Solomon Islands

December 25, 2007 - January 1, 2008 Mbambanga Island, Solomons

Wow, it’s been forever since I’ve wrote in this. I’ve been in a pretty foul mood lately and haven’t felt like writing. I’ve just been really annoyed with the ship, it’s crew, and how things are done on board. Just fed up really. Here’s an excerpt from an email I wrote to my mom and dad about Christmas on board the S/V Insanity.

We sure had a weird Christmas on board out at this island called Mbamanga. Christmas eve we were in Gizo harbor and went out for beers, caroled around to boats in the dinghy, and then drank home-made beer that Zack’s been making. Christmas morning was just like every morning. We were allowed to sleep in a little bit, and then we had a meeting to discuss the rest of the day. We moved the ship a mile out of the harbor, to anchor in front of Mbanga. Michel (the captain) was weird as usual during the meeting. I’m starting really not to like him very much. He got all mad because no one was jumping up at 9 am and volunteering to cook Christmas dinner (when he said he wanted to cook it yesterday), “Well then, maybe we just shouldn’t have it then.” Such a stubborn little asshole. After we decided the cooks for dinner, and decided to watch a movie after dinner and play a game in the water in the afternoon, he said he was just going to visit friends on the island. Well he ended up going to shore all afternoon, coming back for dinner, not lifting a finger to help, and then left when we put the movie on. Just a piss poor little kid when he can’t have his way. He’s 38! Grow up really. We had stuffed roasted chickens for dinner with potatoes, brussel sprouts, garlic rolls, cookies…. More but I just can’t remember. I made the stuffing. Turned out pretty good, I had to even make the bread and the bread crumbs, so it was really from scratch. The night we all watched the movie Love Actually. It was a fun night, but still nothing like home. All us volunteers were feeling pretty home sick.

Mbambanga Island will be our anchorage for a few weeks while we’re in the Gizo area. There’s a sweet bar/restaurant on the water here, a small hotel with cottages and another bar/restaurant on the water, and several villages, but that’s it really. We are about a 15 minute dinghy ride to the town of Gizo. The town of Gizo is nice. Small, quaint town, kind of like Levuka of Fiji. Pretty run down after a tsunami just hit this area in March of last year. There is a nice hotel in town called the Gizo hotel with an awesome pool. It has a nice bar, restaurant, and an internet shop right near the hotel. Internet here is pretty slow and limited, but still works, won’t be able to skype though.

We have a huge ships work list to do for the next two weeks. Pointless jobs really, like derusting and painting the shrouds (when the paint will crack b/c they move so much). We went over who will do what, and I definitely am trying to steer clear of the pointless/impossible tasks on that list. I’ve been working my butt off to get this science data from Kitava analyzed, with no acknowledgement that I’ve been spending my afternoons and weekends working on it. Orla sets these deadlines and doesn’t even follow through on them, it’s like, “Why am I wasting my time?” Grrr! Sorry to complain. I have really enjoyed my time off the ship in the last week though. Nice to explore around and have a touch of civilization again. Counting down the days till I leave though. Excited for New Zealand, sounds like I have a whole itinerary while I’m there.

New Years was interesting. Another unusual event while I’ve been on board the Infinity. It really bugs me how everyone here is so anti western holidays. I’m from the western world and proud of it! Kris and John cooked little eggs sandwiches for dinner and then the volunteers all went to the chill out bar on the water here called Fat Boys, until 10. Such a perfect spot, with hammocks, couches, beer, TV, ping pong, a pool table, and a full bar with a restaurant. We had to get the dinghy back for the others to go celebrate New Years with the village. I had planed to go in, but I really wanted to ring in the New Year with Zack and James who were staying on board. We counted down to the New Year from the radar clock, wasted in synestia, drinking bottles of wine from our tin cup chalices. I went to be around 12:20 to say the least. The next day we had the day off, no producer or anything which is nice, and everyone had a pretty low key day. Tonight we’ll all be together again to sing sea chanties and get a plan organized for a cultural exchange with Mbambanga in the next few weeks. Oh other big news is, Nicole is leaving the first of February, and freakin obnixous Clementine is leaving as soon as she can! Ha! If only she had any money, she’s been here barely a month (where we haven’t been able to buy anything really) and she’s blown 900 euros on carvings! She doesn’t have a credit card or a plane ticket home. Again where do these people come from?! So she’s a mess, Orla’s trying to sort all that out, and get her mom to wire her money.