching at night is still a problem so some communities have introduced a fine in SBD or shell money.

Certain missions (churches) have been more successful in maintaining community harmony than others. But in return, the church collects a lot of donations form the adepts and the money is raised by selling more fish, which in turns contribute to ripping the reefs even more!

Meanwhile, the kuna sat nice and snug in the safety of Liapari cove (see previous post)

Clams on credit ?!!

2009-09-25T18:42:00.000-07:00

Near Gizo is an interesting marine research station on the airport island of Nusatupe. It is the base of the formerly called ICLAMp roject (now renamed Worldfish, present worldwide).

The research station, not unlike one of our Australian reef research stations, like Heron, etc is manned by 15 well trained Solomon islanders and an expat manager.

The mooring in front of the station is a private one so approaching management and volunteering services is recommended. However, opposite is the sandbis resort, which also provides sheltered anchorage (+ bar facilities). The station also has tours for visitors (ask in gizo).

Worldfish’s objective is to promote local livelihood projects, and help local communities manage their resources in a more sustainable way. The tsunami in April 2007 showed livelihoods are under a fine balance. The tsunami, which lifted some islands up to 7 meters above sealevel, destroyed a lot of the mangroves. Worldfish has been managing a number of mangrove replantation projects on Ranongga and supported the production and distribution of new canoes to the people who also lost theirs when the wave hit. 600 canoes were paid for, which is a sudden pressure on the canoe trees…

To help local people to be self sufficient, one of the main Worldfish project consists of spawning and growing giant clams to distribute to local farmers spread around the western province. They are also experimenting with growing corals. Both are exported to the aquarium market, so they need to be the most colourful gena but also reproduce and grow easily.

Large clams are brought from the field into a tank and spawning can be induced.

The baby clams are then grown in tanks.

Various experiments on predation, light and current levels are also undertaken in tanks.

When old enough, the clams are sold to the farmers, who take them home and grow them in their own cages. They then have to bring them back to a depot which is in charge of exporting them. The fuel crisis has affected transport, as some of the farms can be more than two hours away by motorcanoe. Some farmers are resilient and paddle all the way. Some other take this as an excuse: if the clams become too big, the can not be flown overseas: they are now good to be eaten!!! To reduce slackness, farmers must now buy the clams, and after the recent business workshop they can even be purchased on credit!!!!

Slipping in the Solomons

2009-09-20T17:19:00.001-07:00

On the sleepy island of Liapari near Vella (see post May 6th 2008 for how to get there) there is a shipyard, the only well operated shipyard in the Western Solomons. There is a small slip on Kolombangara Island nearby, at the Kukundu Mission. It is mostly used to slip their own mission boats (the Vari Vato and the Mauri, a large yacht used to transport doctors) but they accept other yachts when the slip is available. About 160 AUD haul out and 65SBD per meter per day, from memory. But organizing anything with them is challenging: hardly possible to get a phone number!! So it is only a good option if Liapari is not available.

Noel Hudson’s slipway at Liapari island was a great and only option: charging fair but high rates -Australian-, he got the job well done with means that are definitely not that of an Australian cleanlift!

The job really used 10 labourers and Noel himself to dive on the keel and adjust the frames, with a bit of shouting and carrying on. Yachts are very light vessels for the slip, which takes barges up to 200T, so the slip can sometime float and lose the rails, arrghh!

It’s best to bring the yacht plans with keel, and hull dimensions to discuss first. Long keel easy, but fin keel and small yachts (less than 25 foot) possible but not recommended. Specs help Noel prepare the job properly.

Diving is required to put a plank under short keels and bolt the frames into place. A patient hit and miss exercise.

The creeking winch ran by a big old diesel engine slowly hoisted the KUNA and because of her funky keel she came up on a bit of a list, which really does not affect a paint job too much, except for the few extra blocks that had to be placed for support.

Previous JOTUN semi hard antifouling had lasted 18 months with not huge amount of hard organisms fouling the hull (mostly slime and algae, and a few bryozoans). Although regular scrub was helpful, it does cut a dent in the paint. Diving to give the hull an intense scrub just before slipping was a huge time saver: there is no karcher/pressure washer here, though a tractor can be hooked up to a citern and a compressor for a large pric, so only a bucket fresh water rinse could be done! The waterline was raised 5 cm: it seems tropical surface algae are more tenacious than on the Queensland coast.

The boys are trying to look why the slipway does not roll back down. Again, 11T is too light for it!

With the slip playing up on the way back down, nothing was easier than just grabbing a coconut tree and push down further with a bulldozer – Solomon way!

PAINTS: KUNA is now testing the local APCO/ Asian Paint antifouling (owned by a dutch company but produced under licence in Fiji). It is five times cheaper than the International in the Solomons. Best is to bring own paint if you can. It seems to dry fast enough to dodge the tropical showers. 2 coats applied, 3 under the waterline. see how long it lasts.

And definitely bring own anodes because they are twice the Australian price here!

Gizo is the best town in the west for supplies, especially fresh stuff from the market (see next post for a map). Anchoring in the mud opposite the bulk fuel supply is the most protected place. On the hardware store front, there is five to chose from. If buying antifouling, the local recommendation was not to buy the paint from the stores located on the northern end of town because the stocks do not turn over much: the stores are too far for people to walk to! Good prices were found in the shop opposite the PT109 yacht club. The local antifouling is a fifth of the price of international paints and worth the try (still 450 SBD/80$ AUD 4 L can!). As usual, one holds its breath withdrawing cash at the ANZ teller, hoping the money is going to come out, which is not always does.

Liapari is also a good anchorage, Noel provides security for yachts and likes yachties and is overall a nice island to hang out. Be warned of the large croc if swimming though. It is lurking around. Market on Tuesdays and Fridays brings some good products from nearby Vella Island to the station.

Previously, Liapari was a coconut plantation. The trees are now 90 years old, but not exploited anymore. The engineer Noel gave some good stats about coconuts:
A tree produces a falling nut every week. There are about 13500 trees in the plantation. It takes 1000 nuts to make 100L of coconut oil with the press. This oil can potentially be used as biofuel in low rev diesel engines. To be viable, the operation must turn over 200L per day. One can do the rest of the productivity calculations. I have no brain today!

Vona Vona North

2009-09-11T00:29:00.000-07:00

The southern half of Vona Vona lagoon (Noro to Lola Island has been described in a previous post (XXXX 2008). Travel through the Vona Vona lagoon is well described in the Sieling cruising guide too and the google earth picture below testifies of the guide’s accuracy.

From Lola to the Northern exits, some very shallow bits (2m depth) are encountered so this path is more recommended for shallow drafted vessels! Little damage can be done though, apart from a few bommies (which can be spotted in good litght), the very shallow passages are sand. Of course when the Kuna set off, it was overcast and cloudy. Not recommended to navigate is these conditions, but the light winds were a great opportunity to silently cruise up the lagoon at 3 knots with plenty of time to stop. Good holding is found anywhere along the way.

The first part of the track is the trickiest, one has to wind their way leaving four islands in a row to their right (waypoint S8° 17.543 E157° 08.064), then turn directly north and leave a set of three small islands again to the right (Waypoint S8° 16.594 E157° 06.996). Thereafter, the large island of Vona Vona can be kept to port at reasonable distance and lightly greater depths are found (5-10 m).

Once turned the NE corner, start heading west towards snake island. The channel has a reef on either side. Quite a few anchorages can be found along the North coast of Vona Vona island and people are quite friendly such as in the village of Orokolo (Anchorage 15m S8° 10.951 E157° 01.003). Nosing in towards the beach allows good protection from the SE trades (anchoring in 15-20 m)

Finally the last stretch west to exit the lagoon between the two reefs tongues may be done carefully, heading to the W-SW to round a couple of shallow patches (see photo), rather than going across them like KUNA did on the map below. Waypoints Flags mark the two patches with depths up to 2m: (S8° 10.493 E156° 58.726 to S8° 10.526 E156° 58.526 and from: S8° 10.506 E156° 58.223 to S8° 10.517 E156° 58.135, I marked those on the GPS as we were going along and it was a cloudy day, so take record with a grain of salt but the aerial photograph below shows what can not be seen from the water!

Of course, the Vona Vona lagoon is full of crocodiles but it’s worth the look due to its myriad of small islands, some inhabited, some only visited for hunting.

The larger island of Vona Vona is heavily logged but sediment run off is not obvious because the island is mostly flat rainforest.

Follows a number of cool lagoon creatures found near Lola island

anemone

annelide polychaete

disguized urchin

beche de mer

Fixing 17 years old stainless steel and other things in Noro

2009-09-04T00:13:00.000-07:00

The anchorage in Noro is just in front of the Market (S8º 14.314 E157º 11.825 but the entrance is located a bit to the South, marked on its port side by a red elongated rectangle. The passage in the reef tongue which extends from north to south is threaded at 90 degrees about 4m depth then turn right (north) towards and slowly go across a second reef bar which comes up at about 2.5 m on the sounder. The chart survey is accurate (WWII was useful for something!). It is possible to anchor in about 6-7 m before this second bar or in 9-10 m after, in front of the market, which is well protected. Lots of canoes traffic but no problems and Noro people are overall more friendly than in Munda. The market is well ressupplied and cheap, and happens even on Saturdays. There is an new internet cafe too owned by philipinos, though connection does not work when it rains!

Time for a bit of fixing on the KUNA. Might have been that the rig was too loose during the last passage (resulting in shock loads) or that simply the stainless was old and it simply broke under the load (or the combination of both: but here is the result: two broken tangs (now I’ve learned the proper word!) on the lower shrouds.

Note the split in the stainless

The 15mm bolt had just snapped too!! Given the light loads of tropical sailing, it definitely is old age!

It turned out that the Harbour town of Noro in the Western Province (New Georgia) is the right place to fix things. It is a major shipping harbour, with lots of cargo and fishing boats pulling the for resupply and it is a port of entry.

Logging ship refuelling in the background

A few doors down from the Noro Delly, 15 minutes walk from market walking on the main road at the back is the very well stocked Island Enterprise hardware store. It is managed by a bunch of tikopians (they seem to get around the country and always be very industrious Polynesians). Everything from a sealed maintenance free truck battery to galvanized rod to Rimula X diesel engine oil and even CRC spray could be found and if not found could be ordered from Honiara! Very unusual for the Solomons.

Lenny, an industrious Australian builder who’s been in the Solomons forever was kind enough to organize re-welding the tang with a local fellow. One piece of advice: travelling with one’s own stainless welding rods is very worthwhile as they are impossible to find , whereas welders can be found anywhere.

Reinforced welds inside the tang too...

Munda Harbour: threading a path into the Roviana lagoon

2009-09-03T20:52:00.000-07:00

Lavata Island and Munda Bar in the background of this photo

Despite a lot of boating traffic, Munda reefs are snicky for the novice and the marking is not necessarily obvious to the visiting yachtie so best to get guided by a local canoe if possible. However, once established a good GPS followed tightly at the largest scale possible will be a safe navigation help, especially if some of the green or red markers go missing with the storms (happens regularly).

Approaching Munda from the Blanche Channel, one has to round shark point (bottom of the map). wpt S8º 23.39 E157º 13.35 and then wpt S8º 22.73 E157º 12.65 enable to round the point at a reasonable distance from the reef.

Then , cross the Munda Bar, which raises up to 4m (waypoint : S8º 20.874 E157º 12.728). There is sometimes a nice surf break on the right when going in and the island Lavata Island is a nice anchorage, the more one goes around, the less rolly… A nice dog live son it and enjoys visitors. Shark point reef offers pretty good diving with seagrass beds and clear water gentle coral slopes inside or a mix of sandy patches and corals towards the point.

From Lavata island anchorage, one can head straight for the first leading light marker (there is no leading lights either of course and turn for an easterly course at wpt S8º 20.26 E157º 13.58). From there, the green markers are discernable, make sure to leave them to stardboard all along as they mark some very shallow reefs. Follow the easterly course until rounding a small island to port. Threading a couple of tight bommies (marked) leads to the Lambete Anchorage (S8º 19.894 E157º 16.250) opposite Agnes lodge (good for security, especially if you feed the security guy a bit of spare pig pig) and nice sticky mud (9m).

Munda is not a very exciting town but it has an airport, a dive shop and a somewhat well supplied paintshop (EC Trading).

It has an irregularly supplied, slightly expensive market and the Agnes lodge for a draft Solbrew (great sunset watching one’s boat 100m away from the lodge’s wharf).

It is the office for the Tetepare Descendants Association. Most western supplies can also be found there, scattered between the chinese shops (cheese, tins of tomato, etc..)

Indonesian bottled water is imported in this pristine country which the best quality 'skyjuice'...sad but true!

2009-08-29T19:31:00.000-07:00

Tetepare Island – The largest uninhabited island in the South Pacific

More photos to come soon! Check www.tetepare.org for more information

Tetepare is a large volcanic island located to the South of the Western Province and covers a large area. The island was fled by its inhabitants more than a century ago due to a mysterious illness. They relocated on neighbouring islands, such as Rendova, leaving Tetepare pristine and rarely visited. More recently threatened with logging, It was saved by a community initiative supported by various donors: In 2002, the descendants of Tetepare inhabitants created an association to protect this last wild island, the TDA (Tetepare Descendants Association). The island became the perfect target for conservation to create a reserve for wildlife both marine and terrestrial with the involvement of the community.

Anthony and Michaela who hitched a ride on the Kuna, are currently volunteer advisers for Tetepare from AVI (Australian Volunteers International).

Some anchorages:
The south coast (weather coast of the island) is surrounded by a continuous lagoon whereas the protected North coast facing the Blanche channel is steep and lined by black sand beaches bordered by pristine rainforest.
KUNA visited a few possible of the anchorages. Some others are described in Dirk Sieling Cruising guide to the Solomons (unfortunately out of print).

Raro Bay – S 8º 42.192 E 157º 32.130
The shoreline is extremely steep except for a slightly shallower bank at the entrance of the main creek (where creek sediment build up). One has to approach fairly close to shore, leaving a small wave break to port and drop the pic on a 45 degree mud/sand slope in about 13 m of water. The anchorage is fairly protected from the trades wind and barely a roll came through in the absence of swell , thankfully as the current held the boat parallel to the shore. Not recommended in the summer season with NW winds!

One can go for a walk up the creek which mean ders between steep mud and carved volcanic stone banks. With care though as the rivers has lots of crocodiles. Don't dive in the tempting freshwater pools full of fish...

Waugh bay - S8º 42.415 E 157º 26.892
Same sort of configuration as Raro Bay, except steeper so the boat hangs even more precariously to shore!! A very short snorkelling reccie (the esturary is full of crocs) identified a mud bank in about 10 m of water on a 40 degree slope, before a 60-70 degree drop. Anchor on that bank. In Trades season, the corner is very protected and small gust hold the boat offshore.

Lagoon in front of the research station – S 8º 43.240 E 157º 26.395
On the below google earth image, follow the deep blue channel on the top left corner. A point on the stardboard side is marked by a white stick and a buoy. The reef edge on the left is steep.

Great spot but no room to swing a cat, well a 38’ Adams in between bommies, and shallow (2,5 to 3 m) on sand with relatively poor holding. With a short scope of 12 m, a Danforth and CQR in series totalling 80 pounds dragged a few meters in 25-30 knots of wind, so best to go there in light winds. Or best not eyeball the anchoring system at work!!!! The current running from SE-NW through the lagoon holds the boat nicely in position, limiting swing in between the bommies.

One can jump of the boat and snorkel or dive in the main channel and see dugongs, which are likely to hang out there most afternoons. There were three females with calves and couple of males last week. They tend to be very curious of snorkellers underwater.

Dugong feed on the rounded leafed seagrassess which are abundant in the shallow waters around the island.

From the first point west of the station and for 13 km to the East, Tetepare lagoon is managed as a marine reserve where every form of fishing is banned. The size of the fish in the lagoon behind the anchorage is a testimony of the benefits of the reserve. And the rest of the island is monitored by rangers for resource use such as trochus and coconut crab harvesting. Many old individuals hang out stationary in the current and a rent scared of divers and snorkellers like in other areas of the Solomons where they are fished. Some of the southern beaches are also turtle nesting ground, which can be visited with a guide during the egg laying season. Tetepare’s a home of many hawskbill turtles and of the endangered leatherback. The rangers tag turtle and monitor them as part of an international program.

Underwater coral reflection in glassy waters

Trevallys courting: one turns fully black while the other keeps it irony color

A school of barracudas generally hangs out in the deeper part channel. Watch the current!

Lots of cushion seastars!

Big Old stingray that's lost its tail!

A very large school of bumphead parrot fish hangs out at the anchorage in the morning. In other places there are hunted. They are especially vulnerable at night, as they sleep alltogether with their eyes open, oblivious to light sources, etc.

Flying with Solomon Airlines – a head scratching experiment!

2009-08-21T19:12:00.000-07:00

The good side of this venture was some anchorage aerial reccies…

But the bad side is ONLY takes a four day trip to get back from Hobart to the Solomons… but owing to domestic flights, I never made it to my intended destination!!!!

If someone intends to travel to destinations other than Munda and Gizo with Solomon Airlines, please read on.

I caught the 9:55 plane going to Ngatokae (Western Province) on Friday Aug 21st. I was told the day before to be at the check in at 0800 am (which I found a curiously early for domestic!) so I came at 0900 am. The plane indeed left 15 minutes early, although passengers were not informed in advance.

After the plane landed in Munda, the pilot instructed me to get off the plane, because it was not doing the Ramata-Batuna-Ngatokae run as planned and had to go directly to Honiara to return 4 international passengers so they did not miss their international connection. So here I am, kicked off the plane, wondering why these passengers did not plan their connections better or why SolAir did not advise them on problems with tight connections time. I always allow at least one day I nmy travels for connection aleas… Why didn’t SolAir bring the entire 955 flight one hour earlier so it could make all the landings ???

I was told in Munda that a (funeral) charter plane in the afternoon would pick me up (and another passenger ex Munda) and drop us off at Ngatokae. The plane was planned to arrive at 3pm, depart Munda at 3:15pm…

The plane was late and departed at about 4:15 (or a bit later), lots of funeral discussion and communal crying was happening in the crowded tiny airport terminal. Off theplane went, but in the wrong direction!! Of course, need to go back to to Gizo to refuel. It’s my second visit to Gizo for the day… By the time refuelling was completed, the pilot informed us that it was too late to land in Ngatokae and she was going to try to make the runaway of Seghe, 100 km away form Ngatokae. We asked to be put up in Gizo for the night, to help our chances of getting to GTA from Gizo but this option was refused to us. The pilot instructed us that she was going to try land in Seghe. If not possible we would return to Honiara, which was a better option for us than Seghe.

