Leaving for New Caledonia and Plans for Home

Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Sat 26 Sep 2009 05:19
There is one more blog entry that needs to be written about our ten day stay in Port Vila, but alas, time has run out and we are leaving for New Caledonia tomorrow.  The Port Vila story and pictures will have to wait until after we arrive at our next destination.
 
We will once again be traveling with the Island Cruising Association (ICA) rally - mainly because they received special permission from the New Caledonia government for the 30 rally boats to check in to Ouvea, one of the outlying Loyalty Islands.  This is a really good deal because otherwise, we would have had to sail almost twice the distance to get to the capital of New Caledonia, Noumea, to check in.
 
Our plan is to leave at first light tomorrow morning (Sunday, September 27th).  The distance from Port Vila, Vanuatu to Ouvea, New Caledonia is about 210 miles, so we should arrive before nightfall on Monday.  The beauty of this plan is that there is only one night involved.  The winds are supposed to be light, so it should be an easy sail/motorsail/motor.  The tank is full of duty-free fuel and the frozen casserole is defrosting in the fridge.  We are ready.
 
We are particularly sad to leave Vanuatu as it is one of our favorite places, but at the same time, we feel as we usually do after six or eight weeks in a Pacific island nation - it's time to move on.  So off to New Caledonia we will go.  We visited New Caledonia last year for about six weeks, but didn't stop at the island of Ouvea, so it will be new for us.  Ouvea is a coral atoll - a string of tiny islets that form a circle around a lagoon.  It's the only coral atoll in the area, so it should be interesting.  We are looking forward to the snorkeling, although the water temperature will feel chilly given that we will be 200 miles further south than we are now.
 
The longer term plan is to stay in New Caledonia for only two or three weeks and then move on to Australia.  Our goal is to leave New Caledonia no later than October 15th.  It will take us about six days to get to Brisbane, Australia and once there we will haul the boat and fly home for the holidays.  We'll be home November 4th through January 9th.  We've already booked space at a marina just north of Brisbane and booked our flights home and back.  All we have to do now is get there.
 
More tomorrow from the high seas.
Anne