Noumea

The sail over to Noumea was lovely. We were on a great inland sea, so great that we would never have known there were far away reefs, if we didn't have the chart plotter to tell us. The land we sailed past was mostly high cliffs that were a mix of cascading greenery and rich rusty streaks. The winds were nicely behind us, so we enjoyed comfortable sailing, occasionally see in boats cross our paths on what seemed like a deep ocean, but in reality they were following carefully marked routes to keep from running aground on shallows and reefs, hiding just underwater.

We navigated through channels created by islands, past shallows that weren't quite shallow enough to harm us, and around headlands and into Noumea. It took us most of the day, about 8 hours. With help from friends we found our way into the Marina and a spot to tie up to. The Marina folks were either busy or could not understand our requests for a spot, with the windlass needing a service. Two couples (Bob the Cat and Oynas) helped us and later we stumbled on yet another couple we needed to catch up with (Whale and the Bird). We had met all these folks in the Marquesas and had seen them all in various places since.

As always before checking into a new country was the ever present worry about what the officials would be like. Everywhere we heard horror stories.... They will take all your food, the fresh stuff, the dry chick peas and black beans... For sure the sprout seeds and definitely any nuts you have left. Time and again, this just didn't happen. Maybe since boaters are now so paranoid, they arrive with cleaner boats and overall less stuff that concerns the locals. Maybe the officials have eased up? Regardless, everywhere officials were pleasant, reasonable and took only the fresh produce, mostly taking you at your word that what you handed out for destruction was all you had. Now this was a huge stress for me. I had cleaned over and over and tried to arrive into countries with hardly any fresh stuff and a clean boat. Maybe that helped?

Regardless by the time we were checked in that first day, I was ready for a drink! After getting back from the Marina office I stepped down onto our boat from the huge Cat we had tied to and promptly rolled my left ankle over, and fell with all my weight and some downward momentum onto my outer left thigh on the top of a stantion. My whole body pivoted on the stantion and a second later I was laying on my back looking up at the sky! Oh boy. Though the ankle was tender, I could take a bit of weight on it and hobbled into the cockpit. I nearly blacked out, as I tried to stand to help Dave with a line. So I quickly sat. Thankfully the neighbour ignored my "oh I will be fine in a minute" and handed me an ice pack which I quickly applied, while raising up the ankle. Shoot. Tomorrow was slated to be a big walking day. We still had some officials to see and a big shop to reprovision with fresh food.

By that evening, the ankle felt better, but I kept feeling a soreness on my upper outer thigh. Later I found a lump so big on my thigh that it was as though someone had stuffed a golf ball under the skin. It was seriously tender.

I managed to walk all morning, but after getting groceries I told Dave we were cabbing it back. Good idea. It took about 10 days for the ankle to feel nearly normal and about 3 weeks to a month before the lump went away completely!

Note to self....BE MORE CAREFUL.