The reason why we got landed in Seghe, is because the Ngatokae agent got confused and suggested the possibility of a canoe to come and pick us up from Seghe. With the high winds encountered that day, I knew that this was totally improbable that a canoe could come and certainly no such thing had been suggested or planned by our colleagues at Nagtokae and I mentioned I would prefer to return to Honiara then.

We were landed in Seghe and accomodated in the local lodge at our own cost. No food was to be found late on Friday night, only warm solbrew… But Peter the lodge owner was quite a friendly informed chap.

I tried to organize space on the Saturday morning plane which landed in Seghe, but it was full. Could have kicked a few passengers myself to make some space!!!!

To get a plane diverted, it generally takes 2-3 hours for the local agent to get in touch with the Air Operations, shouting on the HF radio, their only means of communication, even in areas with mobile coverage!!!!

I then tried to organize the Saturday afternoon Honiara-Munda plane to land in Seghe, pick us up and drop us off at Ngatokae. Radio communications were poor so I rang Operations directly with the local policeman’s mobile phone. It ran out of credit before confirming Seghe landing and Operations never rang the number I had given back to finish conversation. I could not find anymore phone credit and the plane did not land despite the local agent’s efforts. I had contacted both Gizo and Honiara offices to inform them of the situation but no one did much…

Eventually I could be picked up by yacht from Seghe, however, the other passenger was left stranded. Due to winds, it has not been possible to return to Ngatokae by boat.

Update on Kolombangara Island- A trip up to the rainforest lodge

2009-07-03T22:04:00.000-07:00

Kolombangara island is located directly east of Ghizo. Villages are spread all around the coastal slopes with quite a few harbours which can be used for anchoring after carefully crossing reef entrances. The larger township of Ringgi offers a harbour with a deep entrance and and some deep anchorages.

Kolombangara is the large round volcanic island with Ringgi Cove located to the South East of it.

The summit gets rapidly covered in cloud through the day's heat build up and drowning rains generally follow. Looking forward to get to the top!! :)

The harbour was well surveyed during WWII so the bathymetry on the chart can be trusted. Be careful of the fringing reef in the middle. The harbour is very protected and even a squall can barely build up much waves. There has basically been no wind in the last month, and only I hope that the trades would pick up eventually but at least, it meant leaving the KUNA in the harbour was pretty safe from weather if not from theft.
The brand new infrared battery door alarm that makes a lot of noise probably was a good enough a deterrent. If not, parking in front of Rocky’s security house and slipping a 50SBD note for him to look after the boat was!

Ringgi is a company town, dominated by the timber company KFPL buildings and houses. It has a couple of stores, a public phone and the store even sells mobile phone cards. Market on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday is sometimes well supplied, sometimes only offers betelnut. Supplying for a rainforest camping trip was a challenge, as only a couple of manioc roots could be found!!! For dry stores, best is to go to Noro, 5 miles away on New Georgia Island. Basically, do not count on the local stores except for some tuna and rice.

Kuna on a stopover at Noro Wharf

A year after having first landed on Kolombangara island during the BBC shoot (see blog archive may 2009), another visit was arranged to collect media for the newly formed Kolombangara Island Conservation Association.

View of the crater and its opening to the South East.

In December 2008, with the support of the local timber plantation company (KFPL) and the Solomon Island Community Conservation Partnership (SICCP), the local community agreed on supporting conservation of the upper part of this large volcanic island, ie the zone above the 400m elevation contour, which includes the deep crater and ridges up to the summit, 1600m high. To encourage and stimulate donations for conservation, the KFPL supported the construction of a rainforest lodge with stunning views on the crater slopes and truly the best rainforest bird watching observatory conceived. Our role was to bring these stunning view to the outside world, by collecting some imagery that would help encourage donations for conservation.

The lodge is located at the end of a logging road, at 380m height, 15km drive away from the coastal company town of Ringgi. Walking tracks will also progressively be cut into the rainforest for visitors to access the crater, the summit and the river banks. This tourism project aiming for high-end customers to visit this very special place will create jobs for the community for guides and lodge carers. For example, the track along the Vila river, which runs out of the crater, takes the adventurous trekker to heritage sites, where skulls from the times of head hunting are kept. Indeed, a large portion of the wet river banks inside the crater have been terraced by the people who escaped the head hunters by living in the thick and wet rainforest.

skull...

From a photographer’s point of view, the rainforest environment is spectacular but challenging. The climate up at the lodge is milder than the stuffy heat of sea level: temperatures only a few degrees lower (25 instead of 31!) seem cool due to the high humidity. The Sony EX1 camera held up to the task, even in dripping moisture, which often destroys video equipment. Portable and light weight, it was carried up and down steep gorges to capture the views of the crater and the deep and intense rainforest vegetation (an assistant was also carrying our Miller tripod daily). We rigged up a makeshift dolly and a jib made out of local timbers cut with a bushknife. The local production tools look a bit archaic, but there is no way to receive things into the country, so they did the job.

tropical timber jib

dolly filming tree roots

wet camp... glad about the rainforest hammock!

Walking between tall trees, it is very rare to get a really photogenic view from a vantage point, except where there has been a land slip or a tree falling. Wildlife is heard more often than seen, with hundreds of bird calls and dozens frog calls. The rainforest is also very wet, unpredictable heavy rain showers being nightmare for electronics and the terrain difficult: steep muddy slopes and slippery river bed rocks are common fare. Despite all of this, with a bit of patience, ingenuity and camera equipment holding up to the field conditions, lots of nice shots were collected.

April 2009 - An excursion to the Hele Bar

2009-04-30T21:01:00.000-07:00

Back in the solomons...

After being back from a voyage through the pack-ice of Antarctica, a plane trip from Hobart takes one back to the 31C, equatorial stuffy climate of Marovo lagoon. The weekly plane was greeting by the welcoming committee and as usual I was the only whitie getting off at this stop.

There is no place to anchor a yacht at the Hele Bar so this filming trip required using the banana boat from the University of Queensland, carefully planning the fuel consumption for this 100 nm return excursion. Even the double kayak fitted in the canoe!

But unfortunately, there are no places to camp without a sworm of mosquitos and even a huge fire would not deter them. Couldn't even eat dinner in peace and ended up trying to retreat on the paddling the canoe out to sea. But for once, even being anchored 1km off the coast did not save anyone from the mosquitoes: the buggers followed!! This abbreviated the camping trip to a couple of days as hundreds of bites on the legs was unbearable !!

The Hele bar is a line of small low limestone islands outlaying from Marovo lagoon and marking the entrance into the Blanche Channel, a protected body of water between the islands of Tetepare, Rendova to the South and New Georgia to the North. The light marking the island furthest south of course is not working, so, with a yacht, careful night navigation is required to get around these islands due to the few shallow reefs. It is apparently the best camping spot. The Hele passage is shallow (4-5m) but safe when the swells are small.

The Hele islands are not inhabited and kept as a reserve managed by a ranger, who needed to be interviewed for the Conservation DVD. To arrange any meeting or interview in the Solomons, one has to come and meet the interviewee in person, because a message sent by HF radio is never guaranteed to reach its goal. So it may take 3 to 4 days, or more: weeks, to organize anything, Solomon time… Indeed, to access these islands, it was necessary to obtain prior official authorization from three different land owners, all living at various places through Marovo lagoon, and that also took months.

The wreck of a tuna boat just sticks out a meter or so at the edge of the reef on island. In the night, 8 years ago, the deckie was at the wheel on the maiden voyage while the rest of the crew was celebrating the launch and missed the Hele passage altogether, aiming straight for the reef!!! It is a nice dive now, when the water is clear. Wait for the westerlies to have stopped for a few days.

From the diet of a Russian icebreaker back to Solomon bush diet of ‘burnt fish and potato’, there is a big gap! Fruit were rare that time around but luckily the guide Stewart is a keen spear fisherman.

The fish with the thickest skin (like sweetlips) always ended up on the fire. His young assistant Malakai gave lessons in smoking fish, another local delicacies. All meals accompanied of sweet potato, the lowest GI food you can find. It’s got to be healthy!

Christmas time!

2008-12-21T20:34:00.000-08:00

OK everyone, end of this year and end of the KUNA blog posts for a little while while it's Christmas here in Peava. In the new year, I will fly back to Oz for a short Antarctic trip to cool down before returning to the Solomons and resuming blog and project in feb!

MERRY CHRISTMAS and a GREAT NEW YEAR TO ALL READERS!!
fred:)

Some eye candy from Uepi

2008-12-15T16:56:00.000-08:00

Finally KUNA had the opportunity and a good reason to sail around Vangunu Island through Morovo lagoon: go to Uepi Island, 37 miles from Peava. Taking a trip inside the lagoon was definitely easier after two banana boat rides but overall there are only a few shoals to avoid, the entrance to the Mbili passage is easy to negociate, staying right in the middle of the channels and the waters directly around Vangunu island are quite deep. Any shoal above 9m become a milky emerald green color and when it gets yellow brown, start worrying!! I will later post a track.

As a contribution to Morovo conservation DVD project, Grant and Jill, who manage the resort on this private island invited us to film on their reefs, which, despite many challenges, have been protected for more than 20 years. Grant and Jill have worked very hard on educating the local villagers to avoid fishing, and explain that in return, the tourists who come and look at the reef bring in business, which is good for the community. The concept of tourism and investment in the future has yet to grow a lot more in the Solomons.

Uepi reefs are the oldest MPA (Marine protected area) in Morovo, a testimony for what fish life may have been not so long ago on all the other reefs when fishing pressure was less. Morover, Uepi has been a diving resort for so long that the fish is really accustomed to divers, great for those who like to have a close up look. It is definitely easier to film reef life and fish behaviours where fish are plentiful and not afraid of humans, who are predators elsewhere. Grant and Jill are a wealth of knowledge about the marine environment there because they dive everyday.

Uepi is also a fantastic diving resort, with excellent facilities, very helpful staff and delicious local food. Great place to stay for a diving holiday!!

The accomodation side from the water. Do NOT anchor THAT close!!

I later will post a track on how KUNA got through the lagoon and to the anchorage behind Uepi island. Really the Uepi anchorage is not so well protected from the S- to NW and it can get fairley choppy if waves build up during squalls or more systemic winds but the holding ground is about OK (sand and rubble), and it would be well protected in the trades season, though stinking HOT!!!!. If you go there, take care to anchor with sufficient swinging space in between all the bommies to prevent damage from the chain. An amazing number of animals live on these small oasis. Also anchor far away enough from the island to not impend on guests privacy and report to the office on arrival to get advice on what you can and can’t do.

Freshwater eels of Ngatokae Island rivers

2008-12-14T20:11:00.000-08:00

Since the conservation DVD project deals mostly with water quality, a good look at the freshwater creeks, where it all starts, was necessary. One may think eels are boring but th eons we found in the creeks of Mbiche village and Kavolavata are rather interesting and easy to film.

Mbiche creek, eels live where women wash the dishes!

At Mbiche, in the middle of the village, the eels cohabitate with the women doing dishes, the pikininis playing and enjoy a fish gut cleaning session, as they get a good feed!

Men clean the fish...

and the eels jump out for a feed on fish guts!

The Mbiche mob has turned their kastom eels into a tourist attraction, so they feature in the tour that they offer to the lodge dwellers, but in Kavolavata, the eels peacefully rest under huge tree roots and curiously came out to eyeball the camera

The shade is good for them. Without true shelter, I noticed the eels at Mbiche all suffer from cataract:
Along with the eels a number of freswater prawns live in the crystal clear waters of the creek.

Where to find these characters?
Here is an overview of the lagoon

At the extreme SE end of the island of Ngatokae lay those two villages, with Peava anchorage in the middle

To be a Beche-de-Mer or Not to Be ?? That is the Question..

2008-11-27T16:06:00.001-08:00

This species is soon to NOT BE anymore if no one does anything about it!

The Beche the Mer comprehends many species of sea cucumbers, elongated urchin type of creatures which filter feed on the sandy bottom of the lagoon. Most of them only come out at night. They are instrumental to reef health as they prevent the overgrowth of algal mats and recycle nutrients.

I was shocked when local driver Morgan, who works for UQ said that is seriously intended to harvest Beche de Mer whilst on duty for the University of Queensland conservation DVD project that I am working on!

The illustration that the cash economy is pressuring everyone. Beche de Mer harvesting has been a major source of income for most Solomon islanders until the population got wiped out and the fishery officially closed by the Ministry throughout the country. It will take years for Beche de Mer to recover but the coconut wireless gossip is that the fishery is re opening soon, so many are already harvesting again in Morovo lagoon, in anticipation!!!!
With no one to enforce the laws, the only solution is to convince the communities to self regulation and that conservating the resource is for their own good. Unfortunately, some Malaysian loggers are still managing to export the Beche de Mer uncontrolled and with possible black market selling outlets, the islanders continue poaching in the lagoon. Asians pay a lot of money for this delicacy. The results are as destructive as the shark fishery but because the poor old seacucumber is not as charismatic as the larger vertebrates, it does not get much media attention.

A few torches were seen at night in the area where we went to film the spawning, their weren’t innocent. The harvest consists of picking the sea slug from the sea bottom at night time. It is the easiest when they all gather at the top of coral heads to spawn. Then the poor seaslug is boiled for 12 hours (a solomon wife’s job!) then dried over a stick rack above a fire for two days. People camp on the outer islands for several days during the harvest. The harvest is so doubly destructive as locals burn a lot of timber to do the drying. Most importantly, locals pick the spawning time, during which masses of Beche de Mer gather on the top of corals to spawn simultaneously, letting the species little chance to reproduce.

This Beche de Mer is spawning - would you believe they can stand up ? But it is lonely on its coral head...Normally, many individual gathers on the same coral heads to maximize chances of fecundation but there aren't enough of them anymore.

Meanwhile, in the deep of the night, the parrot fishes are sleeping in their transparent sleeping pouch, eyes wide open!

Chemoho conservation area and Pelevo island, Morovo Lagoon

2008-11-25T14:04:00.000-08:00

The great Hornbill

Yes, that starts sounding repetitive but the search for conservation initiatives continues in the Morovo lagoon with rather depressing outcomes. In amongst the raped and pillaged natural landscape of Vangunu, there aren’t many places left that stand out for their intact natural value.

One of many logging camps which are all around Vangunu island

Very little native forest was spared by the loggers, except for one plot which we were lucky to find at Chemoho, near the village of Cheke.
The conservation has been the initiative of one family alone, on their own land, a 300 acres plot which runs from the shore to inland hills and they are very proud of it and wish to make it known to the outside world, which is why I am talking about it some detail now.
Lulu and family

The block of native forest saved by Lulu and Hopia has become a heaven for all the birds who lost their habitat trashed by loggers on either side, so it is a birdwatcher’s paradise! A great place to photograph a number of species, including the Hornbill. Many pairs reside throughout the block and Hopia knows their habits very well, along with those of many other species, which fruiting tree they are in and when, etc….

White cockatoos are contstantly cackling in the trees

cuckoo shrike eating fruit

Ducks inhabit the creek which borders the block and can be visited by kayak or dinghy

Eclectus parrots, white cockatoos, many kingfishers and buffeted kaukau also reside in the lowland area whilst a swirl of butterfly species can be observed near the hill that lookout over the lagoon.

Hopia or Lulu and any of the girls can take you for a walk on the network of neat tracks zigzagging through the bush block. Of course the block has been used in a traditional way and is sparsed with clearings used for gardens and only a few large trees were harvested here and there for family building needs. The foreshore area supported a coconut plantation

Hopia, Lulu Viginia and kids are very welcoming and hospitable. During the time new Zealand was encouraging the ecolodge business (90s) Lulu trained as a kayaking guide and both worked in the lodge nearby. Now they are eager to have any visitors interested in nature. Though their settings is very rudimentary, it’ll make for an interesting visit and they welcome any yacht to anchor at the front (there is a 9m shoal 150 m from their coral jetty) Lat Lon XXXX

Hopia also runs a carving shop, inside the old district courthouse. Here are a few examples of his talented works.
Hopia in his shop

Carving is abig industry in MOrovo lagoon and the archetype representation of sustainable and value adding use of timber. It's also deeply inspired by nature.

Another interesting though not terribly protected anchorage is behind Pelevo island, which also belongs to Lulu and family.

- I will add Map and GPS track to Pelevo, there are a bunch of reefs to avoid -

This tiny sand cay, 2.4 miles north of Chemoho has a house on it, Turtles and Kurukuru (pidgeons) nest on it. The reef there is an MPA set by Lulu early 2000. It has started recovering and makes for a shallow snorkel.

Lucky porters, they're happy to carry the tripod, said to be lighter than a chain saw!!!!

MPA's in the Morovo Lagoon

2008-11-17T15:31:00.000-08:00

MPA stands for Marine Protected Areas. Such concept is no novelty to us in Australia but what may seem a relatively simple undertaking in our country (despite the strong lobbies of recreational and commercial fishermen, for example on the Great Barrier Reef) is much more complex in the Solomon Islands.

Marine protected areas in fact are no novelty to Solomon Islanders either, but the islanders have mostly forgotten this. Traditionally, the chiefs were also closing certain reefs areas to protect them from fishing for periods of time and let them replenish. In older times, the chiefs had more power than nowadays and their will was respected. Recently though, there has been a drop in leadership quality within many communities and the push by outside initiatives is necessary to help conservation. As part of its water quality monitoring of the Morovo Lagoon, the University of Queensland team found out that fishing practices were the predominant threat to the coral reef ecosystems and that there was a need to reduce harvesting to help the reef recover. So they pushed for the communities to create a number of MPA’s. A tedious work undertaken by the UQ team with local boat driver and community educator Morgan.

Most people live on or by the water and use the resource

Though very traditional, fishing by a growing population pressures the reef

Morgan is helping the local villagers marking their MPAs with rope and buoys. Lots of buoys are needed shaping a very well defined line, says Morgan, because if only one or two mark the corners, they are likely to get stolen. This is one of many other difficulties and oppositions to the establishment of MPAs. Jealousy and greed are crippling the process, with some community members gossiping that Morgan is personally benefiting from the MPAs. Many of these MPA projects do not have their own dynamism: too often, an NGO comes in, provides all materials and does it all. As a result, people do not appropriate the project fully and if the NGO resigns activity in the area, MPA does not continue. The lack of good leadership is often the problem.

If no longline fishing buoys are available, a clever way to make some floats is to use bamboo stick, ballasted with cement at the bottom. A small flag is strapped at the top.

Morgan conduct underwater monitoring training sessions

In each MPA, regular monitoring is conducted by trained locals. For fish and coral census transects, a simple exercise for a marine bio in Oz, takes a bit of patience to train the locals. But they have the advantage of knowing their reef perfectly.

In particular, the overharvesting of grazing fish, enabled excessive algae cover to impend on coral growth, leading to coral death and the loss of habitat for other species of fish.

