Matikuri Island, Morovo Lagoon

[Kyle]We continued farther around Vangunu's perimeter to the western side, where we dropped anchor between a secluded beach and the tiny off-lying island of Matikuri (actually it is technically off the West side the main/big island of Vangunu, but that island is so big, and Matikuri is so close by, most people just report the anchorage as Matikuri Island). This place is regularly reported to be the home of a big six-meter croc, so snorkeling was definitely off the menu here. We even noticed that the residents of Matikuri were limiting their introductions to a big, friendly wave, over the more common row out and chat.

That was okay, I had other things I needed to do anyway.

The passage was shared with more dolphins!

A peaceful place to do some boat maintenance and admin

Every time Maryanne and I take Begonia anywhere, we diligently record the details of the journey in our logbooks. One of those items is engine hours, to which I always append a sub-item reminding me of the time remaining before the next oil change. So, every leg, I've been watching the task slowly creep inexorably closer. Now, not one, but both engines were due at the same time. I figured since I have to dismantle the boat to get to the engines anyway, I may as well do a bunch of other engine-related tasks as well, effectively amounting to a complete tune-up for each one. I could think of a lot of other things I'd rather be doing than bending over a pair of hot engines on a hot (35C/95F) day.

Our anchorage didn't help. It was generally so well protected that we got no breeze to circulate fresh air through the boat. Also, today was the day the sun gets highest in the sky. At solar noon it reaches eighty-nine degrees, fifty-five minutes above the horizon. We live in a solar oven. Just for reference, those five arc-minutes from directly straight up amount to about one-twentieth the width of a middle finger, when held at arm's length, while flipping off the President's motorcade. That is hot, man! If it weren't for battery-powered fans, I surely wouldn't have survived.

Anyway, it was good to know the countdown timers for most of the regular engine maintenance items had been reset to where I won't have to be thinking about a repeat of today for a while. Maryanne did boat admin, all the paperwork involved, ready for clearing out of the Solomons and clearing into Papua New Guinea over the coming weeks. So it was a productive if uneventful stop over.

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Anchorage location >> On google maps