We’ve just spent two days anchored off Gizo, one of the bigger towns of the Solomons, but it’s really just a village. The anchorage would be rough in trade wind conditions, but it was nicely calm and protected in NW winds (when we were there).
Gizo has the mouldy charm of one of the less charming Caribbean islands with (corroded) corrogated iron everywhere, muddy streets (okay, it was raining when we were there, so sunny skies might lift the charm level a bit) and little Chinese shop with a rather underwhelming range of goods. We stocked up on basics though as well as petrol and kerosene and this time we managed without lugging bags around: the town is really catering to the local boats, so almost every shop has a dock and we could just do our shopping, leave bags and jerry cans at the different locations and then go and pick them up by dinghy!
2025
19
Apr
Shopping in Gizo
2025
12
Apr
Bleached, dying, dead
Have you ever cried into a diving mask? I did today when we were snorkeling on the reef off Vella Lavella (Solomon Islands). We had visited the village of Leona before and were thrilled to hear that they are thinking of the future and have been protecting their reef for 20 years(!) with no-fishing zones. Additionally they have now created a conservation area in the mountains above the village to save the biodiversity of the primary forest and prevent logging (and as a result erosion that creates sediment and harms coral).
So we went snorkeling in their Marine Protected Area and really, the reef is full of fish! But we were horrified to see that about 95% of the corals are either dead or dying. The thermometer on the camera showed between 31.4 and 31.8°C on the surface and even down at 6 metres. It seems that the location on the W side of Vella Lavella away from currents and in the wind shade of the island means that it’s warmer here than e.g. the Bougainville Strait with its constant current. The hardiest coral cannot survive such temperatures. The villagers are doing everything right, but global warming is ruining all their efforts. At least the many herbivore fish on the reef will keep the surfaces clean so corals can recover and new recruits hopefully settle IF conditions get better–which seems unlikely when I look at the news and see Trump boosting Big Oil, the EU taking back climate regulations and everybody around the world focused on wars and tariffs and their own wallet.
Our ever-growing greed for profit and luxury is ruining the planet with all the emissions its industry and transport produce. The earth is getting hotter and reefs are dying everywhere. And that’s not just a problem for the little fishies who are losing their home and shelter and some villagers who won’t be able to fish. It’s not about spoiled tourists like us who won’t be able to enjoy colourful underwater landscapes anymore.
Reefs provide food for huge coastal populations and act as natural barriers, protecting coastlines from the devastating impacts of storms and waves. “So what?, you may say. “I live far from the shore, I don’t care.” But do you eat fish? Despite covering less than 1% of the ocean floor, coral reefs support 25% of all marine species and act as breeding grounds and nurseries for others–half of the commercially fished species depend at least in one stage of their lives on reefs!
But even if you don’t like fish, you should still care about reefs: The process of calcification, during which coral polyps extract calcium carbonate from the water to build their skeletons, helps sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. They also protect in-shore habitats like seagrass meadows and mangroves, which absorb carbon dioxide from our atmosphere and store it up to 50 times more efficiently than terrestrial forests.
Wake up, people! The reefs are getting heated to death due to global warming, it’s our fault and we’re all affected.
Plenty of fish that are not scared of divers, the no-fishing-zone is clearly respected around Omauva Island.
Where will all the little fish hide once the coral’s gone?
Even deeper down bleached staghorn and dead softcoral that looks like overboiled cauliflower…
Parts of the tablecoral are badly bleached, the rest is already dead
All types of corals are affected
Just a skeleton left
At first glance the pastel colours look nice, but it’s a form of bleaching
Big swarms of fish thanks to the villager’s conservation efforts…
2025
08
Apr
Some impressions from the islands in the Bougainville Strait
Bougainville Strait, Solomons
The islands belong to the Solomons, but lie closer to Bougainville. White sandy beaches, aquarium-like reefs, some uninhabited islands in the north, small, friendly villages on Fauro island. The currents make navigation tricky and anchoring is difficult as the water is deep almost all the way to the reef or beach, but the beauty of the place makes it worth it.
(38 photos)
2025
29
Mar
Logging in the Solomons
In Taro we saw a big freighter loading logs and asked the guys at customs and immigration about it: they said that logging was done on a big scale by Malayan companies. Asked about regulations for reforestation they just sadly smiled and shook their heads–theoretically maybe, but neither the logging companies nor the land owners actually replant trees. So lush rain forest is turned into bushland, rain erodes the exposed land and washes away the fertile soil which then ends in the sea as sediment and suffocates the coral. Really sad.