Together with excessive nutrient and sediment input from erosion caused by logging, macroalgae are getting a boost to invasion after every major rain event. With Morovo lagoon being very enclosed, with its double barrier, plumes get trapped inside, covering the coral with layers of mud.

Of course this is intermittent and in dry periods, the rivers are pristinely clean

Going up one of the rivers on Vangunu with driver Morgan

But the damage created by large ares of clear fell land is obvious in heavy rainfall. This reef is straight of the oil plantation of Meresu on SE Vangunu

Mbiche Village, an enthusiastic community!

2008-11-12T15:05:00.000-08:00

November 12th,

There is no anchorage for the KUNA at Mbiche so the Kuna stays at Peava, just round the corner, 6 miles by kayak away. The village is located on the weather coast of Ngatokae, and only rugged people live on these shores constantly beaten by the trade winds.
high cliffs near Mbiche

Huge swells may raise up and down black pebble beaches: the coral platform disappears under volcanic rocks, that people there know how to turn into bowls and mortars. A Mbiche specialty!!!
Stone carving

The community there runs a number of small projects, of which they are all proud and even happier to show them on camera. Interestingly, from their on account the Mbiche mob decided to run a bit of a tour for visitors which is “over organized”. Their idea of tourism has yet to mature (by our white standards), but for a country whose tribes were head hunting eachother still less than 50 years ago, their hospitality is pretty good!).
- Look closer, there is a human skull amongst these carvings!

Mbiche even runs a small lodge, right in the middle of the village. Simple, 50SBD per person per night for accommodation with matress and mosquito net provided (says the sign!)
the small lodge in the gardens

The good thing about this lodge is that the chickens are on the other side of the village but breakfast is brought to your room early enough, 7 am, bugger! Food is plentiful (20SBD per meal) and the village ladies rotate the preparation of the meals so that everyone gets a small cash income.

The other main source of cash in this village is that of a private donor through the initiative of the University of Queensland: in exchange for conservation initiatives, ie forest and reef , the community receives cash to cover the school fees for the children.

Several organizations in the process of making Ngatokae Island and model for conservation are pushing for native forest to stay intact in the very few areas it has not been logged. Mbiche has one of the rare areas of forest which has not been logged yet and a few people in the community with environmental awareness and enough good leadership to convince people that there are cash alternatives to logging.

Taking the pikinis climbing in the forest for the camera showed it was very well worth it for future generations. Not only providing play trees, the forest provides food and shelter for itsinhabitants. Here some kids a breaking the Gnahli nuts, which falls of a huge tree

Gnahli nuts are broken with rocks and eaten in the forest

Other projects from Mbiche include an oil press. The oil press enables them to produce coconut oil, for cooking or massage and sell it. The production of coconut oil is labour intensive but the process is very simple. Nothing can go wrong with the robust oil press, so no technical knowledge is needed from the outside.
The coconuts are husked and broken open…
Then scratched…

Then dried

Then the scratchings are pressed to release the oil which is filtered and bottled.

Anyone who wishes some frangipani perfumed massage oil for Xmas let me know!!!

But wait!! There is more: all in the village insisted we come back to film the MPA, marine protected area and couldn’t wait for it to get markers again.

Escape in Marau sound

2008-10-27T20:25:00.000-07:00

Tavanipupu Anchorage, 15 m, sand
S9º 49.690 E160º 51.184

Guadalcanal has more possible anchorages than one would first expect at first glance, and all are better than Honiara! 60 miles East of the capital, in Marau sound, a number of small islands bordered by extensive fringing reefs provide shelter and nice sandy patches for yachts to stop. The resort of Tavanipupu island, which always was famous within the yachties community is soon to be re opened by it’s new owner Pamela Kimberly who recently bought the island (watch www.tavanipupu.com, I designed this start of a website and detailed pages are soon to come). As anywhere in the Solomons, transport is a challenge and it takes 2-3 hours and 100 liters of fuel to get to and from Tavanipupu in a fast boat (twin 115s) so Pamela is currently negociating with Solomon Airlines to re open air transport to the Marau airfield and will be looking at chartering the plane to get customers in. She’s also just acquired a very fast fuel efficient and clean boat to wiz to and from the resort.

An old friend from a few years ago, Pamela welcomed the KUNA to park next to Tavanipupu Island in a tiny little sandy horseshoe lagoon to the south of it. The lagoon is not very vented as it is protected from all directions and there is a bit of traffic from the village on the island to the South but all up pretty safe, people and weather wise. Stern anchor desirable as swinging room is limited and there is a fair bit of current through the lagoon. More information about good yachting practices with the resort will be also posted on www.tavanipupu.com.

Marau sound has a fine network of reefs and plenty of anchorages East, good for light SE trades. Watch the squalls!

Tavanipupu is highlighted here

map showing the path to Tavanipupu lagoon

details of the anchorage (more waypoints to be added later!)

The resort was the only one of many on Guadalcanal, which was not burnt and destroyed during the tensions, in spite of being located right in an area reputed for its extreme violence and fights. One of the previous owners, Dennis, had to barricade himself once or twice, but he had gained enough respect from the locals to remain safe-…ish.

The sturdy buildings were designed by Dennis Bellote, while his partner Keith, trained the chefs, who I must say, provide the best of restaurant meals on Guadalcanal and even know how to make chocolate profiteroles!! More details can be found on www.tavanipupu.com

The sumptuous dinner settings of tavanipupu
Wouldn’t such good food make you want to sail 60, well even 200 miles ? Sailing certainly, but unfortunately, the KUNA made it there after 14 hours of tedious motor-sailing right into the easterlies trades. Despite travelling at night to benefit from calm seas, there was enough of a breeze for her to slow down and katabatics strong enough to be sailed lasted for one hour! The Kuna was heavy too: a cargo load of booze (yes!!) and electric fans were delivered to the resort in due time the next morning!!!!

The marine environment around Tavanipupu island and other islands in Marau sound is very different form that of the Western province: these islands are small sandy mounts rather than uplifted coral platforms and are surrounded by seagrass beds.I can't upload all pics from here today, sorry!

Because of the current, the visibility can be average but there were a lot of new creatures to eyeball whilst snorkelling such as pipefishes, etc

On the tribulations of visa renewal

2008-10-20T20:09:00.000-07:00

The process of extending a visa in the Sols will require the patience of a crocodile!!

Here it goes a bit like this:
- First, go door stopping the minister of Immigration in his office.
Easy, you just walk in the building, and wait! 15 hours may suffice...
- Before that, you, of course, collected a bunch of letter from
influent expats and locals to help push the process
- Once you waited long enough, they may come out with the paperwork
for the visa. That's after you told them that the current visa is
expiring tomorrow, so they have to do something about it.
-Don' t let your passport disappear into the darkness!!!!!
- Go queue at the Treasury for an hour. Pay the visa money (280). Pay
the police clearance too (90). Make sure you get the yellow and green
official receipts!
- Go to the police for clearance. Unfortunately, the guy has ran out
of forms and can't photocopy them until monday.
- Try to accelerate the process: grab the form and take it yourself to
the copy shop in town.
- Bad luck: there it a power cut in town, so no copy shop!!!
- Good idea: go back to the ministry of Immigration, they have copy
machines there and a generator. Queue up again. Interrupt cake eating
sessions if necessary to get the copy.
- Go back to the Police. Bad luck: it's friday and the guy was too
hot, so he went home!!
- Of course Doctors surgery also emptied out from their doctors during
the power cut, so no medical clearance. And anyway, it's friday and
the start of sabbath for other Seventh Day Adventist doctors.

....the saga will continue monday!!!!!º

Cava in Honiara!!

2008-10-18T19:04:00.000-07:00

Now I don’t even have any pictures of Honiara and Point Cruz, because the place is all so familiar now, and photos would not render how sweaty and hot the place is, such as piling up in small bus vans or walking in the dusty crowded streets and the traffic jams! As usual the yacht club was a real heaven and really, not much happened during these few weeks.

Being parked next to the Vanuatu Police boat made life interesting: a few invitations to share the cava (traditional Vanuatu drink containing an anaesthetic drug extracted from the root of a pepper type of tree). Really I didn’t need to try it again!
In Honiara, the cava is not freshly ground root but powder imported from Fiji or Vanuatu ( for info: available at Pidgin Holdings, in Ranadi for 200 SBD / kg) and it’s not really as good as the real stuff, plus the terrible after effects (yes, cava hungover!!) which I don’t remember getting in New Caledonia. Though the drink was served in the coconut shells, the cava session on the back deck of a police boat with ships generator running in the background and heavy lights hasn’t got quite the feel of tradition but the Vanuatu men were very peaceful and we had nice conversation. They are in many ways very different from Solomon Islanders.

Accompanying the cava, sometimes was also a nice barbecue with lots of fresh stuff imported from Australia, like steak, apples, and the rest!! A feast for the scrunging yachtie!! Explanation: the Vanuatu Police boat is in fact a RAMSI posting (Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands, I don’t remember having mentioned it before in this blog). RAMSI gathered police forces from all pacific countries, including NZ and Oz in large numbers to assist reinstalling law and order in the Solomons after the tensions. RAMSI decided to import most, if not all foods, in order to prevent creating inflation and a false economy relying on the presence of a large number of expat policemen in the country. Though the Ozzie taxpayer finances flying all the fresh food weekly, the false economy has not really been avoided and house rental in Honiara compare with those of Chicago!

Crowded Honiara

2008-10-14T22:42:00.000-07:00

Oct 14th

Honiara. After 4 hours of motor sailing in calm weather the last 20 miles that separate Tambea from Honiara, it was a surprise to find a crowded Point Cruz anchorage with a total of 10 yachts squeezed along the seawall! Once the KUNA found her perfect spot just near the police and navy wharf (dropped the anchor in 15 m of soft muddy sand on a slope, good holding!), it was so crowded that it would be hard for any new vessel to park. Two stern lines are a must to prevent shifting side ways in strong N-westerlies, which seem to happen daily at this time of the year. The Vanuatu police guys were quite helpful in helping getting the lines in, as it was rather tight to reverse the KUNA in and their police boat is made of glass ☺!!!

Safety.
The rest of the anchorage at Point Cruz is windy and exposed with poor holding and the three moorings already occupied. It’s not unusual to see some largish fishing boats dragging anchor as they don’t park so carefully, ans sometimes right infront of yachts so watch out!!! The police wharf provides good light at night, so additional safety to the first few yachts on this side along the wall.

Recently ( as I write this, Nov 6th), Black Billy had the bad luck to anchor out in the open, in the middle of the canoe passage for only a short time and after dark got robbed all their electronic gear. So stay aware, it’s Honiara after all, as benine as the place may feel, it is not always safe!

Sailing against the trades PART 2 and Where to clear customs in the Solomon Islands??

2008-10-12T17:03:00.000-07:00

After going all the way to Lola Island (Vona Vona lagoon) thinking clearance and visa extensions were going to be possible in the nearby town of Gizo, Lisa, the very helpful and informed manager from Lola island resort, said that the only immigration officer recently retired, leading to closure of the Gizo office!!! Except for one small piece of advice a local friend later gave: if you don't intend to go in and out of the country, you can lodge your application in Gizo. It then sits on their desk and nothing is really done about it because of the communication problems. Whilst waiting for the application to be processed, you go travelling and come back only when it's time to clear out!!!

To deal with just a short three month extension to a cruising visa, it may also be possible to do it from Noro, but for an application for a temporary residence permit, there was no way around going back to Honiara.

A long fun two days of tacking and beating to go back to Guadalcanal in the SE corner of this pic: boats aren't meant to go upwind!!!

Meaning 115 miles from Peava, and because the SE trades have decided to have a relapse, after a month of calm weather in September, it took 2.5 days going in great zig zags into the swells and winds!

Interestingly enough, a lot of the very strong SE puffs were generated by squalls and lots of squalls hit the KUNA all the way! As the Kuna reached Tambea, in 20 knots of wind and large chop due the current running between Savo and Guadalcanal Island, the radio weather reports were claiming 3 knots of wind in Honiara, 20 miles further East.

Tambea Anchorage
S9º 15.380 E159º 39.840 Tambea offshore WPT
S9º 15.641 E159º 40.233 Tambea Anchorage

10 m in sand and coral But one could go a lot closer to the beach.
Once more, maybe Sieling’s cruising guide coordinate aren’t quite accurate. The Tambea resort was burnt down during the tension so it is hard to see which beach to anchor off and there is now a large logging camp to the NE of the resort. Given the hawling winds, the passage between the reefs/shoal provide good protection in anything but N to W. The shoals are not very obvious so best to approach carefully on a 120º True course from Tambea offshore waypoint.

After a decent night rest Kuna motorsailed the last 20 miles in early morning glassy waters, only to find the Point Cruz Anchorage absolutely packed full with 12, yes TWELVE yachts!! A tight sterna parking spot was

Lola to Honiara: sailing against the trades PART 1!!

2008-10-11T16:48:00.000-07:00

105 miles and 24 hours of motoring from Lola to Peava, on the SE of the Western Province, back around the north of New Georgia, all of this to have a meeting with two researchers from University of Queensland to plan for an educational DVD project.

Flat windless waters and a dismantled light north of Noro. None of the lights charted are functioning as their solar panels get stolen, but they make good day marks!

There was no wind but it was possible to catch a light katabatic of the gentle slopes of New Georgia for most of the night, until the SE trades decided to pick up by 5 in the morning, right on the nose as KUNA was rounding the last double barrier islands outside Morovo lagoon!!!!! The poor 24 HP Bukh of KUNA was struggling to keep 3 knots of headway and I wished I had thoroughly navigated Lumahile passage and through the lagoon before, to be able cut inside in protected waters despite the low light. Next time…

The cliffs from the outer barrier islands of Morovo

Meeting new science folks was great: Simon Albert and Jame Judy from UQ have been enthusiastically running a community based monitoring and conservation project in the Morovo lagoon. The main reason why they originally came to the Solomons was to investigate water quality issues related to logging activities on Vangunu Island. After several years of conducting a research study using similar methodologies as those used with nutrient/eutropication issues on the Great Barrier Reef (my old trade!), they found out that the impacted state of the reef inside Morovo lagoon is probably due just as much to unsustainable fishing practices as it is to logging. The study has produced a lot educational material in Morovo language (booklets, etc) but the use of a very powerful media such as moving pictures is needed for further awareness raising, which will lead to the production of a DVD. What a nice excuse to order a whole bunch of underwater video/photo gear and stay in the Solomons and but now, visa becomes an issue!!!

Forest Trends Brainstorming…On carbon credits and deforestation

2008-10-10T03:40:00.001-07:00

The sad thing about this post is that I have no photos...hope you enjoy the reading!

At the low key, yacht friendly resort of Lola island, a workshop was in progress, gathering an eclectic group of managers involved in various aspect of forest exploitation and conservation. All these executives from a fundation called Forest Trends (check website www.forest-trends.org) were here to observe the forest situation in the Solomons and discuss global carbon credit strategies. They were extremely welcoming to outsiders, which enabled me to witness some of the discussions, that were going on. With the state of the planet changing rapidly, the Kyoto protocol is up for review in Copenhagen 2009, before further agreements.

The Kyoto Protocol obliges the 35 industrial states that have ratified the document to cut emissions by 5% below 1990 levels by 2008-2012 but there is a severe dispute about who of the developed and developing countries should bear the burden of the restrictions imposed. A German man involved in the preparation for the Copenhagen agreements chaired one of the meetings at Lola and described the excuse for China’s refusal to abide by the thresholds imposed by Kyoto: Chinese have to catch up with development first before restricting emissions: the other developed countries have had their share of carbon emissions for a century already!

Now a global market of carbon emission credits is growing and, with it, the need to re-think the world economy in environmental terms. Conservation has become a business. To be able to continue operating whilst compensating for their excess carbon emissions, developed countries will have to buy carbon credits from developing countries (some of which remain low carbon emission countries) Developing countries that still have trees standing are in a strong position in the carbon credit market. And conservation agencies may make the price of standing trees attractive to compete with logging companies and acquire conservation power through this market.

Where do the Solomon Islands’ forests fit into this ? Well, there is still a long way to go and unfortunately, the slow process by which conservation NGO’s can release cash to pay the communities to refrain from logging can not beat how fast the Malaysian logging companies bring cash in hand to pillage the forest. The Solomon islander’s culture is such that cash TODAY wins over everything else.
The – inexistent- land tenure structure is such that, even when a village community is willing to protect an area from logging, a few corrupted individuals can decide to split and register as a different tribe and sign off with the loggers under their names, and sell the people forest assets for their own benefits. Corruption and lack of control on the ground. Such cases are innumerable and explain how the country’s forests assets have been pillaged.

Whilst preparing to go up filming at the top of Kolombangara Island with Chris Filardi from the New York Museum of Natural History, we learned of a few initiatives combining expertise from local forestry companies (KFLP), communities and even schools are currently growing, such as the Kolombangara conservation project (see Post in May). Such project aims at protecting corridors of canopy from the summit to the shore to support diurnal migrations. Some rare species of birds roost at the top but feed on coastal fruiting trees and benefit from the continuum of forest habitats, which is threatened by loggers from all . Gathering footage from the top of Kolombangara will help with raising awareness of potential private donors, accelerating conservation process.

And I have no pictures because we never made it to the top of Kolombangara because Chris was too busy with the board of forest but learned a lot!! The KUNA will later return to Kolombangara

Meandering to Lola Island (Vona Vona lagoon)

2008-10-09T05:08:00.000-07:00

Well, if you ever get hold of a copy of Dirk Sieling’s “Cruising the Solomons” guide, that’ll help navigating through the Vona Vona lagoon. Tracking down the author on Google, I wrote to him at Dirk Sieling dirksieling@xtra.co.nz and convinced him to send me a copy. He really needs to get in print again. Though the total number of yachts going through the Solomons does not justify it, it’s a good reference book, except for some inaccuracies in the GPS waypoints. Anyhow, his sketch of the passage from Nusapate to Lola is pretty accurate. Some of the sticks marking the edge of the reefs have gone missing, so someone up high up on the mast in good sunlight is just the best insurance! Some passages are quite narrow and shallow so good to reccie first by motor before attempting a sailing. In the channel in between the reefs, the depths are 10 to 20 m, so any place is good to drop the pick if vis is not good enough or just stop and get oriented!!!

Google Earth is a good navigation tool too, for navigating in shallow waters. The Vona Vona is mostly unsurveyed and has a complex network of shallow reefs and sandbank between the islands. Some dry out at low tide.

I will add a complete set of waypoints soon. Here is an example of the reef edge marker found along the way. These sticks are mostly put for canoes so keep clear of them!

Not long after KUNA arrived at Lola, the FIRST anchorage crowd I’ve witnessed in the last 6 months built up to 5 yachts !!!!! There are probably the 5 yachts in the country… A 29’ norvegian, a Sydney 60 foot cat, and a few others flash monohulls hovered around.

