Trip Report Solomon Islands May/June 2015 - Solomon Island Dive Expeditions

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Pacifico

Registered
Messages
30
Reaction score
10
Location
Ottawa, Canada
# of dives
100 - 199
PART 1:
I had the privilege of traveling to the Solomon Islands in late May and early June of last year as a guest with Solomon Island Dive Expeditions (SIDE) aboard the MV Solomon Star. My friend and I both traveled from Canada. We were extremely lucky to find out, as we were picked up prior to boarding the ship in Honiara, that we were going to be sharing this trip with 2 other guests and a crew of 6! That SIDE agrees to run their trips when even just a single passenger is booked demonstrates their dedication - many thanks! A more detailed review of my experience with SIDE is provided at the end of this post.

THE DIVING

Overall, my 10-day trip in the Solomon Islands was marvelous because the diving was so varied. My impression is that, as far as tropical locations go, the Solomon Islands are going to be hard to top because of the variety of marine life (corals, other invertebrates and fishes), the variety of dive sites (shallow protected, exposed with current), the variety of underwater topography (walls, gental coral slopes, swim-throughs, cuts, caves, sandy slopes etc...), the WWII wrecks and, of course, the relatively pristine state of the marine environments and the remoteness of dive sites. Here is log of the notes I took about the diving during the trip.

27/05/2015 - Florida Islands
Dive 1: Ghavutu Island Wharf
Dive 2: Ghavutu Island Wharf, saw large cuttlefish, brilliant headshield
Dive 3: Ghavutu Island Japanese plane wreck (no dive - difficulty equalizing)
visit Tulagi

28/05/2015 – northern Florida Islands
Dive 1: Maravagi village, Maganlonga island reef
Early dive at around 6h30. Down to 18 - 20m beautiful reef, large field of cabbage coral. Even more pretty shallow. Lionfish, anemone clownfish (several spp.).

Dive 2: Maravagi village, Maganlonga island reef
Same site. Stayed shallower with buddy. Beautiful and sun shining through.

Dive 3: Devil's Highway, Mangalonga Island
Strong current, saw 4 - 5 manta rays (one about 6 m wingspan), one bumphead parrotfish, one blacktip reef shark

Dive 4: Baby Cakes, Bokonimbeti Island
Open and exposed reef. Slight current. Three grey reef sharks at about 27 – 30m depth on edge of reef. Two broadclub cuttlefish and one very large green turtle. Beautiful and massive gorgonians. Large coral colonies.

Dive 5: Baby Cakes, Bokonimbeti Island
Dusk dive. Current stronger now. Lionfish, crinoids.

29/05/2015 - Russell Islands

Dive 1: White Beach, Banika Island channel between Banika and Hae Island
I could not equalize...no dive

Dive 2: White Beach, Banika Island channel between Banika and Hae Island
US army dump site from WW2. Many tires, ammunition, trucks. All mostly rusted, degraded and overgrown with coral. Many lionfish and pipefish. Beautiful large coral colonies along steep slope. Down to ~35m. Headed north along wall.

Dive 3: White Beach, Banika Island channel between Banika and Hae Island
Dive with buddy. Stayed much shallower. Headed south this time.

Dive 4: White Beach, Banika Island channel between Banika and Hae Island.
Dive with buddy and another guest. Mostly stayed with buddy since other guest was off on his own taking pictures. Had to abort dive early and ended up taking a dump in 10ft of water near shoreline with children playing on shore – yikes!

Marvelous crossing through the maze of islands and reefs that make up the northern Russells. The coastline is largely exposed old reefal limestone and is undercut and ripe with caves. As a good omen, a pod of bottlenose dolphins come from offshore to ride the ship's bow wave. As we enter the passage between Marulaon Island and Leru Island, a magical wave of floral aroma washes over the ship. We arrive in Kafoleon Bay at Mane Island just as dusk sets in. The boat backs the stern in 20m from undercut coral cliffs. Jungle biophony in full gear with birds, frogs and bats calling.

Dive 5: Night dive at Mane coral gardens and bommies in Kafoleon Bay. Fantastic! Marvellous hard coral. Parrotfish, buddy found a beautiful Papuan Scorpionfish. Ended dive in the beautiful shallow at the island's rock wall. Wow!

