Tuesday 11 October

Snapshot; I am sitting at a round plastic table on a white plastic chair in the Point Cruz Yacht Club, with my lovely friends Aggie and Mary, waitresses both at the Yacht Club and very superior young women altogether.  In Australia, the world would be their oyster; here they struggle just a bit.  Pete and John, wrapped in towels, are very happily watching a very loud rugby game.  France vs England, maybe.  I am also very damp.  And outside it is dark and a wild storm rages!  We want to go back to our beloved 2XS, bobbing around bravely, unattended, but with the riding light ON.  A few dinghies have set forth, to Delos, and to Quetzalcoatl, but we are…entranced by the rugby?  More wary, more cautious?  (By the way comments don't seem to be working, so people tell me...too sad!!)

Last night we had dinner at the very glamorous, if empty, Hotel Honiara, up on the hill a few kilometres away.with James and Bruce.  (Thank you John!!  Delicious and memorable!)

This morning we got up early.  John took the tender in to the beach to pick up our Tasmanian friends, who had managed to get a few hours off, and we powered off down the coast, 5 nautical miles, to a partially exposed World War II wreck – a Japanese carrier ship, we have since been told.  James was first off, with the power snorkel (…thank you Andrew!)  Those Miedeckes are a great asset to us!)  I followed faithfully behind, on the surface, with my snorkel and flippers.  I hovered above James, in between ecstatic moments of darting in and out of the wreck.  It was absolutely fabulous; so many fish one just about had to push them out of the way to continue swimming.  And glorious coral, including a few specimens of something which looked like a fluorescent violet pumpkin, pulsating gently, with a few languid beige fronds emerging from the top.  James, who is an enthusiastic bloke - such an attractive characteristic – surrendered the power snorkel to John, who also enjoyed his dive, with me paddling along above him just as keenly as the first time.

And did poor Pete get a chance to experience this fabulous wreck dive?  Well no…he was up the top of the mast, struggling with…(Nicole Darcey are you reading this??) – a halyard issue…

We very much enjoyed our time with James and Bruce; new Tasmanian BFFs!!  James flew back to Hobart this afternoon, and Bruce is here, geology-ing away diligently for the Hydro, for another few weeks.

We had to speed back to Honiara, to check out with Immigration, pickup our visas from the PNG High Commission, and generally make a nuisance of ourselves in various shops.  And then as we were about to go back to 2XS –a violent storm!  The normally placid clear blue sea is brown and swirling with tonnes of rubbish – where did it all come from??  Well from the highways, byways, rivers, and creeks of downtown Honiara….

No internet connection...am about to try again…not sure when next I will be able to put anything on my blog; it might be many weeks.  We are heading to the Louisiades via the Russell Islands (Solomons.)  Please bear with us!  (yet again…)