In every village the Komodo always attract attention of the playful kids and it is nearly part of the furniture now!!






What not to do with the Komodo....but the sturdy plastic links withstood it!!!!

What kayaking trips do not prevent is mosquitoe bites. Even a huge fire did not deter them on the small low laying island of the Hele bar. It's been good to go back to proper yacht travel for a while, of course with the Komodo conveniently parked on deck, easily reached.

Komodo’s break down versatility has once again proved very useful. This time, we couldn’t paddle to the remote island of Kicha since the rather large hatches of the komodo wouldn’t fit our 40 kg Dive compressor, so we fitted all camping and diving gear in a motor canoe to travel there.



Taking the kayak along would help us circumnavigate the island to take pictures of the shy nesting terns and go snorkelling.

Lets face it, if the boat engine broke down, having our own muscle power is a good way to get out of a deserted island! Yet, despite the fuel crisis bringing extraordinarily high prices in the Solomon Islands, often we are the only one paddling a canoe, a new generation of white paddlers!

Marau sound!

More playing ground to be explored by Kayak! Whilst awaiting visa renewal (which is never easy in this country!) the KUNA and the Komodo travelled to Marau Sound on the extreme East of the Guadalcanal to find excellent kayaking country in amongst many small islands surrounded by fringing reefs. Corals, seagrass and sandy beaches... and a lovely welcoming resort on Tavanipupu island (check www.tavanipupu.com), which also had a kayak, so it was a good opportunity to turn the Komodo into a single canoes and go racing!!!!

A long visit to Ngatokae island, Western Province

You may wonder why there hasn’t been many entries in the blog, well the Komodo has taken a bit of a holiday, at the Wilderness Lodge (www.thewildernesslodge.org) on the SE side of Ngatokae island! Here it is resting at the terrace overlooking the lagoon, the whole 7m length of hi!. Meanwhile, we took a trip to the rainforest, 700m above sealevel (see www.kunayacht.blogspot.com), a despite the beautiful creeks full of frogs, it was no seakayak country!

With the help of the locals, we also have kept busy taking video of the Komodo, not forgetting of course to play with the children !



One may wonder how I get to post these blog entries from such a remote country as the Solomons Islands, what a wonderful way to win your own carbon credits by going to the internet by kayak!! EU has funded a number of internet base stations throughout the country. These are called distance learning centers. These satellite links are completely independent from the local Solomon island Telekom. One such school at BekaBeka is located 5 miles away from the anchorage so an easy day trip with a purpose, 45 minutes each way on a good day.



Lately, time has been spent exploring islands around Peava, and because the KUNA is safely anchored in the lagoon, with the trade winds gone down, it’s a good time to go on overnight trips. Nothing wrong with paddling in glassy waters, it is a great change from Tasmania!


The islands offer few landing places for a kayak and a rugged lagoon edge needs to be crossed first but once landed there are plenty of trees to hang hammocks. Away from the village, the fish is tame and makes for a good feed!



Quick landing...

The kayak is a great platform for snorkelling but also to remain safe from sharks, should those come up to us. Unfortunately I have no pictures but on our way to the islands, we crossed a large school of dolphins who were resting and courting. It was great to be able to jump in the water to watch them, dragging the Komodo along, until two grey sharks came way to close, right under the Komodo. It was nce to be able to jump in and move on!!

Touring the Russell islands

The time has come for serious trials of the Komodo in Solomon Islands country. During the BBC project, now completed, we made very good use of it but had not had the chance to go on some serious touring. But now on real cruising holiday, we are attending to this!!!



In light winds, at a cruising speed of 3 to 4 knots with two paddlers getting fit - again(!)-, we have been able to expand our exploration territory from the KUNA anchorage place, doing touring trips of 5 to 15 miles (9 to 28 km) over the various lagoons of the Russell islands. With the predictable and light tradewinds, the sail has been perfect to add 1 knot to our cruising speed and rest the old arms to cruise past the cliffs and take some photos!



