A gold star day is defined as a day cruising when one spends no money. This concept is illegal in Noumea, but easy to achieve here on Tanna Island. We have been here since Thursday morning - it is now Saturday afternoon late, and although the true definition of Gold Star Day has not been met, it has as near as damn it. We went across to Lenakel, the island's capital, in the "Bus" - a Hilux ute - with the crew from another two yachts who had arrived here just before us - "Matin d'Or", a British-registered Westerly Oceanmaster owned by Allan and Pamela (we met them originally in March in Sydney at Cammeray Marina) and Stephen and Dianne from the cat-rigged "Independent Freedom". The markets were on in Lenakel as it was Friday, and for the total of about $5 Australian in Vatu we bought 40 mandarins, 3 huge grapefruit, a bag of about 50 passionfruit, 40 or so limes, some tomatoes, snake beans, peppers, ginger, shallots and for a $1.75 more three loaves of lovely fresh bread literally from the oven. Today we have been out and about - the village water pump is on its last legs - we had a look at it and with Allan will take some tools and materials ashore to try to fix it tomorrow, as well as the nylon pipe which brings water to them from a stream up in the hills - the pipe is broken and they need a short length of hose and some hose clamps to mend it. We had a visit from Sam who sold us two huge lobsters he had just caught for $6 and a small bag of rice for his wife. A fellow from the next village came asking if we had any engine oil for his generator - he runs it on Saturday night to show a video for the village - we gave him a couple of litres, and he left us a bag full of local snake beans, limes, onions and chokoes. These people are so poor but so dignified and never ask for anything without giving something of value in return. If you give a little child a snack-sized box of sultanas or a sweet, his mother will appear next time you go ashore with some bananas or a few vegetables. They are humblingly genuine and dignified. The school principal, Lakin Iaham, was over the moon about the supplies we brought and thanks everyone who sent them. We took our washing over to the head of the bay to a small village, where they have steaming hot water emerging along the shore through the rocks - Port Resolution is just over a ridge from Mount Yasur, an active volcano and there are steam vents and hot springs all over this area. The women there know which pools are too hot to use for washing the clothes, and directed us to the best ones. There are others so hot that they cook their taro and yam in them - big tubers are done to perfection in 20 minutes and come out moist and fluffy like potatoes baked in their jackets - a great snack after doing the washing! In exchange for the use of their hot pools we gave them some fishing hooks - they catch small silver mackerel in the bay as just about the only protein they regularly get. This afternoon we snorkelled at the entrance to the bay - some of the best coral we've seen and some pretty reef fish. We spied a couple of lobsters but I'm afraid we lack the skills of the local lads in catching them unawares! The water temp is just right - warm but not so much as to make you uncomfortable in a spring suit while pretty actively swimming and diving. Tonight we are having our lobster and some mackerel on "Matin d'Or" with Allan and Pamela. In the morning we will go to the church service in the village, watch the soccer game that is happening (against the next village) and then try to fix those problems we mentioned before. So for now, that's it from us. (This place really is close to paradise, and we'll regret having to move on). Cheers from us.

Comments [0]

Our last few days in New Caledonia saw us completing some maintenance (particularly on the watermaker) and stocking up on items we won't see again for a while: French charcuterie, some good wine and lots of snacks for John to demolish on night watches. Not to mention filling the tanks with tax-free diesel after checking out with Douanes (Customs) and Police des Frontieres (Immigration) and finally the Harbourmaster. Friendly service, putting up with John's French without smiling and FREE - unlike Australian Customs and Immigration. In company with "Capricorn III" a Melbourne boat, we had a truly enjoyable sail to Anse du Pilote, resting there overnight so as to leave on the slack tide at high water through Havannah Pass - this has a pretty impressive flow in through the fringing reef as the tide waxes and it's not worth pushing against it - too uncomfortable. Once through Havannah we split up - Dick taking Capricorn to Lifou Island, which we had a good look at last year, and us directly on to Vanuatu, as we would like to get to some of the Northern islands there this time around. Another good sail - winds 12 - 15 knots across the beam and swells only 1 metre or so. We skidded past Mare at about 04:00 today - we were about 4 miles off its coast but you could smell the land and the vegetation quite distinctly. Today was another nice beam reach, although around lunchtime the breeze dropped back in strength for an hour or two, so we motor-sailed through the lull. Tonight another reach, and we're doing 6.5 knots which with luck should put us in the anchorage at Tanna after breakfast tomorrow. We have been keeping in touch on the HF radio with Mike and Lyn on "Wombat of Sydney". Mike and Lyn are from South Carolina but he worked in Sydney for many years and is a member at the Squadron with us. It's nice to chat over the airwaves after dark when the boat is looking after herself for the evening. Until we get to Port Vila, whenever that will be, we will: (1) Be unable to spend any money since there will be nowhere to spend it - GOOD and (2) Be unable to put any pics on the blog but we'll make up for that in Vila. Cheers for now from us.

