Monday 22  October:  Baie Kanumera, Isles Des Pines, New Caledonia South Pacific Ocean 22 39.96  167 26.65E 

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

Well – since we last blogged we have been busy.  

From Baie des Kaoris we sailed to Ilot Mato, a small atoll inside the south lagoon where we went snorkelling. David got to try out his new camera and new waterproof case:

But it was not for long because the water was bl?’xdy freezing. Probably 20-21 degrees  - a far cry from the 28 degrees we have come to expect! Anchored overnight and then back to Noumea to collect our repaired sail and new halyard.

Noumea (again!)

We had been away two nights , (we were getting homesick ),  but already new things to be fixed were emerging. There seemed to be a bit of resistance in the autohelm when it was powered off – probably a sticking gear or clutch.

Oyster confirmed that it needed to be repaired so we swapped it out.  This is supposed to be a simple exercise, one capable of being executed at sea. However, that assumes you know how to wire it up. Now, it is not rocket science but it does need a modicum of intelligence to put the wires back where they came from. Well – yours truly did not seem to possess that modicum on Friday so we spent another happy couple of hours taking out the new one, putting back the old one, getting that to work – realising that we didn’t wire the new one the same way, so taking the old one back out, putting the new one back in – wiring it up the correct way and then wondering what all the fuss had been about!

It was also time for a major engine service – I had blanked that before we left.   I concluded it needed to be done now, by the dockside, where there were people to fix it when – as seemed inevitable on Friday evening - it failed to start on reassembly!  On Saturday, the Gods were smiling kindly on us for it started first time and does not appear to be leaking.

We had had the bilge pump high water alarm go off when we were at sea. This is a very noisy cockpit alarm and icicles immediately tingled down my spine as I recalled the “Day of Noah”. This time however, it was simply a sticking float switch which needed attention. Phew! But even that took a couple of hours by the time we had worked out how to fix it.

The staysail halyard was swapped out the sail was refitted; the Richard stuck the cheek-block back on and has been gingerly protecting it ever since.  And Lenie changed the stern light bulb.  Combine those with two big mega shops for another 14 days provisions and we had a very busy time.   We celebrated by letting Richard navigate us to another restaurant for what proved to be quite a nice meal -  even if the wine (with which I had decided to treat the crew J)  was rubbish!

We must go out to sea again….

So Sunday morning we set off as bright and early as we could encourage the marina staff to take our money and had a very nice sail to a remote anchorage in Anse Majic,  Baie Prony for a Weiner schnitzel by starlight.  Up with the sparrows** this morning and a further 50 miles today, finds us anchored in what looks to be a splendid anchorage. Some facilities ashore and what I hope is good holding because the wind is supposed to back through 180 degrees by tomorrow night, blowing old, wet boots on Wednesday. Hopefully there is indeed something to do on land!

Finally, I leave you with a photo of Lenie, hiding from the Paparazzi:

To be fair, Lenie has had a pretty bad cold since she got here – this is her way of coping with it – and probably of coping with the rest of us!!

So, hopefully we will be able to stay here while the weather blows through and then we will head on up to the Loyalty Islands -  at last – at our third attempt. I wonder whether we will  ever actually get there?

Footnote

** Actually, Baie Prony is  home to a famous species of bird -  the Corbeau – an intelligent crow like bird that makes and uses tools to forage for food