The voyage provided time for contemplation—on the myriad of experiences, memories and friendships we had and created in Vanuatu; the excitement of the ship’s upcoming return to the Solomon Islands; and the revitalization brought by the sea journey. We traveled northwest, passing the Torres Islands in the distance, witnessing stunning sunsets over the open ocean almost every evening. One fortuitous day brought a pilot whale, hammerhead, and dolphins within sight of the ship, much to our delight.

Returning to his home country after three and a half years onboard the Heraclitus, Eddie piloted the ship into the Honiara harbor, successfully completing his circumnavigation of the Pacifc.

Factory ships in the Honiara harbor

The initial scene greeting us at the port of Honiara contrasted sharply with the places we had spent the past three months in Vanuatu. Enormous factory ships remained scattered throughout the harbor, waiting to take onboard tons of fish from smaller vessels which, in turn, had collected their loads from yet smaller fishing boats from which the actual fishing took place. Occasionally local "cigar" boats drew alongside the factory ships in order to receive a fish or two from their freezers, lowered by rope from deck, often ultimately bound for the local fish market. Cans, plastic, paper, food wrappers, rotting produce and fish and other trash littered the commercial dock, creating a memorable scene and smell.

Fortunately, our first impressions of the city were overshadowed by personal interactions with friendly locals. Eddie introduced us to many of his friends and family who helped orient us to the city, its activities and venues. One stormy evening we were treated to a live concert onboard by four of Eddie's friends who performed several songs with guitar and vocals. While lightning forked through the sky, accentuated by deafening thunderclaps, we gathered below deck, listening to enchanting harmonies and lyrical verses on different topics, the most salient about a goodbye before a sailing voyage.

island sunsets

In the Russell Islands we enjoyed night diving, dolphin sightings, and colorful parrots flying overhead in the midst of a beautiful setting. People from one village invited us to join them for a church service and afternoon of custom dancing on Christmas Day. Different groups of men and women, girls and boys, performed songs and dances in colorful costume with traditional instruments ands ornaments. By the end of the afternoon they had pulled us into the dancing, too!

custom dancing on Christmas Day

Heraclitus returned to familiar ground in Gizo and its old anchorage at Mbambanga, a community that we befriended strongly in 2000 but to whom we are even more closely tied. This island, close to Gizo, belongs now to a Gilbertese community, relocated here by the British Government in the 1950s from the Phoenix Islands, part of the Kiribati Group. While Heraclitus visited the Phoenix Islands in December 2004, we carried with us the songs of the Mbambanga community and knew that we would meet again with these displaced peoples. Our return here this time prompted many questions of their homelands and we were thrilled to be able to show the island video footage of the Phoenix Islands, much of which is used in The Canary is Dead from the Studio of the Sea.

We caught the end of their Christmas dance celebration and watched as eagerly as ever as three Gilbertese villages competed in the maneapa on Mbambanga. After spending so long in Polynesia over the last few years, this felt like another homecoming for Heraclitus.

As well as reuniting with Mbambanga, our other purpose here was to conduct our third reef study at Sagharughombe Island, previously surveyed in 2000 and 2002. A few weeks into our study we saw signs of the beginning of a bleaching event but towards the end of our time at this anchorage,Cyclone Jim made its present felt over 600 miles away and a week of almost constant rain and heavy winds at time cooled the sea down, hopefully enough to arrest the bleaching event. For full results of our study, see the reef report.