Through the Diamond Narrows

2008-10-07T04:16:00.000-07:00

South of Noro is a special passage between New Georgia and Arundel (Kohingo) islands called Diamond Narrows. The channel is no more than 50 m wide and generally between 20 and 50 m deep (or more because KUNA’s old sounder doesn’t register much deeper really, with steep coral reefs on either side. Before it was logged, 20 years ago, it was actually a sheltered tunnel under a thick rainforest trees canopy. Surprisingly, for such a deep and narrow channel, there was no noticeable tidal current. With both sides of the narrows being very protected bodies of water and such small tides, horizontal water movement is minimal here.

S8º 15.607 E157º 11.683 is good to line up the northern entrance, the shallow reef extending to starboard is currently marked by a stick. Unsurprisingly for the Solomons, some large ships sometimes travel through the passage, even at night.

the navigational marks are as usual are very obvious: here looking south, look out for the stick, duly marked as a beacon on the chart!

Whilst the men were rushing through the channel by motor canoe (gotta watch those bends as rules of the road don’t apply here!), all women are steadily paddling their dug out, singing and smiling.

A few miles further south, after exiting Diamon Narrows, another couple of miles got the KUNA to the entrance of Vona Vona lagoon. Staying on a straight line along the starboard shore going south, some small reefs were easily avoided. Because the light dropped rapidly in this late rainy afternoon, navigating the Vona Vona lagoon will be for tomorrow.

S8º 17.374 E157º 12.153: anchorage just north of Nusapate island, 20 m sand and coral. Deep but protected from all directions, really these lagoon waters are a chill out!!

Passing through Noro, New Georgia

2008-10-06T07:30:00.001-07:00

terns chasing a school of bonito

Sailing in the Kula Gulf today was another lesson of patience, though the KUNA was pushed in the lightest breeze on these flat waters. Yet motoring was unavoidable to go through the harbour town of Noro, home of the Solomon Taio, the national tuna canning factory, which was mostly owned by Japan until recently.

The fishing fleet of Solomon Taio is rotting away tied to the wharf.

The tuna fishing fleet is in a rather advanced stage of delabrement ( these ships are no more than 25 years old but have not been maintained) but the factory is still functioning, employing 700 people (it used to be 3000, mostly women, canning tuna for 100 sol$/week!). The factory explains the unusually large population of Noro.

This philipino fishing boat, distinguished by the double outrigger arrangement, is part of a new initiative providing the local community with a light and less costly to run alternative fishing vessel other than the Solomon Taio fleet. The crew may catch just a few fish a day on single line and deliver to the factory. That's enough to feed their families and provides extra to the cannery. MOst of the Tuna is now exported to Europe.

Noro is the main town in New Georgia, a truck ride away from Munda, which has an airstrip and many large cargo, fishing and logging ships clear customs into the country there.

There is on custom officer (Michael Filao) but he is reputed for his unreliability, being found drunk or on the betelnut and corrupted by malaysian loggers. So if Ghizo immigration is open (which it is not at the moment) a trip there is worthwhile. KUNA did not stop in Noro, but many yacht suggested to raft with the Tuna boats (which don’t go anywhere) and keep someone onboard to prevent people boarding!

There is mobile coverage and broadband internet at the Telekom building in Noro. Internet in Munda is still dial up, as I discovered when I tried to post this blog!!

Jericho Harbour, Kula Gulf, New Georgia

2008-10-05T07:13:00.000-07:00

Oct 5th
Jericho
S8º 07.398 E157º 19.989
The winds have died overnight but there was nothing more satisfying than lifting up anchor without starting the engine and slowly exiting Mbaeni harbour at 2 knots of speed! Creeping along to round the NW coast of New Georgia, a few surprisingly large buildings appeared: the churches built by the CFC (Christian Fellowship Church). Tacking in light winds in the Kula Gulf, a nice flat body of water that lays between Kolombangara and New Georgia, KUNA took 6 hours to cover less than 20 miles.

Cloud formation over Kolombangara

The valley into the crater of the Kolombangara is clearly visible

Didn’t get to go to Paradise (another very populated CFC village) this time as a huge squall helped creeping another few miles:

The clouds accumulated over New Georgia generated just enough wind for KUNA to make way at first, then suddenly picked up to 15 knots, getting KUNA to 7 knots of speed in zero visibility due to bucketing rain!! Far too fast near the harbour entrance of Jericho. Though there are no boats around, the unsurveyed reef areas are always a daunting prospect but the entrance was wide and straight.

The soundings in the middle of the channel on Dirk’s Sieling guide are accurate but the mud bank comes up very quickly just beyond the village so slow down and drop the pick in about 7-10 m to keep some swinging room! Very few yachts visit this village so the excitement of the kids on the shore was huge.

Arriving in Jericho...
There is no privacy to be had as this anchorage, which is just 100 m off the village. Just a good stopover and fruit and veg can be traded but watch that the kids don’t try to sell the golden papaw for 30 or 40$sols!!! Soon enough the KUNA was surrounded by a cohort of young men in canoe. The turkey brain age, they call it here: 12 to 25 years old, these just didn’t have much conversation so everyone sat quietly looking at eachother in the eyes, but all were good and didn’t ask for anything, they were just happy to be near the yacht. I’ve got used to that uncomfortable silence from shy visitors by now, and later a few educated women came to have a chat. There is a local canoe builder there too, who was very curious of the plastic kayak.

In the morning, the women depart for Noro market, with a cargo load of vegetables

Mbaeni Harbour, New Georgia

2008-10-04T07:01:00.000-07:00

Oct 4th 2008-10-06
Mbaeni Anchorage
S8º 02.584 E157º 36.167

As most of the passages in/out of Morovo, Nggerasi and Toghovae lagoons, the Kokoana passage to get out of Matiu is deep with little current and steep reef edges. Navigating inside the lagoon is possible with lots of time.
The further north one goes, the murkier and less attractive the lagoon waters become. Lumahile passage and Charopoana passages near the resort island of Uipi also give access to interesting anchorages with good diving on the outer reef but beyond these locations, nutrient runoff from the logged slopes of Vangunu and New Georgia did not give much prospect for exciting diving.

yet another ship full of logs

A large flock of frigate day enjoy the wind!!

Winds have been so rare in the last month that the opportunity to sail 10-15 knots SE trade wind in flat waters today was not to be missed and the other locations mentioned above may be a stopover for later. 43 miles sail, an easy 9 to 5 day (yay!!!) led the KUNA to the very end of the Toghovae lagoon system, then the wind died. The lagoon gets very shallow but is connected to a deep harbour called Mbaeni, which is adjacent to the previously famous Lever harbour, whose entrance is a little further to the NW.

The entrance to Mbaeni Harbour is wide and deep, a stick to the left marks a shallow reef fronting a small island with an abandoned village. Best anchorage was found further in from the village in 17 m of mud, towards the river at position S8º 02.584 E157º 36.167. The bank raises rapidly to shallow mud after that. Few canoes came by but fruit and veg trading was possible, though exorbitant prices may be negociated!!

Matiu Island, Morovo Lagoon

2008-10-03T06:29:00.000-07:00

The next few entries (read from bottom to top in the blog) relate details of a fast-ish passage along the 120 miles that separate Ngatokae Island all the way to Lola island in the Vona Vona Lagoon, via the north of the New Georgia Group.

Oct3rd 2008
Matiu Island
S8 29.667 E158 08.732

After first attempt to depart for Kolombangara, following the more picturesque southern route, via the Hele Bar and Blanche Channel to Rendova island, the KUNA rediscovered how uncomfortable it is to ride a bumpy sea with virtually no wind. A light southeaster (yes SE trades had come back that day after two months without wind!) was blowing but 8 knots were not enough to prevent the rig from bashing going down wind with occasional a 2 m swells.

Some large logs lost by the logging barges: something to no run into!

After a couple of mile of this, the KUNA turned around, opting for the more boring northern route around the New Georgia group, which has flat waters all the way and the same winds!

Stew has speared a barracuda and waves it good bye

After letting thew KUNA showing off in front of Peava with the red spinnaker, the winds died off and progress was slow: 18 miles achieved to get to the Kokoana Passage, which gives access to a variety of anchorages inside Morovo lagoon, including Matikuri Island, which has a nice sandy beach, and a hide in the lagoon behind Matiu Island, the closest to the passage.

Hide behind Matiu.

Nice and open anchorage, anywhere in the green (sand) with a nice breeze, the tongue of reef which extends NW on the right of Kokoana passage can be crossed through visible darker gaps in the reef, with a minimum depth of 3m, avoiding ovious brown bommies! The marker to bring in transit with island edge described in Sieling's guide does not exist anymore.

Chart SI07 (solomon Island survey, available in HOniara) shows some of these places in more detail though the survey is still imcomplete for the outer barrier. Eyeball navigation country, good for kites!!!

A short trip on the outskirts of Morovo lagoon

2008-10-01T20:58:00.000-07:00

Morovo is one of the four lagoons which surround the New Georgia group (made of of the main island of New Georgia, Vangunu and Ngatokae). It is unique in that it is surrounded by a double barrier reef. More than reefs, there is actually a double layer of outer islands, which arose from a complex geological history of successives uplifts and tilts around the volcanic island of Vangunu.

Really the canoe reccie done previously didn’t show anything terribly exciting inside Morovo lagoon, nearby the island of Vangunu. Of course if you are interested in carvings, that’s a different story, go to populated areas, villages like Telina, etc. The township of Batuna (on the Eastern side of Vangunu) also has a good market. The best things about it is that it starts late: 10am, and the official rule is that everyone waits for all to turn up in their canoes from far away places to start selling!

Batuna from the shore line. The town host a TAFE type of trade school and also has an internet connection

The well supplied store of Batuna

The outskirts of Morovo are easy to navigate as all reefs are steep-to. Most of the inner lagoon is unsurveyed. Yet it could be travelled with care on clear days as most depths are over 5 m. The local Solomon Island survey chart SI07 provides more detailed information on some parts of the lagoon and Dirk Sieling Solomon Islands cruising guide (out of print, contact the author!) details all the local village anchorages though the information contained in the guide is outdated in terms of snorkelling and water quality (sadly so).

A typical Morovo nnchorage (flat still waters, here on a grey day!)

Squid check the anchor chain

The reef is definitely at the foot of the rainforest!

On the wild side, the outer islands are gorged with birdlife and the south of Porepore offers beautiful anchorage in emerald green waters 6-10 m, sand. There are many passages to access the lagoon and its best to not tuck in too much behind the tree to get some breeze!

Dark squall coming from the SE onto Peava

Build up after a hot day: summer is coming...

The trade winds have now stopped for good. The ITCZ, the Intertropical Convergence Zone, is the boffin name for doldrums, ie the windless zone of equatorial low pressure inbetween Northern and Southern Hemisphere trade winds. It regularly shifts in latitude. In the last ten days, the ITCZ went south of the Solomon Western Islands, leaving in her path a trail of thick rain cloud and absolutely no wind for many days (good computer weather!). After two sunny days with light SE winds (10 knots or so), it went on its way back North, but this time with a bagful selection of winds from all directions. Sailing consists now of changing sail configuration every half an hour, or more!!

The slopes surrounding the crater of Vangunu, this island is about 1000m high but is being logged to 800m, 21% of it's lower primary forest clear felled. Doesn't that remind you of Tasmania ?! Except with even less control from an corrupted government.

Beyond this geological reef uniqueness, the lagoon used to yield amazingly clear waters and nearly acquired the status of world heritage area in the 90’s. Unfortunately, this status was not granted and 15 years of unregulated industrial exploitation such as logging, oil plantation, Beche de Mer harvesting have modified the ecosystem dramatically. A 3 years monitoring project led by the Uni of Queensland tested reef health and water quality, and the report did not bring such positive results on the health of the lagoon.

logging barge and tug frequently seen in the lagoon

Pikininis came to say good bye!

Internet in the lagoon!

2008-09-25T20:47:00.000-07:00

One may wonder how I get to post these blog entries from such a remote country as the Solomons Islands? Well, what a wonderful way to win your own carbon credits by going to the internet by kayak!!

The European Union has funded a small number of internet base stations throughout the country. These are called distance learning centers. These satellite links are completely independent from the unreliable Solomon island Telekom company. They employ their own IT technicians. One such school at BekaBeka is located 5 miles away from the Peava anchorage so an easy day trip with a purpose, 45 minutes each way on a good day. The hard bit is to paddle back into a 35 knots squall wind

Along with the Distance Learning Centers, which have internet connections, some good education initiatives are being carried out in the area. Morovo lagoon is the test area for a new education initiative called OLPC: One Laptop per Child. 100$ labtop conceived for developing countries, making computing and internet accessible as a learning tool. Despite being small and looking like a toy, the Linux based OLPC labtop has all the wireless connectivity from standard labtops – and more - and is rugged for the wet and dusty environment. Really, I’d like one for the boat!!!!! The children are absorbing computer technology rapidly and teach eachother and many more teaching materials are accessed through the labtop, as it is a lot easier and cheaper to move files than books in this country.

The satellite based internet link for Morovo needs continued support from the EU. Having more and more users is the best way to justify applying for continued technical support and funding. Along with the spread of DVD technology in the villages, internet and computer are viable ways to convey important conservation principles amongst younger generations and help the inhabitants of Morovo lagoon manage their resources sustainably. There is a long way to go but many dynamic players keep chipping at it. For example, the conservation DVD project involving the KUNA has good hope to receive enough interest and raise funding.

Exploring the rainforest of Ngatokae Island

2008-09-07T20:50:00.000-07:00

Another place visited to gather nice nature images for the DVD (see previous post on Morovo lagoon) was the rainforest. The solomon islands rainforests yield very high biodiversity, supporting a large number of endemic species and there is a strong need for conservation initiatives to protect them, project that the country itself can barely support, so a number of NGOs are involved.

Going along with Patrick Pikacha, a local conservation scientist who works for the NGO Conservation International, it was easy to take up a bushwalking trip to the top of Ngatokae mountain, Mt Mariu, to photograph the many frogs species that inhabit the forested slopes of the mountain.
Patrick works for Conservation International and is the founder and editor of Melanesian Geographic, the Geo equivalent publication for the Solomons/PNG

Ngatokae is an old volcano, now extinct, and its summit culminates at about 885m.

It is not a high mountain but because it is so close to the open ocean, the vegetation gradient is remarkably compressed from the tall lowland rainforest to the misty cloud forest, Species that would be found elsewhere at 2000m are found here at 600m here! This makes for Ngatokae high conservation values.

The first morning led us along an old logging road, now eroded into ferralitic soils and covered by the bush reclaiming its grounds.

The lower parts of the island have been logged ten years ago. The forest has now recovered to a lower canopy called secondary forest. Some of it remained cleared for the gardens exploited by the villagers.

Gardens are nested in the clearings
The secondary forest can sometimes a better habitat supporting a more diverse range of bird species than the primary forest. In some of the remaining tall trees, Eclectus parrot can be spotted. The female is red and from the throne of her nest, in a large tree hole, she monitors a crowd of green males who brings her food. This female eclectus was shy but I managed to “creep” her and take a shot

Female eclectus parrot, high in her tree

Up at 200m elevation, we enter the dark shade of the primary rainforest forest. Meandering amongst the tall trees, the tracks becomes softer and less slippery, the soil is covered in a thick layer of leaves and its very quiet.

We descend back towards the valley of the Kavolavata river which drops from the upper ridges of Mount Mariu. Beautiful volcanic rock pools and and relief to refresh when we arrive at the camp in a curve near the creek.

Robert is cooking up a feed of rice and 2 min noodle with onion and capsicum on the fire: breakfast, lunch and dinner!!

A Hennessy Hammock is once again a must in the rain forest!

The evening is spent looking for frogs. Patrick has a nice sigma 150mm macro lens that he’s lent me to take close ups. The frogs are found easily: as soon as it gets dark, especially after the bucketing rain, they start singing very loudly, though so small!

tree frog
Many species can be found on the tree trunks under leaves or inside the small water pools formed by the epiphytes.

eyelash frog, an endemic species from the Solomons-

The next day, a walk up to the 600m elevation mark took us through a fast transition to a sparser ridge forest with large pandani and later through the cloud forest, where short trees covered in mosses intricately mix with smaller species of pandani (not unlike Tasmanian ones) and ferns. Higher on the ridges, with a shorter canopy,

there are also a lot of orchids

The internet repeater is located on a clearing at 600m, and the only place where a sweeping view of Morovo lagoon can be enjoyed, and a rare sight as the summit is often in cloud!

Morovo lagoon and its many islands

A canoe trip to Morovo Lagoon

2008-09-06T20:05:00.000-07:00

Morovo is accessible by yacht but a good reccie was worthwhile before going in with the KUNA. I will give sailing and anchoring details later.

The purpose of this trip was also to gather some visual material for a conservation DVD. Many DVD players are found in villages and Solomon islanders watch whatever they can find! A good means of educating people about conservation values for their country appeared to spread a natural history DVD around, distributing it for free! This is only a project at this stage but hopefully will find its shape !

In Morovo lagoon, the effect of logging have been dramatic, due to erosion of ferralitic soils into the lagoon, covering corals with a deep layer of sediment in some places. Vangunu, the large volcanic island in the middle of the lagoon was clear felled up to 800m on most faces.

muddy waters in the lagoon

once the forest is gone, ferralitic soils quickly erode away, here behind an old logging camp

The lagoon was submitted for World Heritage Area in the 90’s but never won the status due to politicians who prefer getting the benefits of corruption money from the Malaysian or Taiwanese logging companies.

Interestingly, the neat villages shores of Ngatokae are bordered by fairly large houses built out of timbers. All are a fair demonstration of the large cash inflow that logging brought into the island ten years ago. The benefits of the cash introduced in the villages were transient and many unfinished abandoned buildings can be seen around the villages. Rarely, the cash from logging benefited communities either, but more the corrupted individuals who managed to sell the land of all and allow the destructive fleets of machinery to come in, fell and leave before the naïve villagers realize, too late, the extent of the damage.

a neat house, contrasting with the small coconut huts of other solomon places (see Tikopia)
This canoe attests of the large rainforest trees that were available to boat builders

Morovo is one of the few lagoons in the world surrounded by an inner and outer barrier.
On the way from the main town Batuna, to the outer barrier, we catch dinner: a school of bonito is pointed out by some excited noddies.

guide Robert brings in the bonito!!

On many lower limestone outer islands, the remnants of logging camps attest of past damages too. The mainly intact rainforest trees find a hard time to grown in amongst the bare limestone.

The outer islands, such as Porepore, host a large Goanna who generally gets attracted by the smell of fish cooking on the fire. They were easy to spot and photograph with that lure! The goanna is a special creature in Morovo. Being taboo, they are safe from the local’s voracity and a feature animal for a conservation DVD we’re making!