The Russels are an interesting group of islands. Once a volcano, it got eroded and sank under sea level, became covered in coral reefs but later got uplifted again dramatically, creating an amazing undersea geomorphology and some limestone islands. Most of them are old reefs now sticking out of the water. One can still see the old corals. Once submitted to rains and winds, the coral erodes into some very sharp stones, making it virtually impossible to walk on it. Thankfully a few sandy beaches are there inside the shallow reef lagoons.


Kayak trips are great to get where the “KUNA” cannot get to due to her – yet small- draft (1.5m). On the Komodo, it becomes easy to cross over reef edges and lagoons and go from island to island in a straight line, visiting the few sand beaches and checking snorkelling spots.



One some narrow islands, we could even portage the kayak from one side to the other to shorten our path!! We have been particularly impressed by the very shallow draft of the Komodo, allowing us to travel in no more than 15cm of water without touching the bottom!! Great for coral reefs…

A shallow lagoon is easily crossed: great to see all th epurple branching corals


While snorkelling, it is easy to take the kayak along on a long towing rope, whilst skin diving and if the winds aren’t to strong, the Komodo follows, like a very disciplined pet, while swimming the reef edges.




Due to its great stability as a double kayak, it has been a great platform to get in and out of whilst in the water, so no need to find a beach to park while going swimming! There are indeed very few sand beaches in the Russells, and the limestone shores are too high and too sharp to land the Komodo on. It has indeed been a relief to travel in a plastic kayak: no inflatable dinghy or glass craft would survive this lethal country. Only minor scratches can happen to plastic and we have been able to just tie the komodo to some rock emerging from the reef whilst going for a swim.


The Komodo has also been a great stable platform to scuba dive out of, though carrying to sets of dive gear is only possible over a short distance


And of course we have been dragging our lures around these – not so fishy – waters and sometimes got lucky to catch a feed!

Detangling the trolling lines

finally a catch!

Check the KUNA blog (www.kunayacht.blogspot.com) for more detail on the locations. The Russell islands are a perfect area for a kayaking holiday, even without a yacht!



PS:
Bolts…
While sailing the KUNA in flat waters, in between the islands, we have been towing the Komodo and to get around the problem of its bolts getting undone with the wave action (also the chop when the komodo is parked next to the KUNA at anchor), we added spring washers, which seem to help preventing losing the bolts.

More piccies

ON the way to the volcanoe Tinakula



Sometimes it's nice to have one's own mode of transport!



Russel Island curious



Lagoon from the top



Sailing wing and wing in light winds

Komodo canoe on Tikopia

Tikopia is a very remote island (see www.kunayacht.blogspot.com for more details on my stay there. I spent two weeks anchored with the KUNA while BBC crew were filming on Anuta island, 75 miles away. Very few yachts get to visit (10 in the last 8 years) and so my arrival was greeted by extreme excitement. When the kids saw me arriving in the yellow kayak, the were jumping laughing and screaming and I did not even have the chance to jump out that they were already carrying the kayak 30 m in the lagoon, in a big splash of water!


In less than 10 second, the Komodo, now a single kayak, was carried up the beach by 20 kids into a shady spot covered with leaves (one cockpit was removed and left in Lata to make space for more camera gear in the KUNA).


The kids learned very quickly how to unclip the break down paddles and while I went to visit the chief, a plethore of them stayed near the canoe. What an attraction!!


Everyday, at the time of my visit, they would gather on the beach to help. Here they are helping me crossing the canoe above one fish drive wall (a coral stone wall that helps them drive and catch the fish into a funnel where they place their nets or wait with spears)




On Tikopia, traditional dug out canoes are very valuable and the only mode of transport as no motor canoes are allowed on the island (chief order). The tikopian have enough building material to afford building canoe houses along the beach, to protect their canoe, and insisted I parked mine in too!!


With a single cockpit, I could not transport my crew Patrick onshore, so we even used some reliable pikinini to shuffle the canoe for us. He loved it and was very proud!



Only one or two resupply ship visit per year (if they are lucky) so Tikopians have no opportunity to spend money on petrol. Cash they have very little of anyhow, being so far from civilisation. So they use the wind, which is great on the flat waters of the sheltered side of the island. They also use their canoes in the lake and I would have like to go exploring there with the komodo but the heavy weather did not allow travelling far inthe exposed side of the lagoon