So the family have left and Willie Gardner has arrived at Oyster Island to join us for this leg of the voyage. Out of this beautiful lagoon, through the reefs and set sail northwards towards Gaua..the first of the Banks Islands. We had a good trade breeze, easterly 18 knots and sailed well to get to Gaua just after sunset. Next morning went ashore...man these guys have nothing! Maybe it’s partly because they were evacuated from their village for 18 months while their island, an active volcano, kept erupting!! With no maintenance and 18 months in these climates..just about everything they had built was dilapidated and falling down..they have a big job ahead of them!
No wind today so after seeing the Village at Gaua, we motored to Sola..arriving about lunch time to clear out from Vanuatu. The customs man was there and all OK, but Immigration was the local policeman and he had gone to check up on a beached whale on the other side of the island. So we had a couple of hours to kill while we waited. There was no good swimming beach, the town, although a provincial capital, was half way between a town and a village and quite frankly didn’t make the grade on either! We were pleased to get our stamps at about 5 o’clock and get back to the luxury of Salanjo as soon as we could!
The next day..Saturday 11th June we awoke to a beautiful day and motored 5 miles to the most fabulous beach with a good reef break for Willie to ride. The island was leased by an Australian who flew for Van Air and there were 5 families living there..indeed it was in fact, their island. Anna and I went ashore in the kayak (yep..and we didn’t get tipped out on the waves on the beach..Anna’s good paddling and navigation!).
In the afternoon we headed north towards the well formed cone of the volcanic island of Uraparapara...and motored into the lagoon created by the cone. Pretty interesting, but decided not to stop and continued through the night up through the Torres Islands towards Guadalcanal three days away! Very light winds so we ended up motoring most of the way!! Juk!
Pulled into Honiara at first light on Tuesday 14th June. Cleared customs without any problem and found a café..The Lime Café..man..great coffee, great food , loved it..otherwise Honiara was not much! Anna found a massage which was not too bad, and I spent some time at the Pt Cruz Yacht Club which was pretty good. We did some shopping, Willie brought us a lovely dinner at the Honiara Hotel..hat was an experience..a bit like a Disney World creation!.. and we left Willie (who was heading home the next day) and Anna and I motored on up through the islands towards the famous Morovo Lagoon 120iles NW of Honiara. Pulled in through the Mbillie Passage about 4pm..had meal and went to bed to be approached by Paul, a local carver with his wares about 0800 the next morning. We asked him to come back at 10 which he did with another carver, Milton. We found them excellent traders..wanting all manner of tools, sandpaper, clothes, DVD’s shoes for their carvings...and money as well!
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