COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

Betel-nut, Nguzunguzu and Bukaware



Log Entry November 4, 2015

1030 hrs.

After 2 day passage from Ureparapara, Vanuatu, arrive at Temotu Province in Solomon Islands. Lata, Nendo Island. Anchored off pier. I rowed ashore to meet officials. They come out to inspect the boat. Major cloud burst.



Sea Whisper has made landfall in the Solomon Islands; new territory, a new country that extends 1660 km. SE from Papua New Guinea. There are 992 islands with only a third of them populated. So we’re up for many adventures in leaf-hut villages, resplendent scenery and volcanic islands, in big lagoons and pristine reefs and in diving adventures of WW11 shipwrecks and an underworld that is teaming with corals and fishes.



As the team of Government officials (Immigration, Customs and Health) approach the boat we’re a bit nervous with our check-in to the Solomon Islands. Presented to us on our departure from the Banks Islands in Vanuatu were baskets and baskets of paw paw (papaya), bananas, grapefruit, pineapple, tomatoes and coconuts, beans and what seemed like a bushel of eggplants. Maybe the officials felt sorry for us and thought we looked hungry or they were having a different day as nothing was said when the team came onboard to complete the paper work and inspections. Yippee! Bring on the smoothies, the salads, the stir-fry.



Rowing ashore in Codo (our tiny dinghy) to see the town, our landfall was rather shocking. The majority of the men and women of all ages have ugly red teeth and gums. We quickly learn about the Betel-nut chewing. A small green fruit that resembles a chestnut or lime is mixed with powdered lime leaf and water and mushed between the teeth. Ooooo… looks terrible, especially with those who have teeth missing in front. Wouldn’t want to kiss one of these guys!! Solomon Islanders like the taste and its astringent effect. But long time users are predisposed to mouth cancer. In Fiji and Tonga it’s the Kava. In Vanuatu it’s the green Kava and in the Solomons it’s the Betel-nut. These traditions live on.



The Nguzunguzu

History tells us that the Nguzunguzu (pronounced Noozu, Noozu), is the warlord carved figure that is attached to the prow of a war canoe to guide the canoe through reefs and protect the warriors. If the Nguzunguzu is held up by two clenched fists it means war; a carved human head denotes that the enemy is on a headhunting mission and if the Nguzunguzu is holding a dove the war canoe is signifying peace. The Nguzunguzu is now a national symbol and is embossed on the one dollar Solomon coin. Now we are looking for a walking stick with the Nguzunguzu…preferably carved from the Queen Ebony wood.



Bukaware Basketry and masterful carvings.

The Solomon Islanders are strong carvers. The carvings represent animals, humans, birds and fish and spirits. The baskets, trays and table mats are woven from the tough Asa vine. They are tightly woven, very attractive and sturdy. My cruising friend Jean from NZ has a beautiful basket and we are now on the hunt for just the right Bukaware basket. Hopefully we will find it in the Western Province.







AMBASSADORS, BREAD, AND THE WELL



WE MEET MOSES

Our first anchorage in the Tumotu province of the Solomon Islands is at Shaw Point at Ndendo (pronounced Nendo) Island. Almost surreal: calm beautiful bay, no trade winds, no sea swell, no reefs… and westerly exposure. A dugout canoe is heading towards Sea Whisper. We meet Moses, a nice guy despite the betel-nut stains all over his teeth. We must get used to the bloody red mouths! Moses welcomes us and gives us some history of this place known as Shaw Point. In the 70’s it was a logging camp. A company from Malaysia set up a logging operation to log the Kauri trees. Now the land is owned by the Anglican church of Melanesia and it is operating as a Technical Training School. Moses invites us to come to an assembly to meet the students and talk to them about our country Canada and our journeys on Sea Whisper. And then with his red smile he gently asks, “Would you be able to show us how to make bread?” “Sure, I think we can arrange to do this.” “Do you have any flour?” I ask. After a long silence, the answer was, “No.”



