Rally Drop-Out Reunion - Noumea, New Caledonia
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Mon 13 Oct 2008 08:32
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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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