Back in Noumea
We had a wonderful two weeks in Australia playing with our grandchildren, going to birthday parties and catching up with Inge and Herbert from Austria.
We're now back in Noumea ready to continue our holiday and have just checked into Port Moselle Marina for a day or so for Geoff to replace the fresh water pump in the engine which had begun to leak some coolant into the bilge. Fortunately we had a spare and in spite of a few grumbles down below during installation, it seems to be working fine. Fingers Crossed. We?ll leave the leaking one here for refurbishment and collect it when we check out in about a month's time.
Berths in the marina here are hard to get so I was particularly happy to get this one because it's so close to the cafe that we can get wifi on the boat and to date we've had to take our computer up to the cafe and buy food or drink while we type. Geoff has been working on the engine - a no go area for me, while I sit in the cockpit in comfort looking at the cafe and considering going for a coffee anyway...
Last night after dinner we were discussing the things we've learned so far and this is what we came up with.
1. Checking in. On arrival in Noumea by boat you must check in at Port Moselle Marina. Don't worry if they don't have a berth for you though, or if you just prefer to anchor out as it's quite feasible to anchor in Baie D'Orphelinat around the corner from Port Moselle Marina and dinghy around to the marina for check in purposes. We also visited Customs, Immigration and Quarantine ourselves. None of them wanted to come to the boat so we went to them by dinghy. We were advised to leave someone with the dinghy - thank you Steve. They are all within a reasonable walking distance.
2. Port Moselle Marina is always busy so it's hard to get a berth for more than a day or two. Their prices are around $40Aud per day. Pontoons are all timber and have no pile at the end of each berth. The berths are all much shorter than the boats and we wouldn't want to sit out a cyclone here.
3. Tender Pass. We anchored out, because we could still get a Tender Pass for Port Moselle Marina for $6Aus per day which gave us access to the showers, Wifi and somewhere to tie up our dinghy. We've been locking our dinghy because everyone else does but we haven't actually heard of any incidents of theft. There's nowhere in Baie D'Orphelinat that seems safe for us to go ashore so the dinghy pass was great.
4. Dinghy mooring. It's a long walk from the Port Moselle Marina to either Baie des Citrons or Anse Vata in the south though and we eventually found that we could tie our dinghy to the inside pontoon at the Pacific Fuel Wharf adjacent to CNC for $3Aus per day.
5. CNC. We tried to visit CNC using our RQYS membership but were told in no uncertain terms by the Capitaine that the CNC has no relationship with any foreign yacht club, so we returned to our rightful place at the fuel wharf.
6. Twenty9 Surf and Skate Shop. Our new friend Stephen was a great help when it came to leaving Stylopora here during our trip back to Australia. We would definitely recommend his Skate and Surf shop in the Hilton complex at Anse Vata or website www.twenty9.nc Good light wetsuits for snorkelling as well.
7. Marina Pontoons. When you do come into Port Moselle Marina, the pontoons are usually MUCH shorter than your boat and have only one normal cleat at the bow. Both middle and stern cleats are actually an upside down U shaped piece of tubing bolted to the pontoon at each end - sort of like an upside down toilet roll holder. You need to thread your line through this and take it back to the boat; or at least push it through doubled to tie on quickly and then change it. It totally destroyed my instructions to 'Tie it off quickly'...
8. Shore Power. There is no such thing as an adapter which can be used on our Australian cables for shore power. After asking all around for an 'adapteur' (is there any such word?), Geoff found out that you just go to the marina office and ask for a plug. You then have to cut the end off your existing cable and rewire it from the wiring diagram on the pontoon. The easier way would be to come with a short lead rather than have to cut down your extension cable.
9. LP Gas. In spite of information otherwise, it seems that it is possible to obtain LP Gas in Noumea. There is a yacht agent named Herve who is in the second shop/building on the left at Port Moselle Marina. Herve apparently feels sorry for all of the Australian boats who can't refill their gas and will fill them for you personally and very slowly. Our empty bottle has been with him for two days now but hopefully we'll have it back on Tuesday. If not we may have to amend No. 9.
10. Boat Shopping. For chandlery and any other boat bits and pieces, Geoff is recommending Marine Corail at Nouville Plaissance. It seems they have just about everything you need, although you do need to go from one shop to the next and ask for what you need - preferably in French, although he has managed to find everything that he's needed in English. Please don't ask him about the prices.
11. Markets. The prices here are expensive, even the markets because a lot of the fruit and veges are imported resulting in very little for less than $7Aus per kilo. Some local produce is between $3 and $4 per kilo but there's not much in that range. Yams though, are VERY expensive and we can't afford to eat them - it's cheaper to buy imported potatoes. The markets are also dangerous - I was stabbed by a pumpkin on Friday morning! The store holder put my pumpkin into a small plastic bag with handles before I had a chance to put it straight into my environmentally friendly string bag; and unfortunately one handle broke straight away. Before I realised what was happening a piece of stalk off the top of the pumpkin went straight down behind my fingernail. Very ouch, but after a couple of days of home grown medical treatment it's coming good and I can even type with it.
12. Wifi. We've discovered how often we used to just pick up a phone to Google something and we're struggling to find answers without it. Wifi at Port Moselle Marina is fine although very slow especially if you think of sending photos. Apparently the wifi at the markets is faster but we haven't tried it.
Gosh, we've learned a lot already - just imagine how much we'll know by the time we get home...
