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.
