Bulletin No 7. Bonjour de Nouvelle Caledonie

Our departure from Brisbane was delayed a week due to the destructive storms lashing the Queensland coast mid May. Fortuitously this time coincided with the Sanctuary Cove Boat Show, apparently the biggest boat show in the Southern Hemisphere, and we had a good time, along with some other Melbourne sailing friends, staying with Troy for three days in his beautiful waterfront home, just a short walk from the Boat Show. We made a couple of important purchases: a 25 kg Rocna anchor (we'd dragged our anchor perilously close to rocks during a gale in Eden) and some Raymarine MOB Life Tags. These are worn like a watch, and if you fall overboard an alarm sounds and a man-overboard way point appears on the chart plotter. A good investment for some extra peace of mind!

Our passage to Noumea took 6 days: 4 days of motor sailing in light winds, half a day of glorious sailing, and 36 hours of 25+ knots of wind and uncomfortable seas. Listening to Bill Bryson's talking book, "The Life and times of the Thunderbolt Kid," was a good distraction during the uncomfortable section of the journey.Noumea seemed smaller, less exotic and more dilapidated than the first time around, but that didn't prevent us from enjoying the food: sashimi tuna and prawn salad, profiteroles filled with custard ice-cream and swimming in dark glossy chocolate, croissants, French cheeses and wines, beautiful fresh papaya and bananas from the market…But unfortunately Noumea is expensive: $12 for vital essentials like a 120g block of Lindt chocolate and $38 to have our laundry done!

We managed riding on the wrong side of the road, and the traffic, and cycled 10 km out of town to the spectacular Tjibaou Cultural Centre. It was designed by Renzo Piano, one of the architects involved in designing the George Pompidou Centre in Paris, who used the traditional Kanak beehive-shaped houses as inspiration for a very innovative and unusual building. We also enjoyed returning to the Maritime Museum to refresh our memories about the French maritime explorers, like La Perouse. He was last seen by the outside world when he arrived at Botany Bay six days after the First Fleet in 1788. In 1793 DÉntecasteaux was sent to look for him, but he died of scurvy and was buried at sea. In 1828 the baton was passed to D'Urville, who eventually located La Perouse's watery grave at Vanikoro in the east of the Solomons, close to where we will check into that country. It's pretty riveting stuff!

After four days in Noumea it was definitely time to break the marina shackles and….START CRUISING! On the way south of Noumea we stopped for lunch at the 150 year old Amadee lighthouse. It is beautifully proportioned (and maintained for a steel structure), tall and slender, and you can see it in daylight twenty miles away. Over lunch we were eyeballed at least half a dozen times by a very inquisitive turtle. We had beautiful sailing conditions to reach the famous Ile des Pins where we stayed for three days, marveling at the finest of white sand and the beautiful turquoise waters. Captain Cook named the island but did not land - it is encircled by extensive reefs which make it tricky to explore by boat, both back then and now. We are currently sailing up the east coast of Grande Terre with its beautiful mountainous scenery, but as on the west coast, it's heavily scarred by open cut nickel mining. There's no-one here. No yachts, and only the occasional twist of smoke, evidence of a subsistence Kanak dwelling.

And finally, the "fish of the day" this week is Mackerel Tuna. We've caught three this week, the last of which cut into eight large steaks.

Wish you were here! Love, Heather

　

It's been great getting into warmer waters, and I'm no longer missing my sheep skin slippers which were optimistically left at home!

A slow crossing to New Cal, leaving after that destructive Low pressure system, but with good sailing for the last 3 days, culminating in a spinnaker run up to Noumea whilst Hez used up 7 eggs in a frittata for lunch. I almost caused havoc and possibly omelets au carpet et floor when I decided I could get a bit more out of it than Ray [our autopilot] and promptly missed the gust, resulting in a mild broach…… now this would test the mettle of any ''yachtie cook de la chef'', but Hez after 6 days at sea just instinctively picked up all the ingredients she had set out, 2 bowls and a plate, braced herself and rode the broach [read large sudden tipping over effect for the non sailors] ….. the frittata survived and Hez suggested tactfully that we might enjoy lunch more with the kite safely rolled away!! And we did!

The new anchor is a real improvement. It sets so easily, you have to be careful backing up as it stops the boat very suddenly. It also resets efficiently which the CQR didn't necessarily manage every time; this is good for the karma of all on board.

The Ille de Pins was a surprise; its very beautiful turquoise waters, powder like sand and the lack of over development on the shore combine with the Norfolk Island like [ but skinnier] pines to present the quintessential Pacific Island vista…. And we had excellent weather.

Things are developing in the Remote Island Oral Health Education area. We are looking to work with Project MARC, which has been operating in Vanuatu from small vessels like ours, for the past 5 years. They are mainly medical with a dental component that I'm looking to develop. They have a strong focus on education and have well established protocols and agreements with the Vanuatu Ministry of Health. So we can hit the ground running with the Isles of Smiles in August /Sept.

The Trade winds haven't really eventuated yet so more motor sailing than we'd like, but reading of Cook, La Perouse, Tasman and Bouganville, who sailed these reef strewn waters in wind only powered vessels, I'm not complaining that I can decide my fate and destination with a push of the start button.

We had 4.2 knots of adverse current exiting the Canal de la Havannah and almost no wind! Back in the days of Luis Vaez de Torres, when your vessel couldn't make good to windward you used the ploy of anchoring if the current was adverse and allowing it to take you with it when it was favorable, even carrying the boat into the wind. He was the first sailor acknowledged with employing this strategy, and using it he managed to travel through Torres Strait where the huge currents and often adverse winds could drive him into cul-de-sacs that would otherwise have meant no escape. You do need to be able to anchor, so you need relatively shallow water to employ this technique.

We often think of these men, who not that long ago were sailing blind in these waters, combating leaking ships that were rotting beneath them, disease fever and scurvy, hostile cannibals, lack of food and water, no weather forecasts, no charts or method for being able to calculate longitude, no means of rescue. It certainly does make any of our own trials fall into perspective.

David