Wednesday  7 November, Port Moselle, Noumea New Caledonia  South Pacific Ocean 22 14.88S  166 28.50E 

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

Today we say our fond farewells to:

1              Noumea: A place that we have seen more than enough of

    and

2               Richard:  Someone we hope to see more of.

Noumea

The need to leave Noumea is not as pressing as it was to leave Gibraltar.  Gib was boring;  Noumea is a pleasant enough place -  as we have said a real French town with quality provisioning available.  However, the fact is we have spent a lot of time here. It is four weeks since we arrived back;  we have since spent a total of  perhaps 10 days here in Port Moselle, both provisioning and also undertaking maintenance (again) and repairs (again).    Enough!

We are now ready to go. So we will check out of customs in the morning and be ready to set off for NZ either Friday AM or perhaps tomorrow PM, depending on the weather forecast. Right now there appears to be a good weather window developing – one which has the merit of coinciding with the total eclipse we expect next Monday.

So… that’s the plan.

Richard

It is going to be strange without Richard. A man whose sense of sartorial excellence makes him as at home in his shorts (here bathing his feet in a local hot spring):

As he is in a skirt.

(Lenie is still wondering what goes on under the surface.)

A man of many talents, he is easy company. He played the guitar (a weird but of kit without a sound box) well enough it seemed - but very quietly  in case it impinged on our enjoyment. He was far more confident about his navigation skills. After his initial circuitous attempt to navigate us Chez Toto (a restaurant) on foot, navigating by ‘instinct’, he increasingly adopted  more modern technology. First he calibrated his watch/compass:

But, discretion being the better part of valour, thereafter he organised taxis to help us get there on time.

The snorkelling being what it was, he did spend a lot of time with his head underwater. The following photo memorialises a common enough sight but something about the second  photo seems to  remind me of him:

perhaps reflective of his own pursed lips as he begins a speculative line of argument….?

Much as he will be missed, I do confess it is nice to have the workshop bunk available again:

In his last blog, Richard did confess that he probably deserved a dunking and so I am sure he will take this one in good heart. We miss him already and are looking forward to next spring when we plans to return to Serendipity for the leg to Fiji. (I understand that that time he plans to bring a friend as reinforcements).   Hmmm….

Well, that’s about it. I leave you with an image of something which, if ever you encounter one,  you need to treat with very long tongs:

A sea snake.  I am guessing our photographer here  (Lenie) was closer than I would have liked to be!