We made it. What a slog this time of year. No wind and lots of squalls all the way. Happily we missed most of the squalls and the motors kept our batteries in top condition while we await our genset parts.

We left Tavanipupu a little late today. It was 5:30 before we got out of the anchorage. This was nice from a light stand point but put us into Honiara late in the day to get formalities finished. We motor sailed up the coast of Guadalcanal very close to the wind. We had the jib out here and there but mostly too close for that. As we reached the western bend in the island I was looking forward to seeing the 30 degree to port wind go to 50 degrees so that we could sail. Unfortunately it just followed the coastline around and it was more motor and main. We got an hour or so of just sailing in but that was about it.

The highlights of the trip were a whale visit and a huge pod of spinner dolphins. The whale was amazing. Hideko spotted him a ways out but we didn't know what it was. Then after a short vanishing act he surfaced just in front of our starboard bow and did a big flourish as he sounded again. We watched him pop up a few more times off the quarter as we motored along.

The dolphin pod was great as well. There had to be twenty of them playing under the bow as we sliced through the still water. All the time it was like being in a sea of spinners, they were farther off the bow, to port and behind us as well.

Coming around the points that put you between the Floridas and Guadalcanal is interesting. The bottom goes from thousands of feet deep to a hundred. There are islets and reefs farther off shore and then a deep passage. We took the inside to save time. never saw less than 100 feet but the depth keeps you on you toes after being used to no bottom while underway.

We arrived at Honiara just around 4PM. We came in through the unlit but marked channel to the yacht basin. Honiara is a roadstead. There is a point (Point Cruz) and on the west side you have yachts and the police boats (which don't seem to stop the yachts from getting robbed), while on the east side you have a big port with huge freighters, tuna boats and local cargo boats. No yacht skipper in his right mind would stop here if it wasn't for customs and immigration. You are totally exposed to the north, in a lee shore setting, and all of the wind this time of year comes from the north (NE, N NW).

Inside the little yacht basin there are fishing boats and a few yachts. Most of the yachts are tied stern to a large wall of concrete slugs. You would not want to drag down on this wall. Frankly you probably wouldn't want to have to tie to it at all. There was a big ship mooring to the right as we came in and after reading up a bit on noonsite, Hideko though we might be able to use it. We picked it up and settled the boat quickly so that I could get customs started. Margaret was flying out at noon tomorrow!

I dropped the dinghy and said bye to the girls and went ashore. As I approached the Yacht Club I was looking for the obligatory dinghy dock. They had a dock but the chop coming straight onto the beach and the short run of the dock made tying a dinghy up there a total no go. So I beached her. The chop was such that a good pooping or two was unavoidable. As soon as the bow was on the sand I tilted up the outboard and wave #2 put a few gallons in the back. That made it even more fun to try to drag the dink up the beach. Fortunately the tide was falling so I got her up as far as the best wave could help me drag her and tied off to a palm tree.

I got some directions from the yacht club folks and after a short walk made it to customs just before closing. The customs folks were great and so were the quarantine folks. No hassles, just a few forms and they let me come back tomorrow to pay the fees since I didn't have any local currency. I had read somewhere that they would want to board the boat. Thank goodness that was a rumor.

At this point it was 4:45 and immigration was long closed. So I walked up to the main street and grabbed some cash out of the Westpac ATM and returned to the yacht club. As I walked I marveled at how much bigger Honiara was than Port Vila. I had imagined the Solomon Islands would be more remote and scaled down on the big city front. Not so. Vila is quaint and charming while Honiara is, well not so quaint and charming. It is a big port and it has a lot of shops and industry that could come in handy though. It seems like everyone here chews bettlenut and some barely have any teeth left. A guy almost spat on me as I walked by his car, though he did apologize.

Back at the yacht club I searched about for the owner of the mooring we were on. The last thing I wanted to contend with is getting kicked off in the middle of the night in this particular roadstead. After a nice chat with some cruisers also heading to Gizo I gave up and set about dragging Shooting Star back down the now significantly longer beach. Just then a guy came up. I thought, cool he's going to help. No, it was the mooring owner. Well at least I wont have to worry about being kicked off now. It was 100 Solomon for the night (8:1 right now so about $12.50 US). I happily paid since the mooring gave us a chance of facing the swell that steadily marches in here.

Back at the boat we settled in and relaxed. We got Margaret to Honiara and a good 20 hours before her plane takes off. It was sad to see her packing, we'll miss Margaret...