On the way to Porepore, we stopped at Patrik’s grandparent’s place, near Batuna on the main island of Vangunu, to drop of a bag of rice

Solomon rice 10kg bags can be turned into a hand bag and provide with map of the islands, in case you get lost –
Patrick’s grand parents are very healthy: at 90 years old, they still jump in the canoe and paddle to go to their garden and crouch like teenagers.

At 90 also, they have seen large transformations in their customs: less than forty years ago, headhunters coming from other islands were threatening people from Vangunu, killing them, eating some of them or capturing the chidren and raising them to later eat them. The upper ridges of the island are full of taboo sites with the skulls gathered by the headhunters. In some places, such as Biche village, people built fortified villages up into the forest to protect themselves from the head hunters. In those times, the Solomon island population was small and remained so with the many kills.

Patrick with his grand parents

They gave us large bags of Gnahli nuts to eat on the way, a delicious local nut in season from Sept to Nov-December. Removed from their fruit and shell, the Gnahli are roasted to get the best of their taste, a delicacy!

Diving around Peava

2008-09-01T19:28:00.000-07:00

At the other end of the lagoon, is the wharf and shop of Solomon Dive Adventures ( check www.solomondiveadventures.com ).

It is probably the best community integrated dive operation in the Solomon Islands. The business manager Lisa Choquette has 30 years of experience diving and came from Hawaii.

Lisa in dive boat
She made every effort to train 5 local villagers to the Divemaster’s level at her own cost, so they can later take on running the dive business themselves in the future. Those five divemasters are boys, but she also certified four ladies, who unfortunately did not go any further but open water, some for getting pregnant… Shame, more ladies should take on diving in the Solomons.

Along with the dive business, Lisa opened a library for the community bringing a variety of books and DVDs, along with a kindergarten,

The kids from the headstart program

Lisa regularly organizes educational shows setting up the projector in the open area near the church. She is also often called upon for medical help, fixing bushknife cuts, or helping some kids to elocution, etc, etc.. Recently, she organised a big campaign to keep the village clean, teaching the local to pick up the rubbish and now, several beautifully painted 44 gallon drums ornament the main road! Rubbish is sorted, some recycled, paper and plastics are burnt. Another main campaign concerned smoking, another alcohol! Slowly, the messages spread through, with the added support of church sermons and the help of her divemasters…

60 something, Lisa is very active woman who is doing a lot for the community and educating the villagers about conserving their marine resources to a sustainable level through diving. A small marine reserve has been created as a community initiative to keep fish near the wharf so visitors can look at tame fish. No spearing allowed there!!

A juvenile batfish pretends to be a dead leaf

I forgot to mention, yes the diving in the area is worth it and the team know where to the most obscure species in the dive sites surrounding Peava! My underwater camera has broken down unfortunately so no good pictures! Mbulo Island, 3 miles across from Peava, has some sheer drop off on the Northern side, all protected from the SE swells. After a week, the plankton bloom had gone down and the visibility was up to 30m. beautiful caves and coral gardens with large gorgonian fans make for some nice landscape down deep at 25-35m.

diamondfishes
A dusk dive in Peava lagoon passage did bring some amazing nudibranchs, cuttle fishes and the famous flasher wrasses, which court by rapidly raising and lowering their dorsal fin at dusk. The lagoons warm waters host to many animals, gropers, turtles, puffer fish, rays, razorfish, painted flutemouth, and many surgeonfishes, and despite being a bit murky, are my daily swim, worth exploring again and again!

Resting at Peava

2008-08-23T21:08:00.000-07:00

Peava village

Along the shores of the lagoon, lays the tranquil village of Peava. This place is not far from paradise. No crocodiles there, so can swim anytime and such nice people!!!!!

KUNA was very welcome in Peava (that’s why still hasn’t left!), but one shall not expect the village to support any rubbish disposal, repairs, etc. Heard some bad stories of previous yachties coming in and expecting services like in Australia, all for nothing (scrungers!) and they gave a bad impression! Peava is never short of water and villagers are happy for visitors to use the taps and wander around. It is good practice to go and find the young community leader Cyanna, to introduce oneself and ask for permission to go visiting the surrounding islands.

There are many great characters, who have initiated some good projects which give villagers jobs and a bit of purpose. There is a great community feeling in the village, whose is under the influence of the Seven Day Adventist Church, a mission which I found being very productive in the Solomon Islands (and I am not religious for two cents!). One day, we found everyone on a big weed picking mission (photo weed picking day) in the main single track road of the village (there are of course no cars here).

Weed picking in the main street of Peava

The Wilderness Lodge (check www.thewildernesslodge.org ), at the end of the wharf in the middle of the lagoon, is warm and inviting. Yes this sounds like a tourist advertising but that was so true the peaceful feeling given by this special place!

Four local great chefs run the kitchen for the guests who get to sit all together on a large table to share a meal. Some of the ladies did kindly bake extra bread for the KUNA and one may order some extra fruit and vegies for the yacht in advance. It helps the ladies picking no more than what’s needed from the garden! Many villagers work on and off for the lodge, and the manager Corey, (an Australian who elected domicile in Peava and married a local girl) makes some effort to keep a balance between introducing cash to the villagers and keeping them living with their subsistence gardens.

Corey has adapted a local dug out canoe and tracks well out of a big rain downpour with a cut down version windsurfer's sail!

A brief visit to Mary Island, onwards to Ngatokae!

2008-08-21T21:30:00.000-07:00

Mary Island...

En route for Ngatokae Island, the KUNA had all intentions to stop at Mary Island (Mboroko) for some diving on the steep walls of this inhabited island, 22 nm of the Russel islands North shores. There is no anchorage there, except on a small patch of reef on the north west side of the island, which apparently is OK in constant SE winds. The bay to the South offers no protection from the SE swells but may be explored in NW weather season.
Also called Mboroko, Mary is uninhabited and covered in dense rainforest but pigs were once upon a time introduced on the island and have had a very destructive impact.

A private mooring is there, but unfortunately it was occupied by the dive charter boat Bilikiki (buggered up the timing, they come once a week!)
… Talking to divers from the Spirit of Solomons( the other ship that uses the mooring), I later found out that a medium sized saltwater crocodile lives out there, they encountered it while diving in a fairly open area, even that far out and with cliffy volcanic shores that really aren’t croc habitat!!!

So KUNA continued on to Ngatokae Island, hoping to make the remaining 32 miles in time before nightfall.

Ngatokae is located at the extreme South East of the New georgia group and faces the South easterly weather. Strong winds got KUNA fast in sight the cliffy shores on the weather coast. As A tall swell grew, compressed between Mbulo Island, Malemale Island and the reef shore of Ngatokae and KUNA was soon surfing down 3m waves in this passage bordered by a reef on the South West side of MaleMale.

It was tight to get inside the lagoon at 6:30 PM as the night was falling behind the 1000m Mt Mariu, and for once the traditional Solomon navigation marks were quite useful in marking the 4m deep passage: two very large buoys are to be lined up and not confused with the yellow mooring buoy and the red cone beacon (yes red!) that indeed marks a very shallow reef. Leave it well to starboard when going in.

Here is another view of the passage from inside the lagoon looking out

Well, best is not to enter this lagoon at dusk but that was all right! Some ships do it in the peach dark!

KUNA at rest in Peava lagoon
S8° 47.172 E158° 13.872

The best anchorage is found in 20m of water to the north of the lagoon. With 60m of chain and the anchor dropped slightly more towards the reef side, KUNA had plenty of swinging room in every direction, mostly for SE trade winds. Cherry on the cake: the bottom is SILT!!! The lagoon is incredibly protected and only a slight swells rolled the KUNA at high tide, even when 2-3m runs through the channel outside!

This Google Earth photo was a blessing to get in late in the day!!!!

Sail and other repairs at Nukufero

2008-08-20T20:30:00.000-07:00

A peaceful quiet spot with a bit of a breeze was ideal to conduct a bit of maintenance at Nukufero in between kayak trips.

Don’t fix sails with SIKAFLEX and adhesive patches- if you can!

The main had suffer a big rip in transit between Tikopia and Anuta: the stainless metal shackle attaching the sheets broke, and as the sail flogged heavily in the squall the sharp metal edge ripped 60cm at the base of the headsail in a T shape, one width of sail material! Without a zigzag industrial sewing machine on board, hard to fix the sail with a proper window patch so I did a band aid patch with thin material and sikaflex over the adhesive repair patch.

The job held well for a couple of months, but with the heavy forces of beating, the patches recently started shearing away because the adhesive on the patch did not stick to the sikaflex! I should have used clean sail cloth rather than adhesive patch, and now here I am: spent 6 hours removing the sikaflex from either side of the sail to reapply the patch!! See how it holds this time

The usual wear and tear on the galvanized rigging needs a bit of attention, sanding back to remove the rust in every spot and re-paint with a metal priming paint. It worked out a few days later that even after the rust removed, a decent metal primer was the go as rust reappeared through the paint!

Other jobs that were neglected before the charter due to lack of time: some stainless fitting were not insulated properly from the aluminium, creating galvanic reaction between dissimilar metals. This one needs soaking for a week or more in freshwater and vinegar!

Second visit to Nukufero, North West Russell

2008-08-17T19:24:00.001-07:00

KUNA anchored at Nukufero -

West Bay

Nukufeo inlet map -

S9º01.719 E159º04.830 marks the passage through the reefy entrance of this deep inlet. The Garmin electronic chart above is not very exact (the paperchart is not rectified for WGS84), this is why the waypoint sits on the reef! The reef extends on either side, and has very shallow spots so enter in good sunlight. The village side is marked by a stick, but stay well clear as it is for canoe draft! One can anchor in the bay on the northern side of the inlet in about 15m , opposite Samata village, but the holding, on hard rubble, was pretty average. This spot is pretty protected, though so it still would be safe in light NE- SE winds.

Having been in and out of this reef guarded inlet during the BBC crocodile project, it was easy to revisit it, this time with the excitement of sailing the flat waters all the way to Nukufero, and the joy of finding deep mud and all round protected anchorage!! While it was very stuffy there in May, the August tradewinds reached all the way, providing a fresh breeze and no mosquitoes, yay! This pristine mangrove anchorage with views over the rainsforest of Pavuvu is most peaceful, surrounded by bird and frog calls at night and it would be a good cyclone hole too.

looking for crocs in May!

S9º03.212 E159º05.218 is the Nukufero anchorage.
Any further south into the inlet, the mud bank rises rapidly to a depth of 1m, don’t go too far!

Conveniently placed between the village of Nukufero and its gardens, a traffic of canoes constantly comes in and out of a mangrove creek at the end of the inlet. Intercepting them to trade some foods is easier than going to the market! There is a market to in NUkufero on Saturdays and Wednesdays. It takes place in “the club” an old corrugated shed, at 7 am, just after morning prayer, so hurry up as soon as you hear the prayer bell and you may get a chance to buy some fresh bun cake (bread)! Other goods, apart form betelnut, are rare and generally intercepted and sold half was through the football field before their seller reaches the market! So I found easier to send the children to hunt of some fruit and vegetables and trade pencils!

A lot of people friendily visited the KUNA in their outrigger canoes, offering coconuts, etc.. none of them as timid and reserved as their melanesian counterparts, a friendly trait that I found even more on Tikopia!

going out with the girls!

Young girls even dragged me into their play area in the bush for eating germinated coconut and to teach me how to make Tikopian baskets-

Tunnelled by tall mangrove trees, a magic shaded creek extends 1.5 km inland from the end of the inlet and is a great dusk trip. With night guides on dug out canoes, we explored it for the BBC croc hunt, and it is certainly croc infested as every one we passed gave us a warning for crocodiles. In the next inlet East (Kukunaon Inlet) a young man who was diving at night on the coral to catch fish, was killed and they only found its legs, which they buried.

Later, a walk further up the river to a waterfall was guided by David and Muriel, a local young couple. Muriel is 26 and has not got any children yet (this, I was surprised about), which leaves her the time to come on strolls, unlike many other women.

David and Muriel

The waterfall is locater in between the two main hills of Pavuvu. There is very little gradient there, so it is not so specky but refreshing!!!!

Walking up the freshwater end of the river was certainly a bit daunting due to crocs, but most obvious threat was this little freshwater snail whose nasty spikes quickly got into my feet before I could put on any shoes.

A freshwater snail with a nasty spine!

The people in Nukufero are Polynesians, and very different from their melanesian neighbours in Samata village or Kukunaon Inlet.

so are their canoes, melanesian canoes do not have an outrigger, as below, a lot more dangerous in crocodile country.

People settled from Tikopia in the 1950’s when there was a lot of work in the coprah plantations. Although so remote from their mother island (800 miles away), they keep a close contact and their Tikopian customs. During the KUNA’s first visit, all were mourning the loss of their older chief number One, Late Kafika, on Tikopia. They keep contact with the mother island by HF radio, message are relayed via Lata in the Temotu Province. People from Nukufero rarely get the chance to visit their mother island, because transport by ship is virtually inexistent. People from Tikopia who come to Nukufero, rarely go back there either. The same tribal lines are present in Nukufero and Tikopia and I found fair resemblance between this Tafua man, Tomas, and Chief Edward so I asked if they were related and of course they were!

- Thomas in his house -
So, having visited Tikopia myself for two weeks, it was great to come back to Nukufero and bring them some news and photos. I burnt a DVD of pictures and a music CD with the sing sings I recorded on the beach with the Ipod and gave it to the community, which was well appreciated. The trick was for them to organize viewing sessions of the DVD and sharing generator fuel costs for this very purpose. I was amazed at how many DVD players were in the village (Tikopia has not even a CD player!)

a village house, on high posts

The negative impact of exposure to modern customs was problematic for Chairman Andrew, the community leader: whilst any alcohol is banned on Tikopia, and it is also in Nukufero, but young men found a way around by using Cava (the traditional Vanuatu root drink) and fermenting it into alcohol, sometimes adding quinine or other drugs to make the mix more explosive. Now the community is all getting off on it: in May, there was not a sound to be heard at night, but this time, party music was doofing in the distance every night the so called “Cava” was available and we’d sadly hear of sore heads the next day.

Lingattu Cove, Russell Islands

2008-08-16T18:55:00.000-07:00

S9º07.265 E159º09.691 Lingattu

The sunlight passage made for a nice sail in dead flat water, even in light winds, though the breeze gets flueky trough there. Along the passage many settlements with people always greeting the few yachts that come through. The narrows at the south of the passage did make for interesting navigation in between coral reefs shaded by mangrove trees! The passage, extremely deep, has very few shoals, some of them being marked by the adequate navigation markers

Lingattu is a Cove at the South of the Russel group, an inlet at the end of the sunlight passage. One can anchor at the entrance in about 6-7 m on sand and rubble (position provided) or aim for the harbour at the end of the channel that is more protected from the winds. The waters are clear and the bottom is covered in world war two relics and other wreckages.

An old plantation village, Lingattu has only a few families. The children there are accustomed to trade with visitors because the dive cruising vessels Bilikiki and Spirit of Solomons anchor there to dive the wreck of an old freighter. To dive it, it was easy enough to ask the locals to point it out: it is 20m straight off shore, opposite the last house of the settlement to the south in the main channel. The stern of the wreck, 15m deep, can be seen snorkelling from the surface and its bow sits in 30m. It is a nice little dive with lots of large fishes (midnight snappers, blue fin trevally, angelfishes) swimming in and out of the portholes. The wreck is covered in curtain blue sponges and lots of red fire fishes (lion fish type) inhabit the top. An easy and rewarding shore dive!

The main community is along side the shore, 1km further in the cove, a kayak ride away. A "pikinini project": with swarms of the buggers running to the shore like flies to greet the kayak with abig hello and a big smile. The population is increasing at a rat eof 5% in some places in the solomons, with 80% of people under 25 years old, a scary statistic, reflected in this vision!
All were very surprised but happy to be visited and summoned for market foods in pidgin and soon canoes brought over pumpkin, pawpaw and bushlimes to the KUNA. With a bit of effort, I could even find bread, commonly called “buncake”. At first, hearing “pancake”, it took me a while to workout that it was the usual fresh buns sold for a dollar a piece and they had just been baked in half a 44 gallon drum. Yum!

Children come to sell fruit and vegies

With the KUNA safely anchored in Lingattu, it was easy to go and explore the islands south of the sunlight passage.
Taina Island was the first one: it was a very tempting lagoon for anchoring but only for centreboard yachts! The entrance (off position S9º07.930 E159º08.695) is shallow and sparsed with bommies. A quick check at mid tide (on a neap tide) yielded no more that 1.5 m of water. Though possible, it would have taken too much effort to get the KUNA in there and hard to catch the next tide to get out. Taina is inhabited and has a small hospital for the communities of the southern Russels. The victim of a centipede bite in Lingattu was only a short canoe ride away from medical help.

The above mentioned wreck is marked on the map

On the Western side of Hoi Island, there is a logging wharf. Lots of activity was going on when passing by with the canoes with two tug boats towing a barge full of large rainforest tree logs. Industrial logging operations are now taking place on Pavuvu, the main Western russel island and a large red road cutting the forest to the West (village of Liosoleme)

Northern Russells
Returning via the sunlight passage to the Northern side of the Russels, the KUNA took a meandering passage in between the reefs, in search for more exciting lagoon anchorages. The large area of shallow lagoon in unfortunately windswept by the SE trades and chop builds up over the 2 or 3 miles of unprotected waters. Of course there are a few crocodile infested inlets to have a look at but no shoals were deemed exciting enough to anchor so the KUNA continued on to West Bay and Nukufero via the northern protected shores, rounding the cliffs of Marualon Island. Should one need to stop, Kiolen Point offers a bit of a protected shoal (app S8º59.635 E159º07.815), though the sad sight of the logging camp nearby is not appealing. Logging roads also cut the northern side of Pavuvu.

Later explored by kayak, the bay between Marulaon Island and Pavuvu actually holds a possible nice anchorage on its Eastern side, off a small low-key resort man aged by a local man, Oliver. Trained in hospitality in Vanuatu, this entrepreneurial businessman was very welcoming and intend to re open the resort after he builds a couple of bungalows in 9 months. The anchorage (approximate location S8º 59.6 E159º 06.332), in 5-10m sand in between some coral heads -which can be avoided-, is nicely vented in the SE trades. It would give close access to the white sandy beach of Pipisala Bay, lined by coconut plantation and to the northern cliffs of Marulaon.

Hanasivi Cove too close to the coral and crocs!

2008-08-13T21:44:00.000-07:00

S8º 59.026 E159º 13.606

A croc was laying on the bommie in the background. This photo was taken the time before when snorkelling here.

This lovely cove provides a windless shelter from the S to SE tradewinds but if the wind turns any N of East, be prepared to get out, as we learned during a night squall which was enough to put the rudder above the reef flat, luckily at high tide. The exit is broad and deep so no problem there, especially with a GPS track

The light marked on Lagholon Island(easternmost on the pic) of course does not work and is a rusty remnant of the old colonial times.