Comments [0]

We are back in Port Moselle and still plan to be away soon heading North. Such is the nature of things that we always seem to end up enjoying ourselves and in particular meeting terrific people in every anchorage that we're often behind schedule - ah well, the best plan is still No Plan!
We had a good wind to come back from Ile des Pins. We experienced a slight glitch with the PSS prop seal, but this was fixed and we were just getting into the social swing of it here when we had a visit from our French friend Stephanie (Phil's wife) to say that their boat Mer Amour had dragged overnight and was on the rocks in the outer harbour (Petite Rade). We went in our dinghy to help out, and found the boat completely grounded and on her side. Lines were led to two big anchors to stop her repeatedly rolling onto the rocky bottom and damaging herself. A halyard was then taken from the masthead to a wharf about 75 metres away. It was low tide, but as the tide came in Phil cranked on the anchor lines and the masthead line, and in time she was able to be freed by a big RIB with a sizeable engine. She took on some water due to a seacock left open siphoning water in while she was on her side, but this was pumped out and she seems otherwise to be OK. If you click on the picture here, and are patient, you should be able to see a little clip of John during the rescue efforts.
Apart from that drama, which occupied most of yesterday, the weather here has been a bit iffy the last couple of days, so we have been boat-hopping and socialising under cover. We have met a very nice couple from Southport on the huge, three storied twin 1600HP MTU'ed motor boat "Sassy" - they came in alonside us a couple of days ago and at first we thought "There goes the neighbourhood!" (narrowminded yachties!) but were delighted to find them lovely, unpretentious people who are very hospitable. Morrie was happy to tell me that she is a surprisingly economical vessel to run - "Only 90 litres per hour for the 75 hour run from Southport to Noumea"!!!!! Yikes.
Check the new pics in the Photo Gallery

Comments [1]

We're still in the Ile des Pins - today we borrowed Bernie and Di's bikes and rode up the West coast of the island to about two thirds of the way up, then cut inland up to the central plateau past the Aerodrome and across down to Vao on the East coast, then down again to Kuto. It was a spectacular trip - about 30km all up, with some fantastic sights along the way. We visited two limestone caverns - "Grotte de la Troisieme" and "Grotte de la Reine Hortense". These are huge caves carved out by water seeping through limestone and both have fresh water streams running from them into the rock via underground passages and out some distance down the hillsides.
We visited a cemetery with the graves of the convicts who died here during their period of servitude - unmarked graves and a touching memorial erected by their colleagues who made it back to France after servitude.
Vao was a nice little town; it is the capital of Ile des Pins and has the "Mairie" - the seat of local government, and a Kanaky body. Next door is the "Grand Cheferie" - the chief's dwelling. Almost all the population of Ile des Pins is Catholic, and actively so, and their Church of Sainte Marie de Bonne Sante is a very simple but strong and elegant church of colonial design. Above it, quite a way up the hillside, is a strange shrine with a statue of a Christ with his head in his hands, as if in despair.
The drivers here are very polite and friendly - everyone waved to us as they passed us riding around the island, and slowed down to pass us - take note, Sydney!
We had Di and Bernie over for a barbecue last night, with perhaps a ml or two too much Chilean red, but they are great company and we had a good evening. It is interesting that when there is no TV or other distractions, you tend to head for bed very early - settling down not too long into the evening, and getting up at sunrise. We are getting lots of good sleep in a slowly rocking bed, and are feeling great. This evening we went, along with most of the crews in the anchorage, to visit Tony and Mary for sundowners on "Jellyfish", a Jeanneau 48. Tony is a delivery skipper but "Jellyfish" is his own boat, and a very lovely one.
There is some rain forecast sometime in the next couple of days, so when that happens we'll leave here and head back up to Noumea to provision and clear Customs prior to leaving for the Loyalties and Tanna.
Don't forget to click on "Photo Gallery" up there on the right to see our pics.

