Not all those who wander are lost
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AKAMA REPORT 26
11 June 2004
Report 26 -Florida Islands
The morning of 30 May was beautiful and calm. So we decided to make the
25-mile crossing of Iron Bottom Sound to the Florida Island group,
reportedly an excellent cruising ground. Naturally, about half way
across, the wind picked up and by the time we arrived it was gusting to
over 30-knots. We poked around to find a suitably sheltered anchorage,
eventually settling on a natural hurricane anchorage (9-05S x 160-10E)
near Tulagi Harbour in a small bay surrounded by mangroves. Until
WW-II, this area was the seat of the British Government in the Solomon
Islands. Iron Bottom sound is named for the dozens of war ships that
were sunk there, mostly US and Japanese. There was a massive naval
battle here that cost the lives of many men; there was also plenty of
fighting on the land, and the killing of many local people. The locals
say that the continuous supply of bodies attracted large numbers of
sharks to the sound and that they did not leave for nearly fifty years.
In the morning we moved a couple of miles southeast to Ghavutu Harbour,
to visit a new eco-resort that is under construction. Every resort
needs an attraction and they have dolphins. The resort has a large
dolphin pen, a resident animal behaviour scientist and many
keepers/trainers. The idea seems to be to fund the research part via
the tourist part. We wish them luck and have to admit that in the area
it certainly is unique. We think that a better drawing card is the
snorkelling and diving, which is reputed to be among the best in the
world. At Ghavutu we again met up with SELKIE and MUSCAT, who had left
Honiara before we did. ARCTURUS came along that afternoon; so for
sundowners on AKAMA we had another crowd. The next day the weather was
just as bad, or worse; nevertheless, we had a nice snorkel on the reef.
We saw a large white and reddish starfish, a sort that we had never
seen before.
Wednesday, 02 June 2004 was a disaster. We set out for Tokyo Bay, only a
couple of miles to the east, to see some wrecks. There are two wrecks
there, a US LST and a Japanese destroyer, both visible from above the
water. We were to meet ARCTURUS there and spend the night. As we
entered the mouth of the bay a red dugout canoe paddled out and asked us
to stop, not something that we wanted to do as there were reefs and
shoals all around. Then he got huffy and asked us who gave us
permission to be there. We said we did not need any, whereupon he
pressed the issue a bit harder. We got huffy right back, told him where
to shove his bay and headed west to Sandfly Passage, named for HMS
SANDFLY. Later we learned Tokyo Bay is not a friendly place; there are
reported cases of canoes coming out at night and cutting anchor rodes,
leaving the yachts go adrift.
We had an easy ride to Sandfly Passage, but then had to slog our way up
to the spot where we wanted to anchor against several knots of current.
Upon arrival, we could not find a suitable anchorage. We investigated a
bunch of places, but they were either lee shores, the bottom would not
hold, or the reefs were too close and too shallow. Several ideal spots
shown on the chart were not really there. Then, disaster; for the first
time ever, we put AKAMA hard aground on a reef that we could not see.
We managed to get her off and went for an alternative anchorage where we
could dive to assess the damage, only to be told that the anchorage was
untenable and there is a 20-foot crocodile in the area. This
information is accurate, as it came from John, a very helpful local who
greets arriving yachts. So, we headed for another alternative anchorage
shown on C-MAP and described in a cruising guide, only to be told on
the radio by SELKIE that they had gone there already and found the
anchorage to be marginal for day use, let alone overnight. So, we
decided to leave, even though it was late in the day.
We ran all the way back to Ghavutu Harbour (about three hour's run),
where there are several slipways nearby in case we needed to lift AKAMA
for repairs; also, there are no crocks, and there are safe anchorages.
Arriving in the dark and rain, we had to make our way back to the
anchorage. Of course, none of the navigational aids were lit. We made
it safely, collapsed in a heap and had several stiff drinks after a
harrowing day. But it was not over. In the middle of the night, one of
our intrusion alarms went off. Maurice went outside with a 1-million
candlepower spotlight and a machete. On the quarterdeck there were wet
footprints where the intruder had boarded, took a few steps, heard the
alarm trip, turned around and then fled. We shone the light all around
looking for the canoe, but could not find it. In the morning we dove on
the hull and found extensive scraping of the paint and fibreglass from
the grounding. Fortunately, the damage was only cosmetic. There was
also a little nick out of one of the propeller blades; we had come very
close to having a big problem!
