Delos Down Unda- By Brian

Delos catches our last fish leaving the Solomons and pays tribute with Beiber Fever!

We left Ghizo, Solomon Islands with a forecast for light and variable winds and were prepared to motor for a day or so looking for breeze.  Fortunately the passage gods smiled and gave us 5-10 knots right out of the reef.  This built to 15-20 and stayed with us for the entire passage  giving us one of the best sails we’ve ever had!  Just days and days of constant, beautiful beam reaching.  And Delos really loves a good beam reach with the big jib unfurled and both main and mizzen pulling nicely.  The seas were calm and the weather fair.  This is the stuff you see in the movies.  Just a sailboat alone in a great big blue ocean gracefully cutting through the seas.  We had planned on a 6 day passage to cover the 850 miles between Solomon Islands and Cairns, Australia but arrived in just over 4.5 days.  There were days on end where the knot meter didn’t dip under 8 knots, and often hovered around 9 for hours at a time.  Doing 200 mile days in a sailboat is pretty fricking cool! 

Customs and Quarantine officials were super nice and cleared us within minutes of arriving.  By 11:30 we were playing the didgeridoo and by noon we were at McDonalds.  Arriving in a new port is always exciting but getting to Australia is a MAJOR milestone for us.  It’s taken 2.5 years and nearly 20,000NM of sailing to get here. 

Playing the Didgeridoo.

Too much Macca’s!

Naturally when you spend time in the islands you get acquainted with the simple lives of the local people.  The biggest, nicest towns in the islands pale in comparison to even a small city in a place like Australia.  We walked around in a dazed state for a while mesmerized by the things that most people take for granted.  There were sidewalks, water fountains, swimming pools, and huge buildings full of shiny things.  Amazing stores stocked with every kind of cheese, vegetable, and meat one could wish for.  We spent at least an hour wondering through Woolworth’s before settling on a bag of avocadoes, cream cheese, and some baguette.  Yummy!

Amazing shiny things mesmerized us all.

Look at those fresh tomatoes!

So far we’ve:

1) Eaten at McDonald’s 6 times and now feel sick.  Pretty sure that’s out of our system.

2) Saw Paranormal Activity 3 at the theater.  No, it’s not related to PA 1&2.  J\K!

3) Partied with backpackers at Gilligan’s and The Woolshed.  And had way too much to drink both times.  Felt sick and needed to eat McDonald’s to absorb the alcohol.  Didn’t work. Josje did win a wet t-shirt contest though so that was cool.

5) Fixed our bike that’s been rusting away in the back locker for 7 months and broke it in the same day.

6) Spent countless lazy days lounging at the pool and BBQing at the park watching Zumba in the background.

7) Did our best to fill our bodies up with fresh milk and real juice, neither of which came from a powder!

8) Visited the home brew shop to stock up on beer making supplies.

9) Checked out this internet thing.  Got bored with it pretty quick!

10) Found out that Moevember is in full swing and Aussie’s take it really seriously.  Spent some time on our gnarly facial hair to fit in.

 

Stage 1- Full Bearded Sailors

 

Stage 2- Working our way towards stache perfection!

 

Stage 3- Watch out Moevember here we come!

G'Day Mate! - By Brady

Delos is currently 640 miles from Cairns, Australia! She is sailing at an impressive 7.5 knots with 17 knots of breeze on the beam. At this rate we should make landfall sometime on Monday! We said farewell to the Solomon Islands yesterday morning and the islands gave us one last parting gift, a 4 foot Kingfish. The meat is white and delicious, similar to a Wahoo so we are stoked. The sailing has been perfect so far. Beautiful blue skies that fade into a bright moon, little swell and steady wind. We are 3 degrees further south then our most northern point in the Solomons and can feel them temperature slightly dropping. It is a welcome relief from the average temperature we saw of 100+ F. The vibe on Delos is bitter-sweet. We are all so ready to be in civilization but sad to leave our private paradise behind.

The past 6 months have a been a blur filled with: Crying children because we were the first white people they had ever seen, partying too hard with European backpackers, climbing live volcanoes, hanging out with cults, being adopted by a local tribe (of which Brian is the honorary chief), drinking the strongest kava known to man, diving some of the best dive sites in the world, WWII history, thieves, days so damn hot you can't move, and too many fish to count. Thanks to everyone we met along the way, see you next time...