Let’s face it, this anchorage itself is really to steep to be an anchorage but good for a lunch stopover. Drop the pick off the marked position in 35m to 25m of water and run a stern line to the coconut tree directly off the position. That’ll put you a boat length away from the reef.

Kuna with sternline to a coconut tree

Assume sand and rubble with a few coral heads, but again didn’t check that one because as the KUNA approached, motoring slowly, a crocodile was watching, unfrightened, laying on a coral bommie, in bright daylight!!! They are everywhere and I found more footprints on small coral islands to the extreme north of the lagoon.

Though wild, all these islands are imprinted by traces of human occupation: small camps, now abandoned are noticeable from the time Beche De Mer was harvested.

From there, a lot of the northern lagoon could be explored by kayak. Mangrove trees grow in the middle of crystal clear coral waters!

A good snorkelling spot with shallow nooks and crannies is just 500m NE of the anchorage spot. Hanasivi Island is thickly wooded but with some windy openings (the anchorage spot is windless) and the sound of a chainsaw resoned during the day: a small camp with four people harvesting timber with a portable saw (small scale initiative). It was interesting to hear that they are also opposed to the large logging companies, which are currently opening large roads in several places on the main Russell islands but small bribes that the village chiefs receive from the loggers makes them helpless to prevent the damage.

Mangrove growing on coral everywhere...

Koemorun Island, getting in the lagoon is worthwhile!

2008-08-12T21:24:00.000-07:00

Koemorun Island lagoon
S09º00.894, E159º16.012 ,

By far the best anchorage in the Russells. If you are looking for a wild tropical paradise looking island bordered with rainforest tree full of birds, surrounded by a reef lagoon, this is IT! And to my belief, no crocodile lives here. No people either, just the occasional motor canoes come to fish the reef edge. The KUNA was safe there and could be left for the whole day.

The lagoon is large, 10 to 5 m deep in sand and sparse small bommies and the choice of the location is yours, but the trick is to get in!

To get inside the lagoon, the KUNA had to go over a very narrow passage in between bommies, which yields 1.8 m depth (that’s not at Datum, that’s with the tide!). The tides in the Russells are diurnal (range varying between 20 and 80 cm), which means the high tide occurs only once a day, and unfortunately, high tide does not conveniently happen at the time of the day when reef navigation is at its optimum light wise (between 10am and 3pm). Studying the tide tables tightly, I found late in the neap tide week seems to be the highest water level at the best time, towards 4pm. Low tide occurs right at 12 noon during spring tides, and high tide in the middle of the night!!!

The entrance in oriented East West so neither the early morning nor the late afternoon are convenient as one always looks into the sun, bugger!

So there is basically no choice but going in blind, so to get around this problem, several kayak and snorkelling reccies were necessary to get to know the 5m narrow passage properly, checking that a person’s height worth of water was over the ground at every point. The safest way to proceed, while shorthanded for crew, was to actually mark the edge of the bommies (not visible in the available light) with fenders and fishing buoys, so the passage could be followed! It takes a bit of time to set up the buoys and the morning tide was dropping rapidly: 20cm DO make a difference here, and to get out, we just made it before a rain squall.

The passage marked by fenders and buoys, crossed in a squall, not so dodgy with good markers!

The passage through the reef is directly East of the GPS position S9º00.682, E159º 15.407 and is to the north of a large round flat bommie with a defined edge. There is a break in the vegetation on the island, which is good to aim for from this position, bearing 87ºT, though the course for the passage itself is about 80ºT. I must say, didn’t have time to check the exact course, I was too busy squeezing between the bommies for 50 meters! After that it gets deep again and navigation is easy.

The snorkelling and diving are pretty good all around the very steep walls of the reef, vertical walls with lots of caves.
But the lack of large predatory fish such as coral trout, cods, trevallies, snappers was remarkable and the explanation has yet to be found. They either may have been intensively fished for the Esky market (canoes take them to Honiara for selling) or eaten locally during the beche de Mer harvest (now closed). Or the wall coral is just not the right habitat, despite the numerous caves ? ON the NW and SE corners, a reasonable amount of current occurs (2-3knots), making for a lot of large gorgonians and a lot of zooplankton reduced the visibility to 15-20m. Some eagle rays were spotted and some babay black tip sharks under the trees along the beach, along with a few land dwellers

Kingfishers hover in the trees above the lagoon at dusk

A goanna visits the picinic place, attracted by the grilled fish smell?

Hermit crabs are fierce competitors of my shell collection: they virtually inhabit every shell on the beach, except cowries...

Early sunset in the tropics

Yandina, the destitute capital of the Russells

2008-08-05T21:16:00.000-07:00

There is an anchorage in 18m of water well described in the Dirk Sieling guide but the deep inlet is fairly open to the Easterlies.

So Yandina wasn’t even worth anchoring there, the town is in a sad stage of dismantlement so a trip by kayak was enough to try and buy some vegies. Market there is on Wednesday and Saturday, but don’t hold your breath, it may not be more than just a bit of betelnut and banana!!! A chinese tradestore in a large corrugated iron shed is well supplied for various dry good (biscuit, washing powder, etc…) and sells bread (say “buncake”) if one turns up early enough in the morning!

To be fair to Solomon islands tourism, I am showing the equivalent coprah operation of Honiara, That's what Yandina would have looked like a few years back. Imagine an old rusty burnt down structure now...

Most of the Russells are covered by extensive coconut plantations for the exploitation of coprah and Yandina was the centre for processing the coprah. Since the labour dispute with the company owning the plantations started four years ago, causing the work to stop, most plantations are now rapidly becoming bush, with an impenetrable understorey of young rainforest growing in between the coconut trees. To collect the coconuts, the understorey normally has to be clear. And all the large sheds, diesel engines and other machinery of the coprah processing plant in Yandina have been pillaged, destroyed or are now rusting away. A huge waste and a sad sight, walking around town so I didn’t even take any photos.
Yandina has not much else to offer there, The Telekom office does not have internet (which is why I am so late updating this blog!)

Due to its spreading use as biofuel, the price of coprah is now increasing again (to 2.6 SID/kg), quite a few private initiatives continue and the owners reckon it is more profitable for them to work the coprah privately with small drying houses instead of being labour for the company.

Small coprah drying shed, they are in many places in the Russells

Drying Coprah

The Russells have a lot of settlement with people from other islands, who came to work on the plantations (Bellona, Malaita, Tikopia, etc..) while the local Russell people continue working in their gardens and live a self subsistence life. Though one hears that the dispute can cause problems if white people wish to visit the islands, no resentment was felt anywhere the KUNA stopped. The people are generally friendly and reserved.

Russell revisit, on holiday now!

2008-08-02T21:05:00.000-07:00

The Russells are an interesting group of islands, 60 miles North West of Guadalcanal. Once a volcano, it got eroded and sank under sea level, became covered in coral reefs but later got uplifted again dramatically, creating an amazing undersea geomorphology and some limestone islands.

Most of them are old reefs now sticking out of the water. One can still see the old corals. Once submitted to rains and winds, the coral erodes into some very sharp stones, making it virtually impossible to walk on it. Thankfully a few sandy beaches are there inside the shallow reef lagoons.

This steep ountry makes it all very hard for anchoring, as it is either too deep or to shallow, so the Russells only show a few anchorages, some may have to be only day ones, or if one is prepared to leave at any time the wind turns!

Note Chart UK1714, large scale of the Russells has an offset to WGS84 (GPS positions need to be corrected, read chart instructions before plotting!)

Ufaon Island lagoon slope
S09º04.11, E159º15.137

This lagoon is beautiful in sunny light, sparsed with bommies. For a day anchorage, it is possible to go and anchor on its edge in 3 m of water and have enough clearance over the bommies (if drawing less than 1.6 m, with a centreboard it would be easy!!). For a night anchorage, anchoring on the 45 degrees sand and rubble slope of the lagoon is possible in light southerly winds only! 10m of water can be found on a steep slope at approximately S09º04.11, E159º15.137.

While the KUNA was anchored there, the winds turned Easterly, then Northerly, with a squall, putting the boat right onshore, and though there was not much of a chance that the CQR was going to climb up the sandy slope, it was a somewhat disconcerting experience! With a shorter scope, there was still enough water under the keel but it was nice to move to the nearest more protected shoal in the channel between Faila and Ufaon Islands.

The first time we visited this gorgeous lagoon, I swam right around and that’s only the morning after we checked the anchor this time that a 3m crocodile swam around the KUNA about 70-100m away, unafraid in the daytime! Yet another disconcerting experience.

The narrow passage charted South of Kuaofa Point is about 10m deep. Dived with the right current, it has a lot of big fish, gropers, barras, batfishes, longtoms with some nice gorgonians and the outer wall is rich in small reef fishes. This place is probably far enough from the crocodile to swim (!).

Ufaon channel shoal
S09º03.554, E159º15.010 app.
13 m depth, or less (depends how close to the reef you feel like dropping the pic!), on sand and rubble with some coral heads though didn’t dive to have a look as this corner is the home of a crocodile.
This place in the channel is well protected from S to NE winds, and being an open corner, it leaves a fair swing room if the wind direction changes to North.
At both these anchorages, the children from the nearby village, at the coprah plantation, came around and could trade for a bit of bushlime and coconut but they quickly stopped bugging after KUNA showed up for the second time.

Next: the Russell Islands

2008-07-30T05:35:00.000-07:00

NOt sure when I'll update next, so here is an idea: shallow lagoons, should be OK diving though LOTs of crocs...
...more to come!

Honiara: Post Charter Maintenance and lack of wind

2008-07-29T21:27:00.000-07:00

The right spot to moor in Honiara!
One week has nearly passed since the KUNA landed in Honiara, been busy running around town. Since returnign from Tulaghi the trades have completely stopped. Picked up the most snug mooring of Point Cruz: the one on the NE corner along the concrete block wall of Point Cruz (see other comments on Point Cruz mid may). Point Cruz is as crowded as usual with 3 yachts from overseas, the local charter cat and "Mauri", the medical motor-sailor, whose skipper claims to own the mooring KUNA is on (but luckily, no compensation was asked)

The mooring, in about 20m on the slope (mud and sand so good to anchor in too), is sound (one of the large concrete blocks that the wall is made out of with 20mm chain links). With a sternline, the boat sits in 10m of water. The wall is shared with other yachts and the large liveaboard cruising diving ships 'Bilikiki' and 'Spirit of Solomons (40m+ recycled longliners) which excel in stern parking in tight spots, so no worries there if you wake up next to one of them!

Paints jobs to prevent rot in the coming wet season (yes better paint whilst it's dry here!) and sewing jobs have been on the list. Found the closest to a sail loft, Paul who works under a tree near the library with 15 sewing machines under a tarp behind a betel nut store held by his wife (close up to the town center and chinatown). He does a really good job with heavy duty fabrics and has been there for years, so worth trying if it is not your most precious sail!

A flash back about beating to Anuta

2008-07-29T05:20:00.000-07:00

As I was downloading my GPS waypoints, thought it'd be worthwhile showing why it's not worth it to go against the trades: 500nm to cover 240nm is not fun!!!

The yellow (straight) line is our return track, the green line is our track there! Anuta is at the extreme right end of both these tracks, further east than Vanuatu!! Lesson learned: go there after the trade season or reach from POrt Vila and back!

Ferry to Tulaghi and yacht safety

2008-07-22T22:54:00.000-07:00

There are experiences that make you really appreciate having your own boat in the solomon islands: catching the ferry is one of them!

The ferry runs on a fairly regular basis between Honiara and Tulaghi (near Ghela): 3 times a week is a very good rate for transport in the country but time of departure shifts by a few hours depending on the day, especially on fridays when people form Tulaghi come to HOniara, want to go walkabout in the capital and then go back home. Dealing with a mountain of boat supplies and a surfboard was not that simple when we got there in the peach dark..

Warning: yacht safety in Tulaghi

It was a relief to get back to the KUNA and find out that it was mostly fine, despite for the thick layer of mould that had grown in the last two weeks: the carer had neglected to open the hatches. Also learned that there had been a boarding attempt in the middle of the night by the thief (well potential one, he got outed by the security man sleeping outside). ON this topic, in the last two weeks, KUNA was the only yacht that did not get robbed: it is important to pick the right spot to park in Tulaghi: the most secure place is right on front of the Tulaghi dive shop, which has a little wharf and a restaurant behind it. There are security men there all the time, and th epolice station is 100 m away. Inform the police that you are parking there, they are quite good cops over there and it will increase their vigilance. The anchorage is quite deep (30m 100m from the shore in slopy sand and coral) and not very well protected during the trades though large waves do not build up. If you are tempted to go and anchor behind the small island east of Tulaghi, which has a boat yard on it (only 12 m and coral), DON'T!. The village opposite this island is full of rascals which are known to rob yachts. In fact, just last week a catamaran parked there got boarded at night, with his occupants asleep. Money and camera gear went missing. The spot at the north of Tulaghi island is not good either for security so compromise to weather or go somewhere else on Ghela. apparently the rest of the island is fine, only the people near Tulaghi have a bad reputation of specializing in yacht robberies (solar panels, etc...) and sadly they give the whole place a bad reputation so don;t be deterred, there are some nice people out there too!
f;)

Savo Island: Don’t put your finger into the volcano!

2008-07-17T18:40:00.000-07:00

Sorry all images uploaded in a hurry as I am trying to catch the ferry to Tulaghi...

The island of Savo, north West of Honiara is reputed for not having much of an anchorage so wasn’t worth taking KUNA there. As Guadalcanal’s weather coast, Savo presents a very steep coastline but the south western side shelves gently between 5 and 10 m, providing enough shelter to consider anchoring on calm days (and nights, attending the boat closely). The ground is sand, gravel and small coral bommies so the holding wouldn’t be very good but conditions are better than described in the cruising guides!!

Now, to this volcano business. Unlike other active volcanic islands such as Nupani (800m, in the Temotu province), Savo is not very high (400 m only) and, a very young island, eroded in steep ravines. So far, nothing much to different to any other island until one sticks their feet in the creeks that lead to the so called “crater” hidden in amongst the rainforest: warm water is flowing down the sides of the island and as one goes up the valley, soon enough, vapour clouds burst out of waterfalls of boiling water. A slip into the creek means a second degree burn now! As I hang on to those thin tree roots on a narrow slippery passage overhanging a boiling pool, I imagine the Risk Assessment Form to be filled in at the BBC, for example, to go filming a volcano! Apparently a guy slipped there and did a lot of damage. Lets enjoy the OH&S freedom of the Solomon Islands, where one can still be responsible for their own actions!!!

After the 3 km walk up the creek, the volcano confirms itself to be the antithesis of the typical volcano anyone would picture in their head: no crater, no lake, no lava, no smoke: just a few bare hills eroded by the rains, yet of a distinctive yellow colour due to the sulphur crystals forming in the surface. The track is very ill defined and the ground collapses under foot, and is very well above boiling water temperature, as I discovered by accidentely sticking my finger in it. The guide actually had placed an egg and a raw fish in it to demonstrate the cooking process!

This guide is lighting matches above some holes in the ground...

...to make the volcano smoke!!!! This is a bit a peanut vocano but nevertheless a tourist attraction!!!

Megapodes and volcanoes:
The purpose of the shoot is to demonstrate how a species of bird, the megapode makes use of the heat generated by the volcano to incubate its eggs (the name sounds cool, but really, it is not far from being a black chicken that knows how to fly!). The megapodes dig a deep hole (up to 1.5-2 m?) in the ground to lay their egg, which they bury by carefully covering it back so the surface looks undisturbed. They then leave it to the elements to do the work: the heat contained in the ground brings the chick to hatching stage, a chick which will not see its parents when it makes its own way to the surface!
On Savo, the megapodes lay their eggs in sand fields just behind the beach. It is very unlikely that the eggs laid there benefit from volcanic heat to incubate, though some people believe that some underground hot water streams travel under the megapode fields. So the solar radiation in the black sand probably is enough. On other islands, the birds definitely use volcanic heat as much as humans use it to cook their eggs!

Megapodes coming early morning: it's too dark and this shot is blurred ...

The eggs of the megapode are quite large, and quite sought after by the communities so generation after generation, the megapodes, returning to the same egg laying site, have been exploited by the villagers nearby. Megapodes come every morning to lay their eggs at dawn and every morning, as the church bell call the prayers (7 am), men rush into the field, once the birds have gone, and dig the sand to collect the eggs. It’s a men’s job and each family has an allocated plot delimited by coconut fences. The scene leaves me wondering if it is sustainable: it looks like megapodes keep coming back but how many chicks get a chance to escape that fate?

megapode field after the harvest: holes everywhere for the birds to use the next morning

Anyhow, some of the eggs are sold to the humble Savo island “resort” and I enjoyed them for breakfast!

Crocodiles of the Weathercoast

2008-07-13T05:02:00.000-07:00

The first flight attempt to AvuAvu near Lauvi lagoon was a failure: it is indeed hard to reach the Weathercoast of Guadalcanal in a small plane … due to weather! The local “airport terminal” there does not have a radio so there was no way to know that a huge rain cloud had formed, so when the plane arrived on the south Eastern side of the island, after flying over 1800m high hills, it was hit by a squall and the pilot had to climb high to escape the cloud. It was raining in the plane, which attest for the visibility at the airfield! So the pilot turned back as he was low in fuel.

Second attempt two days later was successful and the mass of pelican cases was happily transferred by quad and canoe to the small house of our host Fred Laku located on s trip of sand between the beach and Lauvi lagoon. A comfortable spot with an outdoor kitchen but the insects made the hammock in the garden more appealing!

Two canoe reccies proved that looking for a crocodile in the lagoon was like searching for a needle in a haystack, despite the fact that the four square kilometres body of water contains about 1500 of the buggers. The heavy rain had made the water level rise, removing any beach or visible haul out spot for them.

The lagoon from the air

vegetation not unlike the australian coast

One large dominant crocodile from the lagoon was recently killed by the locals and RAMSI police force: they baited a large hook with a dead dog, the crocodile ate it and later the RAMSI came and shot it. His skin was so thick that the bullets bounced several time. It was 15 feet long and when they open its tummy, the bone remains of two recent human victims were revealed. No doubt this crocodile deserved his fate. About 50 people are killed every year by crocodiles in the Solomons. See other blog entries about the problem (in May)

The crocodiles do not find enough food in the lagoon and are now crossing into the sea to find some other river deltas along the coast, where people live and have pigs and dogs (potential preys for the crocodiles).

Exploring the small island opposite the lagoon, we found that another large croc had elected his territory in the coral lagoon recently formed when the island was born 30 years ago in an earthquake. The thick and bushy vegetation and steep beach attest of the recent uplifting: before 1977 the island was a reef, emerging at low tide, and does not appear on marine charts!

look closer: it's camouflaged

The crocodile hauled out on the beach, making it easy to film and over a couple of days got accustomed to our presence. This first – and last!- shot marked the end of a 3000 miles crocodile search in the Solomons, yay!

some basket making session ... to prevent boredom...

