rest of our day today (presuming the SAT phone doesn't crap out here).
We finally managed to get everything stowed on board and left the
marina at 10:00 this morning. Not an early start by any measure, but
we didn't plan on going far. The wind was a bit out of the north, so
we decided to sail all the way to Ile Louen instead of going to Tombo.
If we had done that, then tomorrow would have been a tough slog to
windward to get here. It took us just over 3 hours since we were doing
up to 8 to 8.5 knots close hauled in 20 to 28 knots of wind. The water
was quite calm, so we just skimmed along uneventfully. We had to take
a reef at one point (reduce the size of the mainsail) since the wind
was steadily above 25 knts, which is when we take our first reef. We
take our second at 30 knots and our third, and last reef, at around 40
or 45 knots, but we've never needed it.
Sophie did some school with the kids and then some arts and crafts
before lunch. We had sandwiches and then the kids watched a DVD while
Sophie and I sailed the boat.
We arrived at our anchorage at around 1:30, cruised around the bay to
find a good spot and dropped the anchor. There's only one other boat
here. It was blowing a good 28 to 30 when we anchored, and there was a
lot of strain on the anchor chain, but the holding is god here, so I
guess I'll sleep comfortably. For the technical folks, we're anchored
in about 25 feet with 150' of chain out.
I took a 30 minute break while Sophie entertained the kids with books
and activities, then they came in to the cabin to play "Tarantula"
which is basically them piling on top of me and me fending them off
with tickles. 20 minutes of that and then we pumped up the dinghy a
bit and put it in the water, got everyone ready to go ashore, and
spent a couple of hours on the beach. There's an apparently defunct
hotel on the beach. It's clearly still being kept up–the grass is
mown, debris from the coconut trees neatly piled up, etc.–but there
was no one around. The beach was nice and sloped very gently so the
kids could run around a lot without getting into deep water.
We headed back to the boat and then Massimo and I got fishing gear
out. We wanted to head out to a little reef as the sun was setting to
try to get some cuttlefish. It was still quite windy and we didn't
have a technique for this type of fishing, so we did our best until it
was dark and headed back to the boat empty handed. Meantime Sophie and
Annabelle cooked up some dinner while Annabelle also did a bit of
school. Then it was Massimo's turn for a little reading (in French)
before we sat down to eat. After dinner Sophie did the dishes as I sat
down to write this. Now, at 7:30, the kids are getting a story read to
them and will go to bed shortly. I expect Sophie and I will be asleep
by 8:30. Maybe we'll read a few chapters of our books or watch an
episode of Battlestar Galactica–we don't often watch movies since we
can never stay awake long enough to finish them.
We have to set out by 7:00 tomorrow morning to get to the Isle of
Pines early enough to have the sun still high up so we can see the
reefs on the way in. Hopefully we'll catch a tuna as we cross from
Grand Terre (the main island of New Caledonia) to the Isle of Pines.
Goodnight.
