New Caledonia Oct 2008
Oct 25, 2008
Well tomorrow still looks like THE DAY. We have spent today securing things on the boat, checking charts, talking to other boaters about the single side ban nets for am and pm touching base. We have met a few new cruisers (new to us) that are heading out the next day or so also. Priscilla is leaving tomorrow night, they are going farther South than we are. As usual I an getting a little anxious am going to take some meds tonight so maybe I can get a jump on the motion sickness. I cooked a bunch of food the last time we were supposed to leave and put it in the freezer. Jim can have something good to eat on the way.
Cannot believe our dream trip for this year is almost over, guess we’ll just start planning for the April 30 return.
MarthaOct 24 2008
We did our official check out with customs, immigration and the Port Captain this morning. Turned in our rental car and we should (if the weather holds) be out of here on Sunday early morning. 5 1/2 to 6 days to Brisbine and then flights home to Florida on November 6th. We will do our daily updates. Look forward to seeing everyone soon, and those of you we want see please pop us an email. We really miss hearing from all of you.
Much love to all,
Martha
Oct 22, 2008
Hey, still here, yesterday we road about 75 miles around New Cal, found a surf place, saw horses on the beach, lot of building going on around outside Noumea. There are nickel mines and they must be doing very well. Didn’t see the poverty here like other place. Of course the French put money here also.
MarthaOct 21, 2008
After days of cleaning, waxing and packing we decided we were tired of sitting
on the boat so we walked into town and took the green bus to the beach, well it
passed the beach got to a place and we all had to get off.(Christy I think you
and I have seen this movie) so we wait for the next bus get back on pay our
$4.00 and ride across town feeling pretty good that we might know where we are
going. well…… gets to another stop, all get off and there we sit. Driver
says DONE! Jim pulls out money and tries to ask if we can go back. Driver walks
around the bus checks out tires, picks up trash and off we go. We have now spent
$12.00 dollars and been nowhere. SO we decide if we want to do and see we need to rent a car. By this time we are back at the marina where we started, but
Thrifty car rental is just across the street. For $50.00 we got a car for the
day. We had lunch and drove for about 4 hours around the coast line and up into
the moutains. Had a great afternoon. Picked up Tom and Suzie and went for
terrible pizza. Think we might keep the car another day or so and see more New
Caledonia.
We might be able to leave over the weekend. Weather might give us a break. More about leaving as the week progresses and we see what it looks like 6 days from now. It has been rainy and overcast for several days, if it ever clears up I may do a snorkel trip. It is a little chilly, but I do have my wet suit.
Martha
Oct 19, 2008
Walked to the market today, got there just as it closed (1:00pm on Sunday) Think we are going to eat food out of the chinese “cars” tonight. Hope we survive. Still no weather window til the end of the week ????? what day we can’t say for sure. We might fly somewhere just to do somethin. Maybe not, depends what mood Jim wakes up in tomorrow.
Martha
Oct 18, 2008
We are good, just frustrated, internet sucks, we have cleaned just about everything on the boat, some things twice. Here we sit in the marina, Jim has put the dink away for good. If we go out to anchor no way to go back and forth to dock. IF we did go out we might not get a spot back in the marina, Looks like we are here for a while longer. Seas are going to be 25ft in a few days. NOT FOR US! On the bright side, Tom and Suzie are still here, we have dinner together every night, usually on Special Blend. Bakery’s are close, market closer. Trip across the moutain is a little more than Jim’s hip will take. Hopefully tomorrow we will take a bus ride around or rent a car.
MarthaOct 17, 2008
Nothing exciting here, haven’t been kicked out of the marina yet, still tied to the dock. We are thru waxing and now we are sorting out stuf to leave and bring home. Weather still not being kind so we’ll be here a while longer. Last ngiht we went to the Thursday night festival in the park. Jim had street food. I opted for ice cream. We walk to the store, walk over the moutain (hill) to Tom and Suzies, they are at another marina about 3/4 mile away. Then we come “home” and take Advil to recover.
Daily we give one or two tours of the boat, people stand around and ask how we got a motor boat here from the USA. We say just a little bit at a time! Most people think you can’t do it without sails. We just smile and say a Nordhavn will do it, and yes we had enough fuel, no we didn’t have any big waves, no we didn’t see and pirates.
Look forward to seeing all of you soon and having Taco Bell.
Martha
Thursday Oct 16 2008
Well we are still in Noumea, New Caledonia, waiting on the weather to get right so we can make a passage to Australia. When it looks good on this end it gets bad across the pond, then just the opposite. Jim has waxed the whole boat, I have cleaned and started packing, and here we sit. We have also put away the dink, but I’m ready to break it out and play.
Miss everyone much, look forward to seeing and huging everyone soon.
Much love to all,
Martha
Oct 14, 2008
Still at the dock in Noumea, hope they don’t kick us out. There should be more boats in here in a few days to leave on the Port to Port rally for Australia. Glad we aren’t doing that, weather is not good for us to leave and they rally wants all the boats to arrive at a certain time for a party and pictures.
I sure miss my snorkel time and picture taking.
MarthaOct 13, 2008
Martha
Oct 12, 2008
Well as of this minute we are not leaving on Tues. Jim looked at the forecast
this am and about 3 days out we would hit an area for about 36 hours that we
would have 11 to 16 ft seas and the waves would be 7 sec apart. Don’t think we
are in that big of a hurry to get that beat up. SOOOOOOO!!!!! for now we will be
here in Noumea. We are cleaning, waxing, packing doing lot of stuff so when we
do get to Australia we can quickly leave. Just don’t know when that will be.
Another 12 hours will give us a better idea of what that weather might do. Could
get worse or go away all together. We’ll see.
Thanks for all the info, do miss you all so much, Have a good Sunday, well it’s
almost over for you….. forgot! We’ll try to talk soon, we may move to another
marina with better wifi if we’re gonna be here a while longer.
Martha
Oct 11, 2008
Plans at this minute are to wait til Tues to leave, will do our check out
tomorrow and get out early Tues morn. Now that’s the plan unless Jim changes his
mind and we leave tomorrow. This is a real neat town, very French. Very much a
resort place for this side of the world. Like me, the French people use a lot of facial and hand motions, nodding and smiling. I do hope to come back this
way next year, certainly not enough time this trip to see anything.
Martha
Oct 9, 2008
Arrived in Noumea and anchored around 5:50pm. 22*17′.247S/166*25′.948E WOW! What a city. We will go in tomorrow and check in.
Had a wonderful passage, one of our best, no fish though. We may have a weather window open the first part of next week, more on that later. getting a bite to eat then to bed.
Martha