Solomons to Darwin

So this is the big one for this side of the equator, nearly 2,000 miles!

On Wednesday 22 June Brendan Woolley, Gordon McKay and Jeremy Mace arrived at the Western capital of the Solomons, Ghizo! They were even less inclined to stay there than Anna and I had been! So, as we found that there was now no Customs clearance at Ghizo, as the officer had taken off on a logging ship some months before and no one knew exactly when he would be returning, we had to head to Noro on New Georgia Island...on the way was Fatboys so we stopped there for dinner and the night and had the swim and dive in the morning that Anna and I had missed a few days before.

Noro is 25 miles up the Blackett Channel (that’s the channel that President JFK was run down by a Japanese Destroyer in the Second World war and from where he and the survivors of his crew swam and hid and eventually managed to get to the safety of their own lines.) We cleared customs and then headed through the Diamond narrows. That was an experience and saw many lovely native homes settled on flat green grass by the side of the Vonavona Lagoon, another amazing place. These lagoons are world famous and are reputed to be the biggest salt water lagoons in the world. We went on and through the reef at the Munda Bar at 1700 on the evening of Thursday 23 June and headed towards the Louisiades 300 miles to the South East. Unfortunately it was light winds so we were motoring much of that leg arriving Saturday morning at the first little harbour we found on rounding the SE point of Misima Island. Man, this was bad! The whole town seemed to come down to the wharf to see the visitors. As we did not intend to clear customs into Papua new Guina, we were a bit worried when we saw someone taking a picture. The town had one store, a small market and seemed to be very poor. No maintenance on any of the buildings, the wharf and the water was muddy with mangroves along the edge. We decided to move on and headed for the Calvados Chain of Islands, particularly, Bagaman Island.

I do not know why we headed for Bagaman Island, but it was an inspired choice. Magnificent little spot. Beautiful, sheltered bays with beautiful corals and white sandy beaches.. high hills, plenty of rain and lovely people, even if their dentistry left a little to be desired!  We were visited almost immediately by series of visitors wanting to trade. We acquired some beautiful pawpaws, bananas and some carved model sailing canoes. We enjoyed the stay there and prepared the boat for sea.

Next morning, Sunday, after cleaning the bottom of the boat with snorkels in beautiful clear water of about 29 degrees, we headed off. Around the corner and into 30 knot breezes and a strong current between the islands..this all settled down to a 25 knot SE trade breeze and we were off. Out through the Jomard Channel into the Coral Sea and away. We travelled well along the south shore of PNG 500 miles to Blythe Entrance, the entrance to the Torres Strait. The wind was 20 to 25 knots from the SE, warm and fine. We enjoyed the sail having only to motor the last day directly downwind to make the entrance.