Solomon Islands - Profile

On sailing overnight between the Russell Islands & Marovo lagoon, we arrived at Mbili passage in the early morning. Mbili village on Minjanga island opposite Gatokae is home to many talented wood carvers. We anchored just inside the southern tip of Sanihulumu Island.

It has been recommended that yachts ask the visiting carvers in canoes to view the carvings in one go either at the village community hut or on the beach. This can be organised by Paul John of Sanihulumu or by going to see Lisa at Solomon Dive Adventures (SDA) off the small island of Turupu next to the anchorage. Chief Luten & his family live on the northern penisula of Gatokae & they will also show you carvings there.

The reason for this is so that all the villagers get a fair chance at selling their work, as some of the canoes can be rather insistent & all seem to come from the same family therefore monopolising. If you are not firm you will get "canoed" all day every day.

There are several good dive sites in the area for which there is a Custom fee of SI$25 pp per dive if you have your own gear or you can dive with SDA & it is included. Lisa at the Dive Resort was very helpful in explaining that the fee is meant to go into the community fund so I recommend having a chat with her to ascertain who owns which dive site & we gave the fee to her directly as she puts it into an account for the village (rather than it ending up in one person's pocket). Also be careful that you do not get asked for the fee by different people. We tried very hard to please everybody but it seems that there are some politics & greed that marred our time there.

Any concerns & talk to Lisa! Equally I do not want to put anyone off going there because it was a lovely spot & the diving awesome. Mbilikiki dive liveaboard visited the same time we were there so the carvers all gathered together for their guests to view their art. Even if you are just looking, some of the carvings were spectacular & in a group setting there is no pressure to buy like with the canoes.

Tikopia, Soloman Islands, Lil Explorers Catamaran, December 2017:
We arrived in Tikopia after a pleasant two day sail from the Banks in Vanuatu. We used Google maps to pick out a sandy anchorage where there is a large indent in the Reef. We anchored in about 65 feet of water on sand with good holding.
Within an hour we had a handful of dugouts offering various fruits and vegetables for trade.
We have heard about there being an anchorage fee, so in the hope of avoiding this we put together a nice gift of a bush knife, rice, shirt, and Raman soup for the chief. We met with the chief and had a fantastic visit with him. At the chiefs house we were introduced to some of the customs and history of the island.
There are four chiefs on the island, each managing a section of the island. The houses are built on the ground with entryways only big enough to crawl through. Whenever entering a house you must crawl to show respect for the owner, and when departing you must crawl backwards never showing your "stern" to the people inside the house. Exiting a house was always a fun activity as our five young children backed into each other as they pushed and squirmed to be the first out outside.
We were there for Christmas and had a truly delightful time going with the church choir singing carols at many of the houses, and watching the local Christmas dance.
We had a truly delightful time at Tikopia, with a very secure anchorage, an easy dingy pass through the reef, soft sandy beaches, and wonderful people.
We were not asked for an anchorage fee, though some of the people asked if we had been asked for a fee. Even when we visited Anuta later we were asked if Tikopia had collected a fee from us.

Hambere Village, Kolombangara. We had children board the boat in the middle of the day while we were away snorkelling. In plain view of the village and another boat the children broke the lock and entered the boat stealing several items. The adults in the village did not want to hear about it and told us to "get lost". An incident that marred an otherwise fantastic time cruising the Solomon Islands.

Posted on behalf of SY Yawana:
Noro (New Georgia) is now the preferred port of entry into the Western Province of the Solomons, as Gizo has been experiencing reports of theft, and the Immigration officer is extremely unco-operative and is rarely available.

Read about SY INTI's project to distribute donated school supplies to remote areas in PNG and the Solomons adjacent, under "related news". If you are planning on cruising this part of the South Pacific, you can help.

Posted on behalf of Graeme Ward, SY INTI:
Our experiences through the Solomons were all good, it was quiet with few yachts and not much tourism.
It is difficult to know where to avoid, but we read noonsite reports, asked the locals and stayed away from larger centres. Anywhere we were unsure, we still felt it OK if we didn't stay more than 1 night, especially south of Honiara on Guadalcanal.
The Santa Cruz area was very friendly. Utupua Island love yachts, trade for mud crabs and huge oysters! They all sail their canoes and old sails/ tarps are gold.
We only have good things to say about Liapari, close to Ghizo. Noel and Rose offer a very well priced service with a safe, secure and lovely anchorage, we had no problems leaving the yacht there.
The Western Province has much to see although Ghizo itself is not pretty. Mono island, closer to Bougainville, had some trouble with loggers, but Falami village is safe and they were careful to keep yachts happy.
The Solomons is definitely the poor cousin to Vanuatu, it's very underdeveloped with regards to tourism, infrastructure and aid. The places we visited appreciate yachts, the locals have few ways of making income, to the point some of the kids wear barely rags. It's moving see how much it means when they can trade food from their gardens for something that really helps them. It is a pity a few bad incidents have made a beautiful unspoiled destination so challenging to cruisers!

Posted on behalf of Philip and Leslie of SV Carina:
For those looking for a genuine Solomon Islands' cultural experience, please visit Roderick Bay in Nggela Sule Island. Chief John Ruka and his clan have announced the dates for their 2016 Bonina Vale ni Vaka Seloga - festival of sailing yachts - for June 24 - 26, 2016.
Please spread the word. This is an intimate affair and you will quickly be enveloped in their warmth and benefit from their sincere generosity.
For more information, photos and navigation tips visit their webpage at:
roderickbayhideaway.sv-carina.org

Anyone interested in cruising in the Temotu area please feel free to contact me. I have spent 5 seasons helping the lovely people there with OceansWatch. chris@oceanswatch.org

We sailed briefly through the Solomons with our three kids aged 9,7 and 6 in Sept 2014. It was fantastic, like being in a national geographic magazine, with beautiful scenery and interesting people. We had no difficulties. Please note we stopped at very few places due to time pressures. We avoided Guadalcanal, Malaita, Florida and Choiseul Islands on advise of some cruisers who had spent a hurricane season in the Solomons. Their advice for safe anchoring was to *always introduce yourself to the village chief, *to say what you would like to trade for, *to ask places that it was ok to go and where not to go, and *tell them that they had great kids who were traders not beggars. We followed this and it was great as then the locals knew what we were interested in trading for, generally fresh fruit. It was fascinating being shown around and people were curious and friendly. We cleared in in Noro which was straight forward once we found the office. There is a hefty fee charged per metre for any vessel, it seems yachts are treated the same as a commercial boat. The official was quite apologetic about having to apply it to us. We approached Noro from the south through the lagoon and the Diamond Straits, absolutely beautiful, and the Navionics charts were pretty accurate. Entrance to anchorage near the fresh food market was marked by two sticks. Local long boats zipped in and out through there like buses. Noel and Rosie run a great boatyard in Liapari. We cleared out from Ghizo. We didn't anchor off the town but off a nearby island in the harbour. In all anchorages we took precautions, diesel cans were locked up, nothing left loose on deck and took the dinghy up each night. Either we were in the right places or we were lucky but we never had any cause for concern at night. There were so many places that were recommended to us that we skipped that we are keen to return to the Pacific back through the Solomons and spend much longer there.