Solomons

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Some of the best places with the best people in the world...

This is a sunrise over the island of Espiritu Santo. We left Luganville about noon and spent much of the day getting to the west coast of this large island. At sundown we discovered a nasty surprise, viz. mistral-like winds that would roar off the mountains on the west side, causing the wind to go from 15 to over 40 knots in a few seconds. This would last for perhaps a minute then they would die off only to pick up again in a few minutes. This phenomenon would cause the autopilot to resign from the crew, which is most unfortunate because the boat is tough to steer in a following sea. The sudden change of direction and loss of control caused numerous violent jibes, which led to a section of sail track being torn off. This made shortening sail difficult since the sail would come off the tracks. What a great way to start a passage.

After a day or so we went from violent wind to no wind. We swore we would not motor, since fuel in Vanuatu had cost a ruinous $USD 1.66/litre. But, we were anxious to get out of the Solomon Sea since it's a breeding ground for cyclones in the SW Pacific. So, up went the iron mainsail, i.e. we motored.

We motored through humongous thunderstorms, the kind that light up the whole sky. This was disconcerting. We normally don't encounter much lightning or thunder in the open sea and are mindful of the fact that our mast is the highest point of "ground" for miles around. We've met people who lost all their electrical systems in lightning strikes and we didn't wish to join them.

One thing that did happen, late at night of course, is we lost our electronic charts. We had paper charts but they were either very large of very small scale, so we lacked any clear idea of hazards expect in vague terms. This might have been OK but the immense mount of moisture in the air resulted in visibility of a mile or less.

As usual, we couldn't visit every single island and were supposed to check in somewhere before we could do so, which in this case is Honiara. So, joins us as we voyage to Solomons Central

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