Rekata Bay, also known as Suavanau, is a bay

Bay

A bay is an area of water mostly surrounded by land. Bays generally have calmer waters than the surrounding sea, due to the surrounding land blocking some waves and often reducing winds. Bays also exist as an inlet in a lake or pond. A large bay may be called a gulf, a sea, a sound, or a bight...

 located on the northeast coast of Santa Isabel Island

Santa Isabel Island

Santa Isabel Island is the longest in the Solomon Islands, South Pacific, and the largest in the group of islands in Isabel Province.-Location and geographic data:...

 in the Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...

 between Santa Isabel and Papatura Island.

History

Before the Second World War a copra

Copra

Copra is the dried meat, or kernel, of the coconut. Coconut oil extracted from it has made copra an important agricultural commodity for many coconut-producing countries. It also yields coconut cake which is mainly used as feed for livestock.-Production:...

 plantation

Plantation

A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...

 was built at Suavanau Point by Burns, Philp & Company Limited, known as the Suavanau Plantation.

During the war, the Japanese Imperial Navy constructed a seaplane base at Rekata Bay in the middle of 1942. It was used for offensive operations, mainly the nightly Washing Machine Charlie

Washing machine charlie

Washing Machine Charlie or Bed Check Charlie was a name given by Allies to Imperial Japanese aircraft that performed usually solitary, nocturnal operations over Henderson Field, Guadalcanal during the Guadalcanal Campaign...

 raids on Henderson Field, Guadalcanal

Guadalcanal

Guadalcanal is a tropical island in the South-Western Pacific. The largest island in the Solomons, it was discovered by the Spanish expedition of Alvaro de Mendaña in 1568...

. It was also used as an emergency landing and ditching area for aircraft damaged during the Battle of Guadalcanal. The base was bombed by U.S. forces from August 1942 to August 1943. In the following month, the Japanese evacuated the base. A U.S. Navy team flew in in late 1943 and examined 15 wrecked Japanese aircraft. A single PBY from No. 6 Squadron RNZAF

No. 6 Squadron RNZAF

No. 6 Squadron Royal New Zealand Air Force is the squadron operating New Zealand's navy's air arm. While historically having been disbanded several times through changes in the country's military structure, it has a history going back to before World War II, when it operated flying boats. The...

finally visited the abandoned base on 28 August 1945, losing a man, who was probaby eaten by a crocodile.

In the 1990s a small airstrip was built at Suavanau Point.