Noumea Region. Mont Dore to Tiare
18 July 2009 | 22 11'S:166 17'E, Ilot To Ndu
Leanne
After three nights at Port Moselle, strong westerlys and terrential rain ( a local said this weather is very unusual) and freezing cold. Awoke this morning to sunshine and hardly a cloud in the sky. We have met another Aussie couple from Melbourne onboard Freysinet (Doug & Sandy) who we may tag along with to Vanuatu,as they are doing it in steps which will suit us better, rather than straight thru.
We restocked at the local supermarket "CASINO", the rain was pouring down,John said lets see if we can ask if they can order a taxi...I asked the checkout operator if she spoke English..Parlez-vous anglais? Ans: NO..Ok dig deep and asked "Applez s'il vous plait un taxi pour moi" Ans: Oui (Yes) Awesome and the taxi arrived about 20minutes later. Taxi driver also spoke no English, so I said : a cette addresse ( to this address) Port Moselle Marina Answ: Oui ( I was on a roll) John was saying in English lots of rain...she was replying no english no english... I said to her Il Pluit (its raining) She replied in English!...just in time for the weekend ...What the! I guess her english was a bit like my French...new a little to get by. Sitting in the opposite side of the car and driving on the wrong side of the road was an experience also.
We put 200 litres of Diesel fuel onboard,47 Ltrs outboard fuel, purchased 5Ltrs oil for outboard and 5 Ltrs oil for engine 2 x coffee and 2 x ice creams which cost 29694 XPF (Pacific Francs) div 67c AUD exchange rate $443.19 AUD.
We sailed a 12-15 knt SW breeze to Ilot To Ndu today, sunny clear day, we have returned to North of Noumea and anchored on opposite side of Island to previous visit due to wind direction. Cruised in Tinny around surrounding Coastline, again a breathtaking view of Mountains...sometimes I feel I am looking at a postcard, so hard to describe or capture on film. Sundowner's onboard Freysinet, back to Migaloo to run generator to bring fridges down. Watched a local game show...which is all in French...we play a different game, can we guess what words in French we understand, quite amusing to us! Au revoir