day three to Noumea
28 September 2014 | 22 20.8'S:166 30.9'E, about eight miles to go
sunny and warmer
Now that was completely different from what had been forecast. The gribs were quite clear -- no wind for the entire trip except for a little bit of wind Sunday afternoon as the front passed to the north of us and a building wind on Monday morning up to about 15 knots. Otherwise, the forecast was for zero to five knots of wind. What we had were serious squalls most of Sunday afternoon. The front must have passed a bit closer to us than forecast. And then around 2100 last night the wind started building and by midnight was blowing a solid thirty knots with gusts higher, and it was on the nose. The boat movement stirred up the fuel tank and we had to change the fuel filter at midnight and then we changed it again an hour before we went through the pass (it's been running fine). The wind held on till this morning when it dropped off to twenty knots. The trip from Vanuatu was completely different from what he had expected.
New Caldonia is a very large group of islands with an immense lagoon around the southern shore. We entered the eastern pass, Canal Havanah, around 0700 and it looks as though we'll get into Noumea around 1400 or 1430.
Pan-fried chicken with fried sweet potatoes and onions for dinner last night.