30/05/2015 - Russell Islands

Dive 1: Same site as night dive (Kafoleon Bay) Dive solo with buddy.
Nice coral gardens, water very clear. Shy octopus in a crevice changing colors.

Dive 2: Mirror Pond at north side of Mane Island.
Incredible dive with 35m visibility. The Shallow hard coral gardens we passed through were spectacular. They were almost completely covered in live coral. Entering passage through to Mirror pond was surreal with light shaft beaming down from above. Exited and swam through shallow coral gardens again before exiting on beautiful reef wall dropping off into oblivion. Coral gardens were utterly marvellous!

Dive 3: Leru Cut, northwest side of Leru Island.
What a site for my 100th dive! Beautiful and ethereal penetration into a narrow cut/chasm that extends about 30m into jungle. Buddy stayed at the surface while I stayed at the sandy bottom around 14m. Chasm was about 2.5 - 3m wide. Exited on reef wall. Beautiful soft coral of all sorts.

Dive 4: Bat Cave, north side of Marulaon Island.
Sat this dive out and decided to nap instead after a persistent headache. Slept about 2 hours. Felt rejuvenated after that!

Dive 5: Custom Cave, off a northwest section Pavuvu Island.
Late day dive with buddy and cruise director. Swim through to wall and directly into opening descending to about 15m where we penetrate into the cave. Overhead environment for a short distance. Buddy and I surface to the mangroves and slow surge pouring in. While at the surface of this hidden pond, I take a moment to listen to the waves in the background and the noises of the jungle that surrounds – this place is a world away from everything. Descend again and spend about a half hour in the cave looking for cometfish and other critters before exiting onto wall. Several jacks and snappers patrolling.

31/05/2015 - Southeast Marovo

Crossing to Borokua (Mary) Island overnight was much rougher than expected. We arrived at Borokua (Mary Island) around 5 30 AM but the dive sites were not diveable. Plan B: off to Marovo. 5 hours later and with 2m swells out of the south we arrive at Gatokae Island.

Dive 1: Northwest tip of Bulo Island.
Beautiful high limestone cliff Island. Narrow reef dropping of steeply. Crystal clear water with visibility at least 35 - 40 m. Fabulous hard corals and spur and groove formations. A few bumphead parrotfish. Wow!!!

Dive 2: North side of Malemale Island.
Nice small low island with palm trees lining beach. Upon entering we see a turtle, bumphead parrotfish and two black tips and an inquisitive young grey reef shark that stuck around for 4 min. More bumphead parrotfish, several whitetip reef sharks and blacktip reef sharks.

Dive 3: Lagoon Peava village
Nice, calm and long shallow night dive looking for critters. Stayed between 3 and 5 m. Robust ghost pipefish, many bobbit worms, lionfish, shrimp.

01/06/2015 - Southeast Marovo

Dive 1: Kavachi Corner, northeast Kicha Island
Crossing back over to Kicha was still rough but calmer than the day before. This was an electric and most incredible dive. Early morning drop in and the volcano is rumbling, thumping and pounding throughout the dive as if a soundtrack backdrop to an eerie movie. Every once in a while there is a very loud crackle followed by a massive low pitch thump. Wow!!!!! An inquisitive grey reef shark comes right at us early on. Several more come in at a distance throughout the course of the dive. Large schools of fish and many pelagic species all over the place: big eye barracuda, greater barracuda, jacks, schools of bumphead parrotfish. Wow dive!!!!!

Dive 2: Bulo Cathedrals, north side Bulo Island.
Great visibility (~35-40m) Drop in at wall, shallow areas covered in beautiful coral. Structure and coral make the place look like a magical playground – unbelievable! Many swim-throughs and caverns. One area covered in thicket of delicate branching Acropora coral. Finally reach cavern leading to cathedrals. Opening is magical with light shafts beaming down from multiple areas. Wow! I say, but really, it is hard to fully convey the beauty in my post.

Dive 3: Lagoon reef in between Big and little Karanjou islands.
As soon as we anchor blacktips are cruising below the boat. Buddy and I enter the water but the sharks quickly disperse. We head down to the reef and a few sharks swim along the wall but at a distance. We dive along the reef. Good visibility (~25m) and nice shallow coral. We closely approach a cuttlefish in the shallow and surface shortly after where I take some over-under shots. Back at boat, about ten blacktip reef sharks are circling and pass close by. I take a bunch of photos. Some commercial logging going on on Karanjou.

