October 18, 2003
We're on the road to Munda, a tortured and twisting route through lagoons and coral patches with a lot of stops along the way, to a little town on a historic WWII battle site where the Japanese built a secret airstrip in the jungle but the Solomon Islanders tipped off the US forces and we bombed the place before it could get into operation. It was one of the turning points of WWII, but we might not ever get there. For us it's the journey we're on, not the destination, and for this little outing maybe we've reached out own turning point. We've made it to Ringgi and Noro and Diamond Narrows, and a bunch of other places whose names I can't even say, but we think its time to go back to Gizo for resupply. Maybe we'll make it to Munda next time.
This week we've had some resort living. Even though we didn't get to Munda, we did get to Lola, where we found the Zipolo Habu resort, five star primitive, on a small island in the middle of nowhere. Run by a couple, Joe (from Seattle, out here 24 years) and Lisa, (a Solomon Islander whose Grandmother owns the Island and leases it to them), Zipolo Habu has only five rooms, grass bungalows actually, and can take only 23 guests total, and that's with considerably more than double occupancy, but they have a nice bar and restaurant, great dive and fishing trips, and a waterski boat. We've been waterskiing three times this week. I can still manage a slalom ski, and we've been in the bar mingling with the other guests every evening. This is like a holiday from a holiday for us, but its time to go, we need to give our livers and pocket books a break.
Wandering around the western Province of the Solomon Islands is a slow process. There is a new place to see around every corner,not much sailing wind, and the routes through the lagoons have to be experienced to be believed. To get to Lola we had to pick our way around coral heads for three hours using only a hand drawn map, and even though we could see the resort one mile away the whole time, (except for a couple of cloudbursts when we couldn't see anything, and during one of these we didn't see a coral bommie which put a nice notch in our keel) we couldn't get there until we made nearly a complete circumnavigation of the lagoon. Today we are leaving, and we have to reverse this route. Patience and vigilance are the key words today.
We'll still be in the Solomons for another month or more. We have several more short trips planned and some WWII aircraft and ships to dive on. We also have some mail to wait for, and hope it gets here soon, and more carvings to buy. The Solomon Islanders do excellent wood carvings, and although we've bought a mask and a couple of bowls and a stingray, what we really want is one of the Fish Spirit Gods, but it has to be small enough to fit on our boat, the only ones we've seen are 4 feet tall.
We hope all is well with you, we're doing fine.
Fred & Judy, SV WINGS, Solomon Islands
08 degrees 17.6 South, 157 degrees 09.8 East