#69 NOW August 6, 2005, 1000 Zone Time UTC +11 hours (New Caledonia Time) S22’12.4 E166’20.7 At anchor in Maa Bay Temp. 70.2 (I think we have left the hot weather) Greetings from New Caledonia, I came on duty at 1:00 am and we were getting a rather wild ride with constant winds in the 25-knot range directly on our beam. Every so often, the 10-13 foot seas would give our port side a good smack. The $600 I spent to get acrylic storm window plates seems very cheap now. They are supposedly bulletproof and do a great job of protecting my side windows in rough weather. The occasional wave would spill over the stern and buckets of water would quickly run out of the oversized scuppers. The para-vanes were doing a great job with these abeam seas and we would not get more than a 20-degree roll to either side. Havana Pass was just 32 miles away and I wanted to get there right at dawn. Reducing RPM to 1200 gave me the exact ETA that I wanted. Havana Pass is the main entry point from the East to get in behind the reefs that surround New Caledonia. From there it is a wonderful six-hour cruise in calm waters to Noumea, the capital. What a pleasant surprise waited us as we approached this lovely city, known as the Paris of the South Pacific. We squeezed into an assigned visitor dock that was about 2 feet wider than the beam of Done Dreamin’, and only 30 feet long. With the stern of the boat sticking out a good 10 feet we had to do some acrobatics climbing over the side from the pilot house to get down to the dock. Shortly customs, immigration, and quarantine were climbing over the side of the boat. They take their job vary seriously here, and soon Carol was ordered to give up all of her precious fruit that she had brought from Tonga. When they asked for our honey, eggs, and all vegetables, Carol went on the offensive. Soon she was boiling all the eggs, made up four tomato sandwiches which she tried to stuff down me, peeled all the onions, and put eight apples in the microwave. Chock one up for Carol—they only got away with the tangerines and honey. They even asked to see the soles of our shoes so they could check for foreign soil. Well, you cannot blame them. They have a beautiful country and are willing to put forth effort to keep it that way. We walked into town, passing McDonalds on the way, and found a wonderful super market with imported food from all over the world. What a joy to see well-stocked shelves with quality products. Everything was clean and modern with a wonderful French atmosphere. Later we found an internet-café and caught up on the latest from Wall Street and the rest of the world. The next day we visited a museum and then jumped on a bus that took us all over the place. After about an hour, the driver came back and kicked us off. What a great way to see the city for $2.00. Fortunately, we were near the marina when he kicked us off. Today we left Noumea and went about two hours North where we are now anchored in lovely Maa Bay. There is not a whisper of wind and the waters are like a lake, fully protected by the outer reef. We plan to spend the next week cruising up this coast enjoying some great scenery and quite coves. Then it will be off to Australia, the final leg of our Pacific crossing. Life is a Cruise, Larry and Carol -- Larry Rick Done Dreamin' Nordhavn 40 #33 Site: http://gricknet.homedns.org/ Email: donedream@pacbell.net http://www.noonsite.com/Countries/NewCaledonia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Caledonia