Munda Harbour: threading a path into the Roviana lagoon

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!

Meandering to Lola Island (Vona Vona lagoon)

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.