Commodore
July 30, 2025

Thursday 31 July – off to the capital Honiara

We had agreed with Lella to leave at 7am, they were off with a little bit of sail out , we took a little longer to get the anchor up and motored our way through the Marau Sound to the other side. Really picturesque, with the Guadalcanal mountains always in cloud and rain. It was quite a wiggle out and the wind was roaring through at just under 20 knots. We decided there was too much wind for the Parasail, so we got the main sail up. Of course once we were out at sea the wind dropped, but it kept up in the mid teens, with the wind behind us, we goose winged our way down the coast at a good speed. We had planned to stay with Lella in a bay about 10 miles out of Honiara. We were making such good progress in the wind we decided to go all the way through to Honiara as the anchorage where we had planned to stay was not well protected from the wind and looked very rolly. Lella go a bit slower than us so they stayed at the anchorage.

The port of Honiara is really big and spread out with loads of boats and industry, in a completely different league to Port Vila in Vanuatu. It looked a big city as we motored in the last couple of miles. There was a helicopter circling two big cargo ships at anchor. A couple of times the helicopter landed on the one boat, not at all obvious what was going on. We wondered if they had been impounded. Luckily Rowan had contacted a couple who were at the dock in Honiara, who said they would help us onto the one mooring ball available. Craig came out to meet us which was just as well as the ball was very close to the harbour wall with loads of water taxis roaring back and forth. The mooring ball is a private ball belonging to a guy who owns the cafe in front of it, Rowan had managed to contact him and got permission to use it, very kind as he did not want any money for it. It was about 5pm as we were finally tied up, good timing, it would not have been possible in the dark.

We invited Craig to come back with his partner for a drink. What a fascinating couple, an absolute hoot. They are kiwis who earn money in Australia to fund their next sailing trip. They cruise around the South Pacific. This time they were off to Vanuatu, but the wind blew them completely off course, they got caught in a terrible storm and they landed up north of here in the Solomons. They were just heading down to Vanuatu when their engine imploded. They are now stuck here in Honiara until a new engine is shipped out, in about 4 weeks. At least they are making the most of it and Honiara is turning out better than expected. We had a good laugh listening to all their stories.