Return to New Caledonia

Sunday, 11 September to Tuesday, 13 September, 2016

For the first time this trip, the alarm went off at 0500, Warren silenced it, and we both rolled over and went back to sleep. Luckily only for half an hour, but we still had the entire fleet ahead of us when we got under way at 0630. By 0730 the wind was south of east and up to 25 knots and we had a double reef in the main. We were making good progress towards Lifou in the Loyalty Islands, 200nm away. The wind angle was about 60 degrees and the moderate to rough seas made for an uncomfortable start to the trip. The winds and seas moderated slightly overnight but we were still averaging over 7 knots. At 0640 we shook out the reef in a 15 knot easterly as Warren tried to catch the one yacht still ahead of us – Serenity 5, a big Beneteau who had rocketed through the night with single hander Steve at the helm. On entering the Baie du Santal, Steve radioed to ask us to keep clear as he had to drop his genoa on the deck as he couldn’t furl it. No wonder he was galloping along all night!

We anchored off the village of Drueulu at 1030 on Monday, 28 hours and 203 nm later. Our best 24 hour run was 182 nm (an average of 7.6 knots). Clearing in to New Caledonia at Lifou had been organised as part of the rally and the officials were flown in on Tuesday morning to check the yachts and stamp passports. This proceeded in a very orderly manner and once cleared in we were allowed to go ashore, look around and buy a few fruit and vegies. Only 1.7kg of foodstuffs were confiscated from the 16 yachts that cleared in (including 2 joining the rally from Fiji). This was an indication of the thoroughness of the briefing we had received from John and Lyn and the size of the breakfast cook up we all had had that morning!

Lyn and John with the chiefs

The rally presented the chief  "La coutume", a gift as a sign of respect and so that we could anchor and explore ashore.

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