Sunday 13th October:  Noumea, New Caledonia South Pacific Ocean 22 16.6S  166 26.4E 

Today’s Blog by David (Time zone BST+10.00; UTC +11.00 )

Now back in Noumea, preparing for the sea, our time in England was a refreshing change.  We arrived back to i) warm weather and ii) the Olym/Paralympics both of which it seemed would never end.  They did eventually, the weather breaking towards the end of September. By the time we left, it was raining heavily, the fields so wet and muddy that the pleasure had gone out of outside activities -  our spirits much dampened, spirits which were already damp enough for other reasons I will explain. 

I had never viewed sailing as an essentially dangerous pastime provided you take sensible precautions .   There are the occasional misfortunes but in Europe thousands of miles are sailed each year and although there are some incidents - capably handled by the RNLI -  one hears of few real injuries among experienced yotties  in the context of the scale of their endeavours.

That things were different in the big wide world should have been evident from the fact that insurance cover gets exponentially more  expensive on ocean passage making.  Our premium trebled as we left Europe and then more than doubled as we got into the Pacific Ocean  where our excess/deductible is so high that all but a serious collision is uninsured. That was explained to me not because it was riskier - but because with the distances involved it was far more expensive to get things fixed in remote places; if you do sustain damage parts and people will have to be flown around the world to fix it.

It now seems to there is more to it than that - since May, four yachts, with which we have a direct connection, have been wrecked :  one on a small atoll when the wind changed while at anchor;  one where a series of mishaps led to it foundering on a reef; one which sank having hit a submerged object opening a hole round its rudder stock and finally one which  was wrecked as it sailed onto an uninhabited island at night . The crews of the first three are safe - those sailing with the WorldARC had fellow ralliers nearby to assist - but the two crew of the last situation made a satellite telephone call to say they were in trouble - but have not been found. Given how few yachts there are cruising in the Pacific Ocean, those are pretty frightening statistics.

The protective cover of the WorldARC is now far, far away  as - so chastened -  we returned to Noumea with the prospect of setting off to New Zealand on our lonely ownsome.

Take care, as they say.