October 3 - 9, 2008: South Pacific

Rivergate Brisbane, Australia (S 27.26.690 E 153.06.356) http://maps.google.com/maps

Couldn’t Noumea just say ‘see ya’ and let us leave peacefully instead of shooting us through the outer reef Dumbea Pass like a watermelon seed between fingers? That’s pretty much what it was like. The winds were in the 20's at the anchorage and increased to the 30's by the time we reached the pass and the point of no return for the 837 mile trip. We continued on after passing thru on a heading that was a bit off our desired course. We were dealing with winds in the high 30's, waves in the 4-10’ range and made a course that took the wind and wave angles into consideration. The winds were very strong and the waves were an issue. We needed to keep the boat moving quickly enough for rudder authority and the ability to surf up to 10.7 knots. The technique involves not looking back, feeling the boat lift up and start to turn on a wave, counter-steering to stop the yawing of the boat, surfing down the face of the wave and then turning out and getting ready for the next wave. Seas this big and a boat this big requires solid footing and sometimes a heavy hand on the wheel to get it moving quickly enough. If you are behind the curve and the boat turns abeam the waves you can usually get lucky and skid sideways down the face.

In the daylight it was comforting to see the horizon and get a feel for the conditions. Once the sunlight was gone we used Venus, as it is always on the western horizon at sunset, as a mark to sail to. Instead of looking at the compass you can keep a star inside the shrouds or in reference to the mast and not have to look down for course corrections. This allows for more concentration on steering. Venus is known as the sunset star and eventually drops below the horizon and negates its use. As luck would have it the moon came up and we were then able to use the moon’s reflection on the water as a mark to steer to. Steering this way made us think of all the sailors in the past that used the sky to navigate.

Over the next few days the winds dropped to the mid-teens and we knew we were headed in the right direction when we were greeted with this beautiful rainbow. When the coastline finally came into view on the fifth day out it looked more like another gigantic island than a continent since it was very low lying. On October 9th early in the morning in the middle of a squall we came around the northern tip of Moreton Island and entered Moreton Bay. This bay was extremely shallow, mostly sand filled so had to follow a very narrow and not very well marked channel to the entrance to the Brisbane River. The winds also starting picking up and because of the shallowness of the bay the ride got really rough with short 4 foot waves. This turned out to be the roughest part of the passage oddly enough. It didn't last long before we sighted a yacht leaving the Bribane River entrance.

We passed over the bar and made the eight mile trip up the river to the Rivergate Marina. It was a great relief for me to have finally successfully made the trip from San Francisco to Australia. The marina was modern and had all the necessary facilities to do major work. We ended up seeing a lot of the boats we'd seen in French Polynesia there being worked on. The only disadvantage about the place was that it was in an industrial area and we'd need a car to get around.

Brisbane had a poor reputation among the yachties because of the less than hassle free clearing process with Australia authorities. We had heard all kinds of horror stories of fines and other hassles of cruisers trying to clear into Brisbane. Our experience could not have been farther from those stories. You have to give the authorities as much as 30 day advance notice of your arrival. This we did with the internet which worked out very efficiently. We arranged our visas the same way. I would say the Australian government was much farther along than the US in making use of technology. You can even pay your bridge tolls on that bridge in the background by using the internet. The customs and immigration officials arrived within the hour of our docking to provide total hassle free one stop clearance. They even give you a permanent customs officer to act as your contact for your stay. The only surprise was the health and quarantine service. The Aussies are very strict about what they allow into the country in terms of fresh food and anything else on vessels. They've privatized the health and quarantine service whose role is to inspect and quarantine any items they find on foreign vessels. We had managed our stocks to the minimum so there was not a lot to be quarantined as you can see in the yellow bag. They even hauled it away for the all inclusive price of A$ 250! The clearance into the country was certainly hassle free but boy was it expensive!

Fortunately renting a car was not, about $25 US a day, so we got our wheels and drove into town. I've been to almost every major city in Australia but had never made it to Queensland or Brisbane. I was pleasantly surprised by what I found. Its one of the more modern and newly developed cities in Australia and happens to be the fastest growing for good reason. Everything from the port to the industrial areas looked like it had been built in the last five years while preserving the old buildings. The city was clean beyond belief and we couldn't find any homeless people regardless of how hard we looked. The food was magnificent and the beer legendary!

