Rally Drop-Out Reunion - Noumea, New Caledonia

Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Mon 13 Oct 2008 08:32
22:16.607S  166:26.401E
 
We arrived in Noumea around 3pm on Saturday, 9/27 after a foggy motor northwest from Prony Bay, and the sun appeared shortly thereafter.  And never left.  Now that it is turning cold again in the northern hemisphere, we thought you might enjoy seeing the Noumea seven day forecast as printed in the local newspaper (sorry the picture is blurry, but we were at anchor and the boat was bouncing more than a little at the time).  As you can see, the forecast was for seven straight days of sun.  And don't let the temperatures fool you.  They are in Celsius, so the range was really about 70F to 85F.  In general the weather forecast didn't leave much for us to complain about.  The impending financial doom we heard about every day on the Australian news, however, did give us something to complain about - but we as a group decided for the most part to ignore the impending doom as there really wasn't much we could do about it.  So we basked in the sun and partied with the other rally drop-outs instead.
 
We stayed in Noumea eleven nights, five of which were spent in the marina where we once again wallowed happily in an endless supply of water and power as well as relatively cheap dockage fees.  Our first official rally drop-out party was held at a local restaurant/catering/cooking school, where the son of Sabine (ex-crew of rally trimaran Branec) works as an instructor.  The kids in training fed and waited on our twelve-person group while we chatted with those we hadn't seen since we all left the rally.  Picture 2 (taken by Michael from Lady Kay) shows the whole boisterous crew.  Starting from the left front and moving clockwise is Sue from Storyteller, Michael from Lady Kay, Barbara from Basia (the German, Polish, French Canadian boat), John and Irene from Southern Princess, Don, me, John from Storyteller, Grazyna and Eric from Williwaw (French catamaran famous for their selfless accompaniment of Calle Due to safety after Calle Due lost steering control during the nasty sail from Fiji to Vanuatu), Michael from Basia and Jackie from Lady Kay.  The group picture was taken at the beginning of the meal when everyone was still fairly well behaved.  Picture 3 was taken at the end of the meal when Irene and Barbara decided it was time Don got some much needed attention (as those of you that know Don already understand, he is not one to turn down massages offered by those of the female persuasion).
 
After that initial rally drop-out reunion party, we managed to get together with everyone for an extended happy hour on not one or two or three or four, but five occasions.  The first happy hour venue was Storyteller, followed by Harmonie the next day, Southern Princess the day after that, Basia the day after that and Lady Kay two days after that.  The endless cocktail hour might have continued if Williwaw and Basia hadn't left for Australia and Lady Kay, Storyteller and Harmonie hadn't peeled ourselves off the dock and headed out to anchor at a nearby island to dry out.  Hopefully we'll see Basia and Williwaw in New Caledonia again next year at about this time.  If not, we know where to find them because as official lifetime boater friends, we know their home and email addresses as well as their last names.
 
The only other item of significance that happened in between the sun basking and cocktail hour boat hopping that went on was our quest to extend our visas.  We were eventually successful in extending our allowed time in New Caledonia to November, but it took not one, or two or three, but four trips to the New Caledonia High Commission.  I won't bore you with the details, but I will say that Eric (Williwaw) was instrumental in helping us achieve our visa extension goal.  The fact that he is French and a doctor definitely had something to do with it.
 
Other than the trips to the High Commission and partying, we did have time to enjoy the city of Noumea and eat lots of French bread (all carried safely to our boat in the designated blue bread bag from Juliet on Reflections, of course).  The city here is similar to that of Papeete on Tahiti, with lots of traffic (and traffic lights - what a novelty!), French stores and restaurants and several office buildings.  We figure it's a good stepping stone for us as we make our way back to civilization and reality. It won't be long now before we head to New Zealand and back to the States - our flights home are scheduled for November 11th.  Hopefully by then the presidential election will be settled and the financial situation will have reached bottom, at which point Warren Buffet should start investing again making us all feel slightly more secure.
 
Cheers from sunny Noumea - still a few steps shy of reality.
Anne

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