What a passage. From the moment we left Tegua (in a large squall) until our arrival we have been dealing with unstable atmosphere. Squalls have literally been all around us the entire trip. Combine that with no reasonable wind most of the time and you have a motor sail not to be envied. Though we have had several near misses and a couple grazers we have neither been hit nor had to divert the whole passage. The exception being the squall we travel a few hours in right out of Tegua.

The hard work trimming and retrimming the boat for little reward and lots of diesel dollars has paid off. We are now at anchor in Port Mary, Santa Ana Island in the Solomons! What an awesome place. We are underway, so the dinghy stays up and we are off first thing tomorrow. It is good to be at 10S and across the Coral Sea, even if it is a little late in the season. We look forward to our three day sails to Honiara, with overnight breaks in what, on paper, sound to be fantastic anchorages.

As we came in the straight between Santa Catalina and Santa Ana a pod of spinner dolphins came to visit, jumping and frolicking all the while.

The entrance to Port Mary was straight forward for us. Partially because a cargo boat from Honiara, the Christie Leigh, had come in just before us. I didn't see him enter but I could see his slick in the water. We motored right over the reef on the Navionics charts with never less than 70 feet of water. That said the actual coastline was a perfect radar match. It would be better the other way around (well charted reefs with an overall chart offset)!

The entrance to Port Mary is actually marked with green and red day markers. The large arcing reef comes way up from the south leaving a gap in the north end of the bay. Once inside it is 70 feet or deeper. I didn't find anything shallower than 60 feet and that was fairly close to the beach. There is a village right on the beach and it didn't seem polite to anchor in too close. Also it is one of those places that looks as if it shoals rapidly and with hard stuff mixed in.

We asked some guys on lighters unloading the Christie Leigh, which floated freely in the bay, if we could anchor for the night and they said, "sure!". The told us where to drop the hook and the Christie Leigh even talked us in on the VHF. The people here are just wonderful, every one waves at you and says hello before you get a chance.

Four young girls swam out to our boat as the sun was setting to chat. They spoke a combination of pigeon and English that was interesting to hear. I was surprised what great swimmers they were. Margaret jumped in with them after a few minutes. They swam about and talked for the better part of an hour.

Hideko began cooking up some Mahi Mahi we had in the freezer as the sun set over the Solomons. I have a feeling we're going to like the Solomons!