Noumea Monday, June 15, 2009.

The Joys of Cruising Life.

The hydraulic vang needed to be repaired. This is something that no-one here in New Caledonia could do and we were warned not to try this our selves. We were offered various solutions. The first was to fedex it to New Zealand and back. Second was to have a guy fly up from New Zealand to fix it or thirdly to wait until a friend was coming up later on at the end of July. We didn’t consider option number 2 and the third was far too long a time. So off we set for a 5 day visit to the islands in the northern part of the lagoon.

We were told that as soon as it was on it’s way back we would be informed by email. So we set off for a bit of exploration to anchorages that normally are untenable but as the wind was very light we used this as an ideal opportunity for exploring.

We loved the snorkeling and generally pottering around on pure white sandy beaches with not a soul in sight.  Not to be deterred by lack of emails we returned to Noumea as bread and pate were running low.  Now we had the tracking  number of the item and we knew it was ready to be sent back to us. It was out of the hands of Kiwi Yachting and down to the deliverers and the vagrancies of customs this end. A week down the line we are still here. The parcel has arrived and they are awaiting customs to make sure that it isn’t something highly undesirable or possibly illegal. Today we spoke to the lady who is in the know. Oh yes, it arrived Sunday. Do you want it this week? Whatdymean this week, I want it now. Well very sorry Customs is closed. Maybe tomorrow.