[password] Cowboys99
[status]
:position 22 28.54s 166 27.88e
We left the shelter of Baie Aleric at 3:30am and motored our way through the pre-dawn darkness up to Noumea. Our aim was to be there at 8am or thereabouts because I had a nagging suspicion that the customs and immigration officials took Friday afternoons off and I didn't want to be confined to the boat for the weekend. So with thick, strong coffee in hand, the autopilot and I navigated the familiar, almost reef-free waters up towards the orange glow on the horizon that marked the big city.

Sadly, the peace was shattered at around 5am when a voice came over the radio, speaking English (which is pretty unusual in this area, being French speaking) with a Pan-Pan message (that's an urgent safety-related message that's one step down from a Mayday.) I was returning to the cockpit at the time having just refilled my coffee cup down in the Galley, so I only heard the latter-half of the message. But it seemed that a sailboat was taking-on water and were asking if anyone nearby could come to assist? So I ran down and roused Jason, asking him to take the helm, and jumped on the radio to see if I could raise the vessel in distress. After 3 unsuccessful attempts calling the vessel (who's name I hadn't heard) I received a call from the Noumea Radio Communication Centre asking what was happening? Apparently, they'd heard only the beginning of the Pan-Pan message, while I'd heard only the end! So between us we put together the complete picture and NRCC took over trying to raise them on the radio.

It turns out that the call had come from a yacht we'd met down in Opua while filling up at the fuel dock. We'd chatted to the sailors, Jeff and Wendy - a couple in their 60's - who were about to set off for New Caledonia, just like us. We wished them luck and said we'd catch-up with them in Noumea. So, we told NRCC what we knew about the yacht - its size, colour, number of people-on-board, etc. - and offered to go and find them to see what help we could offer. However, they were at Boulari Pass - the opening in the reef that surrounds New Caledonia - very near Amedee Island, which was 12 miles and a good 2 hours from us. NRCC considered this and elected to send a rescue boat instead which could be there in 20 minutes. We saw the rescue boat set off on AIS and disappear into the gloom, but we didn't hear any further information about the situation. I'll endeavour to find out more and report on it in a later update.

What I *suspect* may have happened was that the yacht may have been out on the open ocean when the strong winds blew through and possibly sustained some damage or had a mechanical failure which, being short-handed, they hadn't been able to fix, only manage. Once within hailing distance of Noumea they'd called for some assistance and that's what we'd heard. It was troubling that neither we nor NRCC could raise them on the radio despite numerous attempts. Perhaps they'd left the radio to attend to the problem? Still, it was a sobering thing to experience and made me very happy that I'd insisted on running the engine for those last two days approaching New Caledonia to ensure that we beat the weather. It also highlights the importance of having reliable access to up-to-date weather forecasts while underway. Armed with the information you have options, but with no information, you're at the mercy of the weather :-(

Anyway, after that little incident, we arrived in Noumea and asked Port Moselle Marina if they had space on their quarantine dock for us (which they did) and we cleared-in to New Caledonia with maximum efficiency. We'd eaten everything that the biosecurity person would otherwise have taken. (We'd saved some potato peelings for her out of sympathy!) And we set-off into town to find internet (criminally unreliable), a French cafe (criminally buttery pastries) and a market (to buy more potatoes!) And while the crew explored this new and exotic city, I did laundry and snoozed on the couch after my early start. We had a celebratory beer and giant plate of Tapas at the marina bar that evening, listening to a band playing to the crowd (it was Friday night afterall) and collapsed into bed by about 8pm, exhausted :-)
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