Santa Cruz Islands - Solomons

[Waverley81]

HI Everyone
I am wondering if there may be any cruisers out there who have been to or know any significant information about the Santa Cruz Island group (part of the Solomon Islands). In particular, useful chart numbers, the people, provisions etc. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

[Kestrahl]

We were at Gracosa Bay in the main island of the Santa Cruz group about 3 weeks ago. You check in at the town of Lata. We anchored at Shaw Point which is the best anchorage in the bay and caught a local boat over to Lata to check in as it was blowing quite strong (Shaw point has a church run school for mechanical/carpentry/ag . If there is no wind you can Anchor in front of Lata or moor to one side of the wharf. The other side is taken up by a sunken copra ferry that apparently capsized at the wharf (overloaded). The people are generally pretty good from this region of the Solomons. We expected them to be poorer than Vanunatu but found they actually seem better off in the Solomons (probably due to more natural resources fishing timber mining etc) They didn't have the ethnic tensions in Santa Cruz as there are no Malatians (who are more prone to trouble) We didn't explore any other islands in the group as we were just checking in and heading west. There was a charter catamaran from Noumea there as well with about 10 Germans who were only doing the Santa Cruz group. They had flown in the officials from Honiara so they could do the full check in (otherwise its just partial and you need to goto Honiara to complete it). It appears the Reef Islands, Duff Islands etc are very rarely cruised. Our C-maps were accurate in Lata and pretty vague for the rest of the group but with good light and some help from Locals you could probably find some nice spots. Provisions - take everything with you, the nearest good provisions are luganville or Honiara. You can buy some fruit/veges and bread buns if you are lucky

[Waverley81]

Thank you SO much for this information. It will be very useful for our planning. When you were in Lata did there appear to be any facility to get diesel fuel?

[Kestrahl]

Yes you can get diesel, from the wharf turn right and the gas station is about 100m down the road. The best food store that we found was also at the Gas station. You can use internet at the telekom building/compound up the hill.

[Waverley81]

Great thanks for that information it is greatly appreciated