Noumea
25 October 2010
Photo: Dol in Noumea harbour.
On Friday evening we attended a dinner at CNC Yacht Club with the ICA as they were all leaving Noumea the following day to begin the trip back to New Zealand. It was a good night with farewells to friends we had made in the last 5 months. Saturday we had a relaxing day out at Ilot Maitre, 3nm from Noumea harbour, coming back into Noumea in the evening as the weather forecast was for the wind/breeze to go west not ideal for staying overnight at the island. Lucky we went back in as on the Sunday we visited the Aquarium in Noumea, which would have been closed on the Monday. The main reason for going to the Aquarium was to see the Nautilus fish as we have seen lots of broken nautilus shells on the beaches and managed to pick up a nice complete shell. Nautiluses are deep water fish and therefore we have not seen any as we have been snorkeling.
Looking at the weather maps, there is a weather window which appears to be opening for us to leave for Australia on Wednesday 27th October. We have been busy preparing the boat, pre making passage meals and all the other jobs that need doing. It should take us 5 days to get to Australia, so the next blog update will be in a week or so to let you all know we have arrived. Our intention is to aim for Coffs Harbour and following customs clearance start heading south towards Sydney where our new generator is waiting installation and some basic yacht maintenance can be completed also. It is amazing how, with the yacht being our moving home 24/7, more maintenance than usual is needed - Brian is going to have to spend a few days bringing Dol up to scratch again with help from Gail. We are also looking forward to doing a few "Aussie" things before heading home to New Zealand for 6 weeks from 2nd December.