There is always a squeeze point in our sailing plans. Although we try to avoid sailing to deadlines there are larger forces such as cyclone season, monsoon season or the turn of the prevailing winds or currents that force our hand. That’s one of the reasons why we always allow for quite a lot of ‘bagginess’ and flexibility in our plans.
This year our squeeze happens in the Solomon islands. There’s an ideal period for when we traverse the top of Papua New Guinea and into Indonesia and that, coupled with not wanting to cut out PNG time too short, means that we have limited time to stay and play in the Solomons. So we’ve focussed our time on the New Georgia island group.
Having said that we’ve been having a lovely taster of the place. We marvelled at the woodcarvings in Paeva, played in the warm waters of Lola island, explored the reef-dotted lagoon of Vonavona and then had some time to get sociable in Gizo. The day to day business of trading for fresh fruits and vegetables has become second nature to us and we’ve become comfortable with exchanging rice, sugar, clothing and various other sundries as opposed to using money. We’ve also had to be on sharp lookout for the notorious saltwater crocodiles that ply these waters and the sometimes unreliable accounts from locals of where they hang out.
Lagoons, beaches, swimming, tropical fruits and veg, artisan carvings and a whole host of welcoming smiles. As far as merely dipping our toes into these islands I think we’ve done a pretty good job.