The last day of approach to New Caledonia proved to be a test of character. The wind had been predicted to move North and to moderate, along with diminishing seas. Of course, that was all correct except that it didn't move North, didn't moderate (it increased, in fact, to 30 knots) and the seas remained a solid 3 metres. Nonetheless we had the finish line in sight and stayed hard on the breeze until we approached the coast North of Noumea, then put in a tack to come down the coast and made Dumbea Pass at about 0900 Monday. Port Moselle was nearly full, and we got the last berth available. An Aussie family radioed in just after us looking for a berth but were turned away.
Formalities took a couple of hours and we just tidied up as best we could, had a curry and hit the sack.
Tuesday we cleaned up "Destiny", soaking the lines in fresh water, washing the sails, tidied the lockers and took the washing to the "Blanchisserie". A trip to the supermarket, sundowners on "Blue Spirit" and a solid 9 hours of ZZZZZ have just about got us back to normal.
The weather here has been a bit ordinary - big thunderstorm last night but clearing today. We hear that things are really rough along the NSW coast with seas of up to 8 or 9 metres. We are glad we got away when we did!
The pic is of the New Caledonia coast at dawn as we tacked down to Dumbea Pass - very pretty - you can see why Captain Cook thought of Caledonia when he first saw the coastline: so ruggedly beautiful.