Comments [1]

We last wrote from Baie Uie, about to leave for Ilot Casy to sit out an anticipated windy spell over the weekend. We weighed anchor from Uie, and left a little before "First Light". Some time later we had a call on the VHF from Bernie, saying their anchor had wrapped around a coral head and they couldn't get off. We motored back in and found that they had had the bad luck to anchor on a very large old Admiralty pattern anchor that some other vessel had long ago abandoned there, and which had grown a coating of coral. It looked like they would not be able to get this heavy old bit of hardware up, but after motoring around it a bit and putting some decent force into lifting it - we could hear their windlass straining - they got the amalgam of two anchors off the bottom. With John's help in the water they got a rope around the Admiralty anchor and managed to separate them. They tried to give the old anchor to some local fishermen but they couldn't get them interested, so they dumped it away from the main anchorage.
We sailed through Canal Woodin and had great tide assistance which added two knots to our speed. We came up at Ilot Casy and went ashore for a walk around the old deserted hotel in amongst the now-neglected but still pretty gardens and on the East side of the island where there is a white-sand beach and some interesting sub-tropical forest. The promised strong SE change was far more moderate than forecast so we up-anchored on Saturday morning and left for Ile des Pins. What followed was the best sail of the trip - we had 12 - 15 knots forward of the beam, swell less than a metre and full sun. With genoa, staysail and full main "Destiny" managed 6 to 7 knots all the way and we pulled into Baie de Kuto at Ile des Pins about 16:30. The anchorage is large and is fairly evenly of 4 or 5 metres depth throughout. There are a couple of large coral heads in the bay in the anchorage area but these are easily seen and avoided.
This is a delightful anchorage. There is good shelter from the prevailing SE breeze, the water is clean and turquoise in colour, and there is good holding on a sand bottom. The beach and island are the typical "Tropical Paradise" straight from Central Casting. Coconut palms, banana palms and colonial pines line a clean, shiny white and squeaky clean beach. The loudest sound most of the time is the swell breaking on the coral on the other side of a peninsula separating the anchorage from the weather on the other side. Anyone not happy with this should be thrown overboard.
So yesterday, Sunday, we walked to some old colonial prison ruins and did a bit of gentle hiking to look around. Nature has the upper hand here - everything green grows at a rate you can almost see while standing watching. Butterflies of marvellous colours are everywhere, and birds are prolific - especially some quite attractively-hued local finches which get around in great packs grazing the grasses for seeds. Walking along the roads the loudest sounds you hear are the multi-layered calls of numerous different bird species near and far. Later we had a snorkel in Baie de Kanumera on the other side of the peninsula - nice but not spectacular formations and fish, but quite warm water and totally deserted. A few black-tipped reef sharks linger in the anchorage and elsewhere looking for scraps and small prey, but these are no menace to humans and the water here is quite safe.
So today we are off ashore again, to find the Boulangerie which is a couple of km up the road, and we may walk the 6 km to Vao, the island's "capital village" to see what there is there.
It's going to be tough to drag ourselves away from this one!
We are putting some new pics up here as we have access to wireless internet courtesy of a small-scale up-market hotel at the end of the bay.
Bye for now from us!

Comments [0]

Today we cut ourselves free from Port Moselle marina. Although it is nice to have the shore power feeding the batteries and unlimited good fresh water, along with wonderful neighbours on the dock, it really is not hard to leave Noumea. It stinks in the harbour, where the water is foul and fed by large storm-water drains which come in at the head of the bay. Everything is literally at least twice the price we would pay at home - although the range of goods is excellent. Additionally, there has been a series of industrial disputes around Noumea which have taken their toll on the atmosphere. Apparently a Government contract worker was sacked, or didn't have their contract renewed, last week before we arrived. This led to a general strike which lasted a day or two. Then after a brief respite, there was another general strike to protest the fact that the workers weren't going to be paid for the time they were on strike the first time. They were (mainly Kanaky people) all camped outside the main Government building, picnicking and playing Bob Marley really loudly, smoking ganja and drinking Hinano beer in prodigious quantities, having a ball really. One result of all this was that no garbage was collected for a week - and with the fish market just adjacent to the marina, you can imagine how that was after a few days! So we left this morning, heading South into the lagoon and will be traking a few days getting to Ile des Pins. We particularly sad to say farewell to Barry and Mags on the Contest 43 "JJ Moon", who have become good friends - we met them in Vanuatu last year and have had some really good times with them here. Mags is a generous and thoughtful hostess. We will also miss our dock neighbours Philibert and Stephanie Dussine and their young son. Stephanie and Phil were very helpful to us, driving us to get groceries in the suburbs when the main city supermarkets were "en greve" (on strike). Also, they performed a mission of mercy in helping us get the espresso machine fixed - a major crisis in the cruise! We left today at the same time as Bernie and Di on "First Light III", a Melbourne boat of Joe Adams design, like "Destiny", and we are tonight anchored together in Baie Uie - a beautiful bay well-protected from the prevailing winds, and with a coconut palm plantation at the head of the bay. We had a lovely walk with them up to the peak of a ridge behind the anchorage this afternoon, and will head around to Baie du Prony tomorrow. We'll probably stay there until Monday to let a strong South Easterly surge pass through over the weekend. We're well and happy, eating fantastic but outrageously-priced French food, "Destiny" is doing fine and we are in good company, but do miss everyone at home. Cheers to all. Us

Comments [1]