Sailing the Solomon Islands

After successfully checking into the Solomon Islands, it was time to move on. Our next destination was the Three Sisters Islands, a small group of remote islands where we planned to spend a little time exploring before continuing toward Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands.

A Quick Boat Project… Or So We Thought

Our original plan was to leave around noon. A perfectly reasonable departure time that would give us plenty of daylight to get underway. Instead, we found ourselves sitting on the bow of Tauha, working on yet another little boat improvement. This time, we were making protective sleeves for our Genoa sheets (control ropes) to prevent them from chafing through. We also added tubing around parts of the railing where the sheets tend to rub against the metal. A quick little project, right? Well, as so often happens on a sailboat, what sounded like a simple job turned into a much longer exercise. By the time we finally looked at the clock, it was already three in the afternoon. Oops.

We still wanted to leave, so we started raising the anchor. Or at least we tried. For the first time on our journey, our anchor chain had managed to wrap itself around coral heads on the seafloor. Fantastic! Some sailors can simply dive down and free their anchor chains by hand. Unfortunately, diving down isn't really an option for us. Instead, we carefully maneuvered Tauha a little to the left and right, trying to find an angle that would free the chain. Additionally, we eventually resorted to our trip line, an additional line attached to the anchor that allows it to be pulled from a different direction. Trip lines are one of those pieces of sailing equipment that people seem to either love or hate. We were definitely on the love side, especially for those moments. With a little patience and some maneuvering, we finally managed to free ourselves. And off we went!

As we navigated through the passage leading away from our anchorage, we noticed something else that would become increasingly important as we continued our journey: the depths shown on our nautical charts were not always particularly accurate, you could also say they were far off from what our depth sounder was reporting. In this case, it didn't cause us any trouble, but it was certainly something to keep in mind. The farther we venture into these remote regions, the less we can rely purely on charted depths alone.

Fish On! Our First Yellowfin Tuna

Once we were out in open water, the sailing was lovely. The waves rolled in from behind, the wind was pleasant, and Tauha was making good progress toward the Three Sisters Islands. Everything was going smoothly. And then, just as we were approaching the islands, things got exciting.

We needed to gybe, meaning we had to turn the stern through the wind and move the sails from one side of the boat to the other. I was at the helm while Alex was busy adjusting and retrimming the sails. As I looked to starboard, I suddenly noticed something about a hundred meters away. Fish were jumping out of the water! And above them, several birds were circling. "Alex! There are fish jumping over there!" That was all he needed to hear. Whenever we gybe, Alex takes the fishing rod out of its holder and moves it inside the boat before setting it up on the opposite side of the boat, away from the sails, once the gybe is complete. So at that moment, the fishing rod wasn't even in the water. Naturally, he immediately rushed to get it ready again. And naturally, when you're in a hurry, everything that can get tangled somehow manages to get tangled.

Meanwhile, I adjusted our course to bring us closer to the area where we had spotted the fish. Finally, the lure hit the water. Twenty seconds later… ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ! Fish on! Alex grabbed the rod and started fighting whatever had taken the lure, while I tried to slow Tauha down to make things a little easier for him. Unlike the mahi-mahi we had caught the previous week, which had put on quite the acrobatic performance by repeatedly jumping out of the water, this fish stayed hidden beneath the surface. Instead of jumping, it was pulling downward, trying to dive deeper and deeper. We both quickly suspected that we might have hooked a tuna.

After about ten minutes of fighting, we finally caught our first glimpse of it. A beautiful yellowfin tuna! Twelve kilograms of yellowfin tuna! We were absolutely thrilled. Tuna had been high on our fishing wish list for quite some time, and now we had finally caught one. After getting our catch safely aboard, I turned Tauha back toward our original course while Alex got to work processing the fish and cleaning up the inevitable mess in the back of the boat. Fresh tuna for dinner. And lunch. And probably quite a few more meals after that. Not a bad way to finish a day at sunset!

A Deserted Island and a Giant Coral Colony

Our destination was Malaulalo, one of the Three Sisters Islands. Unlike many of our previous stops, Malaulalo is uninhabited. And while we absolutely love meeting people, visiting villages, and learning about different cultures, this time we were looking forward to something a little different. Peace and quiet. The island also happens to be famous for something extraordinary: nearby lies the largest known individual coral colony in the world, measuring approximately 34 meters across and estimated to be 300–500 years old. Pretty impressive for a place that most people have probably never even heard of!

There was, however, one little problem. We arrived in the middle of the night. The anchorage was surrounded by coral, and after our earlier experiences with inaccurate chart depths, neither of us felt particularly comfortable trying to find a safe patch of sand in the darkness. So instead of pushing our luck, we took down the sails and waited offshore for the final hour before sunrise.

As the first light slowly appeared on the horizon, we started the engine and carefully approached the island. Using satellite imagery from Google Maps, we had previously identified what looked like a sandy patch between the coral heads. Now we just had to find it in real life. And luckily, we did! We dropped the anchor, but after inspecting where the chain was lying, we realized that it still crossed quite a few coral heads. Not ideal.