First Ambassadors, then bread-makers! Alright. We gather things together and prepare our talk for the student presentation. Rowing ashore we are greeted by some of the students who graciously adorn us with beautiful floral leis made from the Frangipani flowers. The fragrance is very lovely. And then we proceed to the buildings. We were quite shocked to see how everything was run down and in disrepair. The talk went well, lots of questions about Canada and the students were fascinated with our Sea Whisper adventures and the souvenirs and artifacts we showed them from other countries. Needless to say each one was delighted with our gift to them. A souvenir Sea Whisper pen.



After our presentation we walked around the property. There are 30 boarding students who study carpentry, electricity, agriculture and life skills. The buildings for study are old and decrepit to say the least. However, there is an Anglican church in good repair and a residence for the minister, another residence and chapel for the Sisters’ Diocese with a lovely garden including a variety of orchids. This large picturesque property has traditional grass houses for the staff, dormitories for the students, a soccer field and a kitchen and dining hall which is nothing more than a cement slab with a thatched roof and a covered campfire for cooking. The oven appears to be a 45 gal. drum. A quick study reveals that this will be the oven to bake the bread on bread-making day!



THE BREAD THE BREAD

The ingredients: White flour, whole meal flour, yeast, oil, salt, honey, water.

Equipment: Big mixing bowl, wooden spoon, measuring cups and spoons, plastic table cloth for kneading the dough, bread pans. Oh, and a big board to write out the recipe.



Gathering all the bread making supplies and equipment we row to shore in Coda and then head inland to the ’Kitchen’. Several women and students hovered around and the bread-making begins. We measure, mix, talk and laugh and tell stories as the dough comes together. Then it’s time for Janet and Frida to knead the dough. No problem here. These gals seem to know how to handle dough. Presto, the dough now rises in a big pan and then it is punched down and shaped into buns. What fun…everyone gets into the action! Second rising and it’s time to think about the oven….the well-used metal barrel that has a wood-burning fire underneath. After efforts of stoking, fanning and blowing the flames the ‘oven’ is hot and the buns are put inside - with the arduous task of closing the oven door (a cumbersome fabricated piece of metal rammed on the opening with some big sticks.) Twenty minutes later, the buns are baked, butter is smeared on them and we eat them. Yummy hot buns!



COME TO THE WELL

We were alerted to a fresh water spring close by to collect some extra fresh water and do some laundry. We head to the shore with water containers and 2 big loads of laundry. The spring is on shore but it is a small area and the tide is rapidly coming in. And then we hear a voice, “Come with me and I will show you the big well,” one of the locals calls out to us. Two hours later we are still gathering water from the well (the fresh water spring) and soaking, scrubbing and rinsing clothes and then having a major bath ourselves. We’re whistle clean and in no time the tropical sun air dried the laundry onboard Sea Whisper.





‘CANOED’ IN BLISSFUL SCENERY AND REMOTE ANCHORAGES



Everywhere there are emerald forests, valleys and mangroves cloaked in green. Volcanic islands jut up from the cobalt-blue Ocean and turquoise lagoons. Every vista is encapsulated with pure unspoiled scenic splendour. Sea Whisper lies inside the double chain of islands therefore the relentless Pacific seascape and swell has dissipated. A welcome break from the South East trade winds! In 22 days we have not seen another yacht. We are guessing that the cruising boats are in the western province near Gizo. We will begin to embrace the culture and the beauty and solitude of these tropical islands and pinch ourselves that Sea Whisper is here to explore this hidden paradise of the South Pacific, the Solomon Islands. This is paradise and the spirit of adventure awaits us. This is the South Pacific!



THE DUGOUTS…..THE SWARMERS

How do you think we feel when 5, 10 or maybe 14 canoes with kids paddle to the stern of Sea Whisper the minute we drop anchor? “Barbara, we’re being ‘canoed’!” shouts Lionel from the cockpit. I jump up on deck. It’s a heart-warming magical moment; big wide curious eyes, naked little chocolate bodies with their paddles stroking the surface as the dugouts jockey into position to manoeuver closer and closer. Who are these strange people, and where did they come from? They stare and stare at the same time flicking water out of the hollow of their canoes. Sometimes we tell stories and we sing songs and then we laugh and laugh.





