Solomons Master

Solomons Master is the only Master Liveaboards vessel in the Solomon Islands and the operator’s only hull in the region. She is a steel monohull built in 1974, 37 metres long and 7 across, with eight cabins for 16 guests. Before the move to the Solomons she worked Truk under the name Truk Master — the operator says so outright, and the old name still shows in the files on its own site: the deck plan is called truk-master-deckplan. It is the same hull. M/V SOLOMONS MASTER is painted in large white letters along the dark blue hull, under a white superstructure and the fleet mark.

The interior was redone after the move, which matters when you read older photographs online: a 2017 shoot shows dark timber, black leather and red-and-gold fabrics, while today’s boat is pale teak, white bulkheads, green banquettes in the dining room and blue Pacific-print runners on the beds. The photographs on this page are the current ones, from the operator’s 2025 and April 2026 shoots.

Geography and flights

Three of the four routes are round trips out of Honiara (HIR, on Guadalcanal). Honiara is served from Brisbane (Solomon Airlines codeshared with Qantas, and Virgin Australia), from Fiji (Fiji Airways, Solomon Airlines, Air Niugini) and from Port Moresby (Air Niugini). From Europe the easiest routing is via Brisbane. Check transit visas separately: a layover in Australia longer than eight hours, or leaving the airport, requires one, and the airline will not board you without it.

The fourth route — the ten-night Guadalcanal and Western Province — runs one way between Honiara and Munda (MUA, Western Province), and it always appears in the calendar as a pair: one departure out, the next one back. Solomon Airlines flies Honiara–Munda daily, but that hop is not part of the trip price and you book it yourself. The transfer between the domestic airport (or a local hotel) and the vessel on embarkation and disembarkation days is on the operator.

Where the boat works: the Florida Islands around Tulagi, the Russell Islands, Iron Bottom Sound between Guadalcanal and the Florida Islands, and on the ten-night programmes Marovo Lagoon, Mbulo Island, Blanche Channel and White Beach near Munda. The operator’s own route map also marks Mary Island, Kavachi Korner, Helebo and Rendova.

Money: what you pay on board

Places are sold by the berth — “per space” — and the price is the same for every cabin category: the operator publishes no cabin ladder and no single-occupancy supplement. The whole boat can be taken: 14 paying places out of 16, or half the boat at 7 paying places out of 8.

The main compulsory charge is the kastom fee: 210 USD per person on seven-night routes and 300 USD on ten-night ones. This is not a park fee. Reefs and coastal waters in the Solomons are under customary village ownership, and the right to anchor and dive there is paid to the chiefs. The cruise director collects the money and hands it over village by village; it is added to your invoice at booking and paid on board before disembarkation.

Cash on board is accepted only in Solomon Islands dollars, US dollars and Australian dollars — a local banking restriction. Visa and Mastercard are taken, but charged in SBD at the Bank of South Pacific rate on embarkation day, with 3 % added. Tipping is left to the guest; the operator suggests around 10 % of the trip cost, and tips can go on the card at the same surcharge.

The fuel surcharge lives in a separate fleet-wide statement. In the version of 24 August 2026 Solomons Master carries 35 USD per person per night, but only on departures up to 26 September 2026. The first date on sale is 15 November 2026, so at the moment it applies to none of the trips you can book. The statement is reissued, so it is worth re-reading before you pay.

Insurance covering diving, chamber treatment and evacuation is a condition of the contract, not a suggestion: the insurer’s name and the policy number must be given within 14 days of booking, or the operator may cancel the booking and refund you. The chamber in Honiara is volunteer-run, and if things go badly the evacuation is to Australia.

The deposit is 5 %. The operator reserves the right to cancel a departure if the vessel is less than 60 % full — fewer than ten guests out of sixteen — but not within 90 days of departure.

Certification and the rules underwater

On most routes Advanced Open Water is recommended and 40 logged dives are mandatory. On WWII Wreck Week the bar is higher: Advanced Open Water is mandatory plus a minimum of 75 logged dives. Every diver must dive with a computer — if you do not own one, rent it. Solo diving is not permitted; on standard itineraries rebreathers are allowed within recreational limits only, and only paired with another rebreather diver or inside an open-circuit group. Technical diving is possible only on dedicated technical departures or on a full charter, and all technical kit must be brought with you — there is nowhere in Honiara to repair it. Gases, cylinders and sofnolime are ordered at least six months ahead. The operator names no separate permit for diving the wartime wrecks.

The wartime sites in the programme lie within recreational limits, 30–40 m maximum; visibility is usually 25–40 m and the water 28–30 °C all year.

Season

The climate is equatorial and hot all year: around 31 °C by day and 22–23 °C at night. The wet season runs November to April with roughly 270 mm of rain a month, but this is not a monsoon region and prolonged bad weather is rare. The boat runs year round; the calendar leaves a maintenance window of a few weeks each year — January and February in 2027, January and half of February in 2028, late February and early March in 2029.

The things people find out on the jetty

The sockets on board are US, 110 V and 60 Hz; a handful of 220 V outlets exist only at the camera table in the dining room, so do not plug European gear in without a converter. International SIM cards do not work anywhere in the Solomon Islands, and a local SIM has signal for roughly a third of the trip. There is Starlink, but it is paid: 60 USD for seven nights and 90 USD for ten. There are no 13 L or 15 L cylinders on board, only 11 L AL80s. You may bring your own alcohol, but no more than one bottle of spirits, wine or champagne per person, and no beer. Gluten-free flour and bread are not available on board, and low-fat, low-sugar and soya products are hard to source in the country. Malaria is present in the Solomons, and some anti-malarial drugs — mefloquine among them — have side effects that mimic the symptoms of decompression illness. EU citizens need no visa for up to 90 days; UK, US, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and most other Commonwealth nationals get a free visitor’s permit of 45 days on arrival.