[password]waiknot
[position]20 42.315S 167 09.66E

[status]
As were arriving at Lifou island this morning we heard about a tsunami warning, from the earthquake in Mexico. New Caledonia was expecting a tsunami at 7am local time. So we waiting out of the bay for a while until well after that time to make sure we were not near land if there was a surge. Nothing happened, so we went in to anchor. New Caledonia is one hour behind NZ time. We went ashore by the marina. A fairly new facility, we were amazed that the water is so clear, you can see the sandy bottom under the boats and down the fairway. We have never seen water that clean in any marina anywhere before. The marina office was closed as it is only open Monday-Friday, so we proceeded to the Police Station. We found a sliding gate, slid it back and went up to the building, which was locked, but a friendly young Policeman saw us peering through the door trying to read the opening hours and unlocked the door with a smile. After we stumbled through some very poor French sentences, the Policeman switched to English, which was much better! As we were trying to explain to this fresh faced, helpful young officer, exactly what it was we wanted, another man came out, slightly older and clearly in charge. The man in charge asked "Where do you come from?", to which, Karl immediately said New Zealand and Heather immediately said Fiji. The man shook his head as if to shake off our answers and said "I mean just now. Where did you come from just now?" To which we both replied "Fiji". He shook his head again and asked. "I mean, how did you get in here? The gate is locked!" We pointed to the sliding gate that we came through and said that it was not locked. "Oh, said the man, that gate is only for us. Visitors must use the other gate, which is locked. You have to ring the bell and then we come out and unlock it and let you in." He pointed to a gate further on up the road, that we had not seen. We quickly apologised and then he asked what we wanted. We explained that we are on our way to Noumea but would like to look around in the Loyalty islands on the way and we showed him our passports and customs papers from Fiji. The young man took these papers and started to study them like they were something from another planet. The man in charge said "You want to look around by car? You need to rent a car, or do you want to look around by boat?" We answered by boat, and he looked puzzled. "But you already have a boat?" he said. We nodded and he shrugged, as if to say, then what is the problem! The man in charge seemed to have nothing more to say, and, seemingly satisfied that he had given us an education about the gate, he said, "I have only been here one month" shrugged with upturned hands, turned on his heel and left the room. This left us with our now slightly amused and very bewildered young officer. After several more attempts at explaining ourselves, and showing him the email (all in French) we had from customs in Noumea, the young man held up the Fijian customs papers and said, "Oh, I see, you need to get this paper to Noumea." At which point Heather said Yes and Karl said No, each of us interpreting his message differently. Then we clarified again and finally he understood that we wanted to do the right paperwork to give us permission to stay in the Loyalties before moving on to Noumea. He tapped away on his computer for a while and then read the instructions out loud, in French, looked up at us, and seeing out bewilderment, he smiled and translated for us. There is no paperwork the Police can do, the paperwork must be done in Noumea, but yes we can stay at each of the islands in the Loyalties for 2 days. We questioned him on this to make sure and he said, we can stay two days in Lifou, then 2 days in Ouvea and so on, the same for each island. It is no problem. After apologies all round from us, for not speaking French very well, and from him, for the gaps in his English and for his lack of knowledge about boats, we thanked him profusely and said out goodbyes. He then took out his keys and lead us to the locked gate, unlocked it, let us out and locked it again behind us. We tried not to giggle as we walked past the other, unlocked gate on the way back to the boat. The swell was coming in to the bay of the friendly Policemen, so we moved around to the top of Lifou, Donkin Bay. A pod of dolphins came and played with the boat on the way. The water is nice and clear here, anchored in 15m and we can see the anchor dug in well on the sandy bottom. Coral reefs dotted around make nice snorkelling and the water is 25 degrees, so still bearable!

[weather]SSE 12 knots, 90% cloud, 1013 baro

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