NIUSELETTER for JULY, 2015

NIUSELETTER for JULY, 2015
DITTE & OLIVER ----- A NEW BABY ----- PATCHES ----- MORE ON THE BIG DRY
----- DRY SEASON?? ----- BACK TO CHUBI ----- HIGHWAY ----- FAMILY FUN ----KAHAINI MPA ----- CHEERS FOR SOLOMON AIRLINES ----- DEMA
Hi, Everone,
And another month sweeps by! June was characterized more by rain and cloudy,
windy weather than by our bright, sunny skies, but the weather did little to
dampen our adventures. Ditte Knapp, a pharmacist from Denmark, and her
partner, Oliver Foerstner, a Civil Engineer from Germany, both living in
Switzerland, are touring the world as so many young people are doing. In Japan,
they met Lane DeWar, who spent 2 weeks with us 2 years ago, and he sent them
to us. What fun we had. They spent 4 full weeks with us, and interspersed diving
with bush walks, village visits, kayak/canoe trips, and of course, our island
snorkeling adventures and Rummyking.
Bryan came up for their first 2 weeks, and his sharp eyes spied many a treasure
underwater. On their first dive at Cabbage Patch, Bryan beckoned me over and
gave me his "I don't know what this is" sign, and pointed to a gap in the rocks at
the entrance to a small overhang. I looked, saw nothing, looked again, still saw
nothing. But he was insistent, so I backed off a bit, stared intently, and spied a
gaping mouth followed by a slender black "ribbon" emerge from a tiny hole. You
guessed it! A baby ribbon eel. This now makes 3 of the rare animals in our current
dive sites.
And speaking of new characters, we were all out snorkeling- Oliver, Ditte, Nia,
Justin and myself when sharp eyed Nia gave her excited cry "Sea Horse"- and sure
enough, there was another one. Right in front of the house. For days we watched
him/her, naming it Patches, and found the hunting behavior unique and
fascinating. Patches would kind of drag along the bottom. When he spied a tender
morsel, he would lie down in the sand ("I'm just a piece of leaf, I won't hurt you")
and then strike with blinding speed.
I mentioned the start of the "Big Dry" last month- when the tides are way lower
than normal the rest of the year for May, June and sometimes July. It compresses
the area the fish have to swim in, and totally exposes large areas of sand and reef
habitat normally always covered. Those who can, make it to the outer edge of the
reef. But I wonder- what happens to all the little shrimp gobies, tiny babies, my
mantis shrimps? Do they, too, pack up their luggage and escape to new homes??
Or do they curl down in their burrows and wait it out. So far, I've only found 1
mantis that has actually moved out and built anew.
And guests tell me that this is advertised as dry season? We have had almost daily
rains, and more than a few days where the predominant weather has been rain.
The good news is that all 4 water tanks are full, and our guests from colder climes
find the cooler temps very comfortable. And what do we do to while away rainy
hours besides reading, visiting, watching movies? Our signature game, of course,
Rummyking. It seems both Ditte and Oliver had played years before, and there
were nightly ( and sometimes daily) tournaments with carefully kept score sheets.
We were in the middle of their 232nd game when Fair Glory, the ship they were
taking to Honiara, hove into view.
With all the rain, good market can be hard to come by. We sent an order down to
Chubikopi one morning, and Ditte, Oliver and I rode down in the evening to visit
my first home here. Midget received the most enthusiastic greetings of us all, and
we toured my old route up to the school accompanied by an ever expanding group
of kids. My highlight was a visit with Chief Eutycus, who's been ill. I need to get
down there to read to him; he misses the daily reading and our intellectual
bantering.
Sometimes we go hunting for new dive sites, and sometimes we stumble on them
accidentally. Such was the case with what Ditte and Oliver have named simply
"The Highway". We were lazily drifting along the east side of Lumalihe passage.
