We anchored in 13m in a sweet little spot on the northern side of Nendo—apparently the first boat to visit in five years.
Coordinates – 10 deg 40.363 S, 165 deg 52.053 E
The reef passage into the anchorage is best negotiated at low tide with direct sunlight so you can see the reef on both sides. This a great place to fill up with water as there’s a hose in the shallows which you can take your dingy up to. They’d love to get some more visitors!
Highlights
- The voyage from Bottom Bay in Lata to Manyano with Titus and his family, as well as their entire house. (They were moving back to his wife’s Margarets village and thought Confederate would be a good moving van)
- A nice tuna caught just outside the reef near the anchorage.
- A 4 mile walk through vivid green jungle to Margaret’s village. The track is really nice and you could walk all the way around the island if you wanted although it would take you about a week.
- Kids paddling out to us and capsizing their dugout canoes to form a swimming platform.
- Using Confederate as a diving platform with some of the local kids.
- Visiting the school where Margaret will be teaching kindy.
- The helpful tour guides that appeared whenever we wanted to go walking. Sarah, a local lady who joined me one day had minimal English. At one point she pulled at my hat and I thought I had something in my hair. I paused nervously waiting for her to drag out a massive spider or something similar. However it turned out she was merely inserting a small plant clipping that new visitors to an area are supposed to wear for protection.
- Frequent visits from the local chatterbox, Tusi, ending in us taking him out for his first day sailing experience.
- 12pm Crayfish delivery from Thomas and Florence.
- As an aside we have hardly had to buy anything so far in the Solomons. We’ve traded everything imaginable. Today it was couple of old magazines for a dozen sweet potato, bananas and papaya, and a local surf guide. Not bad. In Lata, a memory stick of movies we gave Charles earned us sweet potato, limes, oranges, lemon leaf (for tea), and lettuce. Exercise books have been a hit with the kids who bring us coconut, cucumber, and guava in exchange. Possibly our worst trade has been guitar strings for beans, but that guy was super nice.
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