April 28th A trip to Vona Vona Lagoon

To photograph bats flying overhead in the sunset, a trip through the Vona Vona lagoon took us to Lola island. KUNA was left behind at anchor: it was best to conduct a reckie by fast motor canoe (a banana boat with a 40 horse power that is) rather than motor for 7+ hours zig zaging through the lagoon. During the trip I obtained a well marked GPS track for the deeper waters to follow next time with the KUNA. This lagoon is definitely catamaran country, with a max depth of 5 meters and reefs everywhere. Most small islands are free of people, and impossible to land on, as bordered by mangrove. As such it is also the country for crocodiles.



An enthusiastic scientist tells us all about the bats flying overhead in this spot, but are they really filmable ?!!


Small islets are scattered in the lagoon which is about 5 m deep on average. Crocs live here.

Vona Vona lagoon viewed from the sky (Google Earth!)


At the resort on lola island (a very low key establishment) we met a Venezuaelian fanily a father and his three sons, who have been cruising on their well travelled yacht since 1995! The sons are surfers, the yacht was loaded with 30 surfboards!!!. They were waiting for a wave 2 miles of the resort, though it’s quite late in the season (normally Dec to April) they were still hoping for a low to generate swell from the Solomons Sea. They had the refreshing mentality of going where the wind pushed them…

April 24th: Observing bats

The flying foxes pointed out by scientist Chris Filardi
used to reside right in the middle of the mission
school but the trees were cut and they moved further
out on tree overhanging gardens. With the help of
the local carpenter, a large 2 m scaffold was built
to enable the camera to be level with the colony,
making sure no banana tree or cassava was going to
be damaged. Across the track from the scaffold are
a few house with locals keen to chat or help
whenever. One is even playing the guitar.

The bats are the perfect example of a migratory
exodus: in the search for food, they moved to
the Solomons islands where they ended up staying.
As a result, they evolved independently and now
look very different from those in Queensland for
example. They have become an endemic and have
developed various light blond and red tones of fur.
The males exhibit rather large genitals. Its seems
that they spend most of their time licking their
dick, in fact - not much else to do hanging off a tree
all day! They don't do much at all, hang down, fight
a little bit, sleep when it is cool enough (before
or after rain, before sunset) with their wings wrapped
around their face or vent themselves by flapping their
wings when the sun comes out. It seems that the entire
tree is pulsating with venting bats, then. Comes dark,
exactly at 7:45 (!!!), they leave the tree to forage
for fruit in the gardens. That's the hard part of the
film: trying to shoot a bat eating a fruit with
infrared camera. Rather a needle in a haystack!
Pics to come..

April 22nd - Anchorage

Now travels are suffering from a severe lack of wind.
Lucky the Kuna is chocker full of diesel as it will
find its use before the trade winds come.
The 10 mile crossing from Gizo to Kolombangara was an uneventful motoring
session.
The Kuna delivered crew and 20 pelican cases to the Kukundu
SDA Mission.
Once the reef crossed in a narrow but deep passage,
the Kuna entered a peaceful mangrove cove, equipped
with a wharf and, surprisingly, even a slipway! The 24m
heavy timber mission boat 'Vari Vato' is moored in there,
a reassuring sign that there would be enough water under
the keel for the KUNA too.
In the Solomons, anchoring somewhere is tricky, not only
because of the lack of charts. Prior contact with the
community has to be made to seek permission to use the
anchorage. Around Kukundu, there are two villages. One
was very reluctant to let us anchor due to prior visit
from an American birdwatcher boat who brought 50 people
without asking for permission beforehand. The mission
school principal Jimson helped us follow the good protocol.
Film kit and was unloaded and brought to an old mission
house near the bat colony. Near enough but still far in
the blazing heat, walking the 2 kilometers from the boat
to the bats with loads of camera gear several times a day
(my duty) was a challenge!
Pics to come...

