Offerings of the Solomons, good and bad

Stuart was nice enough to let Matt tag along on one of
his fishing trips. Blue fin trevally.

We have now been in the Solomon Islands for over seven months. For most of our stay, we have barely seen any other cruising boats except for the one (and sometimes two) we travelled with. As the season comes to an end, more boats have been popping up for short stays in the islands here but we are still mostly on our own. That's why yesterday was unusual.

Long tailed snapper. They live at about 900 feet below the
surface so if you reel them up too quickly, their eyes pop out.

Matt was out on an all-day fishing trip on Stuart's tricked out fishing boat. In the morning, I answered a distress call from a boat that had recently checked in. It was stuck on a reef a few miles from our anchorage. Since I was alone with the boys, I dinghied around to inform the other cruising boats and Joe, the owner at Zipolo Habu resort of the situation.  The 2 other boats in the anchorage went over to see if they could help, but there was nothing much they could do except lend some moral support and wait for Mother Nature to bring the tide back.  Luckily the lagoon was dead flat and there were no waves to bash the boat around.  The boat waited about nine hours for the tide to come up that evening and then were able to float themselves off.



The tips of black tip reef sharks feeding on the fish guts

Later that afternoon, another recent arrival to the Solomons (just the evening before) called to ask whether they were on the right track for coming into the anchorage. Unfortunately, a local (who probably only had experience with the shallow draft long boats in use here) had given them some bad directions.  They were in the middle of a very shallow area with shallow coral heads strewn about. Most boats take a longer route, skirting the shallows. Fortunately, they were able to pick their way through slowly and safely to the anchorage. And then, to prove all things come in threes, the following day, Matt got on the radio to warn another boat that was also getting into similar dangerous territory.

The resort that we've been anchored near (Zipolo Habu) is really a fishing lodge at heart, and it attracts anglers keen on catching both the inshore and pelagic species that abound in the area (but have mostly been eluding us).  One of the benefits of all the anglers is a good supply of fresh fish.  Matt made sushi for everyone at the resort with fish donated by Chris (another resort guest) and Stuart. It was definitely the most sushi he has ever made (more than 30 rolls) and every last piece was eaten.  Matt was also lucky enough to be invited to join Stuart on one of his marathon all day fishing trips.  He caught a couple of good sized fish, so we have a decent supply in our newly rewired freezer (which seems to be behaving for now).

A big orb weaver. I had no idea of the variety of these little guys
until Conrad started taking these pictures.

Of course, just because the freezer seems to be working, it doesn't mean the repair fun has stopped.  Right after we started to breathe easy about the freezer, the generator decided to start spewing sea water out of the coolant reservoir. Without getting too technical, we can assure you that this is A Bad Thing. Ultimately we figured out that the stainless steel mesh in the raw water strainer had corroded, allowing sea grass and other contaminants to plug up the heat exchanger. The plugged up heat exchanger blocked the flow of  sea water, which had to go somewhere, and ended up bypassing the hose clamps that would otherwise seal the sea water from the coolant system.  After flushing and refilling the coolant, Matt fashioned a new strainer using no-see-um netting and we have a new (non-metallic!) one on order to be added to the boat load of items that my parents are shipping to us.

Within the next couple days we will head back to Munda to provision up and pick up our frozen goods from Muzi Boko. Then we plan to head out to some good diving spots while we wait for our various packages.

And we're waiting, we're waiting...

Conrad and Mark surfing and boogie boarding

When we mailed our roller furler to Australia to get the seals and bearings replaced, the friendly and helpful Munda Post Office worker, Riko, couldn't find the receipt book. Apparently our package was the first one of the year sent from this branch (yes, it was almost June; yes, they operate on a calendar year). This gave us pause. We'll be on the edge of our seat waiting to see if/when the package gets there.

Cleaning the day's catch at Zipolo Habu Resort

On a positive note, Matt has gotten the freezer to start running again (knock on all available wood). Cruiser's Forum, which has an often-deserved reputation as a bastion for outspoken curmudgeons and armchair sailors, proved its value when you get the right people responding (including a guy who had the same symptoms with the same unit).  With detailed email assistance from Pete of OzeFridge, Matt removed the possibly air contaminated coolant from the system and re-added fresh coolant. The freezer has stopped drawing extremely high amps and the box is getting cooler. Matt is treating the system like an intensive care patient, taking its vitals every hour and speaking to it in soothing tones. He is going to rewire the freezer to go directly to the battery bank and maybe run the pump through the freshwater system to avoid getting sea critters stuck in the filter. If all goes well, we can avoid a couple thousand dollars for a new compressor and additional waiting time. And we won't have to have a mega-BBQ to eat all the meat that's still sitting in an on-shore freezer (thanks Jan!) waiting for the outcome of this saga.

The kids love the surf break around here and Conrad has been able to stand up on the board like a pro, proving that he doesn't get his balance from me. There are schools of mullets here that jump out of the water in unison by the hundreds probably being chased by the otherwise friendly black tip reef sharks that endlessly circle the small bay we're anchored in.

So we were all set to leave the Solomons...

Mark chilling at Lola with his pals Pepi and Culi

We went to Noro and Munda to get our final diesel and other provisions so that we could check out by June 1. Before we stocked up on frozen meat from the fabulous Muzi Boko (a store made up exclusively of shipping containers and packed with reasonably priced goodies shipped from Australia), we decided to defrost the nearly-empty freezer. The thing hadn't been defrosted since leaving New Zealand over a year ago and had built up a good coating of ice.

When we turned the freezer on again after a few days, it was drawing excessively high amps--enough to blow the fuse a couple of times. Eventually, it settled down a bit (to where we weren't worried about wires melting) but was still way too high to keep it running. Indel-Webasto in Australia told us it was a bad compressor and quoted us a stomach-churning number for a new compressor (and accessories) as well as a possible four-week wait for the parts from Italy. The entire freezer system has been a thorn in our side ever since we installed it a little over 4 years ago and this was just icing on the cake.

As it turns out, it may be a blessing in disguise. Our roller furling had been cranky lately and kept getting stuck (requiring some extra muscle to bring in and out). The bearings probably need replacement. Pro Furl really pushes hard to have the bearings replaced by an authorized technician because installing them requires some "mad skillz" (okay, perhaps not a direct quote). Of course, the nearest authorized tech is over a thousand miles away in Oz.  We were reluctant to wait around to ship the furling unit to Australia to be worked on. Matt injected a bunch of grease as a workaround until we could figure out where to deal with the issue properly. The freezer issue provided the perfect excuse to do the right thing.

We have extended our visas and are hanging out at Lola for the next month or so (less if we're lucky and longer if we're not). All things considered, it's a nice place to be stuck. Hopefully we can get in some surfing and snorkeling/diving in between the gusts signaling the end of the wet season and nudging us towards Papua New Guinea.