Commodore
July 31, 2025

Friday 1 August – Provisioning in Honiara

Rowan wants to leave tomorrow so we have a lot to achieve in a day. We went and had breakfast at the cafe in front of us, as they have an easy dock for us to get on to land. Plus our mooring ball belongs to them, so the least we could do was eat there. Their coffee was very good, I had very good spicy turmeric scrambled eggs, Rowan’s full English was pretty good, but very expensive. Almost French Polynesia prices.

Firstly we drew money at an ATM around the corner, Rowan found a phone company so he went off to get a local sim, no Esims available for the Solomon islands. While he was doing that I popped into the Craft market next door, disappointingly touristy, so I never got anything as I would rather support the locals at the outer islands. I did manage to slide on rubble down a tiny slope and landed with a thump on my bum, I will have a huge bruise tomorrow. We caught a taxi on the road with a very decent well mannered Henry. He took us about 6kms down the road to a pharmacy Aaron recommended who would sell us some antibiotics. We have heard of a few too many sepsis stories, so want to be on the safe side. Our Mecurochrome (South African disinfectant that dries out wounds brilliantly but banned in the UK because of the mercury content) cleared up Rowan’s coral wounds perfectly. Aaron gave us tips on all the places to go to, a deli near the pharmacy had a few things but not the Tahini I was hoping for, essential for my humous, it was a long shot.

On our way back we stopped off at the big fresh produce market, plenty of veg, fruit and nice looking eggs. Henry the taxi driver was so patient, parking and waiting for us. Our next challenge was to get some beers and restore Rowan’s rum supplies. Henry helped us find everything including going to the Bulk shop for us to stock up on presents for local islanders. This will have to last us all the way to Indonesia, things get quite remote from here on. Henry got us all the way back to the cafe where JeldiJeldi was tied up, his boot was full of our purchases, he helped carry everything to the dock which was extremely helpful. Rowan very nearly fell into the little harbour where the cafe dock is, he had accidentally let go of the rope tying JeldiJeldi onto the dock, he lent against the boat next door and that slid away leaving Rowan hanging on horizontally to the water. It was a narrow escape, falling into the dirty harbour on the coral edges would have been really nasty.

I unpacked while Rowan went back into town to get more money, last chance of an ATM here. He also tried to get PNG dollars but everything conspired against him. He came back empty handed. We arranged to go out for dinner with Lella who arrived early afternoon, they are next to Aaron and Craig. At least it was a calm day for tricky stern-to anchoring, the back ropes went to shore and had to be tied onto the dolosse (concrete sea defence structures – invented in South Africa).

We all met for drinks on PolePole at 5pm and then made our way to a Sushi restaurant for supper. It was genuine Japanese cuisine, very tasty all washed down with delicious sake. Aaron was in great form, she wore an amazing parrot fabric dress, and brought a present for us – a mini disco led light! She is a hoot and towered over Melody and I with her 5’11 height. Craig was also in flying form with his nails all painted in glitter nail varnish. It was a very good evening with Lella’s crew and new skipper the Croatian Kruno (Bruno with a K). Clif and Melody head back to Thailand tomorrow and Anthony (the original crew member) and Kruno are taking the boat to Port Morseby for them, where it has to be taken out of the water. The two crew couldn’t be more different, Anthony is a very quiet vegan and Kruno looks like a full blooded Croatian! Fingers crossed it all works out ok. There were a few nervous jokes about them disappearing for good with the boat!