Day 158, Year 2: Ready to Head to the Loyalties
Date: Saturday, September 29, 2007
Weather: Sunny Days with More Clouds Than Usual; Winds E to ESE 15
Latitude: S 21 degrees 29.533 minutes
Longitude: E 166 degrees 03.667 minutes
Location: Anse de Lavaissiere, Grande Terre, New Caledonia
We forged our way directly into the wind another 40 miles down the coast of New Caledonia today and are poised to leave very early in the morning for the trek back east to the Loyalty Islands. Ranger is with us and we just talked to Galaxie on the Ham radio. They went across to the Loyalties today but are going to have to stand off until morning as they arrived too late to go into the pass. Scot Free and Incognita are in the anchorage at Ugue tonight, the same anchorage we were in last night.
The wind is continuing to come more from the east, so we are glad we have come far enough south that we should have a good sail tomorrow. Again, the emphasis here is on the word “should”–we shall see.
Sometime late morning I got inspired and decided to bake bread. French baguettes are just not our thing. We like our whole wheat bread. We were able to buy whole meal (almost whole wheat) bread in Fiji and Vanuatu, but our experience in Hienghene tells us that it is back to white bread here. So I’m in the baking business again. It was so hot in both Fiji and Vanuatu that baking was an act of cruelty, but here it is not bad. We arrived here around 2 pm and had hoped to explore the area in the
dinghy, but we got lazy and decided to just continue reading. Besides, I was in the middle of baking, so exploring would have been a bit of a challenge. We talked to Paul on Ranger and he said Marie is not feeling well. I sure hope she doesn’t have whatever I have. I am better today, but it is a slow uphill battle.
So at 5:30 AM we are off to the Ouvea in the Loyalty Islands. Ouvea is supposed to be absolutely beautiful. The Lonely Planet says that arriving in the Loyalties from Grande Terre is “like entering another world.” The Kanak people in the Loyalties live in traditional cases (houses) and in Ouvea the cases are on the beautiful white sand beaches. We have seen no evidence of traditional housing or villages here on the east coast of Grande Terre, so we are anxious to see Ouvea. We should arrive
tomorrow afternoon and I should have a full report in tomorrow’s log.
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| 070929 Day 158 Grande Terre, New Cal–Baie de Ugue to Lavaissiere |
