20130310 AT SEA IN THE SOLOMON ISLANDS

20130310 AT SEA IN THE SOLOMON ISLANDS

We were glad to get up and head for an early coffee since the middle of the ship is not rocking and banging so much in the middle - even the continental breakfast was moved down to deck 4 in the Leda Lounge from its' usual location on deck 6 at the front in the Galaxy Lounge due to the weather, and the Stretch class at 730am with Eva was aso cancelled due to the weather. We were thrilled to look out of our stateroom window and see a sky that had some blue in it - the clouds appear to be breaking up! Sunrise was at 5:59am this morning and perhaps we will see some sunshine today!

HISTORY
So even though we can't see any land at all at the moment, here's some history of the Solomon Islands. It was around 30,000 BC when the first settlers arrived, the Pupuan speaking, followed around 4,000 BC by the Austronesia speakers who also brought with them the outrigger canoe. The Lapita people arrived from the Bismarck Archipelago between 800 and 1200 BC and were ancestors of the Polynesians - also bringing ceramics. The first European explorer was in 1568, Spanish Navigator Alvaro de Mendana de Neira, the nephew of the Viceroy of Peru who sailed West in search of the legendary Terra Australis. There was little interest in his fidings, until Mendana gave the islands the name of the Solomons and it was supposed that King Solomon had obtained the gold from here with which he had adorned the temple at Jerusalem.

The reports of the gold wealth initiated a second expedition to the Solomon Islands by Mendana in 1595 and several island groups were "discovered" this time including the Marquesas Islands which Mandana named in honour of the wife of Garcia de Mendoza the Marquis de Canete, who was Viceroy of Peru at the time. Mendana died during this voyage and delegated his authority to his wife Isabel Barreto who took charge and led the fleet into Manila, Spain in February 1956 and has become known as the only Lady Admiral of the Ocean Seas to ever command the Spanish Navy!

The first missionaries arrived in the middle of the 19th century, but made little headway because of the existing labor trade known as "blackbirding" the brutal recruitment of laborers to work on the sugar plantations in Queensland and Fiji. This led to reprisals and massacres. In 1893 the UK declared a protectorate over the Southern Solomon Islands which was the basis for the British Solomon Islands Protectorate. More islands were added in 1898 and 1899 and in return for British withdrawal from Western Samoa, the remainder of the archipelago was added in 1900, with the exception of Buka and Bougainville islands which remained under German Administration as part of New Guinea - until 1914 when they were occupied by Australia after the commencement of World War I, and in 1920 were placed under Australian mandate by the League of Nations.

Under the protectorate, missionaries settled and most of the Solomons converted to Christianity. Large scale coconut planting was started in the early 20th century by the Australians and British, and still exists today, but economic growth has been very slow and the islanders benefitted little. Cocoa beans, coconuts, palm kernels, rice potatoes, vegetables and fruit are grown, and industry is limited to fish processing, mining, and lumbering (forestry). So talking about colonization, we have had the Spanish, Germans, British and Australians in the Solomon Islands so far. Most inhabitants are of Melanesian decent although some Polynesians live in the outlying atolls. English is the official language although the lingua franca is the pidgin language, and there are about 120 indigenous languages in all.

So we were very sorry to have missed Utupua island due to cyclone Sandy, because it was Polynesian based and quite different to some of the islands. But this morning we continued on our northwest course getting out of the way of Cyclone Sandra which is still heading more East than South East so we are having to work hard to get away from it. Breakfast was downstairs in the Constellation DiningRoom - much too wet and windy outside at the Delphinis Cafe. We did go outside at the front on deck 6 to take a look at the huge splashes being sent up as the bow crashed into the 5 metre swells. I had jst turned round to walk back towards the door - Terry was facing me and yelled "watch ot" and I was immediately soaked from head to foot by a huge bow wave that came all the wy up to deck 6, the top deck, and the deck that we were walking on! Fortunately I did have the camera in front of me and away from the wave behind me, so a few drops of water on it but mostly it stayed dry, which is more than can be said for my clothes!

A quick change was in order since we were on our way to the theatre to listen to David talk about the coral reefs and ecology - all really very depressing when you realise how all of our oceans have just about been fished out. By the time we came out of the 2 hour lecture , we came out into bright hot sunshine! We had arrived at the back of Santa Ana Island which is where the itinerary was to spend the day tomorrow, but of course we had missed Utupua Island so were here a day early. It was wonderful to be in calmer waters on the Eastern side of the island away from the wind and seas rushing at us from the West, however, Mick Fogg Expedition Leader then called us all into the Leda Lounge!

They had tried to anchor the Orion but it it is too deep for anchoring and the current was running at 4 knots so the ship could not just hang out in this spot. So we will NOT be visiting Santa Ana, the second spot on our itinerary that we are going to miss, so this is now very disappointing. But the Captain has to have safety as his first priority so we are continuing our cruise North to the next stop on our itinerary which will be Nggella in the Solomon Islands - so we continued cruising, enjoying lunch in the sun on the back deck Delphinus Cafe watching the islands pass by. By 2pm we were out from behind the islands and hitting good swells again and loud bangs from the bow of the ship when in our cabin.

Santa Ana,where we did NOT embark today, is also known as Owa Rafa or Owa Raha - a small fertile island which is a raised coral atoll. We should have anchored at Mary's Bay on the West side but of course could not because of the wind and weather. Santa Ana is known for its' carved wooden bowls which are shaped like sharks. The locals here physically resemble Melanesians but their culture has some Polynesian features - the mixing bowl of the South Pacific



Cheers ..... Jan Umbach
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