[password] Cowboys99
[status]
:position 22 28.57s 166 27.83e
We've been on a long loop around the south-west corner of New Caledonia, visiting and exploring various islands along the way. We started at Amedee Island, spent a couple of nights at Mato Isl, then entered the Baie de Prony to visit a lighthouse at the top of a tall ridge overlooking the lagoon, then Islot Casy, home of Monsieur Chien - orphan dog who lives alone on the island and is brought food by all the visiting sailboats. Then the long trip back to Noumea to explore the possibility of clearing-out of New Caledonia and beginning our trip to Australia.

Sadly, the weather between here and Australia was forecast to misbehave so we elected to wait and revisit the matter on Monday. This would also give me the opportunity to ship our broken satellite phone back to the people I bought it from for repairs. It's been an important gadget as it's the fastest and most reliable (and the most expensive) way of downloading weather forecasts while we're at sea. But it decided to quit on us during our trip up to New Caledonia from New Zealand. The technical support people had a stab at helping us get it going again but they just couldn't master the art of sending brief, concise emails which we could download over the radio email.

So, we did a little shopping and escaped from Noumea to Amedee for the night - a 12 mile trip - but we'll head back to Noumea 24 hours later so that we're there first thing in the morning. We want to take another look at the weather and, unless there are some surprises, clear-out. We still have some last errands to do - fill up with diesel and water at the fuel dock, mail the satphone unit (assuming there's a mailing address waiting for me in my email), some last minute laundry, and fold-up the dinghy and stow it away below. So we could be in the final throes of getting ready to go this time tomorrow.

It's the weekend here so lots of boats about and a very windy sail down to Amedee yesterday. Tested our skills at working out who has the right of way, and also practised spilling wind out of sails in order to keep the boat from being overpowered. And every mooring here at Amedee is occupied, including a few boats with young children - so good to see. We'll take off this afternoon and join the crowd of boats returning to Noumea - probably take a mooring at Islot Maitre just outside the harbour and wait until morning before heading in and anchoring outside the marina. I'll try to upload a few photographs once we're there.

I noticed a couple of small tears in our headsail that I think will need to be repaired in Darwin. The sail will have to come down and be taken to a loft. One tear appears to be along a fold in the sail-cloth that must occur when the sail is rolled-up on the furler. I imagine the tear will follow the crease which is a good 2m long, so I don't think I can repair it myself - not for the long term anyway. I think the sails are on their last legs really, and will need to be replaced before too long. Just hope they last long enough to get back to the UK!

Otherwise the boat's systems all seem to be working well - aside from the satellite phone. And the radio email could work a little better! (Although, to be fair, it does seem to work reliably well during the night, so maybe it's just my insistance on using it in the morning that's the problem.) The watermaker is working great - after all the effort we went to back in New Zealand, I'm pleased to say that it was definitely worth it! The solar panels are working OK too but don't seem to be putting out as much power as they did during the height of summer back in New Zealand. We're seeing about a maximum of about 300W from them, not the 600W that we should be seeing. I'll take a look and see if there's anything amiss, but it means removing the bimini canvas which is a big nuisance.

The guys caught a giant fish here last night (fishing in the dark, waaayyy too keen!) Having cleaned and filleted it and placed several kilograms of meat into the freezer, naturally, the first thing they did was put the fishing line back in the water. (Fishermen! Sigh!) They got a nasty surprise when they then caught a small shark - about 1m long - with a very bad attitude. Sufficiently intimidated by it, they threw it back and put the fishing rod away for the night!

So clear out tomorrow...?
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