We have finally developed a functional technique for getting ashore here. We drive over to the dinghy dock and Hideko gets out with any stuff we may have aboard (backpacks and laptops). I hand her the stern line and then motor out and drop the anchor. She pulls the stern over to the dock and I hop out, then we tie the stern line off on a post or pick nick table at the yacht club. This way if the seas get up (and they sure can in here) you're dink is not bashing on the dock. It is also easy to launch as you just pull up the anchor.

Shooting Star is a lug, and tough to drag up the beach but it is still faster to beach her than anchor out. Anchoring keeps the dink cleaner though because there's no getting pooped as you scramble to push her up the beach.

We spent the entire day today at the Mendana Hotel on the internet. It was a nice relaxing day. We can see Swingin on a Star from the restaurant and we can see Shooting Star if we walk out by the pool. So it is a perfect spot to relax.

As we were getting caught up on the blog photo uploads and other business we noticed a guy at the next table who seemed to have set up shop just like we had. It turned out that his name was Will. Will is an NGO here in Honiara doing revitalization work in the Solomons. He had set up a Fair Trade coffee co-op in Laos previously and attended UCLA, Hideko's school's nemesis (USC). We love to meet the people from the countries we visit but it is always nice to meet another American making their way in these crazy parts of the world.

Hideko started up a conversation with a couple of Japanese ladies who were doing charity work in Honiara. They are campaigning again violence directed at women and children. I think the statistics suggest that about half the women in The Solomons are subject to domestic violence. We have seen no such behavior, but that is why they call it domestic.

As the day wore on I noticed a nasty sunset system building in the north. It looked like it was going to bring a chop and some rain so Hideko and I skedaddled. We got back to the big boat in plenty of time but as the evening wore on the chop that came into the anchorage was nasty and short. Boats will go beam on to a swell if there's no wind and the storm passed quickly leaving the swell and no wind.

The roll was bothering us (on a catamaran!). I couldn't concentrate on Star Trek. That did it, I dug out the stern anchor and got in the dinghy to run it out. It made a huge difference. Unfortunately I had it on a very short scope to avoid entanglements with the catamaran moored right behind us who was swinging freely. About half way through the incident the anchor drug and we were back to the beam on chop. At this point it was too dark to mess with resetting the anchor and it was just a squall so the swell didn't last much more than another hour or so to go.

Things did calm down and it turned into a wonderful and cool sleeping night. That said, this anchorage is the worst of any major port I've been in throughout the entire South Pacific. I would not stay here a day more than I had to. If we weren't waiting for PNG visas we'd have left the day we completed the clearance process.