2000 Chapbook

One of the last countries to jump on the tourism bandwagon, the Solomon Islands' tourist infrastructure is nil except for a few small, remote dive resorts in beautiful settings like Uepi and the Gizo islands, although several live-aboards dive these waters.... There are plenty of wrecks from WWII, lots of pristine reefs and walls, an abundance of fish (big ones too), and even more unexplored territory (the Solomon Seahas been doing several exploratory trips into new waters).... The Russells stand out because of dramatic underwater scenery including rocks, caves, and cracks.... In the Florida Group don't miss a dive on Twin Shaft Pinnacles.... Diving is year-round with plenty of places to dive in the lee, but April and May are the best months, followed by October, November, and December.... The Solomons are a good add-on from Fiji (1300 miles to the southeast) or Papua New Guinea (700 miles to the west); Honiara is on the main island of Guadalcanal; use it only for overnighting.... Solomon Islanders produce fine wood carvings.... It looks like 1999's short-lived political flare-up is no longer a problem, but check with the State Department before traveling. . . .This is serious malaria country....

For full reviews of the following Solomon live-aboards, see:

Solomon Sea,In Depth- July 1995

Bilikiki,December 1998, Richard Lehach, Larchmont, NY. Vis: 60-90 ft. Water: 82-84 degrees. Water calm. No depth limits enforced or anything else. Cabins roomy, a/c. Dining on deck under a canopy. Bugs unpleasant at many meals; many stayed in rooms to avoid bugs. Crew nice and helpful. Inside salon was nice but too many bugs should be A/C ed. Solomons are a Malaria zone, so eating with bugs is unacceptable. Nice feature visiting 4 villages; did not interrupt diving. Diving great, reefs in great condition, soft and hard corals, lots of fish. Degree of freedom granted divers could potentially ruin the trip. Divers routinely bounced off 170+ feet depth limits on 2 and 3 dives of the day, reversed profiles, ran tanks empty, solo diving the routine. Three of the 10 divers crashed their dive computers and were allowed to continue diving using their own judgment. This in an area that would take many hours (1-2 days possibly) to get to a chamber. While nothing happened, the potential for a catastrophe ruining everyone's trip was ever present. The boat manager did not try to stop this behavior but did not encourage it either. (Ph: 011-677-20412, Fax: 011-677-23897, e-mail: bilikiki@welkam.solomon.com.sb)

Bilikiki,July 1999, Paul Panayotatos, New Brunswick, NY. Vis: 60-100 ft. Water: 82-85 degrees. Few restrictions, tinnies could pick whenever one surfaced. Spacious boat, helpful local crew but only 2 divemasters who tended to do their own thing. Most WWII wrecks closed to diving because of "tribal tensions" (shooting). When divemaster showed critters it was great: shrimp, leaf fish, nudibranchs. Also schools of hundreds of Horse-eye jades, bumphead parrot fish, some dramatic cracks and fissures, lava tubes and multicolored anemone with all types of clown fish. Food pretty good with fresh veggies from the local villages. Native villages interesting but promised "night in a local village" was canceled to take on water for the next charter. Operation was smooth and both the divemasters and crew very helpful. I would rank the trip a notch below Palau, about as good as the Mantin in the Maldives.

