Guadalcanal and Honiara, Solomons

Honiara, May 2014

After leaving the beautiful Marova Lagoon we sailed overnight to the Russell group which used to house a PT 109 base and you could still see the quonset houses and remains of docks.    We had a good weather window for the next passage so headed out to Honiara.  We arrived too late to make our way into the anchorage area in front of the yacht club so anchored to the east of the fuel wharves for the night and moved in the next morning.    Honiara is barely more than an open roadstead with just a reef for protection from the swell.   It is a busy place with space for hardly more than just a few boats. The jetty is pretty much occupied with the Chinese fishing boats, some tour boats and other regulars with lines criss crossing all over the place so we chose to anchor off the western breakwater.  You can see Kelaerin bouncing up and down in this picture.

  The yacht club had a few amenities like a laundry.    Showers, some food and drinks at the bar made life a little more bearable in Honiara which is generally not been a cruiser favorite.    I would suggest however the nice little Lime Lounge which had some good choices for food and great thick mocha shakes.    Down the street aways was the Frangipani ice cream parlor with cheap cones and acceptable ice cream.   Most people stop here long enough to restock and then head out again.

The banana boat taxi stand was just next door to the yacht club and was a busy and dirty place.  The garbage piled high along the beach and the constant betel nut spit on the streets made Honiara pretty unsanitary at best.   So we left and headed over to the Florida group to visit Rodrick Bay and the Ruka family.