Back to New Caledonia.
Coming along the reef edge towards Dunbier Passage. Flying fish can be seen scooting off away from us.
The approach to Port Mosselle was interesting.
I spent a long time on the radio trying to raise Customs requesting a berth for clearance.
After about 20 attempts another cruiser came on the radio and said to call Port Mosselle marina on the same channel and they would give directions.
PM Marina came back instantly and gave us a spot (they would have heard my previous attempts, why not butt in ?:
We parked on a berth in the land of Monster Catamarans, at 30 ft we were definetly the baby here, many cats up around 60 feet.
Unlike the Customs wharf in Australia, where you are locked behind a amplimesh and barbed wire door, we had free reign of the marina and infact were parked in with everyone else. Very helpfull girls in the office told us where to get washing, showers, fuel, food and supplied us with vouchers for free drinks at the Club Nautique where we had a fantastic lunch and a few of the local bevies (Number 1) beer.
Customs were very casual, took them a couple of days to turn up,they refused to search the boat and would'nt even look below and relied on our honesty to put some fruit in a bag they supplied.
We could very easily have bought in vast quantities of Booze and anything else that is hideously expensive here.
Scouted around having difficulty as our French was very ordinary and the majority of locals
refused to attempt English. We needed LPG to run the fridge, so took it to the only place where we could get a re-fill and was told 5 days to fill as it had to go elsewear to be done. Had dinner with the new owner and after his wife had a few loosening wines we find out that ALL frenchies get taught english at school and infact she spoke english very well when pissed, yet made out ,like all locals, that they can't. GGGGGRRRRRrrrrrrrrrr.
We also find out that the gas bottle would have taken Luc (owner) 5 minutes to get filled as the filling station was only a short trip from town, and infact we could have dinghied their in 5 minutes.
I get the distinct impression that the French are generally unfriendly.
The fridge decided it was not going to work (LPG problem) it worked trouble free for years but now refused to ignite and from what we could gather it was oil in the gas ?????
The outboard for the dinghy never worked again either, after using the fuel that we bought from Aus (no prob's) and filling up with New Cal fuel it never fired up again, yet the main engine was ok ????? This little outboard had done countless miles over the years without missing a beat, and my dinghy was a pig to row. I designed and built it to carry five drunken men without tipping them into the water and I could stand up on the gunwale (edge) in relative safety, It also doubled as our escape vehicle with numerous sealed compartments, but a row boat she 'aint.
After loading up with Beer, Ice and limited food we almost needed to hock the house to pay for it. Very expensive and very poor exchange rate.
Sailed out and the adventure began, starting with catching fish for food, very easy here as Tazar (Spanish Mackeral) and Tuna almost jumped aboard.
(Not the new cal fish, but a Tazar non the less)
Food revolved around fish Baguettes for the trip as baguettes were cheap and fish was free, leaving boat funds for beer.
Sailed down to Baie de Proni and decided we could spend weeks in there (when we return in the big boat) then on to a smaller Island to spear a coral trout.
We nosed the boat into the reef until we almost touched and dropped the pick so we had 10 ft at the front and 200+ feet at the back.
My mate who is a keen diver (I was still a bit shark shy from eagle Island) got ready to go in. I suggested going in over the front (in 10 feet) but he wanted to use the steps at the back, so took his spear gun down there, and promptly dropped it over the side into 200+ft of water AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGHHHHHH.
He went in after dicking around for a bit with his gear, and obviosly by now it was gone. To make matters worse, there were plenty of big fat coral trout looking back from the reef edge ( and plenty of sharks further down)
On to Kuto (Isle of pines)for a look and where we were told we would be able to get ice and provisions at the main town, which we needed.
We parked the first day in the big bay where the cruise ship came in and the next day went around to Kanumera to a lovely anchorage which we shared with some other boats.
We went on the quest for Ice and Baguettes and was told there was a boulangerie (bakery) a few miles up the road, so went on a hike and saw the old prison ruins and jungle eventualy arriving at the bakery, which was shut.
We waited wth some locals for a couple of hours, as they opened when they felt like it, grabbed our baguettes and started hiking back to the resort near the boat where we could apparently get ice. Thumb out and jagged a ride in the back of a truck with a bunch of Kanaks (natives of new cal) down to the resort only to find it was closed for about another hour.
When it opened the ice consisted of 1.5 litre softie bottles with half frozen water which cost about $5AUD per bottle. By the time we got them to the boat they were melted. Beer getting warmish now, but we were told the main town of the island had some.
Around to another bay where we anchored, dinghied in and set off on a hike leaving a cow to guard the boat.
Stopped at several little shops on the way into the big smoke and no glace (ice) and fingers pointed toward the next place.
To cut a long story short, no bloody ice, no cold beer, no baguettes.
A man with a big refrigerated shipping container could make a bloody fortune here(from me anyway)
Went back to the main bay and tried the big passenger cats that go from Noumea, Kuto and across to the Loyalties with no joy so decided to head back to Noumea. No cold beer, no fun.
More later
Dave