TRADING AND KASTOM MANI



WHAT YOU LIKE… WHAT YOU HAVE? THIRTY SOLOMON DOLLARS?



Sea Whisper’s anchor has dropped in front of a village, and what do we see? A horde of dugout canoes paddling furiously towards us. Kids, babies, adults are stuffed into these fine crafted canoes and they simply glide across the water effortlessly. It is their only mode of transportation and in many cases the Solomon Islanders cover a lot of miles in a day. Whether it’s fishing, transporting goods to market, traveling from one village to another village, canoeing to the nearest town for supplies or to top up the phone (yes, many have phones), your dugout is your trusty vehicle.



Shyly the occupants’ pier at the boat and us. We begin our conversation by telling them where we are from and what are our names. Some are really keen to talk, others not and of course English is not their first language. Our Pidgin is non-existent! They are very curious to know if we have children. When we ask the children, “How old are you?” a puzzled look comes over their faces. Very few know the answer. A few industrious ones have already paw paw, green coconuts, beans, bananas and mangoes lying in the bottom of the canoe ready for trade. The trading sometimes goes like this. “Would you like some bananas and paw paw?” “Yes, thankyou that would be very nice. We like bananas and paw paw (papaya).” What would you like for trade?” “What you like, what you like,” is a common answer. In other words it’s up to us to decide what to give. So we bring out the pens, pencils, lollies, t-shirts, rice, Chinese noodles, canned salmon, books and batteries. We try to be as generous as possible knowing there is a line up for many more trades. Near darkness at the boat a few nights ago we heard a faint hello. We dashed up on deck and there in a dugout canoe sat a mature woman with a fat watermelon. “Would you like a melon?” She asked. “Yes, how much is it?” “Thirty Solomon dollars,” was the answer. Ok? After doing the math, ($5.00 Can.) was a fair price to pay for this beauty of a melon. At the next village when the kids arrived in the dugouts and swimming from shore we handed out slabs of watermelon. “Thank you, thank you,” they all hailed.



Other items for trade from the Solomon Islanders are carving pieces: wooden bowls, stone carvings, wood carvings, baskets. We acquired a lovely old bowl carved from ebony wood. It had been lying around in the dirt as I had to clean the mud from it when it came onboard. John had rowed far across Santa Ana bay from another village and was very keen to trade for a t-shirt for his grandmother’s old bowl. Judging by its appearance and condition it could have likely been his grandmother’s. We like it as it has character, and the Queen Ebony wooden carved bowls are quite rare.



KASTOM MANI (Custom Money)

Kastom is the name given by the Melanesians for their deep-rooted worship of their ancestors, their magic and their traditions. Kastom Mani is used for paying bride money and sometimes other tribal transactions, i.e. acquiring land from the tribe or handing over a magical skill. Joe from Manaka Island told us he had to pay Kastom Mani or ‘bride price’ to the tribe when his daughter got married. The items for Kastom Mani included pigs, carvings, bangles, food, Shell money and Feather money. The feather money is fascinating. In the province of Tomotu feathers are plucked from the neck of a small scarlet Cardinal and glued onto a platelet made from pigeon feathers. Then the platelets are bound together to make a coil. The coil of red feather money can be up to 10m long with 50,000 feathers. It takes one year to make one coil of feather money. At the ceremony everything is handed over and there is a big celebration feast and sharing of food. And, if you can believe it, we just had a visit from two canoes with the men returning from a reef where they were collecting a special breed of clam and mussel for Kastom Mani. John and Daniel will transport the clams and mussels by boat to Honiara, the capital, where they will receive $400 for a 20 kilo sack ($57.00). The goods will be sold for Kastom Mani. Fascinating tradition and a unique cultural wonder here in the Solomon Islands.





