Well, our plan to get a better wind angle on the trip to New Caledonia worked out perfectly along with a lot of help from the heavens- we somewhat rare East/NE consistent winds and even a fair current most of the way so we got here in a flash, fastest passage ever. We routinely saw 8kts on the GPS on account of the fair current and the fact that we were reaching; it felt so good to be blasting along like that. We came through Havannah Pass into the southern lagoon of New Caledonia at 1am, then continued on through the night to get around the bottom of the island to Noumea by the following morning, something like 43 more miles. Normally we can't travel close to shore at night because of poor charts but since New Cal is French, the charts are good, the passages well marked and you can safely traverse the waterways. It was a beautiful clear night with light winds and I really enjoyed making our way through the channel in between the islands, smelling the land & sea at the same time. Now if only all passages could be like that one!

Since we were three boats (Blue Rodeo, us and Fruit de Mer who joined us in Port Vila), we all pulled in to the marina at the same time. Knowing the ropes from our brief stay last year, it was easy to get settled in. To finally have a hose again to clean off the salt felt good, although it keeps oozing out of fittings and covers even after you clean it off. Walking the streets of Noumea is a little bit of a shock after 2 months in Vanuatu. Everyone's got a baguette under one arm and a cigarette in the other. It's hard to time businesses when they're open since they seem to close at all hours of the day. The pamphlet on the park we're going to tomorrow says “The park may close for a day every once in a while for various reasons- call if you have a doubt”. I don't think that would go over too well back home. The produce market is great even if expensive and it is much more civilized which changes everything. Did you know that the Port Vila produce market doesn't close except on Sunday? Those poor ladies live at the market 24/7 on the floor of their stalls with babies on mats under the tables or on their hip. That's why you see people eating & sleeping at all hours while you shop. Not here. Much better! Fresh tuna is big and the least expensive thing going as far as meat goes. We have tuna steaks each night and need to come up with some more recipes to shake things up.

We arrived here on Saturday morning and were promptly visited by Biosecurity. The lady was very nice and polite and I handed over my fresh produce. She said that customs probably wouldn't show up since it was Saturday and in her words, they would be sleeping in so after 2 hours, we were to take our yellow quarantine flag down and consider ourselves done till we went to Immigration on Monday to complete the check-in process. We've been doing maintenance on the boat but have also taken some long walks on local trails, went to the aquarium with Mark & Anne and a hill-top lookout park to the south of Noumea. They also have a nice zoo here. On Wednesday, 4 days after we'd arrived, Jon & I came back to the boat at 4p after a long day of walking planning to sit down for a minute and put our feet up with something cold to drink when 4 customs figures came snooping down the dock right up to our finger pier. They said they were going to do an inspection and tried to make us sit on our own deck and wait. We explained twice that they wouldn't get in the boat because it's locked. Finally a light bulb went off and they instructed me to open the boat and then to sit on the back corner of my cockpit while they & their black boots went down below. One was posted out with me asking me questions and then Jon was called down below for the super duper part of the search. While 3 of the people were friendly & polite, the main one doing the search wasn't the brightest bulb on the tree and he was treating us like crap. They got hot & heavy into taking apart our bed, rummaging through our dressers (hope he liked my underwear drawer!), food supplies and then under the floorboards. We were most definitely guilty, they just had to prove it. Alas, one found our malaria pills, in the cupboard beside my pillow. They didn't know what malaria pills were. The guy kept asking Jon what they were but when Jon stepped forward to see what he was asking about, the guy held up his hand and yelled “stay there!” as if he would be threatened. Brilliant! Then, the big discovery that threw everyone for a loop- GRANOLA BARS under the floorboard! Got-ya! He kept saying something in French but with the words “cashews, peanuts & chocolate”. They took the bars out and were examining them giving us suspicious looks. Finally the one with the best English asked Jon why we had granola bars under the floor and why so many. Uhhhh..... because we eat granola bars, they are good and we travel many months at a time where you cannot get good granola bars..... we live in a 40 foot space where we don't have endless place to put things...... ditto with our baking supplies, crackers, cereal and powdered milk! It was really pathetic at the same time it was infuriating to have someone come unannounced, traipse through your personal space and paw through your things like you are some kind of crook. If we wanted to hide something on this boat they would never find it because they don't know where to look. They don't even know what most of the stuff they're looking at is.

After not being able to prove we were the criminals we looked to be, they headed over to Mark & Annes' boat to violate them. Anne asked them why they didn't just use a drug sniffing dog. They said they had one but it was sleeping. Oh! Well then, that makes total sense.

The six of us are renting a car tomorrow to go to the Riviere Blue Park. It's supposedly really beautiful and it will feel good to get up into the mountains of New Cal. Then Saturday we're leaving Noumea to head out into the lagoon and start moving around the islands. Can't wait to check out the diving and see if it's as great as what the guides say. Hopefully no more customs officials. We'll have to work on finding a safer place to hide our granola bar stash too. Cashews, peanuts & chocolate.... oh my!