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…)

Monday 10th October 2011

Happy Birthday Angela!

Pete and John got up early and flew off, happy indeed as birds, in a helicopter with James and Bruce.  Somewhere off into the wilds of Guadalcanal. They had to wear big heavy workboots and long trousers and they will get very hot but I am sure they will have an amazing adventure or two.  I have never been in a helicopter, but...there wasn't room at the inn for me.  I didn't really mind; i don't have any big heavy workboots with me in any case.  Bruce had to buy 14 pairs for the local workers; none of them would have fitted me because Solomon Islanders have big long feet which are actually and literally as wide as they are long...

So what have I been doing with my time??  Well I took the tender back to 2XS (Monique please note - I motored back, no need to row!!) and lay on the couch until it was opening hours ie after 9.30, very happily reading yet another Harry Bosch book.  Then I nonchalantly motored back to the Yacht Club and heaved the tender onto the beach.  I looked like a tomato by the end of this exercise but was very proud of my effort as I plunged the anchor into the sand.  Off to the bathroom to wash my tomatoface and...oh dear and oh no, I realised I had left my phone on 2XS...What if the HelicopterBoys needed me??   Heave and ho and back to 2XS...then back to the beach, another lot of heave pant lug... (Yes ofcourse nice kind men came to help, but both times it was just as I was setting the anchor into the sand - too late she cried!  I am getting very strong.)

So what next??  Well time for beauty repairs, ofcourse!  I asked at the tourist department and was directed to a salon in the back street, parallel to the one long main street of Honiara.  My hands are now as soft as a baby's bottom, my nails bright pink, and my hair is...short!!  Patricia, from Malaita, owned the salon.  She did her training in Brisbane ad Adelaide and was a very confident woman.  She cut my hair very well but - ofcourse - too short for my liking.  But...she did NOT cut my fringe half an inch long so I am feeling very happy and grateful.  (Pete knows I have been intending to get my hair cut, and every time we have been apart for an hour or so in Honiara, he looks at me anxiously on my return and says, "Your hair looks lovely!  You just got it cut, didn't you?"  Too funny...)

I was in the salon for ages - my hands apparently needed lots of soothing creams and lotions to repair the saltwater damage of the past few months...Patricia kept me entertained.  I told her about the badboy robbers on the boats in the harbour and she was fascinated and appalled.  She said, "They must come from another island.  Not Guadalcanal, or Malaita!"  

A big tall New Zealand man came in to get his hair shorn.  He was very cross because his big modern Malaita-Guadalcanal ferry, 360, has broken down - his mechanic forgot to put oil in the engines, he said, grimly.  Patricia asked him if he knew where Sandfly Passage was - I had been telling her about our few days there.  "Yes," he said.  "It's where that wrecked ship is."  I asked him about it - John, Pete and I had been fascinated to see a big ship, tilted crazily on the reef, close to shore, on one of the islands in the passage.  We had wondered why it hadn't been salvaged.  "An interesting story," he said.  Apparently the insurers offered the islanders $1million compensation for damage to the reef.  Consultation amongst the Big Men of the tribes and they said, "Nope, not enough."  So the insurers said, "Keep it, then."  So...there it sits, and, unfortunately, it is starting to fall apart and pollute the reef with diesel.

Patricia snorted derisively and said, "They could have done so much good with that money!  But even if they had got it, they would have frittered it away on their 02, 03, 04!"  I asked for clarification and she said, "Woman Number #2, Number #3, Number #4," and we all laughed heartily.

Last night we watched the second rugby game, in the pouring POURING rain, leaking through the big thatched roof of the Yacht Club.  Brazilian Francis was behind me, gently singing, with much glee, "Don't cry for me Argentina..."  At last and finally it was over and we trooped off to the Golden Crown for a Chinese feast.  (Nick from Orange County, Patti from Hawaii, Marcello from Italy, Francis and Raquel from Brazil, Brian from Seattle, John, Pete, James, Bruce and me from Tasmania.  A lively group!!)  James had very kindly, without anyone knowing, paid for and bought the wine and beer for everyone.  Then he asked me what I thought of the chardonnay and I pulled a face...oh how rude...

Maybe I will write some more this evening - it might be our last night... I went to the PNG High Commission to see if I could get a receipt for Pete's passport and they told me all of our visas are ready - we weren't expecting them till Wednesday - NOT Island Time, in this office, obviously!

