SV Footprint (Begonia): Mbaquin Island

Sunday, October 11, 2026

Mbaquin Island

[Kyle]Feeling like we got all we could out of Savo Island, we decided to depart a day early for Mbaqiun Island, in the Russell Group. We had no wind in the forecast for a couple of days, so we started off expecting a long leg of listening to the drone of an engine. Once we were clear of Guadalcanal, we ended up having enough wind to deploy the spinnaker and sail the rest of the way.

My back was playing up again. I had felt a stab of pain as Maryanne and I were dragging the dinghy above the high tide line in Savo the day before. I caught it early and made the necessary adjustments to my technique to finish the job. I limbered up a bit on our beach walk, which made me feel like I had effectively "walked it off".

I was doing great until my eighth hour in the helm seat on the way to Mbaquin. Then I started noticing that I was stiffening up again. A few bouts of unexpectedly hard winch cranking at the end of the sail probably did me in again. Now, instead of being my usual fairly healthy person, I was reduced to limping around the boat, clinging desperately for support to anything my arms could reach. Inside, it was all I could do to find ANY comfortable position.

To make matters worse, it was a beautiful, flat-calm day and Begonia was the lone boat anchored in turquoise water in front of a perfect little tropical islet. Maryanne had to have all the fun for both of us while the most I could do was occasionally pop out to adjust our solar panel and check on her position.

Deaprature and arrival shots for the passage

The first whole day, Maryanne returned after a few hours to say the snorkeling was average, although refreshing. The caretaker (Mbaquin is a Marine Reserve) was friendly, the island is interesting, and it even has a resident super-friendly cat who likes to chase after you and play as you walk. Oh, well. Maybe tomorrow.

Ashore on the tiny island of Mbaquin/Mbakui (It has various spellings), where the caretaker Thoms protects the local waters

I (Maryanne) wanted to walk to the end of the nearby spit at low tide, but local rosate terns were keen to warn me off, so I spied from a distance

Nope. I was no better by the next day, so Maryanne went out and did everything over on my behalf. I would have liked to stay until I felt better again and could enjoy it myself, but our visas are only good for so long and there were good tailwinds coming for our next leg, so that stop ended up being a solo one for each of us.