With a half day to kill in Honiara before my flight to Seghe, I hit the road for a long walk through town. Much more fun than a taxi ride, and gets me to soak in the sights and sounds of local life here in Honiara. At the Central Market, it turned out to be all vegetable and seafood vendors, and not handicrafts. Certainly interesting to be in the thick of it all. Lots of looks and smiles my way, as I stood out without a doubt. But all friendly, no problem. Didn't get a chance to try the ice cream bread, so I'll definitely have to do that on my return layover stay. Some of the women here breastfeed their child while walking around the market, breast out and no cover up -- natural and the way God designed, so no issue for me. And besides, boobies are great !


I wish I could've taken a picture with these 4 older ladies all squatting and smoking their pipes together (like old fashioned corn cobbed pipes) but didn't want to come across as intrusive or offensive.


Walking back toward the hotel I found another market and this is the one I was more interested in. All handicrafts from Solomon Islanders, mostly paintings and woodcarvings. I bought 2 items to start, and there were a few others I would love to get. But there'll be more local vendors, both in Uepi and in Goroka So I'll pace myself as I have a long way to carry everything I buy right now.


I learned a bit about Solomon history at the Solomon Islands National Museum, including their involvement in WWII, after Japan aggressively moved in January 1942. One of the craftsmen I met told me how frightening it was when the Japanese fighter planes started flying over with a big front to take over the islands -- he was just a boy at the time, but described how scary it was, and how the Americans and Allied Forces helped the Solomon people.


Found out that yesterday's flight to Seghe was cancelled due to weather, which concerned me as a storm rolled in just before my flight today. Didn't want to push the date back and miss a day of diving. The issue isn't involving the plane flying in rain or wind. The issue is the grass runway in Seghe that turns into a pool during heavy downpour. In fact, one of the other divers was on the cancelled flight and took off the next morning, and told me how wild the landing was, after touching down and sliding quite a bit across the runway. The Uepi resort was quite doubtful the plane would land considering how much rain was coming down. And there's no guarantee the plane will land even though you're 1 hour into the flight -- if the pilot is uncomortable with the landing runway, they'll turn around and go back 1 hour to Honiara. We took off on time and everything was moving well. At the end of the flight, we started to hit some stormy conditions. Although the runway was clear, the pilot made 3 big circles around the area, maybe not sure it was safe to land the plane. But we did land, and I was picked up by boat for the 30 minute ride to Uepi Island Resort.


So, here I am in Uepi, Solomon Islands ! What a beautiful place, a small, isolated tropical paradise in the South Pacific. Uepi Island Resort is the only occupant of this small island, and only 6 bungalows here and about 16-18 guests in total. And this means we have the dive sites each day to ourselves -- no other dive operation around here. The resort is owned and operated by a really nice family originally from Australia, and I had the opportunity to sit with them a while and chat. The logistics must be incredible to not just build this place but also to operate it on a daily basis. The food they serve us is amazing, with lunch brought to our rooms each day for a quiet lunch at the bungalow alone. Dinner is all together, and is a great time to talk about our diving activities for the day. The other guests I've been diving with are from Australia, Switzerland, London (a BBC journalist), and Texas. We're all getting along very well, having a great time together.



Weather here in Uepi didn't start too well, as there's been unusually heavy rain for 4 straight days -- but fortunately I was only here for half of that. It's also fortunate that it doesn't rain underwater while diving ! But it can certainly stir up the visibility and make for some rough surface conditions, so we're glad that it's all gone for now, and the last 2 days have been beautiful -- sunny, partly cloudy, and just a little rain here & there. Our first try at the "Manta Magic" early morning trip to see the giant manta rays was a bust. They are regular visitors to a specific cleaning station, but on Friday the weather was rough and visibility was poor -- but worst of all, couldn't find the mantas ! But, we went again today, and it was awesome. 4 huge manta rays, the smallest at 8 or 9 feet, and the large one at 14 feet wingspan -- absolutely massive. I have some video footage that will be included in my video production coming soon. All this at sunrise, and then return for breakfast before the first dive of the day- not a bad way to start the day !



I'm having fun with my Trump tank top shirt, and am considering this my "theme shirt" for this trip. It is evident that Mr. Trump is not well received in about every country that I've met folks from thus far, but that's not stopping me. Makes for some good conversations/debates for sure. It was quite funny when I asked Rolf from Switzerland to take the photo of me during the dive -- and he replied, no, not wearing that shirt. I thought he was serious and I'd have to find someone else. Then after he gave me the digital photo, he said don't tell anyone he took the picture -- hahahaha.


I spoke with Grant and Jason at length about the Marovo Medical Mission, as this is of interest for Rosanna and I. It is a non-profit foundation that gathers Doctors, Nurses, Surgeons, and Pharmacists from Australia and USA to volunteer for 2 weeks and provide free medical services to 8 different islands in Marovo Lagoon. You may wonder where I fit in, and there is a need for a few non-medical people to assist. The local people in these isolated islands have a difficult time with both transportation and costs for the medical services in Honiara. Thus, many ignore the medical conditions for themselves and the children, and are deeply grateful for the volunteer medical treatment and procedures provided during this 2 week period, twice per year. Each day the boat departs from Uepi with the volunteers and supplies, and a make shift clinic is set up the island for that given day. Rose and I will be talking with them further to see if this volunteer expedition works out for us.


I've been plagued with a handful of equipment problems here and there, so each time, we fix it and do the best we can. Got to move on one way or the other, and not let it consume me. Too much good diving to experience to let these troubles stand in my way.


The best dive thus far was Uepi Point, in the afternoon when the current was running more briskly. At the point, where the two directions converged, it was amazing how everything was going crazy. Down at 95 - 107 feet, and the fish activity was incredible. Even in the shallows, it was a beautiful site and we are all hoping to go back to that site this afternoon. I'd say it was in the top 5 individual dive sites I've ever done. Hard to explain, but I hope to have good video footage to share -- but overall, it was insanely good. Every dive is relaxed and long -- 60-70 minutes each dive - nice !


After that great dive, Jeff (from Texas) and I arranged a boat to take us fishing for a couple hours. They fish here with quite a large lure (10" or so, with pretty big hooks), going after big tuna. Brought the jambox for music and a cooler of beer, and life is good. Beautiful sites along the way as the sun started to set, a pod of dolphins came over and played by our boat, some rain along the way, and good conversations. Jeff purchased the Fish God statue from one of the carvers, so we were confident that the Fish Gods were with us and were assured some catches. We prepared everyone for some fresh Tuna sashimi for dinner tonight. But no such luck. No action, and after 2 hours of trolling with our lures, we went back to the other dive guests at dinner with empty hands -- no sashimi for you ! So, I explained it was the classic definition of fishing: a jerk on one end waiting for a jerk on the other end. Yep, that was me ! Had them all cracking up though, so at least some good times with my friend and some entertainment value for the others.


That's about everything I can share at this point. Remember, it's island life. No crazy stories for this part, just a lot of simplicity, beautiful surroundings, and great people all together. Dive, eat, rest, dive, eat, rest -- in that order, and repeat. Yeah, this is alright.


I'll conclude this blog story with a message to my bride of 23 years (September 11th):
Happy Anniversary, Rose. I miss you and I love you.