Wednesday, October 4, 2017

No Yanks Allowed

0600 position 22-20S 166-26E. Underway for Norfolk Island

There weren't any available slips in Port Moselle Marina when we arrived back in Noumea yesterday morning so we picked up the same mooring we used a couple of days ago. This time the whole crew ventured ashore. Rob went to do battle with the authorities, Zappa and Marie headed to the marina cafe to check email, and Michael, Geoff, and I went to Champion Supermarket to spend the last of our French Polynesian Francs. We returned to the cafe an hour later with beer, wine, and some odds and ends.

Zappa had been communicating with his daughter, Claire, on Norfolk Island while we shopped. She was helping us with our ship's application to enter Australia and other formalities. Everything was in order except they couldn't locate the visa application for the sole foreigner aboard Van Diemen, me. Zappa asked me about it in the cafe. "What, I need a visa to go to Australia?" was my response.

Rob returned victorious from customs and immigration, and we all returned to Van Diemen to have lunch and stow our booty. Shortly after noon we powered into the fuel dock to fill the boat with duty free fuel, something we couldn't do until after we cleared out of the country. Once we hit the dock, Zappa and I headed towards the Australian Consulate to deal with my visa application. We decided to see if we could do it on-line first though, and stopped in the marina cafe where we could get WIFI. One has to buy something to use their WIFI so we had a couple of beers. The Australian government web site indicated that we could apply for my visa on-line, but the site wouldn't let me into the the secure application section citing some security issue probably related to the cafe WIFI. Hmmm. After some thought, and a few sips of beer, Zappa came up with the brilliant idea to call Claire on the telephone on Norfolk Island and get her to fill out the application on-line while I dictated my passport information over the phone. It worked, and a few minutes later I had my visa. I'm glad we got this resolved before Van Diemen arrived in Norfolk Island. It would have been a bummer to be stuck on the boat while the rest of the crew was having fun ashore.

After fueling was completed we returned to the same mooring on the leeward side of Noumea harbor. During trade wind weather the breeze increases in Noumea during the heat of the day, peaking in strength at about 2PM, the same time we returned to pick up our mooring. It was blowing about twenty five knots, and as soon as we were secured the gal in the boat next to us yelled over to tell us that Zephyr of Lymington was dragging her anchor again.

Zappa, Michael, Geoff, and I lept into action and dinghied over to the far side of the mooring field to find Zephyr tied up to a derelict boat on a mooring and very close to going aground on the lee shore. Her English crew was nowhere to be found. There was a scruffy New Caledonian native aboard messing around near the bow, but his dialect of French was such that Michael, who speaks French well enough to get into trouble, couldn't communicate with him. This guy clearly didn't know what he was doing on the boat, so the Van Diemen crew took over. We got the engine started, the windlass working (the breaker had tripped), the anchor up, and the boat cast off from the derelict we were tied to. We powered out of the mooring field and into the fairway where the local guy insisted that we anchor. Anchoring is prohibited in the fairway where big ships come and go so we refused, and took the boat instead towards an open area near where Van Diemen was anchored, the same place we anchored Zephyr the first time her anchor dragged. As we powered along a small outboard came along side with another New Caledonian native in it screaming at us that Zephyr was "My boat, my boat!" and gesturing angrily at us. We didn't know what the hell was going on. We met Zephyr's skipper, Micky, after her first anchor dragging episode so we knew that she didn't belong to the angry local. After multiple communication attempts with the natives we came to the conclusion that the two, a father/son team in cahoots, were trying to claim salvage rights to Zephyr because she had dragged anchor... Right... When they saw that we weren't biting the son jumped off of Zephyr on to his father's skiff and they took off. We anchored Zephyr securely, which Micky seems to have a problem doing, and returned to Van Diemen. Micky returned in his dinghy about an hour later again grateful and more embarrassed about the incident than he was the first time around.

At 530AM this morning we raised the triple reefed mainsail, slipped our mooring, and took off headed south for Norfolk Island. It is a 480 mile passage and if we average at least eight knots, something Van Diemen should be able to do if the weather cooperates, we will arrive there before sunset on Saturday.

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