Doing research I found the “Solomon Islands Timber Trade Portal” where hardwood types and export destinations are listed. “Solomon Islands timbers are popular on the New Zealand and Australian markets. This is expected to remain so as long as perceptions surrounding issues sustainability and legality are unambiguous.” Think, before you buy. Do you really need teak on deck? Do you really need fancy exotic garden chairs??
Planning routes and anchorages I compare satellite images of different sources. They were sometimes taken with a year or two in between – quite an eye opener to compare ArcGis Images with Google Images. The examples below are from Fauro Island in the Shortland Group of the Solomon Islands (between Choiseul and Bougainville).
Google still shows rainforest
ArcGis shows the destruction done within a short time
2025
27
Mar
Arrived in the Solomon Islands!
We’ve checked in at Taro Island–quick, simple and very pleasant! We contacted customs and immigration ahead (aleonard@customs.gov.sb, samson.korai@commerce.gov.sb), they sent a form each to fill in before arrival. Once we got there we wrote to them again, went to the police station where Alex and Samson checked us in, so no running around searching for offices… We paid 500 SBD fees and were glad to have exchanged currency in Vanuatu as there’s no ATM in Taro. Peter from biosecurity came aboard, but just quickly filled in a form. What a friendly welcome to the Solomons!
Taro has a daily veg market, plenty of minimarkets, but no supermarket. They have rubbish bins and a garbage truck, but when we saw the open garbage disposal next to the airfield (What happens with the rubbish? Nothing, it’s just left there…) we decided to hold on to our rubbish bags for now.
Beetelnut stands everywhere, so the smiles here are bright red like in PNG
Rubbish is a big problem
It’s collected
But then deposited in an open dump next to the airport, so we decided not to add to this pile…
2025
26
Mar
2025
20
Mar
Sailing Towards the Horizon as pdf
Are you interested in reading my travelbook, but haven’t ordered one yet as you don’t want to support Amazon? I’ve now converted it into a pdf, scaled it down to a reasonable size (50 MB) and I’m happy to send it as a WeTransfer. The paperback costs 17 euros on Amazon (btw I only get 5 per book), but I thought I’d offer the pdf for 9,90 which is the price of the e-book
Send me an email, if you’re interested!
2025
15
Mar
No NW monsoon over PNG
Remember our plan to sail up from Vanuatu to the north of PNG using the SE trades in order to arrive before December when the wind collapses and then sail back from northern PNG to the Solomons using the NW monsoon that’s supposed to blow over PNG from December to March?
Well, that didn’t work out: the winds got very light (but predominantly east) in December and January, so we never made it to the Hermit and Ninigo Islands in the NW corner of PNG, but stayed in the Kavieng area instead. Since then we had mainly light NE to E in February and March. We had one brief episode of northerly winds and that was only because cyclone Alfred went down the Australian coast and influenced the wind patterns all the way up to PNG–we used those winds to hop from Kavieng eastwards.
We thought that we were seeing an effect of La Nina, but locals assure us that the Northwest wind that used to bring cooler weather and rain has not arrived for at least 2 years! The water tanks on many islands were nearly empty in February, another negative side effect of climate change that hits the people here…
So this is what the wind statistics show for March (see Pitufa’s wind atlas)
This is what we actually have
And that was when Alfred went down the eastern coast of Australia
What makes sailing east additionally difficult is a strong west-setting current
2025
15
Mar
Pics of another pretty island group in Papua New Guinea
Pics of Eloaua lagoon, St. Matthias Group, Papua New Guinea
Eloaua and Emananus have a shallow lagoon that lies just 90 nm northwest of Kavieng, but hardly any boats make it there. It's a pretty, protected anchorage with great coral outside the lagoon and groups of mantas inside. The locals are friendly, happy to tell stories (PNG for chatting) and eager to trade as supply ships don't call there. We had a steady stream of canoes visiting us!
(28 photos)
2025
06
Mar
6 months of Smurfy and we’re still struggling
Smurfy’s the most stubborn person I’ve ever met (of any species and that includes my own pighead), fiercely independent and rebellious–not ideal features of a ship’s cat. None of the cats we’ve had before prepared us for this struggle… Sometimes we’re close to giving up, but then he shows his adorable, dotted belly and we’re melting again.
Sometimes we suspect that he’s not quite sane…
These canines can do quite some damage
“Smurfy, get off the solar panel, you’ll fall into the water again…” “Go f yourself!!”
2025
06
Mar
Pitufino at the boat show in Tulln
Our WiFi gateway Pitufino can be viewed and tried out at the Austrian boat show in Tulln! Of course there’s also a discount of 10%, not just for those shopping at the boat show, but also for everything ordered from the online store–just this week and next week!