Australia is a huge milestone for Delos. It has been almost 2 years and 10,000 miles since I hopped aboard in Mexico. Originally I was only supposed to be on for a month or so. As you can see that didn't happen at all. The great times have flown by and i'm finding it hard to wrap my head around actually being in Oz. This is where I have wanted to live since I was 7 and now it has seemed to all fall into place. I'm sure it will all sink in when we step ashore on the land of bloomin' onions, Fosters, baby eating dingos, and boxing kangaroos. Below are some of the things we have been talking about the past 6 months that we can't wait to enjoy. I'm sure most of you take these things for granted...

1. Eat at McDonalds and every other greasy, unhealthy fast food joint we can. If only they had a Taco Bell and Papa Johns.
2. Buy and eat an avacado
3. Drink the hell out of REAL juice and REAL Milk. No more of this powder shit, although if you take a spoon full of powder milk and a spoon full of sugar it becomes a hell of a party in your mouth.
4. Speak english with other white people. No thats not a racist comment..
5. Eat the biggest plate of Nachos we can find.
6. Rent a hotel room so we can take 3 hour showers and not worry about running out of water.
7. Go to a supermarket, not to buy things but to wander around and look at the selection.
8. Go to a movie theater and get sick off of cold coke and buttery pop-corn.
9. White women, No thats not racist either...
10. Fast, free, unlimited Wi-Fi....

This Is My Life- by Josje

Chilling out in the Toa Maru, a Japanese Freighter.

Beneath the surface there is more, much more than I ever thought there could be. This rule applies to most things in our world; there is always more than meets the eye. 

We live on what seems like a tiny insignificant spec of a sailboat compared to what is out there when you look into the horizon. There's nothing like sitting up on the bow while sailing and no matter how far the chart says you’ve gone, it seems as though you haven’t moved an inch. Its like the water never ends, we sail forward, but there is always more water to fill the view. Its actually really magical, I love the feeling and rush of grateful emotions every time I sit up on that bow. It feels so raw. So simple. Just me, on this boat, sailing around this ocean. Where the sky is free to touch the horizon all around, dotted by the occasional islands here and there. And its always lit up by such vivid beautiful colours, streamed with clouds that seem to go on forever.

This view is one of the best but the crazy thing is, its all above the surface. It’s a whole different story when you descend down below.

It was a little over 4 months ago when I took my first breath underwater. And a little before that, I remember being in Fiji, sitting on the deck of Delos, in the middle of hair braiding and other pirate gypsy activities that Brady asked me if I knew how to scuba dive. No, I didn’t even have a clue about the basics? Ok, you wanna learn? Of course! We had nowhere to be and nothing to do, why not. Within the next 45 minutes or so, Brady taught me the basics. He pretty much said that what most people learn in 3 days, I learnt in about an hour. How professional. It seemed pretty simple though; breathe through this reg, push this to inflate/deflate, this tells you how deep you are, blah blah. I just wanted to get down there and see what all the fuss was about! But it was ok, because I knew I was in safe hands, I felt confident (enough) and excited. 90 minutes after the initial question, we were off to the sand bar to learn. Feeling bombarded with information already, Paul tells me “Don’t forget to clear your ears” I hear Brian say “Oh yeah, crucial. Have fun Josjerama! You’ll love it”. And off to the sand bar we went, sitting on sand under 13 feet of water. Breathing.

4 months  of really, really amazing diving followed. World class dive sites that people pay thousands of dollars to come out here (the Solomons) and dive. And here I am, a little novice diver, with no money, diving straight off Delos for free, down into the wilderness of marine life, vibrant coral, WW2 wrecks, and the occasional Cruise Ship that ran onto the reef. Lets just say the Solomon islands is a very random and cool place. And as I hear, its got the best scuba diving in the world. Not that I can compare, but with 30meters of visibility, warm waters, pristine coral and WW2 wrecks, I’m not going to argue. I know that wherever I go, nothing will be able to compare to the diving here.

With each dive, I learnt a little more about the aspects of diving. Back in Fiji, starting with the basic drills. Then moving onto safe depths and decompression, safety stops, neutral buoyancy, how to make sense of the computer, using the compass and all else that follows in Vanuatu. Tongoa wall in Vanuatu was my 5th dive, and my first deep dive, where we went down to 115 feet. Once we reached our maximum depth, Brady kept signaling if I was OK and I  gave him the OK sign in return. It wasn’t until I looked at my computer that I realised that we were pretty deep.