Bilikiki,August 1999, Stephanie Mills (smills@sgi.com), West Bloomfield, MI. Vis: 60-100 ft. Water: 80-84 degrees. W: Suggested we stay within recreational limits of 100', and be back on the boat with 500 psi. Otherwise, go for it! Boat is geared toward U/W photographers; separate camera rooms and a large camera table on the dive deck. Came thru Fiji where we spent a couple days at the Sheraton Denarau; beautiful resort. Solomons, unspoiled paradise; people are striking in the western Solomons: they have blond hair and chocolate-colored skin. Hot and humid conditions. Bilikikiis not a luxury liner, but is roomy, solid, well-planned, efficiently run; crew ensures that divers will enjoy every moment. Has played host to Stephen Frink, Stan Waterman, Cathy Church's annual photo school. Jim and Kay Light, the DMs and boat managers, help both veteran and newbie camera buffs; the nicest couple you'd ever want to meet. Food awesome! Fresh fish and vegetables purchased from natives who approached the boat by dugout. Only 13 of us on the boat so singles had own cabins. No Nitrox. Thorough briefing. Stay down as long as you like, an hour and a half if you want, surface anywhere, you'll be picked up promptly. Diving: Wow. Twin Tunnels First dive. Gray reef shark, Titan triggerfish, (I kept my distance), Royal angels, butterflyfish, like a freeway at rush hour! All 3 of us surfaced and said, if this were a checkout dive, what's the rest going to be like? Wow. Tanabosi Rock: cuttlefish munching on an anemone. Beautiful nudies, scorpion conches, gigantic mauve-colored sea fans, and fish of every sort and color. Velvia: gin-clear water, bright pink sea fans, magenta dendrobes, anemones of pink, green, and yellow, rainbow of fish everywhere, octopus being harassed by wrasses. Japanese Sea Plane Base: in excellent condition, Propellers of massive proportion, giant wing span, double tail. Karumolun Island: Fabulous mounds of hard corals, coated with sponges, soft corals, polyps, anemones in pinks, yellows, whites, a mantis shrimp, leafy scorpionfish, cuttlefish. humphead wrasses. We heard eruptions from Kavachi, a volcano located 20 miles from our dive site, underwater. Could feel the rumblings, hear the ladders rattle on the boat. Amazing trip.

Solomon Sea,July 1998, Ann and Carlton Whitehead, El Cerrito, CA. 80 ft. long, only slightly smaller than the Bilikiki.Air-conditioned and handles a maximum of ten divers, with four double-bunks, en suite cabins and one twin. Nine of ten slots were filled with two Austrians and the rest Americans. Accommodations comfortable, a bit cramped. Five-man crew friendly and helpful under the laid-back but competent guidance of the Aussie cruise director, John. Dining-room-lounge compact but comfortable and equipped with a collection of paperbacks and videos. Good and ample meals; for example, chicken, potato, green beans, and chocolate cake or steak, corn, mashed potatoes and pudding, another night. Fruit, coffee and toast before first dive, after which the cook took orders for full breakfasts. Lunch: pizza, pasta or quiche with salad. Beer $1.50, and mixed drinks twice that. Three dives/day, with optional night dive. Sometimes we went off the stern and other times backrolls from the 20-foot "tinny." Tinny followed our bubbles and scooped us up when we were ready. Currents strong and unpredictable. Vis generally 50-60 feet, a bit less than either New Guinea or Palau, though the frequency and variety of underwater life was greater. Water 82 degrees. John or the divemaster watched us on the first dive and then left the experienced to our own devices. No photo processing and rental gear was limited though they were able to come up with a loaner computer for one diver and provided me with a pair of fins when one went missing. . . .The first dive, a relatively shallow site "Babycakes," a slanting series of reefs on which we hugged the lower slopes to minimize surge and current. 4 or 5 kinds of sweetlips, at least 5 different kinds of nudibranchs, a big cuttlefish, dark green moray, two lion fish and an obliging black octopus with wavering spots, school of gigantic bumphead parrotfish cruising majestically just out of camera range. . . .Night dives tended to be devoid of life, except occasional shining-eyed lobster. At Guavutu we climbed to the top of the island and examine the remnants of bunkers and machine-gun emplacements. Did a shallow dive under the wharf. Great macro dive. Most exciting adventure at "The Cut" at Ledu Island. At the inner end the opening at the top was large enough to see the rain forest, and light poured in creating great silhouette-picture. Suddenly there was current! The experience of whizzing past the brilliantly colorful sights on the wall put me in mind of a ride on a children's merry-go-round! Enjoyed the boat (including amenities as piles of hot towels and a handy adjacent hot shower on deck as we returned from our dives). 7 nights, 6 days diving: $1995, Round-trip airfare from San Francisco: $1,239. Arranged by Great Destinations (800-741-2178). (Ph: 011-677-25300/24936, Fax: 011-677-25300, Website: www.SolomonSea.com)

