6/09/2011 Honiara the capital of Solomon’s. From a yachting prospective one wouldn’t go their for anything else other than food stores and alcohol, even fuel is harder to get and the wharf is ready to chew up any boat.
We managed to do a bit of food shopping and got the essentials at around 10% more than Sydney Prices. Part of that is probably my fault as I did not want to buy generic no named shrink rap products, not knowing where what or how they were prepared. Meat in the Solomon’s is rare and in most places I wasn’t game to buy it, but we had no choice now, because this was it till Vanuatu, our next major shop, probably 3 or 4 weeks away.
We had been warned about thefts here, although security for the tender leaving it at yacht club was good. A few other boats appeared and we all enjoyed the mixed company. Andrew marketing manager of Solbru (local beer) was a fantastic host and excellent ambassador for the Solomon’s. Crash let her outward personality go and new almost everyone that was worth knowing within the the first day. She found the night life such as it was and had a great time being chaperoned, while I took the opportunity to keep the locals awake with my music, eating all the wrong food, drinking more than I should, and trying to chat to some visitors of another yacht from Macedonia, who were clearly unsociable.
Honiara doesn’t hand out more than $3000sd per day, so if you need more than about $400.0 au in a day your in trouble.Today we topped up our alcohol supply and they asked for cash. Given a bottle of Johnny Walker Red Scotch was costing around $15.00au dollars you can imagine I didn’t just by one, or two, and the boat now leans to one side. Ozy beer is about the same as home. So as I went to get some more money for our fuel tomorrow and the parcel of parts waiting we so desperately need, all of a sudden this $3000.00sd per day limit imposed by all the bank ATM’s began to be a problem. It didn’t mater which bank you went to, the limit was collective.
So after standing in the queue for over an hour the teller advises me the same limitation applies and other banks and teller transaction wont help. There seemed no solution, I went to the Australian High Commission who could not help me and the Solomon Commonwealth Bank who administer the banks here. They confirmed the limit restrictions are in place for all foreign accounts, but I should be able to buy on FPOS as there are no restrictions to paying by FPOS, only cash. When I explained I need some $6000sd cash for Diesel he replied they (South Pacific Fuel) have an FPOS machine you can use that to purchase any amount. However South Pacific had earlier insisted on cash only. When explained that he said you tell them you have been to the Solomon Commonwealth Bank, and my name, and what I just told you. They will then find the machine I’m sure, if not you come back here, and I’m sure it will be fine. Dr Smith: So we go and threaten the supplier of fuel and expect to get it cheap, you know they will put the price up, or add water if we go down that track.
Eventually I go to the flash international Hotel in town, and they say they used hand out money to do this but a new bean counter stoped them. However, Crash suggested I try OZy dollars which I had and the Hotel of course was used to changing Ozy for Solomon, at a very Hotel favourable rate of course, but it enabled me to race to pick up my parts, and it will cover half the fuel bill. Oh and for you there sailors who might need parts to come in, Bundy Shore station can help, and mark the shipment “Ship Stores in Transit” and you should avoid all the duty and taxes.
After a very frustrating day a drink seemed like a good idea at the yacht club as we watched the squall head this way. Dr Smith: We should be on board when this hits, you know you are anchored slightly short and that other boat has gone , also there is little room behind us we should go back now unless you want a beach house…….Taking Dr Smith’s advice I had no sooner stepped on board and I noted Screensaver was on the move. The boat next to us causing us to anchor short had left so I simply let out more chain, in the end we had about 5 or 6 to 1. ( Shit loads of chain for you landlubbers) But Screensaver did not stop. I raced to fire up the Iron Horses as the full squall hit and I feed every last bit power into the Engine, with water flying everywhere the engine loaded the boat behind us, getting closer, along with the wharf and everything else there was little room to move and only one direction to go. The anchor was still out so I could not go far or screaming out, I needed to hold Screensaver stationary while we battled with the anchor. You landlubbers might think think holding yacht stationary is easy but far from it. In the mean time I had Crash do the best she could to get the anchor up as fast as possible, which is extremely slow and difficult in places due to the current problem. All the time I’m using the Engine to hold Screensaver in place as she ducks and dives at any opportunity. As the anchor is retrieved there is a huge piece of reinforced silver insulation rapped around it on the underside, which is why it dragged. Mollie seeing our situation came in there tender and removed the debris from the anchor. As we charged out to gain some room to manoeuvrer and the tender leapt off the top of waves,like jet ski running waves and very nearly flipped as the wind got under it and it dropped stern first back to sea , but thankfully it didn’t sink. Swinging back around we re-anchored as the driven rain pelted down like needles on Crash and water was flying everywhere. I stood guard for some time until things settled.
Stats as at 7/09/2011 @ 10:00 am
Fuel 100% (22 days since last) 200L @ $11.150 SD
Eng Hours Total 1424 Hrs since last fuel 67 hrs
Genset Hours Total 675 – Hrs since last fuel 43.1
Combined burn rates 1.8L/hr, or 9.0L per day, or 0.69L/nm
Ground Log 7077, Trip log (since leaving OZ)/1518nm, Aver 26nm/day
Temp Sea 30.1 Inside 30. Outside 31.8
Water 60 %
7/9/2011 Honiara good bye, and none to soon as far as I’m concerned, as we make final preparations to leave. Mollie goes to take on some 3000L (yep that’s not a typo) 3000 Litres of Diesel and we go on board to assist The fuel wharf is what I call a very hostile wharf, ie it loves to attack boats with its broken concrete vertical pillars, jaggered edges and re-enforcing sticking out, just waiting to rip into any pleasure type craft. Mollie carries fender barge boards ( we don’t) but it is what you need for this. Once Mollie is docked Crash suggest we come and raft up to Mollie and get our fuel that way, which we did. So we avoided the risk. At least Noro had huge tyres, even if they did leave big black marks.
We fitted our new Gypsy to the windlass and it ran like a dream. Later that day after my last bit of meat shopping the freezer was once again full, although not cryo frozen, and package less like when we left Australia, A few drinks and dinner at the yacht club with old and new acquaintances, I bought two (5$sd) tickets in a meat raffle. Naturally because the freezer was full I won it, so we squizzed a bit more in and invited Mollie over for a BBQ tomorrow if we are together.
My SLR camera is giving battery trouble (again) hence the lack of pictures.
8/9/2011. The next few weeks are liable to be a bit tough and tricky as we attempt to basically head against the trades. I have chosen east and south routes, so hopefully we can go east when its southerly, and south when its easterly, but we will try to head east generally. Why did I chose to go against the flow, mainly for climate reasons, and so Screensaver could be in New Caledonia for the Cyclone season rather than finishing the season in Australia, and save having heading down to NSW again. This way should also see us moving south in summer and hence not being in the additional heat and humidity here during summer, which is what drove the Gypsy and I to leave Vanuatu last year.