Since then, about 20 dives have followed, including going down to 175 feet to see a Japanese troop carrier, where I first got narked. Now, that was fun. I started somersaulting over the masts of the fallen ship which now lie outwards parallel to the sea floor. The fish swam in a more interesting manner and Brady’s air bubbles seemed to feel amazingly spectacular as the glided up and passed my skin. There was an amazing bed of coral at 15 feet where we stopped for 3 minutes to do our safety stop. This was my first discovery of Christmas tree worms, so I spent the next 3 minutes flicking my hand inches away from the coral heads to see the little spiky colourful ‘Christmas trees’ contract and disappear. This was a fun dive. And to make it even better, we were greeted on the beach by a bunch of Kiwis who fed us with birthday cake and some classic old Solbrew beer.

But don’t get me wrong, every other dive has something equally as strange and amazing, but they’re also unique in their own manner. We found saki bottles and jap bullets in the Mavis sea plane, we dove down extinct lava tubes, sat in the cockpit of a B17 Bomber, did a gnarly drift dive, swam through broken portholes in a submarine and even leaped off sailing Delos with full gear on to dive down into an underwater cave, which takes you to an opening in the middle of the jungular island.

Getting ready for the leap

And we’re in the water swimming towards that little crack in the cliffs

Delos sails away

Exploring the Cave of the Kastom Shark

Dinghy full of Divers and Dive Gear

See, its things like this that makes me so happy I learnt how to dive, and so lucky that Delos has all the necessary equipment. Its made this whole experience even better than what's already above the surface. But for me, both feels so natural and half the exploring is underwater anyway.

Seriously, some of the reef dives that we do look like a movie set from finding Nemo or something. Its ridiculous! I never knew there was so much to see, to explore and to learn. And the wreck dives are even more incredible. At times it can be pretty intense, when you really take a step back and realise that these wrecks are some 70 years old, laying to rest at the bottom of the sea. When I’m diving, I often imagine what it would have been like to have flown one of the planes, or be working on board one of the ships. And to have been shot down in an intense struggle for survival. Or been bombed by the sly enemy hiding within the bush. And once you’ve been spotted and targeted its only a matter of time before your plane or vessel is sinking its way through the water, waiting for a thud to know its reached the sea floor. And now the stillness of those memories is what we explore.

When I look back on the past 4 months, we’ve had some pretty crazy times on Delos. Its just been day after day of new horizons and new adventures, it’s fucking great. We never plan where we go either, at least not until the day before or from word of mouth. We meet great people and sometimes they give us positions for their private island. Or we hear from the locals about all the secret kastom places, which often require a small kastom fee. And unlike other cruisers, we don’t wear shoes, which is a general sign that we are poor and have no money. We seem to glamour and sneak our way around these fees though, often trading the various clothes we have left, magazines, batteries, rusty drill bits and sometimes even used motor oil. And this is how we pay for our kastom fees, literally a heap of carvings and most fruit and veges. The fish don’t really have a choice of being caught and stuck in the grill so all in all, I say we’re doing excellent for the amount of money in our pockets compared to the stuff we’ve been up to.

Our ridiculous collection of carvings from Fiji, Vanuatu and the Solomons

In between all this, we still do manage to explore the many villages and islands. Like this skull shrine

And having a “lucky pot” dinner party with John and his Family from Roderick’s Bay

 

A relaxing day on the beach.

Chilling with some locals.

Exploring a very big cave full of bats. This cave was where Americans came to hide during WW2. We found some old tins bottles from that time.

Hanging out in the village.

Mary Poppins doing coral watch on the bow.

Unfortunately all this amazing world class diving, waking up and stepping off the boat into the crystal clear waters, no plans, beautiful sunshine, beautiful people, drinking beer and the occasional gold mining has to come to an end. We plan to spend another 2 weeks in and around Gizo, soaking up the last of the sun and the ocean of the Solomons before heading to Aussie land. Which in fact will be a whole different story, in a good way. Although I’m not so sure how our plans of trade for food, drinking and general adventurising will go in cities full of working, civilized people. Or so we think.. ? We are unsure of what the future holds but nevertheless, we are excited. Our enthusiasm will be through the roof when we rediscover real milk, juice that doesn’t come out of a packet, avocadoes, white people, buildings more than 2 stories high, the wonders of cars, bikes and trains, going out for dinner, going to the shop and buying anything we want, wearing clothing other than our bikinis or boardies, and McDonalds.

Not to say our simplistic and beautiful lifestyle will be greatly missed. But the most important thing is that we will all remember to take some of this life back with us.

 Heading out to Kennedy Island for a day of diving and beach lounging.

Playing football in the Russell Islands.

The American WWII Memorial in Honiara, Guadalcanel.

