A smooth beam reach carries us in comfort back to New Caledonia

Some company on board

The little village of Dillon's Bay (Unpongcorn)

Moving on from the relative wealth of French New Caledonia to independently-poor Vanuatu

The passage to New Caledonia, Port Moselle and the Lagoon

At the jumping-off point to the Pacific

While we are stashing away some cash for next year, we are still trying to have fun!

These are some nice photos of "Destiny V" that Judy Cole took from North Head of Sydney Harbour as we came in at the end of the cruise.

This is a collection of photos of friends we have made on our Pacific cruise

On an otherwise uneventful passage, we were treated to a lovely display by a pod of dolphins who stayed with us for hours, interacting with both "Destiny" and us in a very intelligent way. Also, we had a look at several whales in Hervey Bay - it's right in the middle of whale-watching season at present.

After a turbulent, character-building passage Port Bundaberg Marina was like an oasis in the desert

A real crossroads port, where we found good friends, lots of great places to visit, and a very expensive town

Here we found the happiest people in the world - and they don't have electricity, running water or television!

The people of this semi-autonomous region are proud of their culture and seem faintly amused by the idea the French have that this place is French!

Dozens of pretty anchorages, which "Destiny" often had to herself, made Le Lagon a near-paradise of easy day-sailing and totally placid nights - and lots of Gold Star Days!

A foreign language, exotic markets, cruisers from all over the world, a smelly, dirty harbour - all the things we were looking for and more!

Good friends, great food and beautiful scenery, and we haven't left Australia yet!

Along the NSW coast

The closer we get to departure, the less time we seem to have for trivial frivolity like using Destiny for actually sailing - no, there are far more important and interesting things to do - like rerigging, fitting sun awnings, engine maintenance, electrical upgrades, anchor windlass repair, marine toilet maintenance, repainting decks with non-skid poylurethane. Oh well.....