Spirit of the Solomons,July 1998, Peggy & José Miguel Duran (DuranJM@worldnet.att.net), Corpus Christi, TX. Vis: 50-100 ft. Water: 80-84 degrees. Restrictions: None. Excellent for video and photo. Spent 10 days diving Marovo Lagoon, Russells and Floridas with my wife and 17 year old daughter. Great boat and tremendous variety of diving, Marovo Lagoon was the best area. Only 8 divers so we had one tinny for our family and never had to wait more than 1-2 minutes to be picked up after 60-70 minute dives. First live-aboard and Pacific diving for our daughter and she was impressed, enjoyed chasing sharks with her little Aquashot camera and felt safe. Enjoyed visiting villages and took advantage of the great prices (1/3 prices of Honiara) for beautiful, detailed, wood carvings. Scott & Diane Waring, boat managers, were gracious hosts and good divemasters, helping to find unusual nudibranchs and giving enough freedom to experienced divers. Great stories, too! Boat comfortable, good camera/video facilities and food was good and plentiful. Took Lariam for malaria prophylaxis, but stopped halfway through the trip due to nightmares, dizziness. We were careful but didn't see or hear a single mosquito throughout the trip. Solomons diving is what you have described in previous reviews: Very good variety of walls, gardens, wrecks, pelagics, and macro fauna. Great sampler of Western/South Pacific diving. (Ph: 011-677-20412, Fax: 011-677-23897, e-mail: bilikiki@welkam.solomon.com.sb)

Spirit of the Solomons,March 1999, Ray H. Sullivan, Jackson, MI. Vis: 70-100 ft. Water 84 degrees. Some points where current was strong gave great pelagic action similar to Blue Corner in Palau but without all the sharks. Occasional white tip, thousands of barracuda, tuna, jacks and sennet. Soft corals colorful and abundant. Nudibranchs of every color. Nine species of anemonefish: Clarke's, Spine Cheeked, Pink, Eastern Skunk, Percula clownfish, Red and Black, Orange-fin, White Bonnet, and the Panda clownfish. Photographed six species on a single dive. White Bonnet is found only in the Solomons and eastern PNG. Lots of lionfish. Stonefish, cuttlefish, octopus, scorpionfish and crocodilefish not hard to find. Moorish idols, bannerfish, anthias, butterfly, and angelfish add color, at times a turtle or eagle ray. Coral free from abuse, coral bleaching or Crown-of-thorns damage. Diving from tinnies, metal 20 ft. boats. Visibility usually 80-90 ft., at times more. Access in and out of the tinny and live-aboard was effortless. Most dives in the 60 ft range making it difficult to empty a tank of air in less than an hour. Spirit of Solomon,sister ship of Bilikiki,is 125-ft. with a capacity of 26 passengers and crew of 13. Our seven-day trip consisted of 5 passengers and a crew of 12. On a previous trip there were 10. More than 16 divers would seem crowded. Food excellent: several types of fish, chicken, lamb, and beef. Steak and lobster one night. Fruits and vegetables are bought from the locals who have been given seed and taught to grow crops by the dive operators. Pineapple juicy and sweet. Bananas and local fruit very good. Solomon Island children are beautiful. They are Melanesian dark-skinned and many have blond hair. Once you get away from Honiara, a typical third world city, most people live in grass huts in small villages. People are friendly and speak some English. We took lots of little "happies" such as candy, toys, and old baseball caps passing them out anytime we had time to visit. Dive operators pay the village a fee for diving their reefs. Villagers can be seen paddling from one island to another fishing, carrying kids to school or to tend a nearby garden. Woodcarving and shell jewelry can be purchased. Bought a beautiful carving of a shark and turtle for $85. After 10 years of diving around most sites in the world, the Solomons rank at the top for all around best dive destination. Palau has lots of sharks, PNG has great macro, Fiji has beautiful soft coral, Hawaii has lava formations, Thailand has whale sharks, the Red Sea has lots of colorful anthias, Cozumel and Little Cayman have great walls, Bonaire has good beach diving, the Caribbean is convenient, but for the absolute best of all these things you can't beat the Solomons.