Day 156, Year 2: Getting Ready To Head South To Go East
Date: Thursday, September 27, 2007
Weather: Same Old Story–Yet Another Picture Perfect Day
Location: Baie de Hienghene, Grande Terre, New Caledonia
This weather is totally unbelievable. We have had day after day of brilliant blue skies and sunshine since we arrived here. The days are sunny and warm, in the low 80’s, and the nights are clear and cool, in the upper 60’s. There is virtually no humidity, so it is very pleasant. We have enjoyed the time here, but it is time to move on. The captains returned last night just after 8 PM and they were able to successfully get us checked into New Caledonia. This was not easy as the first person
they talked to in the Customs Office had never heard of checking in without having the boat in Noumea. But after some negotiation, he found a superior officer who directed him to go ahead with the check-in. We are continually surprised at the lack of communication and the misinformation that is circulated out here. There is just no source of credible information. But now we are legal and we can travel on. We want to head back east to the Loyalty Islands, but the winds are blowing from the east
this week. So we are going to travel south down the coast and then head northeast to the Loyalties. This will give us a much better angle on the wind and will give us a chance to see more of the east coast of Grande Terre. Tomorrow we plan to travel 50 miles south, so we will be up and out of here by 6 AM.
Mark’s first job today was to try another fix on the dinghy propeller. He put more screws in to keep it from slipping and he drilled and screwed them in deeper. Since he was not able to buy a new prop in Noumea yesterday, this was our only shot. And it worked, at least for now. We went into town to do our last provisioning and the dinghy motor ran fine the whole time. We had no replay of yesterday’s folly. Ranger went into town at the same time and we walked to the store together. Later this
afternoon, we invited everyone in the anchorage to Windbird for Happy Hour. We had a wonderful time visiting and watching that beautiful full moon rise over the anchorage. Tonight it looked like a huge orange harvest moon. It was beautiful.
Our destination tomorrow is Baie de Ugue. More when we reach Ugue . . .
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| 070927 Day 156 Grande Terre, New Cal–Full Moon in Hienghene |
