April 21st - Island time
After a day spent at anchor in Gizo harbour doing minor sail repairs, tidy up after the passage, put together the kayak tender (see http://www.komodokayak.blogspot.com/), Getting customs clearance was rather straight forward: given the sad state of government services, the officers don't have a boat to come onboard the Kuna so one had to wander down to town around to their offices: immigration, customs and quarantine, the game was to find the buggers, all spread around town! All surprised to see a female skipper doing the paperwork, as this is not custom here but also very laid back. 260SDB later (1 solomon is dollar is about 16c OZ), the Kuna was all cleared and yellow flag taken down.
A French man with his 3 years old son arrived onboard their catamaran in the night and wanted to clear in and clear out to continue towards New Caledonia. Though they had to cross the entire country to do so, they were given the double clearance and still allowed to go to Honiara for fuel! (good luck to them for heading in the SE trades in a cat that can't point, but they came all the way from Mayotte, near Africa, in the last year, so have seen everything)
After gathering supplies of fresh foods and fuel, the KUNA was ready to start on the job, ie receive the first bat scientist and 25 pelican cases of film kit for the shoot.Slight hitch, even planned as clockwork, things never run on schedule in the Solomon islands and after 4 hours of running around expecting the plane to come from Honiara any minute, and trying to be ready to pick up 300kg of camera gear at the right wharf (the runway is on another island opposite Gizo and passengers come by boat), the plane simply didn't come. Relief in a way as good opportunity to get another good night rest and do a few extra minor tasks.
After a day spent at anchor in Gizo harbour doing minor sail repairs, tidy up after the passage, put together the kayak tender (see http://www.komodokayak.blogspot.com/), Getting customs clearance was rather straight forward: given the sad state of government services, the officers don't have a boat to come onboard the Kuna so one had to wander down to town around to their offices: immigration, customs and quarantine, the game was to find the buggers, all spread around town! All surprised to see a female skipper doing the paperwork, as this is not custom here but also very laid back. 260SDB later (1 solomon is dollar is about 16c OZ), the Kuna was all cleared and yellow flag taken down.
A French man with his 3 years old son arrived onboard their catamaran in the night and wanted to clear in and clear out to continue towards New Caledonia. Though they had to cross the entire country to do so, they were given the double clearance and still allowed to go to Honiara for fuel! (good luck to them for heading in the SE trades in a cat that can't point, but they came all the way from Mayotte, near Africa, in the last year, so have seen everything)
After gathering supplies of fresh foods and fuel, the KUNA was ready to start on the job, ie receive the first bat scientist and 25 pelican cases of film kit for the shoot.Slight hitch, even planned as clockwork, things never run on schedule in the Solomon islands and after 4 hours of running around expecting the plane to come from Honiara any minute, and trying to be ready to pick up 300kg of camera gear at the right wharf (the runway is on another island opposite Gizo and passengers come by boat), the plane simply didn't come. Relief in a way as good opportunity to get another good night rest and do a few extra minor tasks.