World Discoverer Cruise Liner wreck in the Florida Islands.

Japanese Mavis flying boat int he Florida Islands.

Delos anchored by the Florida Islands.

Yummy coconut drinks from our villager friends.

Paul's snot ball after our Manta pass dive.

Island where JFK swam to after his PT-109 was sunk.  Thus named Kennedy Island!

Inside the Toa Maru, a Japanese freighter bombed outside of Ghizo.

Double fisting Japanese Saki bottles.

Cargo hold of the Toa Maru littered with Saki bottles, bullets, and bombs!

Tools of the Trade- By Brian

 

Tools of the trade for a nighttime pirate watch.

If I had $1 for every time I’ve been asked “So, do you carry guns?”,  let’s just say I wouldn’t need to work when we arrive on Australian shores.  Seriously, I’ve been asked this question a lot over the past years.  And never, ever did the relevance sink in until recently.

Since leaving Seattle Delos has witnessed nothing but safe and hospitable locals.  In Mexico we enjoyed the warm friendly smiles of the coastal towns and villages, never mind the drug related beheadings that plague the border towns.  When we left the boat sometimes we’d close and lock the companionway door.  We lifted our dinghy out of the water at night to ward off would be engine thieves.  And we slept soundly.

In French Polynesia we felt so safe that we never locked Delos.  We never even bothered to close the door.  The deck was often littered with drying dive gear and the cockpit full of our I-pods.  Computers were left out and when we got a little lazy we wouldn’t lift up the dinghy.  We’d just tie on a second line to prevent it from “floating away.”  We slept soundly.

It was the same in the Cook Islands, Tonga, New Zealand, Fiji, and Vanuatu.   Although in New Zealand you had to keep your beer close or some thirsty Kiwi might “accidently” think it was theirs and guzzle it down.  We slept soundly.

And then we get to the Solomon Islands.  We heard the stories from other cruisers about the rough characters here. About ethnic tension between neighboring islands, namely Guadalcanal and Maliata.  After all there were a few slight problems (ok huge problems) in the country in 2000 where rival militias battled it out with stolen guns and full-on ethnic cleansing occurred.  The government was overthrown and this had a serious impact on tourists coming to the island nation.  They basically stopped coming altogether.  The economy was destroyed and their currency was devalued.  In fact someone told me yesterday that the Solomon’s only received about 3,500 tourists last year!  The Solomon’s are the second largest island nation in the Pacific.  Only Papua New Guinea is larger.  That’s 27,556 square km of land, 5,313 km of coastline, and 922 islands that get in total 3,500 visitors a year.  I think there are hotels in Vegas that hold more people than that.

The stories only served to excite us more.  Sounded like our kind of non-touristy place.  Plus, the diving is out of this world since some of the largest naval battles of WWII were fought right here.  You have Guadalcanal, The Slot, Iron Bottom Sound, and even the island where JFK swam to after his PT-109 was sunk.  Yep, there is a PT-109 bar and we plan to go there.  Ever read “The South Pacific” by James Michener or the seen the musical it inspired ?  It’s all right here.  How can you pass that up?

So we rocked into Honiara and parked right in front of the Point Cruz Yacht Club.  That night we heard stories from a boat recently returned from Tulagi Harbor in the Florida Islands (about 25 NM from Honiara).  They were the only boat there and it’s a husband and wife team.   They recounted a harrowing tale of being woken up in the middle of the night by men on their boat armed with machetes.  The men were on deck and not planning to leave anytime soon.  Our cruiser couple yelled and screamed out of the hatches and were rewarded with a machete stuck into the open hatch.  They were verbally threatened as the men attempted to kick in their companionway door.  This went on and on.  At some point our cruising couple turned on the deck lights and used their VHF radio loud speaker in siren mode to ward off the men.  Unfortunately the speaker was disabled with a machete blow in short order, and the lights only served to show the pirates the loot stored on deck.  At some point a few hours later the men got bored and\or sobered up and a rather traumatized but physically unharmed couple emerged from their boat to survey the damage.  Scary stuff right?

We heard other stories of petty theft in the area too.  Right in front of the yacht club with half a dozen other boats around.  We were warned to put everything away and to lock the boat up.  There was a large ketch anchored next to us, Infinity, that was doing night watches around the clock.  So we prepared Delos and made sure all our stealables were stored safely below or in a deck locker.  We closed and locked our companionway hatch for the first time in ages and headed to bed.

