After one month in and around Munda, it was time to set sail for Honiara. The reason being that the main base of YWAM is there, and we wanted to celebrate and invite people into the vision of the Vaka Hop’e. Mark and Mary with their 4 children had just returned from a furlough in Switzerland and our good friend Hinrich from Yachts For Life Fiji had decided to come over to celebrate with us. Another reason for sailing across is that Naomi is leaving on the 29th of July. She is going to help some Canadian friends and decompress after a long season on the Vaka Hop’e before returning to Denmark where I will catch up with her in October.
For this voyage we needed a new crew, besides me and Naomi. Paul has left and Sammy is having a break. Francis from Malaita is an eager sailor and fisherman, and happily joins us. The second person was supposed to be Patrick, a local from Munda, but he ended up stuck in Honiara and we needed a last minute replacement. Luckily plans tend to change here in the Solomon Islands and it wasn’t hard for Matthew, the brother of Billy, to join us for a couple of weeks, last minute.
The ferry service between Western Province and Honiara is painfully slow and takes one and a half day, so I was surprised when I planned the passage and found it would take us five days! We had some wind against us, but it didn’t look like it was going to improve. We would just have to brave the elements and do our best. Turned out we went to Honiara in the last possible weather window for the next three weeks. The trade winds are blowing stronger in the Solomon Islands this year than normal. The winds constantly blowing over 20 knots from SE. Our direction of travel: south east…
Our first few days of traveling was relatively uneventful. We had decent weather and even got some spinnaker sailing in once we entered Marovo lagoon. But exiting Marovo lagoon proved to be more difficult. We were tacking against the wind and dodging reefs on our second day inside the the lagoon, and the weather forecast upon exiting into open waters didn’t look promising. 20+knots blowing straight against us. It was forecasted to abate over night and we decided to have a rest day before heading out in the evening. I honestly don’t know what the conditions were on that rest day, because we had beautiful weather where we were. But once we set off into open waters that evening, the winds started blowing.
The conditions were manageable to begin with, having a nice F4 breeze to tack into. Soon the wind became favorable for us to motorsail on close reach straight to our destination. The waves though were big from the big system under us and we were scaling and descending 3 meter short period swells. At 10 PM the conditions were supposed to improve, but if anything they became worse. The wind came straight against us and we had to start tacking into it, again motorsailing. I hadn’t had a break since we set off as the conditions were so rough, and when it was my turn at the helm again, at 11 PM, I realized just how rough it was. It is easier to sit on higher ground (on top of the kitchen box) and not have to battle with the helm. The waves started coming in from NE as well, creating a nasty cross sea. We reduced sails but still the conditions were rough and soaking wet in the cockpit.
I must give credit to my crew. Francis and Matthew have never before done any sailing and they both acted like champions. But the biggest champion was Naomi in how she dealt with the elements. I think she was the reason the two boys were acting so tough, looking at how well Naomi did. I must admit that I was not doing great. We were on the limit of what I thought was manageable and I felt uncomfortable. In the end, after we had scaled a 5 meter steep wave face, I decided enough was enough and took down all the sails. From here on we were motoring straight to our destination, with the poor 9.9 hp giving us 2-3 knots of speed. I was seasick and had to feed the crabs, but felt better afterwards. All the pent up stress got released.
After that long and arduous night you would think that we would take a nice break at the first opportunity, but no. We arrived at the Russell Islands in the morning and instead of stopping for a break, we decided to continue. Our experience from PNG is that “taking a break” by a village often is way more exhausting than continuing to sail. In the protected waters in Russell we again started to motorsail and tacking between the reefs and islands. We ended up in the wind shade behind Guadalcanal and motored across into the night. Finally, after a 30 hours sail we were able to anchor and get some rest.
It’s good that we continued straight to Guadalcanal, because the next day was the day we had planned on arriving in Honiara. We started early and I sat on the helm for nearly 4 hours while the others slept. A little after midday we arrived at the beach close to the YWAM base and we decided to go all the way up to the beach. The YWAM gang was waiting for us on the seashore, whilst Hinrich was wading into the water together with the kids to welcome us. It was a beautiful reunion with old friends and people who know the dedication and sacrifice we have made to make it this far. More than a few tears were shed and many more smiles and laughter as well. Everyone came onboard to see where we had been living for the past four and a half months.
It felt like I had come full circle. This is where the journey towards Vaka Hop’e had begun more than four years earlier. We were specifically talking about the Tama Moana design as our dream boat, and now we have one. I was very proud and happy to have accomplished the voyage and for staying faithful to the calling that God gave me all those years ago. I don’t know how it will continue from here, but I trust that God has a plan that goes beyond what I can imagine. I continue to remind myself and the people around me that this is not my boat, but it belongs to YWAM Solomons.