Pastime leaves Santa Ana Island
Will and Charlie were the main explorers on Santa Ana. They walked to the other side and saw the Custom House with skulls and bones going back over 500yrs and preserved war canoes. On the way back, they visited the internal lake which is very picturesque. They had a guide, which was just as well because they returned to the boat well after dark. Fortunately, they had real fireflies to guide them as well. The Santa Ana Bay is very beautiful and this was enhanced at both sunrise and sunset by the 15 to 25 canoes out fishing around the reef entrance. In the end, it was time to leave and we set sail for "Wango Bay" on the East side of Makira. This was not the original plan as Will was going to fly back to Australia from Makira. With the Customs/Immigration issues, we now had to make it to Honiara within the same time frame. We had an excellent day sail, running through the 65NM well before sunset. This was despite a late start caused when one of the villagers failed to return some loan DVDs at sunrise. Will and Charlie rushed ashore at the last moment and found a friend to wake up the person responsible. So, we got the DVDs back. They had been for a fund raising event the night before but unfortunately, their DVD player went on the blink. This is the fate of much modern electronics in the tropics. On a more positive note, our digital camera is fixed. The problem was perspiration which soaked the case and got into the buttons at the top of the camera. Washing/drying the case and a light mist of WD40 on the buttons fixed things. The satellite phone we are trialling is also working better and we have all made a number of calls and even spent a few minutes on the Internet. It seems to be getting better the further West we go. A few days ago, we had a dolphin display with a difference. We encountered a pod of the smallest dolphins we have ever seen. They leaped and played like other dolphins but were no more than a quarter the size we are used to. The CREW