About 4:30AM I was sleeping peacefully when a noise woke me up.  I heard a rustling and jolted out of bed, sticking my head through the hatch above my bunk.  I was greeted with the shadows of 4 men.  1 was actually on our boat and 3 more were in a small fiberglass boat pulled alongside.  “Get the F**K off my boat mother F**CKER!!!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.  The intruder on Delos reacted by diving head first into the water.  SPLASH!!!  His buddies had the engine started and were roaring off before he had fully clambered into the dinghy.

I stood there confused and shocked wondering what the hell had just happened.  I was even more shocked when instants later I saw a second fiber tear around our bow and head off into the night chasing the other boat.  By this time everyone on Delos was up and I was trying to explain what happened.  A few minutes later the second fiber returned.  It was our buddies from Infinity next door.  They had seen something suspicious and came over to investigate.  Their Captain, Clemence, pulled a bunch of hoses from the bottom of their fiber and put them on their deck.  “I think these regulators are yours.” he said matter of factly.  I was blown away when I recognized the colors of our dive gear.  Three regulators with dive computers and all, valued just under US$2,000 were laying there on the deck.  They then recounted the tale of their chase and ensuing high seas battle with the thieves.  Oars were used as weapons and punches were thrown and landed.  One of the bad guys got a broken nose.  The thieves attempted to lure our friends in but they got the better of them and retrieved our gear.  It turns out the thieves had gotten into our stern deck locker and robbed us!  Shame on me for locking up the inside of the boat but completely forgetting about the deck lockers.  I had to search for and figure out how to lockup since we’ve never, ever needed to lock down the deck until now.

This story has a happy ending, namely nobody was hurt with their heroics and the only thing we lost was Brady’s Oceanic BC.  But we could still dive and were glad it wasn’t worse.  The next day over beers we briefly considered leaving and heading straight to Australia.  Who wants to deal with this?  Sit up all night and keep pirate watch?  Sounds like crap.  But then I thought about how many times my car had been broken into in the US, and how my office had been robbed twice.  About all the terrible things you hear  on the news that happen every day.  I didn’t leave Seattle or the country, but I was more careful where I parked my car.  And I installed a security system so that next time my office was robbed I could at least watch it on video.  Why let a few bad seeds ruin all our plans?

So we decided to stay and implement the following things, which we’re now referring to as Delos Defensive Procedures (DDP).

1) Lock em up boat!  Yes, even the hatches and deck lockers.  All the time, no exceptions.

2) Fly your American colors!  Unlike most of the world everyone loves American’s here because of WWII.  Many a times the roughest looking local burst into a beetle-nut stained smile when he finds out you’re from the US of A.

3) Night Watch.  Dread of all dreads now you have to do watch at night, even when your not sailing?!?!?

Now night watch takes some getting used to.  Luckily with 4 people on board it’s not such a big deal.  And we are prepared with weapons!  Not guns, but there is lot’s of cool stuff on a sailboat.

First Line of Defense- 400,000 candle power spotlight.  If you see someone lurking in a dugout canoe or a fishing boat with mysterious “engine trouble” light them up!  Let them know you’re there, awake, and give them a good bout of night-blindness.  In fact, every 15 minutes just randomly shine the light somewhere.  Light up everything.  Birds, fishermen, random waves, it doesn’t matter.  That will keep them on their toes, and hopefully let them know you’re not an easy target.

Second Line of Defense- If the spotlight doesn’t warn them off and they still get closer or have snuck inside your perimeter blow the air horn.  Wake everyone up on the boat and prepare for battle.

Third Line of Defense- By now your would be thieves are closing in or possibly have already boarded your boat.  They are not easily spooked and mean business.  So shoot them with the flare gun, aka the ending of Dead Calm where Billy Zane gets tagged with a flare.  For really close combat we also have the fishing gaff, a 6 foot long pole with a huge rusty metal hook.  If we can pull in a monster tuna I’m sure we could hook a pirate.

Fourth and Last Resort Weapons- Blast them in the face with the fire extinguisher.  Not sure what this would do but I’m betting it would be unpleasant and surprising.  Then we have rusty machetes that not only inflict a serious wound but also hopefully a case of Tetanus.  And if all else fails we have the Rambo Knife, complete with compass and emergency fishing kit built into the handle.  That way if you need to get away in a hurry and go dark after your encounter you can at least find your way and fish.

Since implementing DDP our strategy seems to be working with all suspicious bogies being repelled by the First Line of Defense.  So is it worth the trouble to be here?  Would we do it all over again?  YES and YES!  Without a doubt.  The cruising and diving is really that good and the people in the outer islands are absolutely amazing. 

