Bonjour Noumea

0800 position 22-17S 166-26E. Tied to the visitors dock, Port Moselle Marina, Noumea, New Caledonia

The wind remained light all day as forecast and we've been under power the entire time. We have all caught up on our sleep during the hours of darkness over the past few days so all of the crew was up during the day yesterday. Rob spends his time during the day puttering around the boat fixing and checking things. He seems to be happiest when he is doing that. The rest of us are reading, socializing, or working on meals.

Meals are major events at Chez Van Diemen that occur more often than necessary. Nobody is hungry here. Yesterday started for me when I came on watch at 6AM to have Michael offer me some of his homemade fruit cake to go with my coffee. I had no idea fruit cake could taste that good. It is filling too and I didn't need anything else for breakfast, but I ate some papaya anyway that Marie had prepared and left on the saloon table. Michael made grilled cheese, tomato, and chutney sandwiches for lunch. Somebody busted out the peanut M&Ms during the afternoon.

I spent the day thinking about how to prepare the two kinds of tuna for dinner. I decided to start with an aku poisson cru appetizer. The fish was cubed, soaked in lime juice for fifteen minutes, and mixed with shredded carrot, chopped cucumber, onion, and coconut milk with a touch of salt. I think it was pretty good because Geoff asked me for the recipe. The main course was pan fried ahi in a lemon/butter/caper sauce, pesto pasta, and green beans. A chocolate bar was split among the crew for desert. The only thing missing was a nice bottle of wine, but we don't drink at sea. The crew was happy.

The water temperature is down to 75 degrees F now, 11 degrees cooler than it was in the Marquesas and Tahiti and 5 degrees cooler than Fiji. It might be a bit too cool to comfortably snorkel here. Nights have been a bit chilly. The evening crew uniform is fleece, long pants, and socks in our shoes. It is great sleeping weather too.

Our destination was Noumea, New Caledonia's capital which lies on the large island's southwest corner. To get there we needed to round the barrier reef which extends forty miles to the south of the main island. The Isle of Pines, a picturesque island seven miles in diameter, lies on the southeast corner of the barrier reef. We sighted The Isle of Pines late in the afternoon on the starboard bow and at sunset it was abeam ten miles away. It was green flash weather, and the entire crew was on deck to witness the sunset followed by a debate about whether or not a green flash occurred. I didn't see it, but my cataracts prevent me from seeing anything anyway. Van Diemen rounded the southern tip of the reef at midnight, and when I came up on watch at 2AM we could see the loom of Noumea and the lighthouse marking the pass through the reef to the west of the city. In the calm conditions entering the pass through the reef and winding our way through the channel to Noumea was no problem. At sunrise we were just outside of the small boat harbor and at 6AM were tied up to the visitors dock. Another passage completed and we cheated death once again.

Now we get to play the waiting game with customs and immigration....

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