Usually, by the time we get to the middle, we're out of deep bottom time and up
in the shallows, but this day we were still meandering just over the drop off. We
came to a shelf, and I looked into the depths, and beheld a parallel strip of sand
that resembled a road, and beyond that, a hill rising into the depths. In the
distance a wall of silver promised a massive school of jacks. I couldn't wait to get
down there. 2 days later, while Oliver was filming Ronald spearfishing at the point,
I was dropped in the middle. Finning down into the current, I almost landed on a
huge stingray napping in the middle of the "road". In seconds, I was surrounded in
a mass of swirling silver as the jacks answered my clicking sound. 2 grays hung
outside, while surgeons, ocean triggers and snappers zoomed hither and yon. I
was in fish heaven. When I chanced to glance down, I honed in on 2 rare Lyretail
hogfish and our brilliant blue-lipped angels. I reluctantly ascended past fan
studded overhangs to unusual shallows, comprised of massive groupings of pipe
organ corals crowned with kadzillions of brilliant anthias and damsels busily
feeding in the current.
A few days later, further exploring Highway with Ditte and Oliver, we hovered
entranced as 4 eagle rays played and cavorted in a ray ballet. Highway has zoomed
right up into my " 10 Favorite Dive Sites" list. As it will almost always have a
current, our task now is to learn to orchestrate navigating the dive to make it as
easy as possible and still get the maximum fish high.
Oliver and Ditte were natural "kid" people, and so our adventures often included
Joe, Nia & Justin & sometimes little Jennia. The 3 older ones spent hours in the
water with us, with their sharp young eyes finding treasures we'd often miss.
Justin performed several "concerts" playing and singing "Kumbaya", completely off
key, but with pure joy and plenty of style. Nia joined us learning Rummykin. We
all journeyed over to Hinakole School for Nia's term closing. And I was able to
round up Ronald, Jenma and all the kids save Joe dressed for church for family
photos. As you might imagine, there were more than a few tears when the time
for parting arrived. If you wish to see more photos and read a more extensive
account of their time with us, their blog address is www.ditte-olli-blog.com/en.
There is, I believe, and unwritten law that if I'm in the water and don't have my
camera, I will see something extraordinary. I headed down to the water for my
evening snorkel, discovered I'd left my camera, and feeling lazy, went in without it.
I will forever kick myself. I saw nothing particularly unusual until I was back here
at the seaweed heading in-and if it's possible to come to a screeching halt in the
water, I did. I backed off, thinking the long, slender animal slithering around was a
sea snake. As I watched it busily hunting in and out of all the little holes in the
sand, I realized it had a definite dorsal fin, and the face and nostrils weren't snake
like. It's banding was gorgeous- dark reddish-brown bands alternating with wide
cream colored bands edged in white. I almost walked on the water in my rush to
grab the camera. And hunted, and hunted, and hunted, but there was no sign of
what I later ID'd as my first ever banded snake eel.
And 3 cheers for Solomon Airlines. In addition to the now 3 flights per week from
Nadi, they have added a direct flight from Sydney to Honiara, connecting directly
to our Seghe flight, making it so much easier and faster for our southern
Australia guests to get here. AND they have this wonderful new service where, for
about $10 AUD, you are met as you deplane, helped with your luggage, whisked
through customs and escorted to the interisland terminal. To book this service,
contact Wilson Nee at Solomon Islands Terminal Services:
[email protected].
And the great news from Ellison Kyere at Solomon Islands Visitors' Bureau (SIVB).
For the first time ever, Solomon Islands will have a booth at DEMA in Florida in
2015. Lynn Morton has already offered to help with her wonderful photos.
Anyone else who might help in anyway, contact Ellison at HYPERLINK
"mailto:[email protected]" [email protected]. If any of you are
planning to attend, please stop by and make our Solomon ambassadors welcome.
And on that cheerful note, I'll leave you for another month, wishing you
adventure and lots of fun.
Love & hugs from the whole gang,
Lisa
Lisa Choquette
Solomon Dive Adventures
Kahaini Guest House
Kahaini Island, Chea Village
Marovo Lagoon, Solomon Islands
[email protected]
www.solomondiveadventures.com
Mobile/Cell-677-74-69007