Leaving for New Caledonia and Plans for Home
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Sat 26 Sep 2009 05:19
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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
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