Rather than risk another tangled anchor chain, we immediately pulled everything back up and moved a few meters farther north. Second attempt.

Much better! And just like that, we had reached another little piece of paradise. Fantastic!

Another Day, Another Broken Boat Part

After the overnight sail, we spent most of our first day sleeping, relaxing, and hopping into the water and cooling off, as well as catching up on a few smaller jobs aboard. Because apparently, no matter how short a passage is, something always manages to break. This time, it was a metal support bar at the stern that helped stabilize our solar panel frame and also supported the grill. One of its welded connections had broken completely. Luckily, the bar and the grill were still hanging on by a screw, so we hadn't lost anything overboard. But we now needed to figure out how to reconnect parts that had originally been welded together. Without a welder. Another interesting engineering challenge aboard Tauha. For the moment, we took the broken support down and decided that fixing it was a problem for tomorrow. Sometimes the best boat repair is the one you postpone until after a good night's sleep.

Swimming to Shore in Paradise

The next morning, we decided it was finally time to explore the island. Since this was only supposed to be a short stop and we were already planning to leave again that afternoon, we didn't particularly feel like going through the whole process of lowering the dinghy, getting the outboard ready, and then hauling everything back aboard a few hours later. So we came up with a simpler solution. We would swim!

We packed a little dry bag with our phones, shoes, and a water bottle, put on our snorkeling gear, and headed toward the beach. And it was actually a lot of fun. One thing we immediately noticed was just how incredibly warm the water had become. Back in Tonga, we had been freezing even while wearing wetsuits. Here, we were practically sweating in our swimsuits! As we continued making our way closer to the equator, the rising temperatures were becoming more and more noticeable, both above and below the water.

Eventually, we reached the beach, exchanged our fins for shoes, and started exploring. Malaulalo wasn't the typical picture-perfect tropical island with endless stretches of soft white sand. Instead, it had a more rugged kind of beauty, with coral-covered beaches and a wonderfully untouched atmosphere. We spotted some large lizards, plenty of crabs, and all sorts of little creatures going about their business. There was something special about walking around an island without roads, houses, or anyone else in sight. Just us, the wildlife, and the sound of the ocean.

After spending some time exploring, we slipped back into the water and snorkeled back to Tauha.

A Screw, Some Ingenuity, and Another Late Departure

Back aboard, we realized that if we wanted to reach our next destination before sunset, we really needed to get moving. But first, there was still that broken support bar. And, well, one thing led to another. We started experimenting with a construction using screws, nuts, and several hose clamps to reconnect the broken pieces without welding them. After some time, Alex managed to put a new construction back together. And surprisingly, the result actually felt extremely sturdy! Sometimes a little improvisation works better than expected. Whether it will survive thousands of nautical miles of sailing remains to be seen, but for now, we were pretty happy with our solution.

Unfortunately, by the time we had finished the repair, prepared the boat, and gotten everything ready for departure, the afternoon was already well underway. So much for arriving at our next destination in daylight. We hoisted the anchor and set sail toward Honiara.

One Last Challenge Before Leaving

Of course, we couldn't leave the Three Sisters Islands without one final little challenge. As we tried to hoist the mainsail, we realized that something wasn't quite right. The halyard had somehow gotten tangled near the top of the mast, preventing us from raising the sail properly.

Fantastic. What should have been a quick and easy maneuver turned into what felt like an eternity of pulling, loosening, adjusting, and trying to get the rope free again. While we were busy fighting with our own rigging, a small boat suddenly passed by and gave us a friendly wave.

Wait, what? We were just off an uninhabited island in the middle of nowhere, and suddenly a little boat appeared out of nowhere? We couldn't help wondering where on Earth it had come from and where it was going. But before we could give it much more thought, we had our own problems to solve. Eventually, after what felt like forever, the halyard finally came free, the mainsail went up, and we were ready to go. Another simple sailing maneuver successfully turned into a full-blown project. But oh well. The sail was up, the wind was waiting, and off we went toward Honiara!

A Slightly Chaotic Night at Sea

The overnight passage itself was fairly uneventful. The sailing was fine, nothing particularly exciting happened, and Tauha continued carrying us toward the main island of Guadalcanal. Our watch schedule, however, was a different story. Normally, we have a fairly established routine for our night shifts. But this time, we decided to swap things around because I wanted to call a friend. That sounded like a good idea. Until I started feeling sick around midnight. I eventually decided to sleep outside in the cockpit, hoping the fresh air would help. Unfortunately, that didn't exactly result in a particularly restful night either. In the end, Alex spent about six hours on watch before finally handing the helm back to me.

Not our most organized night at sea. But sometimes that's just how it goes. At least we were getting closer to Honiara while passing by beautiful islands.

Back to Civilization… Almost

As we approached Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands, we were genuinely surprised by how much of a city it appeared to be. After spending so much time around small villages, remote islands, and quiet anchorages, suddenly seeing cars, cargo ships, container terminals, and all the other signs of a busy city felt almost strange. We could even smell the city before we reached it. It was a completely different world from the little islands we had been exploring just a day earlier. And while we were excited about the opportunity to stock up on supplies, it also felt a little out of place after all the remote destinations we had visited.

