Canberra on Sea (New Caledonia)

 

Having spent an interesting week on the water getting here, we were very glad to grab a mooring buoy next to a small island resort (Ilot Maître) and flop on our flat calm bed for a good 12 hours of solid sleep. Having recovered somewhat, the next morning we raised the yellow flag and headed across to the marina at Noumea. The usual frantic marina entry ensued: confusing radio comms, angst over getting into the berth, rising wind, tight turns.. it’s still not my preferred method to stay somewhere: far too many hard surfaces - I’d much rather drop the anchor. That said, there’s a lot to like about plugging in to ‘free’ electricity, water and wifi.

Immigration was a short walk away, a couple of forms and stamp stamp we’re in. Next up, the biosecurity team visit the boat. Two young guys, who inspect our food stores, and take away various bits: corn kernels, and egg shells out of the bin amongst other things.

The local supermarket (Johnstons) had us gawking like slack jawed yokels at the magnificent selection of goods on offer - the French know how to eat!

Having loaded up on baguettes and various other favourites, we set to sorting the boat out:

Cleaning bilges, bleaching the ceilings, and for Chez; 9 loads of salty washing in one day, not sure, but suspect this is a record!

After that initial burst of energy, we lazed in the marina for a few days, and explored some of the town. It’s…. well, it’s OK.. there’s nothing overly charming about the place, it’s not ugly or dirty by any means, just a bit soulless - like a slightly more tropical version of Canberra ..on sea. Add in our growing desire to just get back to Oz, we won’t be staying long.

Some awful news came to us via the Gingers: Some French cruisers who we’d sundowned with, Patrice and Stephanie, have been dismasted on their way here. They’d left Fiji at the same time as us, going via Vanuatu instead of coming directly here. In the high wind and high swell, similar to the conditions we’d experienced, they lost their mast and all the rigging. Letting it ‘go to the sea’’ rather than flogging around and further damaging, or sinking their boat. I’m writing this at 4am having got up to help them into a berth here at the marina. It’s a shocking sight to see the remaining twisted metal of the lifelines and the deep scarred gouges taken out of the gel coat on such a well maintained boat, glad to see them safely here though. It hits a bit hard, that could easily have been us.. think I’m losing my bottle a bit after the last couple of passages. I’ll be glad to be back in Aus. On that: we’re thinking of heading off on Tuesday (two days away as I write). The wind looks to be a lot less than our recent experiences, so hopefully a gentle trip ‘home’ with a bit of motoring to keep the water hot and the batteries topped up… but we’ll see!