Why not sail all the way into your dock?

Salsa af Stavsnas
Ellinor Ristoff Staffan Ehde
Sun 24 May 2015 02:55
As it is a well known truth; sailing is not rocket science.
But as I have stated before; it can become that if you are tired enough....
When we arrived to the port of Noumea the traffic got really heavy, speed ferrys etc.
I had been up since 3 in the morning to deal with the reefs, currents and all fun that comes with landing in a new country.
Now we could see Noumea and it was 10.30...
On top of that Legacy called and they were on their way out so we had a long chat on channel 72.
Fun to see them again after almost a year!
Chit chat and all that, as we approached the marina entrance it got narrow and we had radio traffic with the marina staff on how to berth.
They gave us the typical narrow spot you get in a marina, Ellinor put out fenders and all that.
I checked the wind meter that gave us a 4 knots from the side, no need to compensate, I thought since Salsa is heavy and have a deep keel she is not to sensitive to side winds on the lower speeds.
As I aimed for the dock she started to move side ways, much more than anticipated and I was wondering wether they had currents in the marina.
Tried to compensate and suddenly Salsa starts to shoot off against the end of the birth, I reversed the engine hard to stop her and we did not touch anything BUT a poor French guy who had taken one of the lines in the aft was working like crazy to haul her in towards the dock.
Either he was weak or there was a strong current. He pulled and pulled and finally she was in place.
We thanked everybody and apologized for the not so nice landing and one of them just looked up the mast and mentioned in a very cool french manner:
It is probably easier if you take down the sail next time....
I looked up and started to laugh, I could not believe it! 3 years at sea and a thing like that can happen!
We quickly rolled in the sail and ever since, the marina staff always smile with a big smile at us. I think they have a good story to tell.

The wifi here is a joke, it is free, but it is almost non existent. When you want to use it, the best thing is to sit outside the marina office to get the shortest route and maybe it will work. Our kids hang there with their skateboards and Ipads. Very cool indeed, it is amazing how quickly kids can move from a deserted beach and play with crabs, to using the asphalt in the city.
The standard in the city here is exactly like the most nice cities along the Mediterranean, the affluent ones of course...
I was helping the kids to connect to the wifi and an English couple were trying to surf on their iPhone just a few meters from us.
I commented: "It is not to fast"
they responded in "Queens english" "very slow indeed"
I tried to log in the iPad for Erika and the couple continued
"we try to find the cricket school"
"here in New Caledonia?"
they looked at me in a strange way and responded
"yeees"
"Oh, well I never thought the French would have that here"
"Well we can see it on the internet..."
"Ah you mean you can learn it through the internet?"
"Yes, of course!"
"So you do not know how to play it?"
"Of course we do..."
"So why would you want a cricket school?"
"Nonono! Cricket Score!"

Well to me cricket school or cricket score sounded almost the same....

Ive been out on the bike and had a marvelous tour de France in Novelle Caledonia, they have beautiful bike paths along the water with really tall palm trees.
And as it is Sunday so everybody is out sailing, or running or biking etc... All look very fit and dandy....

skype: metaformedia (it is connected to my cellular phone, do not hesitate to call)
Local PHONE NUMBER IN Vanuatu
+678 547 778 37

Callsign SLOR
Sattelite number
+870773991871
Our loggbook will be updated through satellite on
http://blog.mailasail.com/salsa

skype: metaformedia (it is connected to my cellular phone, do not hesitate to call)
Local PHONE NUMBER IN Vanuatu
+678 547 778 37

Callsign SLOR
Sattelite number
+870773991871
Our loggbook will be updated through satellite on
http://blog.mailasail.com/salsa