Dive 4: Toatelave Island.
Small island near Bili passage and Minjanga Island. Relatively poor visibility (~10 -15 m). Nevertheless, sheer vertical wall dropping off into the abyss is impressive! We go deep (~34m) where an inquisitive grey reef shark cones in and hangs around for 2-3 min. Wall is full of massive gorgonians and sea fans, as big as tables. Many schools of bumphead parrotfish. As we are ending dive, buddy and I are ahead in ~7m of water when I look up at reef crest and see a sicklefin lemon shark that slowly swims away towards the shore – that was a fantastic treat!
....
 
...PART 2:

02/06/2015 - Marovo Lagoon


Dive 1: Soltai Wreck, Bahoro Island (ocean side)
Late start to the day with stormy and rainy conditions as we circumnavigate Gatokae and then southern Vangunu. Finally we reach the strait between Raino Island and Bahoro Island. We find the wreck resting vertically on a sheer wall dropping off into oblivion. Visibility is rather good. Interesting Japanese wreck. Stern rests at about 38m.

Dive 2: Unidentified Japanese battleship WW2 wreck, Wickham Harbour
10-15m visibility. Long wreck lying face up on sandy bottom at ~20m. Many big snappers, groupers, spadefish. Fish are relatively calm and allow approach. Turtle on resting on ship's bow as we descend onto wreck. Runoff from neighbouring Vangunu clouds the upper layer as we end our dive. This is from rain that has been falling all day.

Anchor at Wickham Island right in front of a beautiful beach. Buddy goes to explore island alone. We are scheduled to depart for Borokua around 22-23h - let's hope the wind dies down and the seas flatten!

03/06/2015 - Borokua (Mary) Island

Crossing to Borokua: stormy weather whipped things up and we could only leave around 3h40 AM. Seas were very rough but we arrived at Borokua around 9 AM under calmer weather and with some sun shining through the clouds. Looking east we can see the Russell's in the distance and looking west we can even make out Bulo and Gatokae as they rise high above the horizon.

Dive 1: West side of Borokua island in shallow water between barracuda point and jack point.
Incredible hard coral gardens slopping down. We can hear the constant thump and occasional crackle of Kavachi, albeit not as loud and thundering as at Kicha. Nice nudibrachs at this dive and many chubs, snappers and schools of rainbow runners flowing like a river on the reef. Visibility good but probably not the best for an exposed site like Mary due to runoff from recent storm or swell (?)

Dive 2: Barracuda Point, Borokua Island
Headed deep here, down to 41m. Water slightly cooler down there and several grey reef sharks patrolling the edge of the reef, including one larger individual. Large schools of big eye jacks move in and out, and from the surface back down on the reef as I move into shallower water. Large schools of fish here. Saw one whitetip reef shark cruising around 10m. Nice dive.

Dive 3: Jack Point, Borokua Island
Me and buddy get dropped off alone by Joe and the tender for this dive after we spent about an hour walking on Borokua and trying to penetrate the thick jungle without great success. Current has picked up and visibility has dropped. We don't see anything out of the ordinary for the Solomon Island diving we've done so far. A medium-sized Napoleon wrasse swims by. Nice dive, although with greater current we probably would have done better going back to Barracuda point.

Dive 4: shallow Coral gardens behind moored boat, Borokua Island
Surreal and unique dive during which Solomon Island Dive Expeditions provided us with blue phosphorescent light and yellow filter mask visors to see fluorescent corals. Very different yet fascinating perspective. Bravo to SIDE for offering this to guests.

04/06/2015 - Russell Islands

Dive 1: Aeaun Island, Russell Islands
Narrow string of low exposed reef with some vegetation. We dive ocean side but behind island is a beautiful shallow reef flat with turquoise water. Just buddy and I drop down to 30 - 35m along sheer vertical wall dropping off without any sign of the bottom. Good visibility but strong current that pushes us along the reef wall turning this into somewhat if a drift dive. Two grey reef sharks come into investigate while we are deep. Two tunas are constantly chasing schooling fish throughout the dive

Dive 2: Samseaun Island, Russell Islands
Similar to earlier dive but at a site further east along the string of islands. Not as eventful but very strong current whipping us along the wall. Real great drift dive!