KUNA's having a rest in Tulaghi!

2008-07-05T05:00:00.000-07:00

After an uneventful -but very easy!- downwind sail over the 700 miles back from Anuta, KUNA is back in the more friendly waters of the Central province for a break. Not easy to find a safe park for a yacht in the Solomon islands but had to go and do some work on the weather coast of Guadalcanal, which has no anchorage, so weighed the options:

- moorings can be hired at the Honiara Point Cruz yacht club (one of them from Steve, +677 96 000, just in case that's useful to anyone) but the boat needs to be occupied to prevent theft. NOw to find a local who is RELIABLE is another challenge and the city has too many distractions (Solbrew especially). Anchoring can be tricky there: it is quite deep 20m and crowded and even during the trade season, some afternoon strong northerly breezes or even squalls can burst out, putting the boats on a leeshore.

- the next best alternative was to leave the boat in the Florida group, 35 miles NE of Honiara.

Checked Tulaghi harbour and it is definitely more protected, though, not quite perfectly from the SE trades. But it is VERY deep and KUNA is now parke don coral in 30m of water, 50m from the shore, right in front of the Tulaghi dive center and the police station for security. KUNA has two reliable people occupying her 24 hours/day as well. Apparently, people in the Florida (well Tulaghi) tend to strip yachts of solar panels, so there was no way to leave her alone. That's a real shame because there are a couple of very good totally enclosed cyclone holes in the florida group and it would have been so easy to just go anchor in mud!
Another possible option in the Florida is AviAvi, which also has a shipyard.

Now, all the camera gear was removed from KUNA the waterline has come up a long way!

The plane took us to the weather coast but did not land because of the weather... there was so much rain the pilot could not see the strip!

Meanwhile, back in Honiara to update the blog. City life the solomon style!

out for some shopping... the amount of cargo, plastics, (mostly goods of mediocre quality imported by the chinese) is quite overwhelming after two months on islands which are not exposed to cargo and where everything disposable is organic. There, no rubbish is produced. Plates are banana leaves and backpacks are made of coconut!

...and public transport!

The city is very busy as it is the 30th anniversary of independence so eager to get out. Honiara is no place to hang around for too long!

APOLOGIES EVERYONE!

2008-07-01T21:51:00.000-07:00

The last month of posting ended up at the bottom of the pile in 1997 since my old labtop onboard the boat always starts at that ancient date so I have fixed the news (readable in the May, June sections) and soon will add the pictures in the next few days!

June 23rd Anuta Island Pick up!

2008-06-24T05:27:00.000-07:00

Anuta, also called Cherry island, viewed from the air (Google earth). Anchorage faces small bluff in the center of the island on the western side. The island is 65 m high.

After two weeks of sitting at anchor, the sail to Anuta was rather enjoyable: a close hauled run in flat sea and light winds but it soon turned a series of squalls after midnight and the wind died completely in the morning, 3 miles away from Anuta. Anuta was in sight though, and after a night up, I motored in to hurry drop the pick and rest!

I dropped the pick further out than the previous visit in 15m of water. The KUNA sat nicely perpendiculat to the wind, rolling heavily in the somewhat small swells! I dived and confirmed the holding ground is only hard rocks but at least there was a lot of fish.

Shortly after anchoring, 2 canoes crossed the bar and 6 pikinis jumped on the boat I was summoned to come to the island quickly: everyone was waiting for me to come and show the Tribe video. Anuta is famous on television: in 2006, another BBC film crew came on yacht Margarita and stayed with them for a month to film an episode of Tribe, a doco where the presenter has to live with the locals and adopts all their customs.
Two years later, we were the first bringers of many letters and the DVD, which could only be read on my labtop.

It took three sessions to satisfy most of the population of the island.

In the meantime, I was affectionately grabbed tight by three or four young girls. I was surprised at first as none of the young girls on Tikopia had approached me in such a manner so the Anutans definitely were not shy. Maybe because they had the chance to interact with another white woman two years before.

They gave me a tour of the island, which covers only 0.6 of a square mile. The island is covered in gardens, not a single inch square is free from cultivation. Anuta is the smallest populated island in the Pacific and managed to sustain its population of 300 people. On such a small place, densities are comparable to that of Bangladesh, though the houses were only on one side and the island did not feel crowded at all.

Though the cemetary looks busy!

The reef extends 4 or 5 miles all around the island, at about 20-30m depth. The Anutans seem to have a sustainable resource of fish but they need to work for it with various techniques. They also have much larger and stronger canoes than Tikopia as the passage through the reef edge is rugged with heavy breakers and they sail go much further form their island.

The Anutans also look after their canoes as Tikopians do and some are over a 100 years old, but they do not have the trees to build canoe houses so they use coconut leaves.

Because the island is so small, it may not recover from a cyclone so the islanders put food aside under the ground for a few years, in what they call mar pits. The manioc fermentates, enclosed in banana leaves and turns into the equivalent of a strong cheese which locals make pudding out of.

This frigate bird is raised as a pet and fed by its owner every day. Frigate have become accustomed to roost and breed in the village. The bird is a mean of survival if its owner gets lost at sea, it will follow it and can become food if needed!

The next day, when departure time came, we were greeted on board the KUNA by a choir singing in english "will I ever see your face again..." With so few ships (less than one a year) going to and from the island, the ones who leave may not come back for several years.

As the island was disappearing in the background, father Nomleas gave another example of his fishing skills and drove his canoe with outboard a very long way out to give us a Wahoo for the road. In the process he banged the KUNA and broke his mast, but the kid kept bailing and his gift made us feel how much part of the community us visitors had become. The wahoo fed us for the next three days!

Two weeks at Tikopia

2008-06-22T19:15:00.000-07:00

I am now leaving Tikopia and incredibly sad to do so, because the people are very nice there and because I haven’t really have had the chance to have a good look at the place. The weather has been too unreliable to be able to leave the KUNA unattended for more than a few hours. The anchorage on Tikopia looks nice and is nice provided the wind does not blow! Otherwise it inevitably blows in the wrong direction. Above, I wear the traditional Tapa cloth (made of tree bark) given to me as a going away present. Many pikininis were very curious to watch me scuba diving as I retrieved the mooring and detangled the chain.I was thankful to have light winds to do the job!

So here are a few stories and facts from my stay.

First, Tikopians are polynesians originating from Tonga and the above rock was believed by the ancients to be the petrified ship that brought their ancesters to the island..

Tikopia is a very remote island. I spent two weeks anchored with the KUNA while BBC crew were filming on Anuta island, 75 miles away. Very few yachts get to visit (10 in the last 8 years) and so my arrival was greeted by extreme excitement. When the kids saw me arriving in the yellow kayak, the were jumping laughing and screaming and I did not even have the chance to jump out that they were already carrying the kayak 30 m in the lagoon, in a big splash of water!

In less than 10 second, the Komodo, now a single kayak, was carried up the beach by 20 kids into a shady spot covered with leaves (one cockpit was removed and left in Lata to make space for more camera gear in the KUNA).

The kids learned very quickly how to unclip the break down paddles and while I went to visit the chief, a plethore of them stayed near the canoe. What an attraction!!

Everyday, at the time of my visit, they would gather on the beach to help. Here they are helping me crossing the canoe above one fish drive wall (a coral stone wall that helps them drive and catch the fish into a funnel where they place their nets or wait with spears)

On Tikopia, traditional dug out canoes are very valuable and the only mode of transport as no motor canoes are allowed on the island (chief order). The tikopian have enough building material to afford building canoe houses along the beach, to protect their canoe, and insisted I parked mine in too!!

With a single cockpit, I could not transport my crew Patrick onshore, so we even used some reliable pikinini to shuffle the canoe for us. He loved it and was very proud!

Only one or two resupply ship visit per year (if they are lucky) so Tikopians have no opportunity to spend money on petrol. Cash they have very little of anyhow, being so far from civilisation. So they use the wind, which is great on the flat waters of the sheltered side of the island. They also use their canoes in the lake and I would have like to go exploring there with the komodo but the heavy weather did not allow travelling far inthe exposed side of the lagoon

The crater lake at Tikopia
The view of Tikopia from the air is an amazing one, see June 10th!

And it is also very pretty from the ground...

With my guide Ruby, a 14 year old girl which is quite adventurous and acting like a boy, to the point that I though she was one, I have had the chance to go and check the lake for half a day.

The lake takes almost one third of the island, nested in the crater and surrounded by steep cliffs on three sides. It can be accessed by going up and over the hill, through steep gardens full of mosquitoes (luckily, there is no malaria on Tikopia). A track follows around the lake, amongst the swamp taro and a few villages, to the sea. People fish in it and travel through to go to church or to their gardens. The google Earth photo is quite good and shows the lake just after the cyclone zoe in 2003, with the entrance broken open to the sea. The cyclone dramatically change the balance of the lake and affected a lot of people on the island.

A new seawall has replaced the natural mount which separated the lake from the sea, destroyed by the cyclone. Thanks to an aid program and the visit of David Martin , wife Henriette and team aboard yacht Galatea. It is made of thick fencing wire around coral stones and prevents the seawater to enter the lake. Prior to the cyclone, the lake was mostly fresh though brackish waters and, after becoming salty, it is now slowly recovering back to its original chemistry.
Though the lake levels have been higher than before, it is not due to the design of the seawall. Historically, the lake has had one drain into the sea, maintained by the villagers, and it seems that the design of the drain has been modified by the lack of maintenance, causing the lake levels to raise.

It is possible that the current generation is a little more lazy than their forefathers and failed to dig and maintain a drain wide enough to control the lake level. So does Chief Edward is telling me and he is quite keen for the people from his village (on the Northern side, where I am anchored) to walk over and help digging the drain, if food is prepared for them!

Visitors to the boat

The KUNA has become the object of daily visits from various people. Some like just to come and have a chat to Patrick, my crew from the Duff Islands. Patrick has been quite shy for going on the island and prefers staying on the boat most times. Good for me as I have the opportunity to go for short walks but I was finding it quite strange that I am feeling more at home amongst Tikopians than he is, although it is his own country! Surprisingly enough, Patrick also had a large group of pikininis following him along the beach when he went for visits. I though he would get away with it more than me, being black… Despite minor differences between Melanesian and Polynesian, overall, their lifestyle is very similar. Some visitors brought Patrick a spear so he could go fishing from the boat, and lets face it, he is in fact a good excuse for visitors to come and sit on the boat.

Patrick on the left and young Humphrey on the right

I have been allowing visitors onboard, some even for a cup of tea, as boat sitting at anchor is not very fun and it is nice to have conversation. It’s been OK most times except when a stuckload of pikininis jump onboard without asking permission, in which case they get put back into place. Unsolicited visits after a long night of anchor watching when I haven’t even had my coffee do not get a easy reception!! But generally things have been quite good except a bit of fishing gear going walkabout

Most people come with something to give us, a present which a few hours or the next day, turns into a trading object. The chief has forbidden villager to come to yachts asking for something but it seems all right for them to bring something and later organise some form of exchange so I ended up being able to trade vegetables from the island against fish hooks or other materials such as sand paper , hagsaw blades (for carvings).

The difficult thing is when people want something but are to shy to get to the point so hours of conversation are spent beating around the bush until the real motive for their visit comes out! It is ok when one has stacks of time but I had quite a bit of minor maintenance project to do like fixing the electric bilge pump, etc…

Although on an island, it has been hard to trade for fish or even catching it ourselves because of the large population on Tikopia. Around the anchorage, the waters are fished everyday and night and even the smallest fishes are caught. Above is a fish drive wall in the lagoon. The extremely clear waters around the anchorage were sadly depleted of big fish. Compared to Nupani, where the population is small, it was a desert!

Some fish with nets in the lagoon

One of many canoes line fishing around the KUNA

Communication and transport with Tikopia

The only means of communication with the island is HF radio, though for a few years, an HF email system was installed on a labtop. All being kept in the island clinic, safe from sand and rain. Sadly, the person who had some technical knowledge to manage the computer has left the island with his family, taking the community computer with him, so it was the end of email for Tikopia. When a government resupply ship only comes once or twice a year, it is hard for Tikopians to receive any mail. The odds of getting another email computer on the island are quite low. I tried to get their labtop onboard before leaving Lata but unsuccessfully. It is not just a matter of getting the gear there, but also having the technical knowledge at hand, on the island, to install and maintain the system so some islander would have to be sent to Honiara and trained for it, a costly and long process.

So I ended up trading emails for papaws and bananas.

The headmaster of the school on the other side and the chief were eager to get in touch with David Martin, the organizer of the aid project that fixed the seawall to ask for his news and if he would be coming back for further project. Cyclone Zoe has obviously changed spirits on Tikopia and placed this remote island on the “aid circuit”. Had it not happened (the cyclone that is), Tikopia would be barely known and people proudly self sufficient as Anutans are but the culture of aid seems to have brought people into the habit of asking and hoping for more aid projects to come in the future. Of course, external aid has been more useful than the inexistent Solomon island government support and some aid projects are good, provided they teach people how to help themselves and give them more independence. One example is the Lapita project led by Klaus Hympendahl with the support of James Wharram. Two catamarans are currently being built in the Phillipines for Tikopia and Anuta (see www.lapita-voyage.org

Tourism at Tikopia

Sometimes, some supplies come on tourist ships. Tourists ships? You may ask. yes Tikopia has been put on the trail of large cruising ships and as much as 8 ships a year pull in the anchorage for half a day or so. Meanwhile, the neighbouring island of Anuta, 75 miles away, gets none!
50 or more visitors then jump on the beach, get a tour of the village, to look at the custom dancing band, ready to demonstrate for them while the island carvers trade traditional weapons and dancing sticks with the tourists and they disappear as fast as they have appeared, not really getting to know anyone, which the tikopians seem a bit sad about. They seem to put up a good show, especially for them and the operation brings to the community between 2 and 7000 solomon dollars (for landing and shows). Tikopians have indeed become tourist savy, which explained the ludicrous anchoring fee of 500 solomon dollars I was asked when pulling up the first morning! Though it was a one off for my stay of two weeks and I was happy to confirm with the locals that it definitely goes to the Tikopia Development Fund. Selling artefacts to tourists is the only source of monetary income for Tikopians at the moment.

Money is generally not an issue as people are self sufficient for most things, except they need to pay for school fees for their children, especially those boarding for secondary school far away, 1000$ per year. Quite a few young tikopians told me not having finished their school years due to the lack of cash and they returned to their home to help their family and work in the gardens.

Gardens grow well on the steep cliffs of the island and provide a suprisingly varied staple to Tikopians: banana, papaw, pinapple, taro, yam, manioc (also called kassava), nally nuts, bush limes, bean, cabbage, eggplant, you name it! BUt the garden are often a long way from the villages and women travel a long way carrying heavy loads of food.

Few women get to leave the island and get an eduction beyond primary school as the priority is given to boys. With more men outside the island, there is an excess of young women on Tikopia. Most of them are quite shy, though, and very rarely I have had the chance to have a chat to them as the boys monopilize the attention and the guiding.

Anica is one of the teachers at the primary school and speaks fluent English but the teaching is also done in Pidgin and language. As most women on the island, she smokes a lot of locally grown tobacco. Cigarettes are not available here and islanders think they are full of chemical so prefer the home grown stuff. They often roll the tobacco in the pages from the notebooks, so if you donate some, make sure it goes to the teachers with the clear instruction that it is NOT for smoking!!!!

Cyclone-proof leaf houses!

Coconut and sago palm provide shelter and there are enough trees for large beams of the low roofed houses which are quite solidly built and capable of withstanding cyclonic winds.

view outside from a rather dark hut!

People live on the floor on nicely weaved sage and pandani mats, layers of tem cover the bare sand inside the houses and are constantly swept for food remains, cat hair and sand. The main house building is shared by the extended family, parents, their children and their own new born babies, all sleeping together in the one room until they build a house for their own family.

Here is a house under construction for a young family with a new born.

This one is the lounge that the young brother of the same family (21 years old) had built himself. Sharing the house with the entire family has a lack of privacy when it comes to chasing girls!! Though liaisons before marriage is never official on the island so the caves inside the cliffs of the eastern side are considered more appropriate

Tikopia eastern cliffs: rugged coastline in paradise!

The kitchen

Houses which are too old are recycled and made into kitchens. The kitchen is a separate smaller house which has a big fire place inside, but no chimney. It is a rather challenging place to spend time in, as I have experienced. Peach dark, it is rapidly turned into a sauna and smoking room once the fire is started for “Mumuing” the food. Normally guests and men are not allowed into the kitchen as it is a dirty place, but one woman from the island who made friends with me, Cansy, invited me to look at how the food is prepared.

The Tikopian oven consists of making a large fire to heat volcanic stones. Taro, manioc, fish and coconut pudding are then wrapped into fresh leaves and placed under the stones, which are themselves covered with a large pile of leaves, some sewn together to make small blankets. It then looks like a giant bush turkey nest inside the kitchen! It takes many hours to cook the staple but the result is quite nice, much better than boiled. Apparently, food for the chief is only allowed to be prepared in the traditional way.

Here, some coconut puddings are prepared, a typical Tikopian dish which is pure coconut milk mixed with sago and cooked in the oven in the coconut shell. Yummy warm, though lacking the sweet taste that a westerner is used too but lethal the next day: my liver did not cope with the amount of coconut fat I was forced to politely ingest throughout the day and I was very tummy sick for a while!

A funeral
In their hospitable way, Tikopian had invited me to a festival and a traditional wedding but the weather did not allow me to join. There are 8 festival a year, one in each village, where the village band demonstrates to other visiting villages their dancing skills in traditional costumes of tapa cloth.

The last opportunity given to me was a funeral, to which I was invited, which gathered crowds from the entire island. I had the chance to join the ceremony where all crowds were gathered under the roof of the dead man’s family, gathering their voices in one single continuous humming sound. This lasted for two hours while hairs were being cut short, flowers passed around to decorate hair and ears and presents distributed between all. Then the eldest men of the family started some stumbling dances too: there was no space for them to put a foot between all the people sitting on the floor of the house. When a person dies, all relative and friends bring presents and prepare pudding, taro, etc . There was probably two tons of food piled up in coconut basket outside the dead man’s house, just a few meters from his grave, covered with a fresh coconut mat. After the ceremony, the food was shared and everyone went to eat LOTS but I returned to the KUNA, avoiding another feed of pudding!

June 11th meeting Tikopia chief!

2008-06-11T17:22:00.000-07:00

One would think that the start of the SE trades in
May June would bring some long periods of stable
and enjoyable weather with light and constant winds,
clear skies, etc...

