Leaving New Zealand, Well, Almost.......
24 June 2012 | New Caledonia
We left the dock at Bayswater, around 10:30 am, June 8, 2012 and headed to the Customs dock at Marsden Wharf across the bay in Auckland. Check-out was quick because I already had all the forms completed. By 11:30, we were on our way out of New Zealand, sailing towards New Caledonia - 866 nautical miles to the north - where it is warm! Enough with this freezing here in NZ!
As we sailed along the east coast, we had a small question lingering in our minds, "what about that nasty looking LOW pressure system that was going to be slashing across our path 3 days north of New Zealand???" Michael checked the GRIB files and we received an email from Graham Perryster - our Canadian weather router - and we received an email from David on s/v Rhythm, also poised to leave for New Cal, all saying the same thing: DON'T GO!!!! So we didn't.
We changed course to sail into Opua; our port of entry when we arrived in NZ back in December. We had called Customs to let them know we were coming because we had to check back into the country! So at 5:30 pm, Saturday June 9, we finished those formalities and headed off to the anchorage. We had hoped to make a clean break, but it was not to be. Nevertheless, the lemonade from those sour lemons was that we got to see Rhythm, Fred and Cinda on s/v Songline and Philip and Unilda from Cars for Cruisers once more before leaving.
Four days later, early Thursday morning, we checked out again and were back on the ocean sailing towards New Caledonia once again. There was another LOW coming through a few days north, but we figured it would be to the east of us by the time we reached that latitude. It was and we got pretty good winds from it. We were averaging about 6-7 knots, which is good for Gromit! As we got farther past the LOW, the winds started clocking around and we had winds on the nose for over 24 hours. Then the HIGH pressure system moved in and we were down to 5-10 knot winds. Normally we could sail with that little wind, but due to the 2 metre swell, we had to take our sails down and motor. We motored the last three days right into Port Moselle, New Caledonia. We arrived at 9 am, Friday June 22 - 8 days after leaving NZ.
We anchored beside Rhythm, who had arrived two days earlier, even though they left the same day - catamarans are faster - and Michael went to Customs and Immigration to check us in. When he returned, he was with the Bio-Security agent who came to check what foods we had aboard. No fresh produce, eggs, popcorn, sunflower seeds and on and on, are allowed in to New Caledonia. We knew that there were restrictions, so we made sure to eat most of our fresh foods. I went in with Michael when he took the Bio lady back and we found a grocery store and bought fresh baguettes and Emmental cheese. That was our dinner! Man, baguettes are sooooo good!
Our first impressions of New Caledonia: WOW, it's warm!!! And, at anchor, it reminds us of Tahiti. We are hearing French everywhere, as it is a territory of France like French Polynesia. We'll be here just over a week. Our friend, Dennis from Toronto will be arriving on Thursday and spending around two months crewing aboard Gromit. We have a lot of miles to cover to get to Kupang, Indonesia, for the start of the Sail Indonesia Rally at the end of July. While in New Cal, we have visas to arrange, a sail to repair, an oil leak in the engine to trouble shoot, an alternator to repair and numerous other jobs to accomplish! And, here I thought that when we got to New Cal it would be all fun and relaxation!!!! Well, we'll try to fit a bit of that in, too!