Take John from Roderick Bay for example.  When we went to the Florida Islands (yes I know what you’re thinking but there are like 60 wrecks in one harbor alone) he and his sons were our personal security guards.  While anchored in front of his village he insisted on paddling his canoe around our boat all night long, him and his sons taking two hour stints just so we could sleep peacefully.  Then he cooked us a huge feast for dinner.  Thanks John!

John our self-appointed security guard.

The thing about weapons onboard a sailboat is they are useless unless you are prepared to use them, and if you do use them then there’s another whole set of consequences you have to consider.  Like explaining to the local officials (probably from a dirty, dark jail cell) why you lied about having weapons in the first place.  So no, we’ll never carry guns onboard. But we will continue to sit around and hatch over the top scenarios about defending our boat from would be pirates and hope that sharpening our machete’s in full daylight on the bow works in our favor.

We’re in the Western Province now, about 220 miles NW of Honiara.  We’ve only seen two boats the past month, the diving is out of this world, and the people are as friendly and safe as can be.  We’re still locking up Delos at night but we are sleeping peacefully once again! 

Pirate Watch Quiz- By Paul

Hello Delos world. Today its time to find out what type of harbor night watchman you'd be. You're in the Solomon Islands, a South Pacific country known for its unruly pirate behavior. You've heard from multiple sources about the night boarding of vessels, plundering of goods and usage of machetes. Yes machetes! Tonight's the night you start night watches of all god awful annoying things. Time to find out what kind of boat guard you'd be...?

Cheeseburgers at the yacht club were divine, but now its yachtie midnight (9PM) and the food coma is setting in. Which time of night best suits you to stay up and watch?

a) 2200-2400

b) 2400-0200

c) 0200-0400

d) 0400-0600

e) Sorry bro I'm still out at the club

Fiberglass boats are motoring back and forth to "fish". Mysteriously their engines always die when they get close to your boat. Which weapon would you use to defend the boat from would-be thieves?

a) Flashlight, then run and tell somebody the boat is being robbed

b) Machete

c) Rambo knife if I don't kill them with my hands.

d) Fishing gaff

e) I've got this half consumed bottle of Solbrew from the club in my hand

What type of lighting suits your mood?

a) Turn on all the lights, I want pirates to know I'm here and to stay far away

b) The light from my computer. It's movie time!

c) Lights are for losers, I want to lure them in before I strike

d) The moon and sunrise are my lights

e) Red light district. Maybe I'll get a pretty island pirate-ess up to the boat and plunder her booty

Who do you do night watch with?

a) I'm a girl, I don't do night watches

b) Me and my partner stay up and watch movies together, we're a couple

c) I'm a straight solo act. "My body is an island," whatever that means

d) The stars keep me company

e) Whoever this random islander I got partying is. What's her name again...

How do you pass the time?

a) Sleeping in my bed

b) Chatting with my hubby

c) Sharpening my Rambo knife, lurking in the shadows

d) Listening to music and watching boats act like they are fishing

e) Ecstasy and dance parties. I love that new GaGa song

You see a suspicious boat slyly drifting and lurking around your boat. What do you do?

a) Run and tell everyone, blow the airhorn, call the harbor police on channel 16

b) Bust him with the flash light and say, "gotcha bitch" in your best kiwi accent

c) Stay still in the dark waiting to pounce. You've been waiting for this; it's game time!

d) Go out and ask him how his "fishing" is going

e) Invite him up for a glow stick battle dance off. Make sure he gets "served" before you kick him off .

Ok time to tally up the score board and find out what type of watch pirate watchman you are.

If you answered:

All A's:

Princess

You're just eye candy on the boat. Somebody important's main squeeze. If you do a watch, it's the first one. "This way I can finish that bottle of 1982 Chateau Margo and pass out promptly." You don't do much in the way of helping out and can't be bothered. If you're not already sleeping when the boat is getting mugged, then you'd probably run and call the boat police on channel 16, after waking everyone up with your bimbo blond horror screams. In all actuality, enjoy your nine hours of sleep barbie.

Mostly B's:

Couples

It's hard to separate you lovers. You like to stay up together and watch movies and chat about life, love and where you'll be 1,3, and 5 years from now. It's cute, and sickening. You've got a good 2 hour section of the night to watch: 2400-0200. It's when most "fishing" boats are humming back and forth, so be on your toes during nookie and post coital. If a boat did come close to your yacht you'd be outside blasting them with the flashlight saying, "gotcha bitch" while your hubby would be asking them hows the fishing at night.