Thursday 6th October

Pete is filling the 2XS tanks with water.  John and I have been battling with bureaucracy at the PNG High Commission.  Now we are going to have our last free (cold! blissful!) shower at the Yacht Club, and then off to some more fabulous islands.
Last night we watched some schoolkids doing traditional (kastom) dancing at the Yacht Club. Much fun - the girls were one big unco-ordinated giggle, the boys very loud and fierce.  Then we (John, Pete and I - not sure where Kerry and Rina went) made our way back to our favourite Chinese restaurant with our Infinity friends, Paddy from Hawaii, Francis and Raquel from Brazil.   They are leaving the boat now; we will be sad not to be running into them in various bays and South Pacific towns.   Infinity, with depleted numbers on board, is off to Cairns after a few days in the nearby islands here..
Pete and Kerry stayed up till 2am, warding off badboys and eating hardboiled eggs, well so the evidence on deck would show... Maybe a few cans of Sol Brew beer were also involved...
We will be back in Honiara on the  9th, all being well...

Oh dear it has been brought to my attention that, even AFTER I had - or so I thought - carefully edited out a very embarrassing error...I still managed to write that Wilfred, on Ndende, had invited me to shit and shelter on his front verandah...

OOPS....

Sunday 9^th October

Last night was Angela (one of Pete’s lovely sisters) and Chris Wood’s 60^th birthday party…back in Tasmania.  We were very sad not to be there.  I had been hoping to make a sudden dash for Tasmania, but it is not easy at all to get a ticket out of Honiara, let alone connecting flights.  Also…it is very expensive and I am saving my airfare money for Christmas.  I am sure it was a wonderful, cheery event.

We celebrated for them by watching…two Rugby World Cup games (France v England, Wales v Ireland,) at the Yacht Club with a large and extremely vocal crowd.  Well when I say ‘we’ watched…Pete and John were in the thick of it all, with the Infinity-ites, at a large round front-of-house table.  I had a long cold shower and snuck off during the first game to send off my blogpost and glance quickly at my emails…(apparently Ireland lost.) 

When I was in the spacious foyer of the Heritage Hotel, sipping on a Corona beer and connecting, via bumblebee (my very user-friendly user name is….enaqbm5b@bumblebee, password uu9dmfnr, all in the tiniest print which I couldn’t read even with my good prescription magnifiers…I had to go to the counter and get the bright young receptionist chap to write it down for me in BIG BOLD PRINT…) I found some emails from Kerry.  The first one was PANIC STATIONS.  Although he had many bags with him, he did not have a very important small fold over black card case containing his credit cards…I am SO glad we didn’t get this email before we left because we would have turned the boat inside out and upside down.  A few days out of cyber reach did wonders – Kerry, thank God, found his card case in a secret pocket, as one, with luck, always does.

During the second game, I sat happily on the sidelines with Sage and baby Rhian, and Patti from Hawaii. We chatted in between roars from the crowd, looked sideways at the game occasionally, and very much enjoyed watching the happy expressions (well Alex and George, from the UK, were NOT happy…) of the audience.  Tasmanian Bruce and James arrived and joined the big table; apparently we are going to repeat the occasion tonight and then all go off for dinner, back to the Golden Crown for more delicious chilli crayfish…

Infinity left during the night, headed for the Russell Islands and then Cairns.  We might catch up with them one more time; we have been with them so often, in so many different places, it will feel very strange, and sad, not to have them looming on the horizon somewhere or another.

Pete has read my last few cyber-offerings and has pointed out that I have missed a few islands and a few people… I did have a few days where it was just impossible, for one reason or another, to get out the computer.  Unfortunately, if I don’t write every single day, everything becomes a blur and all the beautiful islands merge and morph into one another…

I do remember, at some anchorage, meeting a most lovely man, John, a very gentle person wearing a hideously stained and ragged polo-shirt.  He didn’t want to sell or trade, he just wanted to chat.  I noticed he was gazing, in some awe at 2XS, so I suggested to Pete that he invite him aboard.  The four young boys with him, in their own canoes, stat patiently waiting – yes ofcourse I fed them and gave them red cordial – while John came on board and had a guided tour.  He was in his fifties and said he had never before been invited onboard a yacht.  (Most of the Solomon Islanders don’t actually wait for an invitation...they just clamber confidently up the steps and sit on the deck.)  We gave John a drink and some biscuits and he looked very embarrassed.  “You are the guests in my country; I should be inviting you!” he said.  I hated the way he was wearing such scungy rags, this beautiful, dignified man, so I whispered to Pete that it was time to let go one of his favourite white t-shirts.  (Favourite to him but not to me because it has a strange bobbly texture, not discernible to men at all but very unpleasant to me.)  I put it in a plastic bag and slipped it to John as unobtrusively as possible – it is not a good look, to be the Great White Queen bearing gifts and wealth, and his eyes filled with tears, to have some of Captain Pete’s clothing.  (No he won’t notice that it is a bit bobbly in texture!  It is beautifully clean and white!)