The next two days were spent cruising up and down the Mboli Passage.
This is a long, narrow passage between two large islands. It winds its
way roughly north and south through rugged hills at one end, mangroves
in the middle and low hills at the north end. Along the way, the
scenery is gorgeous and it is replete with wildlife, including a 10 to
20 foot long crocodile. The people at the northern end, where we
anchored for the night, were curious about us. As usual, they had
shells, fruit and vegetables for trade. Mostly, though, we just talked
about where they are from, what they do, what their children do, what
happened to them during the tension, and answer their questions about
us.
The exit from Mboli Passage is near Tokyo Bay and we thought that we
would give it another go; perhaps the lousy reception we got was a
fluke. Wrong! Shortly after entering the bay someone from shore
started yelling, "stop!", then "restricted area", and "go back". We
ignored them and continued on, followed by SELKIE, who we re-met in the
passage. We were able to get relatively close to the US LST (transport
vessel) and to the Japanese destroyer. It is absolutely amazing how far
into the bay the destroyer is located. We were worried about AKAMA
getting through some of the narrow areas; they got a destroyer in there
(well, it was aground...but still)! We were harangued a bit on the way
out, as was SELKIE. One of the locals even flipped SELKIE a finger when
they said that they were not interested in going ashore to buy WW-II
artefacts. We are glad we went in, but we do not recommend this place
for overnight anchoring...the people are just not friendly.
So, having exhausted the parts of the Florida Islands that we were
interested in, and in some cases they having exhausted us, we returned
to Honiara Harbour. In Honiara we provisioned with duty-free booze and
diesel; neither process was easily completed due to bureaucracy at its
finest. We attempted to visit the national museum, but it was closed.
We were told that artefacts were stolen from the museum during the
tension, what a shame. We also tried to no avail to find a mail packet,
of about 8-months worth of accumulated mail that had been sent to us
from Singapore a month earlier. Who knows what was in that package;
hopefully just statements and junk-mail! Our last day ended with a
buffet and floor show of cultural dancing at the local 4-star hotel; the
cost for two, including wine was only about 50 dollars. What a deal!
At our table, guest of ARCTURUS was Rudolph, a local Malaitan that they
had met. He is trying to set up a fishing operation in the area, but is
otherwise a very well-spoken and informed university student. Talking
to him gave us new insights into the life and times of local people and
their society, as most that we meet are villagers with rather parochial
views, whereas he is a former villager attending university, quite rare.
We discovered that in his culture arranged marriages are still common.
So, with a dozen young dancing girls among the troop, we, the "village
elders" proceeded to rate them in terms of grace and beauty as
potential bride for Rudy. One girl in particular was lovely, with a
thousand-watt smile that lit up the room. Rudy was a bit embarrassed by
all the attention but enjoyed himself; the 'elders' had a whale of a
time, joking, laughing and carrying on. We also had at our table the
captain of the local police pursuit boat, an expatriate Australian
tugboat captain. He is part of a major multi-country stabilization
force led by Australia. They are definitely making a difference here,
although the jury is out on whether things will back-slide when they
eventually pull out.
It's time for a few words of advice about boat equipment and vendors,
this first one especially for you down-under types. There are two major
Australian autopilot manufacturers, Coursemaster (which supplied ours)
and TMQ, which supplied the one on HARMONMY-88. Attentive readers will
recall Maurice fixed the one on HARMONY a few months ago. Well, our
autopilot has never liked our new GPS; the GPS talks to all the
equipment on board in NMEA sentences and everything but the autopilot
responds properly. We wrote Coursemaster about this some time back and
they sent us a new PROM chip that was to do the trick (they tried to
stick us with a high charge and shipping but we eventually agreed on
only the shipping). It didn't do the trick, despite months of trying.
Recently we emailed them, twice, giving specifics about the problem and
they do not even answer us. TMQ, on the other hand, when we were fixing
HARMONY's autopilot responded promptly and completely to our questions.
The second one is our on-again-off-again love-hate relationship with
West Marine. We emailed them several times to get a big order together
and they ignored us. Only after our son, Kyle, phoned them did they
respond, but only in small part. When they finally responded to our
technical questions the answers were very poor, they did not answer all
of the questions, and in one case they simply told us to call the
manufacturer (right, try that from the middle of the Pacific Ocean). We
are not impressed and will be looking for an alternate preferred
supplier.
We will leave Honiara soon and make the crossing to Vanuatu. Stay tuned! |
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