Photos

Noro Market place


Hawksbill turtle hatchlings


Turtle hatchlings heading for the sea


Hawksbill turtle


Turtle laying eggs


Pilot whales (?) seen on passage


Arrival at Kosrae

Arrival at Kosrae

We arrived in Kosrae yesterday after eight days at sea, our longest passage for a while. The first couple of days were spent either motoring or drifting in a glassy calm. Then we got some wind of 10-20 knots from the eastern sector, set jib, staysail and main and settled down for 5 and a half days hard on the wind. For non sailors, this means living at an angle of 25 degrees with the hatches all shut to stop salt spray coming down below. At temperatures up to 35 degrees this does not make life very comfortable! For our last day the wind moved more into the SE and we were flying along at 6-7 knots with the green mountains of Kosrae getting closer and closer. We saw a few sights on passage, I saw dolphins, a big school of pilot whales and some other whales which we think may have been sperm whales, Jim saw a couple of plastic bottles and one glass bottle. We also saw quite a few fishing boats, some just visible as a loom of light, others quite close. We arrived in Kosrae on a Saturday so we are relaxing on board until Monday when we can clear in etc. It is nice to be clean and enjoy proper meals and a cold beer. We had some rain overnight (some squalls with quite strong gusts so we are glad we are not at sea) and today so we have used some of the water to do some washing and have also cleaned the inside of the boat (well some bits that really needed doing anyway). We also cut each others hair - Jim has just shaved his all off again so that was easy but so far he hasn't made a bad job of mine (professional hairdressers may disagree) or maybe it is due to having only one small badly lit mirror on board!

At first impressions, Kosrae, or Lelu to be specific, is a collection of ramshackle buildings at risk of being inundated at high tide. There is an old white church with flaking paint which has held at least 2 packed services today and what was possibly choir practise last night. We are guessing at the packed status due to the number of cars (all very modern looking) parked outside. We are looking forward to stretching our legs in the short term and doing some diving later on. Micronesia is supposed to have some great diving but the Solomons may have raised our expectations so we will see...

We had hoped to post some more photos in Noro but the internet connection was too slow. Not sure now where our next chance will be but we will post some when we can.

Leaving the Solomons

We are in Noro today about to clear out of the Solomon Islands and head to Kosrae in the Federated States of Micronesia -north of the equator. Unfortunately, there is not much wind and I expect we will be doing a lot of motoring. We filled up with diesil yesterday with a leaking hose while holding up the local trading ship, although nobody seemed at all worried, either about the copious amounts of spilled diesil or the wait for us to get off the wharf. Lucky we got in first as another boat came afterwards and didn't leave until after 5 pm.

Solomon Island Photos

A selection of photos from the Solomons:
(The internet is very slow so may not get many photos up)



Local boat landing in Honiara seen from the anchorage


Jim in the US Hellcat plane (Tori behind him)


A crab lived in our cockpit for several weeks but we haven't seen him for a while now


Jim sailing in the Marovo Lagoon


The Vonavona Lagoon


Coming into Mary island

Ringgi Cove and the Vonavona Lagoon

Well somehow it is now November and later this month we will leave the Solomon Islands and head north to Micronesia, but first what have we been up to since we last wrote? From the anchorage we were at for our last update we motored to Ringgi Cove, a very sheltered inlet in a large volcanic island. We weren't surprised when the first yacht joined us in the bay, as we knew that they were headed our way, but being joined by a third yacht after weeks of being on our own was a surprise! One day we took 'Elenya' out with the crew from 'Raynad' and Bryan from 'Delos' and arranged for a guide to take us on a tour of some WWII sites. The first stop was a shallow dive on a Japanese Hellcat plane. The plane was lying upright on the seafloor and looked almost intact. Bryan armed with an underwater camera took a photo of Jim sitting in the cockpit, which we will post on the blog when we get a good internet connection. Unfortunately, our second site was canceled as there had been in a death in the village that claims custom ownership but the third stop was to explore a Japanese hospital, which was partially tunneled into the hillside. Back at Ringgi Cove we were visited by villagers trying to sell us 'gold' and 'black diamonds' Apparently the story is that gold has been discovered in the mountain and the government is going to start operations (and prevent anyone else going up there) in a month's time. Accordingly all the locals are allegedly trying to gather as much rock as they can before the government steps in! Some of the rocks we saw may have curiosity value but the 'gold' was almost certainly some form of pyrites and I'm sure the 'diamonds' are a correspondingly valueless quartz or obsidian although we didn't see any of these first hand. It kept the guys on 'Delos' amused for a couple of days determining whether it was worth filling the bilges with ore!

From Ringgi Cove, we spent a few very pleasant days in the Vonavona Lagoon. We even had 2 days where we sailed: light winds, flat water and good light made for perfect conditions but dodging coral bommies under sail still made for a few interesting moments. We are now in the greater Gizo area and will probably potter around here until its time to head north.