Another small jaunt south to Su Ulana Cove at the southern tip of Milita has now set us up hopefully to make the jump San Cristobal, the last stop before we struggle with 200nm of easting, something I’m not looking forward to, and will be a challenge. We are trying to sail more and more now as fuel will become an issue. In most cases I have kept sufficient fuel to motor to the next fuel stop if we had to, but this luxury is about to expire.
We had a good sail up and only had to do a couple of short tacks to recover a few degrees short fall in our sailing line. The wind was up around 20knots, which means 25-27 apparent as you head into it. But a relatively short leg.
Dr Smith: So what are you going to do if the anchorage is not suitable, having never been here before, what if it is all coral and you cant get in, as happened before,…… yea yea
While I had internet access at Tavadipupu I had down loaded a number of Google earth images which are invaluable and I could see that the bay is clear of major obstacles, and there was a fair bet I could get in far enough to not be 30m plus of water.
Sure enough when we arrived we managed to get a long way in, and were well protected. This is so far the first place we have not be visited by a canoe or three. I have to say it was a pleasant change and pretty spot. It had one of the best small beaches with all sand, with next to no coral. An old bridge up the head of the bay from the war days I’m guessing, but it wasn’t going to carry anything these days.
Im going ashore with “a” beer and camera to take some pictures as the sun goes down… Dr Smith No ya not, I’m not going over there that’s the worst time of day, you will get eaten alive … Not likely, I’m in need of a shower, I have half a cann of bug spray, taken my Vitamin B my Milleara tablets they cant be that desperate.
So as the sun sets I bash of a few pictures before the camera batteries die again, contemplate the loss of a my friend, the distance from home, from the Gypsy, and our son
Hello !!! oh shit bloody hell there is someone here, as a two men pop out of the bush from no where. There are villages on both sides of this bay but none actually in the bay and very few canoes here. These guys are on there way home for the day and saw me so stopped and we chatted.
16//2011 Ugi, another step south as we departed around 6:00am to beat the wind and the sea. We enjoyed a great sail across motoring initially but then sailing with Crash at the helm. At around 50nm it was still a big day, and the couple of tacks at the end made it just a little longer.
But in all a good day sailing, and stopped in plenty of time to relax.
No canoes besieged us which was unusual. But it wasn’t all that long before a bunch of kids swam out to the boat and kept swimming while they hung around and chatted to us
They were from the Secondary boarding school on the island where most of the kids are going through to form 7 and studying aiming for doctors nurse’s etc, Again religion plays a big part, and when asked what religion I was I explained I had seen many religion’s of which they all had a number of good points and I couldn’t chose any one particular religion….. OK ok so I lied but it was for there good I hope. They liked the answer too.
The following day we had a bit of a tour around the school, all very interesting. The students do everything from looking after the place, to running the kitchen (not as we know it), but spread across a few structures. They had just made a heap of bread buns when we arrived in their wood fired oven’s, 3 of them, each about the size of fridge lying down. The bread looked good wouldn’t have minded some myself. They feed hundreds each day, baking bread roles, cooking rice in buckets big enough to nearly sit in, running the gardens etc etc. The money for day to day stuff comes from the Government, peoples donations, and the last 2 years must be paid for by the parents. But other funding has come from weird places. Japan provides the facilities for the Science lab, Turkey provides funding for books/library, and Germany for maths. There was nothing here coming from AU or NZ. A solar power system was donated donkeys years ago, no one knows anything about it, but just works and made by Motech !. A cyclone took the roof of the old church years ago, and no funding has appeared for that. It looks here as though money has gone to the right places in my opinion. A great bunch of kids, all wanting to talk in English, get good jobs, and seemed motivated as well as happy.
19/9/2011 Time march’s on and so must we as we head for a little Islands just a bit further south called Malau or Malaupina where there is a lagoon I hope we can enter. We arrive to some lovely clear water and beautiful white sandy beach, but we cant get into the lagoon and we struggle to find a shallow enough water to anchor in, that doesn’t come with coral wanting to chew on Screensaver for diner. A few loops and we settle for 20m of water, just as the rain’s come. The weather is getting wetter and it really shouldn’t be yet at least that’s what my plan says. A weather window was appearing to do our jump to Vanuatu, a trip I wasn’t looking forward too.
20/9/2011 Our jump of spot to leave the main part of Solomon’s was Santa Ana Island about a 45nm trip in straight line. Dr Smith: How is our fuel, tell me you have enough to follow our rules, to carry enough diesel to motor sail all the way if need be, just in case we need to run and hide or what ever. Yep its all good no worries. As we set off from Malau sailing the wind wasn’t quite where it should have been and it became clear that unless we motor sailed (pointing higher) we would not make it before dark.
Santa Anna is a bit of horseshoe, again nothing on the chart, but Google earth suggested we could get in and it would be relatively clear, which it was and we did get in. A great spot well protected buzzing with life, all be it there must have been 20 odd canoes around us, Volley ball on the beach, and another 50 or so kids in swimming.
As I went to fire up the water maker it didn’t want to start, and after some initial investigation it was not looking good. Dr Smith….. Oh no what now, no water, we cant drink what they drink we will get everything and anything, and you stink, you need a shower, and the sheets, the loo, the dishes, ice.. ah that will make you fix it, no ice for ya Sctoch…He was right ( no not about the ice.. geee whizz) but water is critical, and in many places not potable.
Dr Smith:… are but we carry 3 water tanks, you run on one and keep the others in reserve, they are full of course ?… Well no One of those we half used stuck in Gizo, where you wouldn’t run the water maker because of crap (literally in places) in the water. At best we consume around 60L(30L per person) a day, excluding showers, washing etc. So given we have 1 tank empty, hence trying to fire up the water maker, another half empty, and a third full that leaves us around 6 days normal use excluding showers and laundry. DR Smith…. that tank has QLD Townsville water in it, you cant expect us to drink that its 3 months old, it will have……… Actually it wont and that’s ya only choice, besides we will be doing a passage to the Vanuatu group so we don’t use much water when doing passages.
21/09/2011 Coming up, Screensaver’s Edition of Perfect Storm in the next blog.
Screensaver 