The refit was completed on 13 January and Hydra sailed 12 February 1973 to resume surveys in the Solomon Islands, brief visits being paid to Jakarta and Thursday Island during the passage to Honiara. Surveys of Bougainville Strait and New Georgia Sound were completed. A three-week visit was paid to Brisbane in May, for maintenance, and while on passage both ways a reconnaissance was made of Indispensable Reef. For the next thirteen weeks, almost without a break, surveys were undertaken along the north coasts of Choiseul and Santa Isabel Islands and of Manning Strait. A Solomon Islands 45c postage stamp was issued in January 1981, recording the ship's surveying from April 1972 to September 1973. Preparations for future surveys were carried out around Fiji in late 1973 and a visit was made to Sydney on passage back to Singapore, where she arrived on 26 October for refit; the ship's company lived ashore in the ANZUK barracks. No time was lost owing to bad weather or breakdown during a year in which the ship had steamed over . The two survey boats had steamed an additional during the surveys of the Solomon Islands. With the refit completed in January 1974, her next surveys were around the Maldives, during which time she visited Gan. She made the long passage east, via Singapore, and arrived at her new base of Suva, in the Fiji Islands, on 12 April. Surveys were carried out off northern Viti Levu, with a break in June/July for maintenance in Brisbane. Back off Viti Levu in July, these surveys were completed by August. The next month, work began on modern surveys off northern Vanua Levu and of Yandua Island. Before departing Fijian waters on 21 October, HMS Hydra took part in celebrations to mark the centenary of the cession of the islands to Queen Victoria, with Prince Charles embarked for part of the time. Survey was made of Epi Island, and other areas, of the New Hebrides on passage for Auckland, New Zealand, where the ship arrived on 28 November for maintenance and leave. Surveys off Vanua Levu were resumed in January 1975, though work was punctuated with excursions to the Koro Sea for hurricane assistance and search and rescue work. The ship was absent from surveys in the Fiji area in March for a series of vigia investigations in the south-western Pacific. Surveys were broken off at the