Last night when I arrived back from the Heritage Hotel I made my way through the crowd to get a glass of wine.  There was a grizzled Australian man there, a gold miner – I said, “Gold in them thar hills?” and he said, “Yup.”  He was with a very nicely spoken Solomons Islands man, who looked at me very intently and said, “Are you from the yacht out there, which just returned?”  I said yes, and he looked stricken.  “I think you were robbed and attacked the other night?”  I said that was Delos, and Raynad, a few days before, and that we had been fine.  “I am so ashamed,” he said.  “I apologise on behalf of my countrymen.”  Too sad…

Friday 7^th October

Snapshot: Pete is on deck in the pouring POURING rain chopping up vegetables and cursing under his breath at the bluntness of each and every knife on board.  John is lying happily on some (slightly damp) couch cushions, reading James Michener’s Alaska.  He looks very relaxed and happy in spite of not having caught any fish on our way here up the Sandfly Passage.   I too have been lolling on the damp couch, reading, but now I have struggled to a less supine position to write a bit of blogstuff.  Pete and I are inordinately pleased with ourselves because we have just crossed the 8^th parallel – what a long way we have come, from Hobart, on the 42^nd Degrees South parallel!  Surprisingly, it is cooler today than it has been since we arrived in the Solomons – only about 28, as opposed to 38.  The tropical rain is bucketing down relentlessly, and I am making the most of the opportunity to rinse and wash, with big buckets and containers all over the deck catching lovely fresh water for this purpose.

You may, if you are observant, have noticed some absences in this snapshot…Kerry and Rina have left us.  They jumped ship at the water wharf in Honiara and were last seen disappearing, with many beautiful baskets and shells and artifacts strewn about their persons, in a big white taxi.  Possibly it all got a bit Big Brother, on 2XS…

Yesterday we cruised off into the Sandfly Passage.  (Yes I know I said we were going to Morovo Lagoon in the Western Province, The Most Beautiful Place In The World…but I was wrong.  That is after we leave Honaira on the 11^th…)  We anchored on a lovely bit of reef and were straight in the water.  I stayed in till I got extremely wrinkly; it was just so wonderful.  A long expanse of coral, dropping off into the deep blue on one side, and to sandy shallows on the other.  Lots of very healthy coral, with not a single Crowns of Thorns starfish in sight.  And so many fish!  A myriad tiny ones, drifting in and out of a big bommie not five metres from the boat, absolutely enchanting.

Eventually ofcourse I did have to climb up the ladder and start drying off.  We had ltos of canoe visitors, ofcourse… Peter, who runs a small Eco Lodge, came out to tell us, firmly but kindly, that we were in an MPA (Marine Protected Area) and that this would mean that we would have to pay him $25 each for the privilege of swimming on the reef.  This seemed eminently reasonable ($25 Solomon = about $3.50 AUS…)  We also made friends with a most delightful, gentle man called Willy, who had his small son Billy in his canoe.  Billy didn’t respond to anything much happening around him, and Willy said, a bit sadly, “He is deaf and dumb.  He goes to school to try to learn signs with his hands.”  I just happened to have done a wee bit of shopping in the Honiara Chinese shops so I whipped inside and found a small notebook and some crayons; Billy’s eyes lit up, so did Willy’s… Later, just as it was getting dark, Willy turned up again, with an older, thinner man, John, who had a guest book he wanted us to write in.  And they also had brought, for “Laura” and for 2XS, an enormous bunch of beautiful local flowers, in a bark and coconut free-standing vase arrangement.  We dined al fresco (before the rain rain RAIN) with our floral decorations centre table.

This morning, some of Peter’s boys from the Eco Lodge arrived to take “Laura” snorkeling, to see the giant clams she had missed on her fist extensive/intensive exploration of the reef.  Willy arrived soon after, with his canoe jam-packed with wonderful carvings he had done – he is self-taught, and has only been doing these for three years.  I bought a gorgeous rosewood conch-shell, very simple, and John bought a similar shell in kerosene wood and big thwack weapon which, he says, will be great for stunning tuna.  It poured with rain so all of these boys sheltered, in their canoes, under 2XS.  Very happily!  Pete said, “They are never going to leave!  They will bob about beneath us forever, they are being so well fed and watered…”  Well yes…I cooked up a huge pot of popcorn for them, and made them red cordial, and gave them butternut snaps, and bread with peanut butter and jam… They were all so pleasant so cheery and uncomplaining as they waited for us to look at carvings, go snorkeling, chat.  Eventually it cleared a bit, and we all went to look at the giant clams.  The visibility was nowhere near as good as yesterday because there was a big layer of cold fresh water on top of the sea-water – it was like looking through thick glass, quite extraordinary.  I couldn’t see the giant clams at all but nodded happily at Joseph and Charles every time I saw them anxiously looking at me.