SENSATIONAL DIVING

In a Garden of Eden



December 10, 2015 Log entry

1420 8 25.872 S 15 56.749 E Anchored at Uepi Island just off dive resort. Tricky entrance, narrow pass with fairly strong current. Circled around through reefs to anchorage - 65 ft.



Uepi Island Resort

Sea Whisper is excited to reach this destination as this is where we will meet our friend Sally from Melbourne, Australia. We met at Beqa Island in Fiji last year, and since she had booked in a dive holiday at Uepi Resort; and since Sea Whisper’s plan was to sail to the Solomon Islands we thought it might be possible to meet and dive together. Well, in the best made plans of mice and men…it worked. Sea Whisper anchors in the Marovo Lagoon December 10th and Sally arrives December 12th.



THE DIVE SITE

Uepi is one of Marovo Lagoon’s barrier islands. The setting is idyllic as it is exposed to the open sea on one side and overlooks the lagoon on the other side. The Uepi resort has a reputation of being very laid back, ecological and activity-oriented. The diving is rated as sensational: wall dives, drift dives with soft and hard corals and reefs, sharks, manta rays and multihued tropical fish.



THE GENERAL STORE

“Make sure you bring some money,” was the suggestion of one of the dive masters when we signed up for our first dive. “You might want to buy something,” as there is such a variety of fish, coral shells and clam shells. We all had a good laugh and off we went for the dive. It was awesome with reefs, a wall, a long tunnel-passageway and a multitude of fish. Sally, Lionel and I loved the dive.



THE DRIFT DIVES

They were a wow. We were dropped off at the head of the open sea end of the Charapoena passage. Down a deep wall we descended. The current was strong so we had to work hard to keep moving forward along the gigantic wall. I’m worried my 3000 bar air consumption will be depleted in no time! Down, down we go making our way along the coral sheer drop-off.

Sharks, fish are performing for us, the multihued fish are whirling against the current. It’s Act 1 of the Garden of Eden dive. We drift along the wall and our eyes see amazing things. Truly amazing.



THE SEA IS OUR VILLAGE





LIFE ABOARD SEA WHISPER

Many of you are aware of the extraordinary adventures of Miles and Beryl Smeeton who sailed their yacht Tzu Hang to many places around the world. They were an incredible team, learning the basic skills of seamanship and travelling the sea as Tzu Hang was their home for twenty years. In his book, ‘The Sea was our Village’ he narrates the stories of life at sea, people and villages and places they visited. An interesting read for seamen or non-seamen alike. The Smeetons, for some time, lived on a waterfront property on Salt spring Island. Lionel’s family (being avid sailors and seamen), were friends of the Smeetons.



Sea Whisper has been our home for over four years. The place where we live out each day aligning ourselves with nature, the storm, the calm, the trade winds, the reefs. And then the extraordinary places and people in the South Pacific where we embrace ‘out-of-this-world’ experiences in the remote islands, the traditional villages, the urban centres and the playground of the Pacific where one can dive and snorkel in the amazing underworld.

Each day brings challenges of weather, navigation, boat service and repairs, maintenance, water-making, cooking, cleaning and all in all…..just keeping a happy ship. Life aboard is alive with wonder and excitement and adventure. Here in the Solomon Islands we have not seen another yacht in over three weeks. It’s rural, remote and every island is filled with scenic splendor. There are no sounds….only the call of birds in the lush green landscape. In the distance a dugout canoe paddles rhythmically through the ripples of the sea. Ahhh.

Eckhart Tolle discusses in ‘A New Earth’ the present moment is all we ever have and Life is inseparable from the Now, “We have this moment,” the Present. Our journey to these Third World countries has given us opportunities and precious moments to learn and to share our goods and talents and support schools with amazing friendly people in their remote villages and to be ambassadors for our country Canada. We savour the moment, this moment….the Present.