So far it has been the opposite. Beating to Anuta,
nights were starry and clear of squalls but this soon
changed after we dropped the crew off on Anuta and since
the weather has been atrocious with bucketing rains
and lightning storms, similar to the weather on Taumako.
Being further south, the windspeeds are higher but it
does not prevent the 180deg shifts with squalls, which
make a night at anchor spent awake, minding my mooring buoy
bashing on the hull! The horrific description of Peter
Whitelaw, skipper of Vanuatu charter boat Margarita two
years ago came true: peach darkness to the point one can't
even see the island so close. Margarita ended up on the
reef while attempting escape in a similar squall. So far,
the mooring-anchor system has held together.

This morning, after a 4 hours morning sleep in to the
sounds of a dance festival on the island, managed to
assemble kayak together to go and introduce myself,
and pay my respects to chief Edward with Patrick
staying onboard KUNA to mind the boat.The island HF
email system having broken down, they were unaware
of my arrival. I was welcome by about 30 pikininis
on the beach, all grabbing my hand to take me to
the chief's hut.

Chief Edward with his family in the chief hut

Crawling on all fours into a dark coconut hut with
a tiny door, I prosterned in sign of respect and
lifted my head for a nose-kiss!!! Then here I was
chatting away half in pidgin half in english with
two chiefs, eating some taro pudding prepared for
the festival. The chief gave me neckless and
banana fiber hat that they had prepared, expecting
my visit! I apologized for missing the event, being
too tired from anchor watch to come across in time.
Chatting away took 3 hours and it took me even more
to go back to KUNA as all on the beach questioned
my story too!

Hoping for the winds to drop to have more relaxed time
on the island

June 10th - anchoring at Tikopia

2008-06-10T17:21:00.000-07:00

A night of stormy weather got the KUNA on a beam reach
far too fast to Tikopia island73 miles from Anuta.
Despite the moon coming back, it was so dark due to
thick cloud that we could only distinguish the crest
of the waves lit by the running light (maybe I would
have rather not seen them).
After heaving to for 3 hours, still pushed in the
right direction, I woke up at 6am to the sight of
the island 3 miles away, straight downwind! Patrick
my Duff Islander crew was on watch and I hadn't managed
to teach him the subtleties of GPS waypoints: I was
hoping to get in the lea of the island, but had to get
some sleep, short handling, ahh!

We motored straight into the wind the last miles to
drop anchor in Ringdove Cove, in 20 m of sand with
large coral bommies, beautiful clear waters
(S 12 deg 17.580, E 168 deg 49.153) ! The anchorage
is easy to find with the help of the locals but it
seems that the charted depths for the shoals are
out by 100-200m or so in plan 17. The first canoe
we saw came to collect 500 Solomons dollars landing
fee: Tikopian have become tourist savy due to the
visits of large cruising ships
Tikopia is much larger than Anuta and its tall volcanic
cliffs (390m max)offer a bit of protection but the wind
buffets through the bluffs to extraordinary speeds.
Do not expect to hang off the reef in a SE wind: so
far KUNA has been on a lee shore most of the time!!
The winds deflected by the island and the high cliffs
create an eddie, and wind in the opposite direction at
the anchorage. So after laying a scope of 1 to 3 in
20m of water, I thought that I was going to be a
comfortable distance away from the reef edge but ended
up one boat length to the breakers!!

To secure the boat and prevent the 60m of anchor chain
to drag and destroy too many bommies, I set up a mooring
near the boat: in 15 m of water, I picked a nice round
bommie with hoverhangs and wrapped a chain around it
that goes straight up to a swivel, 2 ropes (backup!)
to a large fishing buoy (donated by Taumako Island),
to the front bollard. A quarter of a scuba tank was
sufficient to do the whole set up despite several ascents
to tune up!
NOw the KUNA is hanging to a mooring hammerlock style,
preventing her to swing onto the reef, and preventing the anchor chain to drag over square meters of coral, which is critical habitat for the few fish that are left on this already depleted reef but still retaining the main anchor as a backup in case the
mooring gear breaks!

2 weeks to wait here while the crew is filming on Anuta!

June 9th. Anuta drop off!

2008-06-09T17:21:00.000-07:00

After one other day of tacking our way east in strong

winds on sunday, we didn''t make it quite by daylight

so hove to for the night 10-15 miles away from
the island. Did not want to get any closer because

there may be some fishing lines on the side of the

seamount: two boats were working in the area through
the night. We found later in the morning that the currents

on the shallow flat west of the island create an horrendously

choppy sea (depth from 3000m to 25m in the space of 6 miles!)

and we were glad to finally get some proper sleep for the
night to rest for the landing.

This morning after a fast start making the last 15 mile towards the island, a
sudden weatehr change brpought some squalls and KUNA got headed by a wind shift
of 30 degrees, to the despair of our producer who was chomping the bits to get
to the island. To make sure KUNA was pointing in the right direction and not
tacking, we subjected ourselves to motoring into the headwind, in choppy seas.
Motor sailing helped making the last ten miles to a clear patch of "sand" where
we dropped the pick in 13 m of water (S11 deg 36.684, E 168 deg 50. 652). What we
thought was sand is in fact a hard bottom dusted with a thin layer of coral
rubbles spread with hard rocky bommies. NOt good holding!

A cockpit overflowing with pelican cases, and local anutans!

The taxi canoe coming to pick up the cargo

Off they go!

As soon as they saw us, the locals launched a couple of canoes and crossed the
break of the reef edge to meet us as we were emptying every compartment of the
KUNA from its film kit cases: the cargo soon came coming out in front of 4 or 5
Anutans chewing betel nut in the cockpit! A large number of pelican cases + food
+ camping gear + a new HF set for the island with solar panel and battery,
etc.., probably half a ton!

The largest of the canoes did 10 trips across the reef break to take it all in
and not long after Wade and Huw were taken onshore just as rapidly to visit
their island accomodation. And just as rapidly, after snorkelling on the anchor,
my crew Patrick and I left for Tikopia, in the sight of the dark clouds rapidly
approaching. Regretably so as it woud be nice to visit Anuta but the tiny island
(500m long!) does not offer any shelter for anchoring, leaving KUNA at the mercy
of swells and squalls

Now on a nice broadreach to do the 73 miles that separate us from Anuta. The joy
of downwind sailing, finally!!!! And the prospect of a better anchorage for a
couple of weeks.

fred:)

June 7th still beating!

2008-06-07T17:21:00.000-07:00

position noon June 7th
S11 deg 44. 3
E 168 deg 36.6

After an evening on the southerly tack (80 miles ran that way!) tacked to NE
driection at midnight , enabling KUNA to get some easting and finally get closer
to our destination. ONe more beautiful clear starry night: a good change from
the squalls: in the last three night we have been enjoying extremely stable
condition brought by the Etrades.

It was a relief for the producer to see the distance to Anuta decreasing again
on the GPS display. Without much prior sailing experience, the concept of
tacking to a destination can be a little bit foreign!
Winds a freshening to 15-20 knots making it harder to go uphill but the KUNA is
still handling it very well. Hoping to get there tomorrow (sunday) and be met by
the local canoes.

beating to Anuta

2008-06-06T17:20:00.000-07:00

position 10.00 6/06/08
S 11 deg 09.62
E 167 deg 54.86

After a few days of resupply in Lata on the main
Santa Cruz island (Ndendo),
we picked up Huw Cordey, BBC producer and left straight
after for Anuta on Wednesday, with a full load of
camera gear and presents for the island. A bit
reluctantly decided to leave
in the dark on a squally night but it was to make
the most of calm weather to make as much Easting
as possible while the winds were low.
16 hours of motoring and motor sailing later, KUNA
has made 85 miles or so on course but the trades
have picked up straight on the nose forcing the
her to tack North or South. Last night we were
nearly on our way back to Taumako island, north
of us!!!

Now have turned south hoping the
winds will not strengthen anymore
(10-15 SE at the mo!)

fred

Anchored on Nupani Reef

2008-05-30T17:11:00.000-07:00

S10deg 02.938 E 165 deg 42.603

Left Lata this morning, accompanied with a bunch
of dolphins, decided not to beat back to the Reef
islands and went to check out Tinakula instead, a
nice broad reach, and pushed 20 miles further to
check out if there is bird hunting going on on
Nupani Island for filming purposes.

so we went looking for birds but the trees were too tall to film

Thereafter, we went to the village and the local cooked a fish on their fire for us. They had never seen a digital camera and loved seeing themselves!

The anchorage consists in hooking the edge of the
reef, as there is a steep drop off. The KUNA is hanging
two boat length from the reef edge, and thanks to the Easterly
wind, is kept away from it, hoping no westerly squall
will come tonight. Conditions seem stable for the
night and tomorrow will investigate entrance to the
deep lagoon.

Leaving Taumako for Ndendo island

2008-05-28T17:17:00.000-07:00

Finally got out of Taumako Island,
with relief. Despite 25 knots at sea when
we left, and 2.5 m swells, it was more comfortable
than the rolly anchorage. Picked the best time to
weigh anchor too: there was no current. Villagers
greeted us with pawpaws and some pig meat
(rought in a leaky coconut basket it put a lot of
fat on the decks, to my despair, after havign one
week of local helpers eating betelnut, coconut and
smoking cigarettes, the KUNA needed a good
seawash in rough seas!!!

100 miles from Taumako to Lata in a SW
course took 20 hours as we were trying to
slow down and the wind died at the end of the
night replaced by a light land breeze. Lata has a
nice protected bay but an extremely deep harbour
with onlyone sheltered anchorage possible in Luesalo
(Shaw POint on the Eastern side of the bay, which
used to have a logging wharf). Even there, KUNA sits
in 15-20 m on old coral.

Hem now, glad to rest from 6 days of a rolly anchorage waiting for BBC Huw
Cordey producer to fly in.

May 28th still hanging there but not for long!

2008-05-28T17:13:00.000-07:00

the joy of rolling at anchor

Spent another night managing local crew so they get
even amount of rest, I don'tseem to get anywhere
with that and every time I get up myself to do the round I
find the watchman asleep. If not, I had one singing
to stay awake while the other snoring, so either way,
I don't get much sleep out here!!!!

The weather
hasn't gone down and the anchorage is getting wilder
and rollier so hoping to put to sea today, even in
20knots+, the run down wind to Lata on Nendo
Island will be more comfortable! Just checked the
anchor: amazingly it has not moved despite the
35 knots gusts of last night, it's picked in a solid
bit of coral and rounding one bommie. BUt the
chain has now trashed a fair surface of coral. In
this exposed corner, the coral is fairly trashed by heavy waves
anyhow, but it's sad anyhow.

The boat will be packed full, I am swaping my
solomon crew Philip (not good enough for the job
unfortunately) so taking him back to fly back to
Honiara and replacing him with the son of one
of the Taumako navigators for help on the
voyage to Anuta. Of course negociating fair rates
is never an easy one, as one must make sure everything
is clear and agreed upon in advance. On top of it, may
take Mimi's colleague back too, provided they'd like
to contribute payment for their ride back to Lata.

A canoe ride over the 90 miles between Taumako and Lata
is 1000US otherwise but the weather is too heavy for canoe.

Over and out for now, I better get another coffee into me!
fred:)

May 26th - wearing out!

2008-05-26T17:53:00.000-07:00

I have plenty of time to write and just about enough power for the computer
using the wind but getting really worn out by hanging on in another squally
night on the same deep spot. The deep coral bommies tangled the chain with the
current constantly turning, shortening the catenary. Sharp jerks animate KUNA
in a rumble of chain and there is no point letting more out, as it would mean
more to get tangled in the coral. I can't really snorkel on the chain, 18m is
just enough to eyeball it and run out of air and I am reluctant to use scuba as
I want to save the tanks for Anuta and Tikopia in case worse problems happen.

Tomorrow, I am hoping to go and see the sail on the Vaka canoes, too much rain
today and no wind, and also hoing we get out of there soon! The island must be
lovely if on the hard land!

Pics to come!!
F:)

May 25th - On taking local crew...

2008-05-25T17:51:00.000-07:00

The wind patterns have been tightly associated to the
semi diurnal tides cycles here: "when tide go up,
wind hem com" say the locals. This has been true of
the last four days: easterlies increased to 15 knots
as the tide went up but last night violent squalls
hit, with dark clouds and thunder. So here I am, still
in the same spot, wildy rolling around with the tidal
currents opposing the winds, recovering from a night
up checking anchor at all times, despite having two
watchers onboard to do the night job for me, as at
most times I found none of them awake!!

Getting local crew can be good but needs some management.
It turned out that Philip, our Solomon island crew
picked up in Honiara knew a few of the locals, a fine
diplomatic choice to have brought him to Taumako island
if not a practical one: His seamanship skills had
dropped to very little in the last 20 years since he
worked on the Rainbow Warrior and local ships. Had
to teach him sailing again.
So I was happy to find some other minders for the boat
to help in case I had to escape in the middle of
the night, though being islanders, pidgin is now
the language of choice on board, I am learning fast
but it still causes communication problems when I
want to get something done fast or when a family of
five jumps onboard before I have even got time
to say anything!

One of my helpers, Patrick, has sailed to New Zealand
with Mimi and I am going to take him to Anuta
Island as he seems to know and have the initiative
to sail a yacht out in case the anchor drags.
Such crew swap is a bit of a drastic measure
but no time to muck around.

In the meantime, the KUNA has been the home of
two locals at all time and I feel the difficult
lack of personal space for either parties of
different cultures, let alone having to apply the
local custom dress code on my own boat, like
being embarrassed of wearing short togs to go
and check the anchor !!!

Monday May26th

F:)

May 24th - Taumako Canoes

2008-05-24T17:47:00.000-07:00

Te Puke canoe under sail, photo by Wade Fairley

The Vaka Taumako canoe project aims to preserve the
building knowledge of large size sailing canoes,
which use to passage across the pacific and transcribe
and understand the traditional navigation techniques
of Taumako inhabitants.

Cutting the timber for transverse beams

If you'd like some information
on this , please check www.aloha.net/

This has been
the 14 years dedictated work of Mimi George and team, American
based in Hawaii who spent every tradewind season on
the island and even sailed there twice with her yacht
29' Gryphon. The canoes have these amazing crab shape
sails which apparently are the best aerodynamic design
to go upwind. I yet have to sail on them to confirm this as I remain unconvinced this beats kevlar!

A remote island spoiled by money...

And Solomons cash, there is no more onboard the KUNA!
As it turned out, the cost associated with the BBC
filming went down to even using our personal cash. A canoe sailing session for
filming did cost 1000US dollars (prepaid!), and a sequence
on sewing the sails would only happen in exchange
of a pig being purchased, let alone every canoe
ride, for which two 44 gallons were ordered (much
more than needed for a few canoe rides up and
down a 2km for 5 days!)
Unfortunately, the fuel
planned for the job did not arrive in time, so
KUNA is down to its last drop of outboard fuel
for having donated most of it too. Not good when
the only life raft onboard is the dinghy!!!

The "cash cow" culture seemingly hit in amongst
the islanders who have been accustomed to have a "project" bringing fuel and money. The traditional navigation/canoe project has certainly progressed but it has changed the mentalities by introducing money to the island, and the fuel they desperately need to run their motor canoes, their primary mode of transport between the small islands of the Duff group empowered the project leaders. It is a bit paradoxical, given that the project is ALL about sailing!!! It has also created some tensions on the island because only one or two villages directly benefit from the work activities/money and the villages on the other side feel left out and as a result, I may have missed out on a good anchorage (see further). Other educational and health community development projects are also ongoing and may definitely be of more benefit to the islanders: for example, an American eye surgeon visited Taumako for a few weeks this June to help people with their vision (cataract, etc..)

Anchorage on the extreme NW of the island, where swells of either side meet...

Despite having local crew minding the boat in 12 hours
shifts, I have been bound to stay on the KUNA, especially
as we have had to re-anchor on the NW side of the island
due to the wind shifting to the East. A little bit of
protection was found on the extreme North end of the
island(S 09 deg 51.65 E 167 deg 09.41). The locals say
there is even kind of a passage into a protected lagoon anchorage
but the village opposite does not allow anchoring
unless extortionate amounts of money are expanded. Saying this, for future yacht visits, one should enquire in advance and something can be worked out with the man of the land, for sure.

a nice bit of geology
So here I am bobbing around on the other side of
the island now.

May 23rd Taumako island first anchorage.

2008-05-23T17:25:00.000-07:00

S 09 deg 52.953 E 167deg 11.688

Well, there is no such thing as an anchorage on Taumako
( I am saying that as I am listening to the chain
dragging on the coral on the eastern side of the
island.

The island NW-SE direction provides no shelter in trades wind. KUNA was first anchored on the eastern side as the wind was still to the SW upon arrival.

Yesterday, in order to be able to unload
all camera gear, we dropped the pick in about 10m
depth, a flat coral step with only short and flat
acropora I had all intentions of getting out of
here straight after but Mimi, the American woman
in charge of the canoe project convinced me to stay
for the welcome ceremony.

Something you can't really
refuse as it is custom for Taumako people to welcome
new visitors with a dancing and singing and speech
from the elders.

Launching the kayak in the canoe, for me to be able to return quickly to the boat at low tide if the weather turned

Despite having one of the locals
dive on the anchor to make a terribly ugly chain
and anchor knot around the biggest bommie he could
find (which was too small!) , and having tied a
buoy to the anchor itself to be able to retrieve
it at night, there was no way I slept knowing that
the wind was about to turn East, putting us on
a leeshore with the reef edge 80m away!!!. The
friction of 40 m of chain on the short coral held
quite well, though I feel really sorry for the
destruction involved. Actually, what holds a boat
in this location is the very strong tidal currents,
which half the time goes in a southerly direction,
pushing the boat against the wind. You get the picture
of a very rolly anchorage but it turns out to be
quite safe as most of the time, the KUNA was hanging
forward of its anchor!!!!

May 22nd - Taumako Island!

2008-05-22T17:22:00.000-07:00

The problem when planning a landfall in the morning
is try to avoid arriving there to early. After
an HF sched with Taumako island yesterday, planned
to get there 7:30am or so and spent the whole night
trying to slow us down!!! Very frustrating when for
once, winds were perfect and we could have sailed
7-8 knots on a NE course from Reef islands to Duffs.
Around the Duffs, there is an outer barrier reef
(visible on the Google earth picture). It is a deep
reef (10-20m, not accurately charted) but waves can
breaks in places is the reef is hit by deep ocean
swells. So no joke there. The reef materialized with
a high concentration of white caps, due to current
but nothing too big to be scary.

As we got closer to Taumako, 2 mile inside the reef,
the lush green vegetation of this high volcanic islands
shaun in the sunrise and some houses appeared behind
pristine sand beaches. The island raises quite high,
300m or so, above sea surface, half volcanic, half coral
plate and it felt like arriving to Macquarie Island
for it looked extremely wild, especially in a strong
southerly wind.