Straight C's:

Dark Knight

Hello all you wannabe navy seals. Rambo has nothing on you lot. You've seen enough special forces movies and shows to think you've got what it takes to take down a small army of pirate rebels. You work alone and in the dark. Lurking in shadows, you're tan naked body blends into its surroundings; darkness is your ally. Fishing gaff and then Rambo knife are how you roll. You're here to inflict pain. "Beware locals, my enthusiasm alone might hurt you!"

C's and D's

The Man's Man

Your beard is kept jungularly, you drink your scotch neat, and your abs come from six months of sailing; not the gym. You've got the good but serious watch, somewhere between 0200-0600. That's when you've been told most of the looting goes down. You stay up by listening to music at low level. Yet, at the slightest sound you're alert and ready. You prefer watch with the lights off because it improves your night-sight. As a solo act, you're on your toes at the slightest sound of a humming motor. If need be that boat hook or machete is within arms reach. You're there to get the job done and then go home safe. No heroics, "its just my job."

Straight E's

Get a life loser.

Enough said.

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Meet Memo-By Brady

 

Hello, my name is Memo….I’m a Clown fish and I live in a sea anemone.  No, I am not related to Nemo who became famous over some stupid movie filmed on the Great Barrier Reef, about 700 miles away. I’m only a few years old but I know that my home is a special place.  There are always people that come and visit!  I can hear the engines above me get louder and louder until they stop.  I know that when the engines stop it is only a matter of time before the visitors arrive!  I live near an island called Tulagi in the Florida Islands, part of the Solomon Islands.  Apparently there was a lot of fighting and war that my great, great, great, great grandfather experienced ages ago, but everyone says he was a crazy old man so who knows? My insane grandpa always tells me my home is very important and I am lucky to have such a nice neighborhood to live in but I don’t know what to believe because most of my friends live on the outer reef and say that it is very nice too.  Maybe you should know about my village history….  I live on a Kawanishi flying boat also known as a “Mavis”.  There are many fish that live here but I live near the bow of the plane in the cockpit! 

My village is so nice.  We have fresh current all day for food, tons of places to hide, lots of light and many visitors.  Some days I stare at the controls and gauges and drift off, thinking of my crazy ancestors and their stories of planes falling from the sky.  I want to be a pilot someday!! But not one in a war.  My home was one of many Japanese flying boats that swam the sky during WWII.  On the 7th of August 1942 my home, which was then still able to swim, was hit by American dive bombers and sunk here.  That was almost 70 years ago!  It seems strange to me that people come here just to see where I live.  They come down from the light with big metal things strapped to their back, they make a lot of noise, try and shove their way into my cockpit and always seem to hold these strange square things that flash at me!  Why do they look so intensely at the back of these things??  Flash after flash until they swim, or should I say try to swim, away.  Most of them look like my little brother when he was born.  They bang into things and are very uncoordinated.  All I want is to see the other side of the sky; where the visitors come from.  My dad says if I see that part of the sky it is the last thing I will ever see so I better be careful what I wish for!  RIP uncle Lemo….Ill take my dads word for it and stay here in my beautiful home for now.

Memo…..He has such wonderful life.  He can hang out underwater all day and never have to come up for air.  If only we were like him or Kevin Costner in Waterworld.  No lugging heavy dive gear around, no running out of air, no decompression sickness, no getting cold.  Just relaxing in the most beautiful of coral; Over 100 Ft under water on a WWII wreck.  Memo might see the occasional shark or barracuda or “visitor” but all he has to do is swim back into his house, inside the barrel of a 50 MM gun.  Pretty ironic that he lives and takes shelter in a weapon that had once been used to kill a lot of people.

This part of the South Pacific is rich in WWII history.  It’s strange that the majority of people know nothing about the war in the Pacific.  At least I didn’t know anything about it.  Everyone knows about the war in Europe and all about Hitler.  A lot of you may have heard of Pearl Harbor due to Ben Affleck's phenomenal acting skills.  But WWII had much more to it then a gay, half-Jew Nazi with a ridiculously cool mustache.  It also had more to it then Mr. Affleck.  This was the point where the Japanese were about to take over the free world.  Does the name Guadalcanal sound familiar?  That’s about the only name that rang a bell as I looked at a map of the Solomon Islands about 5 months ago.  After being here a month or so I can put it simply:  By 1942 the Japanese had taken over all of South East Asia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, and the majority of the Solomons.  Their next target was New Caledonia, then Australia, New Zealand and the rest of the South Pacific until they made it to America.  It’s pretty ridiculous that I learned absolutely none of this in a text book.  And if it was in a text book would I really have cared?  There were over 50,000 American soldiers alone that passed through the Solomons……04802484 of which lost there lives here.  There are 100’s of wrecks in the passage known as “the slot” between Guadalcanal and the Florida Islands.  In fact, the spot we are now anchored is known as Iron Bottom Sound due to all the wrecks.  You can imagine the amazing scuba diving in this area.