Dive 3: Ta Island, Russell Islands
Perfect weather today with sun, blue skies and almost no wind. After lunch on a picture-perfect beach at Bakui Island where a lonesome old man with white hair lives, we dive the wall at Ta Island where a seaweed harvesting operation has recently begun operations in the last few months. We drop down along a wall with massive gorgonians and massive elephant ear sponges. Most are as large as wide tables and one is as wide as the dive deck.

Dive 4: Ta Island, Russell Islands
Final dive is late afternoon. Just buddy and I. We head in the opposite direction to explore the wall. A spotted eagle ray glides by us and a school of mackerel sends us off after a calm, shallow dive to end this trip. My buddy completed all 35 dives on this trip, while I am close behind at 33.

What to say, the memories from this trip are so firmly etched in my mind that, 9 months on, I still reflect back on my experience with a child’s fondness. I would readily return to the Solomon Islands – especially on an exploratory trip to visit other parts of the archipelago (Shortlands, Choiseul, Santa Isabel, Makira).

Here are the pictures I took on this trip:

A Journey through the Solomon Islands: From Guadalcanal to Marovo Lagoon

Solomon Islands Dive Expedition ran a fantastic operation. They went out of their way to make sure that the dive sites/islands/locations that the four of us were interested in were visited. Belinda, the trip director, was flexible with the itinerary and went out of her way on several occasions to get us to dive some sites. The food was delicious – varied and filling and little details like chocolates on our pillows after diving showed their great attention to detail. The crew really worked hard to ensure everything ran smoothly and always obliged when my buddy and I requested to visit some of the islands in between dives. SIDE paid great attention to safety. This is a great operation that caters to people that are looking to dive an incredible group of islands. Hats off!
 
Last edited:
Looks like your timing, like ours missed the typhoon that hit late June. We were there July 4 aboard the Bilikiki followed by a week at Uepi. How did you get there? We did Toronto to LA, short Venice 9hr layover. LA to Syndey with a quick connection to Brisbane for 3 days. From there to HIR.

Nice report!
 
Thanks Mike,

Indeed, the typhoon hit a few weeks after our trip (May 26th to June 5th). My friend and I met at LAX, flying in respectively from Vancouver and Montreal (non-stop). From LAX we flew into Nadi with Fiji Airways and spent 5 days in Fiji, then flying from Nadi to Honiara, once again with Fiji Airways.

If I could redo this, I would have opted not to layover for 5 days in Fiji and instead tried to visit Rennell Island...oh well :)
 
Thanks for the fantastic review! Can't believe I am just finding this now!
We are glad you had such a good time on Solomon Star. Now, you must come back and visit us on our new vessel Taka - she is even more comfortable and luxurious with all the same great diving. We are introducing new itineraries in 2017 to include more of New Georgia and the Western province. In fact, we are about to do an exploratory trip next month all the way up to the Shortland Islands and Choiseul. Belinda is now managing our land based operation at Munda - so you have another opportunity to diver with her there!
 
Thanks for the fantastic review! Can't believe I am just finding this now!
We are glad you had such a good time on Solomon Star. Now, you must come back and visit us on our new vessel Taka - she is even more comfortable and luxurious with all the same great diving. We are introducing new itineraries in 2017 to include more of New Georgia and the Western province. In fact, we are about to do an exploratory trip next month all the way up to the Shortland Islands and Choiseul. Belinda is now managing our land based operation at Munda - so you have another opportunity to diver with her there!

Will you guys be represented at DEMA this year?
 
We will be at DEMA this year with some amazing specials for individual and group travel! We have a booth in the South Pacific Pavilion right next to the Solomon Islands Visitors Bureau - will we see you at the show?
 
In the meantime, check out our website and our facebook page - we have lots of little videos of dives we do to get you excited about a trip. Or if you want, I am happy to send you info before DEMA. My personal email is shaz@dive-solomon.com

Jose - thanks again for the trip review! Glad I found it today!
 
Looks like your timing, like ours missed the typhoon that hit late June. We were there July 4 aboard the Bilikiki followed by a week at Uepi. How did you get there? We did Toronto to LA, short Venice 9hr layover. LA to Syndey with a quick connection to Brisbane for 3 days. From there to HIR.
 
Last edited:
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

Back
Top Bottom