Bolitei Village
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pos
2015-07-28 Once out of the
shelter of the
island we encounter 30 knot winds and a terrifically confused
ocean swell
rising to three metres and tossing us about most uncomfortably.
Boat speed drops
down to less than 2 knots which will just prolongs the agony. To add to this it goes from
overcast to
serious rain, but we can’t retreat into the shelter of the
wheelhouse because
of the reefs situation, not that you can see much. Approaching our destination
we start to
turn through the reefs and this has the effect of bringing the
wind to around
20 degrees off the bow. We try a hard sheeted, well reefed genoa
and suddenly
our speed starts to pick up, we’re doing up to 7 knots and the
ship is much
steadier as we plough into the seas sending greenies across the
deck as the bow
dips into the troughs. The spindrift from our bow wave making
things a little
damp at the helm. At last we turn in amongst
the small
mangrove covered islands working our way through the channels
with a constant
look out for reefs. The water now much flatter and the wind
reduced in their
shelter. The water shallows to 12 metres and we spot a large
village nearby and
according to our chart we should also see several large rivers
but the coast
line is one continuous line of mangroves. Continuing into the bay near
where we think
the river enters the depth shrinks to 4 metres we drop anchor
into the muddy
bottom for the night, crocodile heaven by the look of it!
Despite this we dive
in to cool off a bit as the water temperature is not a lot less
than the air. A lone canoeist is spotted
heading our way
and what a surprise it’s a pretty young girl. As we chat to 17
year old Edna
another canoe with three young boys approach but keep their
distance. “They
haven’t seen white people before,” says Edna.
We ask her to tell them that we won’t eat them and we
have jar full of
lollipops. Soon another gang take
courage and all
clamber aboard the sugarscoop as Shan dishes out the lollipops
and Edna
introduces everybody. She goes to secondary school in Honiara
and has seen
plenty of whites including some of her teachers who are from
Australia and New
Zealand. Suddenly at around 6 she
announces they all
have to go to attend church and with an invitation to visit her
and her village
tomorrow off they paddle lollies firmly in place in their
bulging cheeks. Bob the Blog |