Our first visitors, I forgot to say, were Benjamin and Joseph.  Benjamin was very chatty and said he would try to catch us some crayfish.  I asked how much they would cost and he said, “We will do some trading, no money necessary.  Because I love you and you love me.”  His wife, Jessie, came out this morning, with a tiny boy, Christy, in her canoe.  Benjamin had arrived very early on with an enormous branch of green bananas ( no crayfish…) and she had come for payment.  Not so much love flowing… I asked what she wanted and she said, curtly, “Anything you give me.”  These were her only words of English, and she was lying.  I went off, at Pete’s suggestion, and came back with Rina’s beautiful flowery summer dress (she had left it behind with instructions to toss it overboard.)  Jessie looked at it expressionlessly and handed it back to me.  So I brought a drawing book and pencils and these too were rejected.  I asked Willy what was up and he said, “She doesn’t want clothes for herself, and Christy doesn’t go to school so doesn’t need pencils.  She wants a shirt for the little guy.”  No probs!

Rina not only left some of her personal items behind – and I am very sure there will be a girl who will be thrilled to bits with the very nice dress – but she also, veryngenerously, on her penultimate day, hit the Chinese shops bigtime.  As she was waiting for the taxi, she showed Pete the treasures to be distributed – about a dozen sparkly bras, cotton underpants, sewing kits, textas and notebooks.  Dear Pete sat looking faintly bemused through this demonstration but he promised to distribute sparkly bras to worthy women on many South Pacific islands.  (I have already sent a pink set of underwear off for Willy’s wife, and I am sure she will be thrilled to bits.)

I forgot to say we met some very nice Tasmanians, working here for the Hydro.  They had met John at the airport and were going to give him a ride into town..  One of them looked at Pete, and said, “You must be Martin Headlam’s father."  He was James Butler, a very nice young bloke.  With him was Bruce Taylor, equally nice if not familiar with James and Kate…

We are back in Honiara for a few days so there will probably be a few more regular blogposts before we disappear into the wide blue yonder again.

Wednesday 5th October

We are still in Honiara...

John (Miedecke) arrived yesterday afternoon, bearing not-so-good tidings re our need for visas for PNG, although we are only lightly touching on the outer waters, hardly even stopping on land at all.  So...many forms to fill in, and new passport photos to put on our visas.  And...Computer Says No after 12.00 on Wednesdays... So we have another day and night in Hot Honiara.

I don't really mind.  Honiara is, of course, nowhere near as wonderful as the outer islands and reefs, but it is full of life and interest,and has a certain raffish charm all its own.

This morning we on 2XS were talking very complacently and happily about how safe and comfortable we feel, anchored right in the middle of town, outside the Point Cruz Yacht Club, right next to the police wharf, resplendent with huge official motor boats.  So imagine our chagrin when we came back from the market and settled at a table at the Yacht Club and heard of mischief and mayhem in the night.  Apparently there is a nasty little gang of motor-boat driving machete-wielding BadBoys stealing things nightly from the yachts in the bay.  Brian and Brady, nice young blokes from the beautiful big yacht Delos (Seattle) had some of their very good, expensive diving equipment stolen.  Clemence, captain of Infinity, was on watch and saw it all happening.  He and one of the crew, Phil, leapt into their dinghy in hot pursuit - so brave!  They smacked one of the BadBoys with an oar, "and," said Clemence viciously, "I hope we broke his nose!"  (Yes - Infinity is once again anchored right next to us; so lovely to see our friends again.)

So now we are feeling just a little bit less cosy and complacent... We do lock our door at night but...aaaggghhh...  Clemence was particularly cross because he radioed the police boat, not 100 metres away, and - no reply...nobody on radio watch, everyone in SnoozyLand!

Tomorrow, once the colossal amount of red tape have been surmounted, we should be going to Morovo Lagoon, which is apparently more beautiful than we can dream of (or so we have been told...)  We will be back in Honiara on the 9th; I won't have built ups such a huge BlogNovel by then and can just make a more or less normal post.