WWII has been the new theme of Delos.  Vanuatu brought us kastom, volcanoes and culture but the Solomons are bringing us history and a lot of diving.  We have dove a B-17 bomber, also known as the “flying fortress”.  A Japanese submarine, a Japanese troop carrier known as Bonegi 1, and a Kawanishi flying boat (similar to a Catalina Sea Plane).  We also dove an amazing site called the twin tunnels, which are 2 extinct lava tubes in the middle of a reef and the World Discoverer Cruise ship that hit a rock in 2000 and sits 90% out of the water.  We haven’t even scratched the surface of the diving world here but we are trying our best.  Below are some pictures of our dives so far in the Solomon Islands.

B-17 flying fortress

North Western Guadalcanal.  65 ft. max depth.

The plane runs parallel to the shore about 200 ft. off.  You are able to see the shape of the plane and the remains of the cockpit.  The bottom is pretty silty so visibility can be bad if it is kicked up.

 

B-17 cockpit and controls…

 

Japanese Sub

Western Tip of Guadalcanal.  100 Ft. max depth.

The Submarine starts in about 20 Ft. of water and slopes down the reef.  The shallowest parts aren’t so intact but the in the deeper areas you can actually see the shape of the sub and swim inside.  A local in a dug out canoe helped us find it but we were charged a small kastom fee of $25 Solomon dollars per person (about $7.50 US).

Stern of the sub

 

Bonegi 1 Japanese Troop Carrier

North side of Guadalcanal.  West of Honiara.  180 Ft. max depth.
Amazing dive and pretty easy to find.  If you see the Bonegi 2 with its engine block sticking out of the water your too far West.  Bonegi 1 lies about ¼ mile East of Bonegi 2 in a bit of a cove.  The ship starts very shallow around 15 Ft., lays on her port side and is beautiful all the way back.  Lots of swim through’s  and good coral.

Top of Bonegi 1

Inside Bonegi 1

 

Twin Tunnels Lava Tubes

South South-West of Tulagi Island 125 Ft. max depth

This is an amazing dive that starts in about 40 Ft.  There are two extinct lava tubes that go straight down to about 120 Ft.  They are joined here with a big cave that leads to the outer reef wall where you can see many pelagic fish.

There are 2 sets of moorings here, both under about 6 Ft. of water.  The most South Western one is directly north of the first tube.  We also did a night dive here.  Beautiful bio-luminescence and a few flash light fish in the cave.   

Japanese Kawanishi “Mavis” Flying Boat

Near Ghavutu island in Tulagi Bay 105 Ft. max depth.

This plane is 90% intact with the starboard wing sitting just off the bow in 90 Ft.  There is a mooring here which is 6 Ft. below the surface but easy to spot.  The mooring line is tied directly to the bow of the plane.  The cockpit and port side of the plane are very intact and interesting.  You can find bullets on the bow near the cockpit and sake bottles on top of the starboard wing.

Wing Float

Japanese Bullets

Japanese Sake!!!Pilot gauges

World Discoverer

Roderick bay, North Sandfly passage, Western Florida Islands.  55 Ft. max depth.

This German Cruise liner hit a rock in the passage in 2000.  It was able to make it into Roderick bay.  To keep the ship from sinking the Capt. drove it up onto the reef to salvage it.  It now sits above water in a beautiful bay surrounded by jungle.  Even if you are not a diver this is a cool site to see.  The ship lies about 25 degrees to starboard and is fully intact.  You can dive under the ship in about 30-50 Ft. and look through the rubble that has fallen out or broken off.  Snorkeling is just as good around the ship.  You will probably be yelled at from the beach by the land owner asking for a “donation” which is a set price of $25 Solomon dollars per person.  You only have to pay the fee if you climb on the ship or go to the beach. 

 

You could fall through the rusting deck at any point…

Nothing better then an underwater toilet

Telephone and fire extinguisher under the wreck

Me on the bow spotting shallow areas

Go A’murica

And New Zealand!!!

Team Delos

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