2025
03
Mar
Giant giant clams!!
Giant clams rarely get to grow to a size that merits this name. All across the Pacific we hardly ever saw specimen larger than a hand as they are considered too tasty to be left on the reef by locals (and cruisers). Here in PNG we see giants of a meter or more all over the place! Often they are considered a last food reserve for tough times (e.g. severe weather that doesn’t allow going out to fish) and are therefore left to grow. Seventh Day Adventists don’t eat them at all, which explains the large numbers and sizes around e.g. Musau island where only 7th day adventists live. Amazing creatures!
Christian demonstrating on this deceased clam why they are called “murderer clams” in German: they allegedly grabbed the arm or foot (or in this case bum) of a diver and wouldn’t let go until he drowned.
Just like on coral their vibrant colours are due to symbiotic algae and therefore they can bleach and die just like coral when the water gets too hot. Note the white, bleached parts on this one:
2025
21
Feb
Even heat-resilient coral dies in 32°C
Seeing healthy coral in waters around and even above 31°C around many islands in PNG gave us hope that coral might be able to adapt to rising temperatures. In French Poly and Fiji we saw horrible bleaching events at 30°C already, but the coral near the equator that is used to all-year-round hot water seemed to cope. But then around the northern islands of New Hanover we started seeing 32°Cand above (not just on the surface but down to 5 m depth)–and that’s when even the hardiest coral give up. Soft coral that looks like overcooked cauliflower, anemones like lifeless, white spaghetti with desperate clown fishies trying to hide in their dying home, delicate staghorn bleached to light-blue and white that won’t give shelter to little fish once it’s dead and overgrown and even big boulders of hardy porites stone-coral going pastel-coloured and white instead of a healthy brown and green.
Such stressed reefs rely even more than healthy ones on large numbers of herbivore fish to keep algae from overgrowing damaged coral and to give them a chance to recover and regrow. Many communities here in Papua New Guinea are installing no-fishing-zones, which helps the reefs immensely in such tough times. We are looking for any environmental groups willing to encourage such efforts and to help with funding. If you have any ideas or contacts, please write to us!
We have documented and photographed several Marine Protected areas and would love to share the insights with NGOs.
2025
19
Feb
Photos of Takuu Island, Papua New Guinea
Takuu Atoll, Papua New Guinea
Takuu is one of the remotest atolls of PNG, about 400 islanders of Polynesian descent live there in a rather crowded, dense little village. Another motu is their dedicated garden island and the others are left uninhabited. A pretty place with healthy reefs, seabird motu and incredibly welcoming people! Erosion is gnawing on the shores and the islanders fight it with seawalls, hoping that they will be able to stay on their homeland for a while longer despite the rising sea levels.
(56 photos)
2025
17
Feb
Canning fish
Big fishing fleets empty the Pacific, but we still troll a simple handline whenever we sail between islands and sometimes we get lucky! On the last sail we caught a jack while still in the lagoon–perfect size and timing and Christian quickly cleaned it with Smurfy eagerly watching and waiting for the first bite of sashimi… When we were in the middle of the passage and pitching in rough seas, the line stretched out again: we use a 30 m long, thick line with a metal leader and the yoyo is attached to a bungee cord that stretches out to take the impact when a fish bites. This time it was something much bigger. We reefed the genoa in a little bit to reduce speed from 5 to 4 knots, Christian rolled up the yoyo and yanked the fish over Pitufa’s high stern and into our multi-purpose bucket. A quick moment of panic: Is it a barracuda? Then we’d have to quickly throw him back as we don’t want to risk ciguatera poisoning. No, it’s a wahoo or something similar! A quick pic to identify the species later…(Turns out we caught a king mackerel).
Murdering and cleaning a big fish in rough seas on the rocking and rolling stern isn’t fun and Christian was holding on with one hand, holding the bucket with the second, cutting fish with the third while I did my best to keep Smurfy’s paws out of the bloody mess. As we didn’t have enough space in the fridge to simply put all steaks in and process them later on, I had to get to work in the galley immediately. Some drops of stugeron to fight sea sickness in the hot, sweaty, wildly rocking galley, then I skinned the fish, cut out all bones and red meat and put as much as we 3 can eat within a week into a plastic container and into the evaporator. All that’s not sashimi quality is cut into pieces and stuffed into jars. A squirt of soy sauce, the rest filled up with water, lids on and then the jars go into the pressure cooker for 1 hour (steaming up the cabin to sauna temperatures with the hatches closed underway). As we don’t have a freezer this is the best way to keep fish for later–the preserves stay good for months! Lots of work, but worth it.