HONIARA - SOLOMONS ISLANDS

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We arrive in Honiara Monday evening after a 9 ½ hr journey from Marail - southern end of Guadalcanal. Again we were going down wind averaging 6.5 - 7k. It was a peaceful sunny with a few squalls very pleasant. Brian has mooring buoy about 50m off the Honiara Yacht Club. The plan was just to pick up the buoy and we would be set for the evening - We arrived just as it was getting dark at 6.30pm to find a catamaran had attached a sunken vessel next to Brian’s mooring which was no where in site. After a few choice words with the owner of the cat, running aground on the reef near by, we went on another mooring for the evening. Mike (a yachtie who had met Brian 3 years ago) came over to see if we needed assistance but we were fine. Bright and early the next morning 7.00am Brian got on his diving gear and went over to get his mooring sorted out, which ended up about 10m off the cat on starboard side of his stern. We put our boat on its mooring and the cat decided to move - it was a bit close for comfort - our boat being steel - his would come off a lot worse when we met. Before Brian went for the dive - Mike’s wife Jan came over with warm homemade muffins - what a treat - I made myself a real cup of coffee and sat and ate one - it tasted so…. delicious.

We cleared customs and immigration and by mid morning I had found the internet café!! We had lunch at the Yacht club - fish and chips with salad - again the food tasted delicious - all lovely fresh produce. We met up with Carl the crew member who flew to Solomon’s from Wallis. In the afternoon I spent some more time at the internet café, while Brian ran errands in town. We went back to the boat and had baked beans on toast and an early night. It rained all night so it meant that we had the hatches shut and it was bit warm - all part of boating but you never hear about it!!

Today - Wednesday, I went back to the internet - it is really slow and when I have over 200 emails to sort through it takes time - most of which are spam email only about 10% were of interest. I also was able to phone a few people using Skype what a wonderful cheap program to use while out of Bermuda. No roaming charges and really cheap. We met for lunch at the Mendanna Hotel where Carl stayed. It was a lovely lunch again lovely fresh produce and I didn’t have to prepareit. After lunch Carla and I traipsed around Honiara trying to find the ingredients for Jan’s muffin recipe we managed most of the ingredients except walnuts. The other challenge we had - was finding a muffin pan. Finally Carl said that they do muffins for breakfast at the Mendanna why don’t we ask if we can borrow a muffin pan which we did. Back on the boat I made the muffins which turned out really good if I must say so myself - so we are now trying to buy a muffin pan from the Mendanna. I will update you on the saga of the muffin pan.

The weather has been horrible since we arrived in Honiara - wet raining and humid- I looked on the internet this morning and it is to remain that way the next 5 days!! I am not impressed. I was so jealous that Bermuda had lovely weather for the next 5 days over the cup match holiday - enjoy it!! Honiara is not the place to be staying long term - it is dirty and run down - people don’t seem to care - they chew beatle tobacco and spit it out into the streets so you see all these red stains on the sidewalk and in the road.. At first I thought it was blood until Brian educated me. There is a creek that runs through the town and flows out by the yacht club. This morning because of the rain the creek was flowing quite fast everything that is thrown into the creek and storm drains got washed out to sea - it was disgusting!!! Loads of plastic bottles, bags etc. The people are not very friendly either. We hope to be away Friday.

I just want to say thank you for all the comments I have gotten on my travel blog - I actually had chance to read them this morning. It was really great to hear from so many people. I never realized who has been reading it. We will be back on Monday or Tuesday. On Tuesday we pick up one of the new crew and then on Saturday Carl’s wife arrives with another person. We will be away from civilization for two weeks.

Sorry forgot to down load pics of Honiara but you are not missing much esp as it is in the rain

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Photos

small village at southern end of Quadalcanal
Quaint small village where the houses are built on stilts so the croodialles don't eat the occupatants.