QM's Christmas Cruise.....
Quartermoon
Mike Share & Sammy Byron
Mon 13 Dec 2010 06:36
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To celebrate Christmas in New Caledonia we decide
to escape Port Moselle Marina. We were both sufferring from cabin fever and
desperate to escape. All week we have been going round in circles trying to sort
out our rig and it is still not ordered.
Poor communication and things we thought had been
sorted hadn't so we really have been pulling our hair out. It doesn't surprise
us when people say it takes 6 months to organise anything, everyone works on
Island time here and it is so infuriating. I suppose it could be worse and we
could be stuck in Niue or Tonga or somwhere even more difficult.
With the deck fixed and watertight we thought
we would take a small cruise (4 nm) to Ilot Maitre just off Noumea.
It's a "mega" (dude) for kite-surfers and also has a lovely resort with
modern beach bungalows on stilts over the water. (Perfect holiday
destination Jez!). The hull is in desperate need of a clean / scrapping (nice
typo Sammy, she meant scraping!!) as we must have a coral garden on the
bottom now, so that is tomorrows job... yuck!
  Many people have questioned us and
asked 'Why we wouldn't just fill QM up with fuel and jerry cans
and motor to Australia?'. We did contemplate this but decided that
just to rely on the under powered engine for 900nm and the movement of
the boat without a mast would make it a very uncomfortable and stressful
trip. Our trip to Ilot Maitre today just confirmed this and we were only going
4nm. It's hard to imagine the motion off a mast-less yacht but belive
us, it's shit! - You are thrown all over the place, rolling like you
wouldn't believe and righting itself way too quickly. I was ready to call it a
day and head back to the marina but Mike insisted that we keep going
(to charge the engine battery....) and as the anchorage is sheltered we
would be fine. He was spot on and so glad we kept going and now we are
nicely tied up to a mooring buoy for the night, rolling gently, yet a little
more than usual. Great to have a change of scenery and head ashore for a $7
can of local beer....
The Xmas hats came out for happy
hour.....
  We had our Cyclone mooring lines put down by a
diver last week so we are nearly ready on that front. Cyclone Season officially
started on the 1st Dec and ends 1st May. The last big cyclone (150kn winds) to
hit New Caledonia was back in March 2003 so one is well overdue; which we
are moderatley to extremely concerned about. Let's hope we can
get QM the hell out of here before then.
We can't wait to fly back to Sydney and should hit
Ozzie soil next Thursday (16th Dec - 24 Jan). Very kindly Ann & Murph
have offerred us their spare room iare n Manly whilst we are home.
Unfortunately they won't be there until the
beginning of Jan :-(
We are both so excited to get back and see everyone
but also at the same time dissapointed it's not how we had imagined our
homecoming. We could and should have been sailing through the heads on QM
about now. If some of the people we have to work with had pulled their fingers
out, it still may have been possible but now it looks like it will probably
be a February or maybe even March arrival, if we can secure a weather
window.
Well this will probably be our last blog update
from QM until January so we wish you all a very HAPPY CHRISTMAS and NEW
YEAR!
Lets hope 2011 is a cracker!
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