April 22nd: Next Kolombangara

April 22nd
Funnily enough, after changing an engine the KUNA managed to be only 6 days late form the original charter schedule (14 Apr), but now everything else is slowing her down!!! Next is stop is the village of Kukundu, on the Island of Kolombangara, a huge volcano most often covered in rainy clouds. That's where the bat colony is located, behind the Adventists mission. Talking to the local carvers (who paddled their canoes from there to Gizo) there seem to be an anchorage, but it's not very well charted. Today, a nice South Easterly is blowing and it would be a lovely 2 hours sail! Fingers crossed scientist and cameras do arrive! Still wondering how we are going to get the producer too!!

April 21st :preparations in Gizo

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.

Townsville to Gizo - Passage

The High Pressure system that blew the KUNA half way through the Solomon Sea (April16th GRIB)
Gilbertes live on this island opposite Gizo,view from the KUNA at anchor
Gizo harbour, finally in another country
First sight of land after a squall
Tuna fishing boat: encoutered a couple, no more
Becalmed in the middle of the solomons sea, Half way through PNG and Gizo
Fully reefed main and staysail to for beating in 25 knots SE winds
Windvane and sunset in the coral sea
Trackt to Solomons

Townsville to Gizo: a sailing passage through the Coral Sea and the Solomon Sea
If the pics haven't made it, they will come soon!

It didn't look that easy but after a close look at the charts the course turned out to be achievable for the KUNA in moderate South East trades winds: a course of 42¼T to Rossel Island (Eastern most trip of PNG) and then a turn to 35¼T to Gizo, avoiding famous Pocklington Reef (famous for its wreckages)

Day 1 April 12th 2008
The Kuna exited Townsville on motor, just another couple hours running it to double check that it was OK. It was an opportunity to get upwind of the course through the Magnetic passage. Threading the Magnetic passage is a good way out of the Great Barrier Reef as few ships use it and the reefs are sparse and current is not as an issue as in the Hydrograpers. Kuna was out in the open water that night, great feeling!

Day 2 April 13th 2008
Beating in light winds, Dart Reef, small reef west of Flinders Reefs was rounded at about 1300 the next day. With the SE winds becoming stronger, maintaining a bearing of 65¼T (higher than course) to round Willis Island from the South became impossible and, after passing to the NW of Herald Kays, Kuna had to bear off to 42¼T.

Day 3 April 14th 2008
In the morning, Kuna threaded her way in the deep water between the back of the Willis Island rise and the rise further West. At 9AM, whilst 16Miles from Willis Island, a weather forecast was requested by VHF (they listen on Ch 16) from the Meteorological Observation station. The guys were courtous enough to check the forecast with Brisbane (they are only an observing station) and invited us for a cuppa. No time to stop though. They were expecting an ex ANARE observer, wondered if we knew him!!!
A couple of hours later, Kuna is out in the open (yaaaay, no more reefs to dodge!) and set on a course of 42¼T, or anything possibly higher to try and make as much easting as possible in case the strengthening winds did turn Easterly with the High Pressure system coming across. From the forecast, the winds were predicted to strengthened to 25-30 the next day and a 1.5 was already roaming on top of a 2m swell. Fully reefed main and 1/3 jib.

Another birthday at sea, though not on the Aurora Australis, this time (bugger, I'm sober!!)

Day 4 April 15th
Beating with a fully reefed main and staysail, Kuna climbed comfortably the 4m waves in 35 knots of wind maintaining a good 6knots. 20-30 degrees higher than course, preventing an uncomfortable roll. I downloaded a weather grib files and know why we are getting such strong winds now: the GFS model indicates that HIGH has gone huge, spreading over most of North Queensland. Hopefully it will last and is push the Kuna in the right direction at high speed (well, 10 T of boat travelling at 6 knots with fully reefed main and staysail feels fast enough). Speed record surfing down a wave was 12.1 today.

Day 5 April 16th
More of the same, strong winds, climbing huge waves, starting getting into the swing of watches well, though 3 four hours watches is a busy schedule. Lucky the wind vane is working well most of the time. Only when KUNA rounds up heavily it needs to be helped by locking the rudder slightly to leeward (to get her back downwind). When the winds get really overpowering, time to stir by manually but it only occurred twice so far, luckily because she is heavy.