Unfortunately, as we got closer to the anchorage, the sun began to set. We weren't going to make it in daylight. Again. At least nature decided to give us a little consolation prize: a beautiful full moon was rising above the horizon, slowly illuminating the water around us. The wind had almost completely died by this point, but suddenly we noticed something strange. Right next to Tauha, the water was becoming incredibly noisy. Strong ripples and disturbances were appearing across the surface. We had entered a current system. And it was giving us quite a bit of additional speed!

We lowered the sails and started making our final approach under engine power. This was where things became a little more stressful. According to our charts, we needed to navigate past a reef marked by navigation buoys. The red buoy that was supposed to mark the reef? Nowhere to be found. The green buoy? Not illuminated. Fantastic. Exactly what you want when approaching an unfamiliar harbor in the dark. To be on the safe side, we turned on both our phone navigation and our main navigation monitor. Since they use separate GPS receivers, we at least had a backup in case one of them started giving us questionable information. We proceeded slowly and carefully. Navigating unfamiliar waters at night is always stressful, especially when you don't know exactly what the shoreline, reefs, or harbor entrance look like.

Our goal was to pick up a mooring buoy close to shore. We had approximate GPS coordinates, but finding a small buoy in the darkness is easier said than done. Alex stood at the bow with a flashlight, scanning the water while I carefully maneuvered Tauha toward the expected location. And then… There it was! A mooring buoy! We slowly approached, secured our lines, and finally switched off the engine. What a relief. We had made it safely to Honiara.

Breakfast, Shopping, and the Return of Civilization

The next morning, we started our day by visiting a lovely Swedish couple who were also anchored nearby with their children aboard their sailboat.

Since our twelve-kilogram tuna had turned out to be a little more fish than the two of us could reasonably eat, we brought them some of our catch. Afterward, it was time to head ashore. And for the first time in quite a while, we treated ourselves to breakfast at a restaurant. What a luxury! It was absolutely delicious, and I have to make a special recommendation here: cucumber-melon juice. Seriously. If you ever see it on a menu, try it. So refreshing! With breakfast finished, however, it was time to get down to business. We had a long shopping list.

Malaria Medication, Soccer Balls, and Mountains of Canned Food

Our first priority was malaria medication. Before starting our journey, we had purchased around 90 tablets in the United States. At the time, we hadn't expected to spend quite so long in malaria-risk areas, and we certainly hadn't planned on needing medication for approximately six months in Indonesia. So we needed to stock up. Luckily, we found a pharmacy that had an alternative medication available. It wasn't the same one we had been using, and unfortunately, it comes with an increased risk of sun sensitivity. Not exactly ideal when you're spending your days sailing around the tropics and your name is Alex. But at least we had found an option. And the price was surprisingly good: around ten US dollars for a hundred tablets! We also picked up some ibuprofen, sunscreen, and medical tape. The pharmacy even gave us the wound tape for free. A very successful first stop!

Next came the supermarket. Before going ashore that morning, we had emptied a good portion of our pantry to figure out exactly what food we still had and what needed replenishing.With our first longer ocean crossings getting closer, we wanted to make sure we had plenty of supplies aboard. That meant canned vegetables, canned fruit, and all sorts of other long-lasting provisions. Basically, anything that could survive weeks or months in a sailboat pantry. We also bought four soccer balls, sizes three and five, to bring to children on some of the islands we would visit in the future. After our experiences meeting local families and children throughout the Pacific, we thought these would be wonderful little gifts to have aboard. With our first round of shopping finished, we hauled everything back to Tauha. But we weren't done yet.

The Never-Ending Provisioning Marathon

Our second shopping trip took us to even more places. A distillery, a butcher, an ice cream shop, and a hardware store were all on the agenda. Quite the combination! By the time we had finished, I was completely exhausted. The air in the shops was hot and stagnant, the sun outside was burning down, and the tropical heat was really getting to me. On top of that, I had injured my foot, which wasn't exactly making all the walking around any more enjoyable. By the time we finally returned to Tauha, I was done. Completely done. Apart from having dinner, I didn't accomplish much else that evening before heading straight to bed.

Alex, meanwhile, was still going strong. While I was already sleeping, he managed to sort through all the canned goods we had taken out of the pantry that morning, combine them with our newly purchased provisions, and organize everything back into its proper storage space. A task that sounds simple until you realize just how many cans and hidden compartments we have aboard. Fantastic! And very much appreciated.

What's Next?

Today, our plan is to finish the last few jobs before continuing our journey. First on the list is refueling Tauha, getting to the fruit and vegetable market and, hopefully, finding somewhere to fill up our water tanks. After that, we are planning to move on to another little island as we continue making our way through the Solomon Islands. And who knows? Maybe we'll even manage to squeeze in another delicious breakfast ashore before leaving. After all, who can resist a good melon-cucumber juice? Our time in the Solomon Islands is already proving to be an interesting mix of remote island adventures, unexpected wildlife encounters, never-ending boat repairs, and the occasional return to civilization. And there is still plenty of sailing ahead of us.

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