Day 6 April 17th
That morning, approaching Adele Island and Rossel Island, the Eastern Most tip of PNG. Passing it 20 miles away to avoid overfalls. Large swells (5m ish) have travelled from further South and there is still up to 20 knots of wind to help the Kuna run (35T). The question is how far will those winds push her until she hits the Doldrums. Turning the corner and entering a new sea, the Solomon Sea, is not without noticeable effect: in between surfing down the huge southerly swells (speed record 14.3 today!), the Kuna rolls under the influence of North Westerly swells, from a system a long way away, north the of the equator even maybe. With 20 knots of wind on the top it makes the sea pretty irregularly rough. The pressure keeps dropping regularly: we are about to cross a trough of low pressure in a few hours. Squalls are building up on the horizon. Electric storms are also brewing, it is a threatening feeling to be the only tall steel structure for 100s of miles!

Day 7 April 18th
Later that night (midnight watch), bucketing rain which barely could let me see the wind arrow on the top of the mast hits the KUNA and she screameds down the swells at 10 knots under full main. Needless to say a bit of rudder is needed to help the windvane and prevent her from rounding up. Then an hour of so later, the wind dies completely, leaving the KUNA bobbing around on an incredibly shockingly rough sea. As learned the hard way, it is very damaging for the sails to bash again the rigging hoping to get some wind: the fully battened main developed chafe along the batten pocket at every point of impact and the preexisting reinforcing patches have to be beefed up. On the chafe front, I discovered pulling the full main that the lazy jacks also had some damage to the reefed belly in the last 5 days of beating. One more patch to plan on. Yellow fin Tuna for dinner, the one and only fish caught on the trip!


Day 8 April 19th
Stopping the motor after a long night to have a swim around the boat and breaky in silence. 50 miles covered in the last 24 hours, mostly motoring. A few attempts of catching the wind today, one with the MPS which seems to reach very well but that course would have taken the Kuna to Bougainville so back to motoring, which makes the hours slow... The tachometer is still not calibrated properly (how many pulses does a BOSCH 24V alternator send per revolution?) so the rpms of the new motor are estimated according to speed performance. About 4.5 knots, 28¼T Slow. At the end of the day comes a squall, lots of rain (= a great shower!!) and some winds, which bring us 5 mils further! Second tuna fishing boat sighted, quite flash boat. Later that evening the double hill shape of Simbo island clears out of the clouds.


Day 9 Arrived!!! April 20th
Slept until 1AM in completetely still seas, waiting was necessary to make the landfall the nest morning by motor, yes, another 22 miles of motoring in beautiful dead calm seas to Gizo harbour. T took 28 hours of motoring on and off to go through 170 miles in the doldrums. The approaches were amazing, tight passage (well not so tight) through a couple of reefs, only visible due to a little break in flat calm weather and morning light. Anchored in front of the Mobil station in 12 m of mud. Tight anchorage (100 m from town!) with light onshore winds. Sunday morning, church sounds and silhouetted canoes travelling from island to island surround the Kuna.

Post passage maintenance list for today (small):
- Some chafe from lazy jack and rig onto the fully battened main: reinforce protective patches to prevent
- Equip lazy jack with soft transparent plastic pipe to prevent chafe (they are useful to contained the large area reefed sail) and equip spreaders with anti chafe gear (gaffa tape some soft material on them)
- Protective plank under the anchor to avoid head bashing against the deck (and scraping paint)
- Set up boat for deep anchoring: make the 110 m of 10 mm chain readily available (Its not Queensland shallows anymore!) and place swivel on main anchor to enable for frequent wind shifts at anchor without twisting the chain
- Engine 25 hours routine maintenance (oil and oil filter change, need to look after the new BUkh well!
- Fix a small leak in the manual bilge pump: quantities of oil lost by the old motor must have had reason of one valve
- Fix one and only small leak in aft hatch: pleasant surprise in this testing weather with lots of greenies over the bow)

All jobs seemed so easy after a week of trying to do stuff in a rolling boat!

Rest. Clearing and Shoot starting tomorrow

April 18th

Position:
S 9deg 48.4
E 155deg 54.7
After huge squalls running at 10 knots with full main, now definitely becalmed
110 mile SW of Gizo, and have to admit testing the brand new donk...