There was lots to do from Ferris wheel riding to whale watching. Brisbane is a great city and I look forward to my family joining me for the Christmas season. For now the Dave's had to get back to their land based lives and I needed to get Present Moment hauled out and back to ship shape. I had been blessed by being able to take a trip of a lifetime with a great crew and boat and I'll be forever grateful

September 28 - October 3, 2008: South Pacific

Port Moselle, Noumea, New Caledonia (S 22.16.815 E 166.25.963) http://maps.google.com/maps

We had 15 to 25 knot winds with fair weather the whole trip. On September 27th we made for the Southern Grande Terre through Havannha Pass after waiting in the early morning hours for the sun to come up. I didn't want to navigate the reef in the dark and wanted to enter on a flood tide. New Caledonia is surrounded by the world's largest enclosed lagoon and has some of the best diving in the Pacific but like any lagoon there are coral heads everywhere so you need to pick your course carefully and not do it in darkness. This was another French territory and like French Polynesia they've done a great job in marking the channels. The pictures below are some of our first sights from the famous New Caledonia pines to their modern fishing vessels

At 11:20 we got our first glimpse of Noumea and knew we had arrived back in civilization. We'd been told Noumea was the Monte Carlo of the Pacific but didn't really understand what that meant. After months of reading cruising guides and then experiencing the reality we learned to take all the reports with a grain of salt. As it turned out Noumea is more like Monte Carlo and the French Riviera.

It is remarkable to know that roughly 400 miles behind us is a place where they have no electricity except flashlights; they live in huts; and travel in hand-made outrigger canoes. We tried to get a slip in one of the several marinas but they are all full. So, we are out here among several dozen boats that are anchored or tied to mooring balls. It is actually quite nice. The water is smooth and the breeze blows. The word is if you put yourself on the marina's waiting list maybe you'd get a slip in a few days. That would really help our electrical situation as we could plug in at the dock and not have to run the engine to charge our batteries.

The crew wanted to see the sights but I wanted to end the mystery about whether I could get the generator repaired here or not, so it was off to the Panda dealer. I found the dealership but the own was in the hospital having broken his arm just a few days before. I found a French generator mechanic who said he'd come by the boat the next morning to take a look. He did and said the electrical part of the generator was destroyed having been flooded with salt water. He wasn't certain about the diesel engine. but wasn't optimistic. He said Panda generators were "merde". I knew now the only place I was going to get it replaced or fixed was in Australia.

We soon learned the running joke around here is that the odds of getting a slip in the small guest slip area are pretty low There are lots of locals that have boats around here and this is a good destination spot. Not only is it scenic, modern and comfortable it is also a stopover for boats on their way to and from Australia. We soon gave up hope on getting a slip.

The two Dave's took a bus ride to the next bay over. We are currently in the older industrial, commercial section of Noumea and they wanted to see the newer side. They have catered it to the tourist crowd with small hotels, manicured beaches, shops and restaurants. Most of the development here looks well planned. They have done a fantastic job of keeping the beach area open with minimal buildings and the food is excellent just like in California.

They also had an aquarium that as you can see is world class. It was clear we were back in the developed world.

One evening we visited a street festival that was jammed packed with locals sampling the food stalls, buying local crafts or getting their faces put on. New Caledonia is a real melting pot of virtually all the races. They owe their prosperity to the nickel and other unique metals mines.

The museums are world class and they're trying to preserve their heritage and culture although the native one is basically gone.

What would the tropics be without rain? And, it is that rain that needs to be pumped out of the dinghy every once in a while. If you look closely at the pump technician you’ll notice that there is some new ink on his forearm. Yes, I got tagged with graffiti, just kidding. I really did get a tattoo of a standing turtle that according to nautical tradition signifies having sailed across the equator.

On October 3rd at 1:36 in the afternoon after having fueled up headed out to sea bound for Australia.

September 13-24, 2008: South Pacific

Luganville, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu (S 15.32.223 E 167.10.831) http://maps.google.com/maps

All reports had said that Vanuatu would be the most undeveloped of all our destinations and for some cruisers this was the best part of the South Pacific. Spiritu Santo where Luganville is located is the largest of Vanuatu's islands. It was also suppose to be a diver's paradise with one of the largest shipwrecks in the world to be explored. We were looking forward to the passage which would take about 5 days to cover the almost 600 miles of sea. For the first two days the wind seldom got above 10 knots so we did a lot of motoring. By the third day out the wind was back and we made good way with fine weather to our first landfall Bedo Point on the island of Pentecost. Pentecost Island is where the natives dive off of high bamboo platforms with vines tied around their ankles to break their fall. The original bungee jumpers, only they used vines not bungee cord to take the plunge! We did not go ashore because we had not cleared into the country making it illegal to land. After spending the night at anchor we made the short trip to Luganville where we anchored at the custom's clearance anchorage.

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As you can see by the pictures below the customs and immigration facilities were in need of some rehab. Basically all the government's facilities were left over buildings from WWII. Clearance was straight forward and hassle free despite the condition of the buildings.

After clearing we move across the channel to Aore Island another South Pacific paradise.

We dropped anchor just off a small resort called the Aore Resort. It was a great place to stay since we had access to their swimming pool, restaurant and ferry service to Luganville . The resort was busy but not crowded. Again it was full of mostly Australian and New Zealand tourists and a few Europeans.

Luganville itself has that sleepy tropical feel about it. During WWII it was a major base and provisioning center. At the time there was nothing but jungle and natives. By the time it was finished there were 40 cinemas, four military hospitals, five airfields, a torpedo boat base, jetties and market gardens. More than a half a million military personal were stationed here waiting to head into battle in the Pacific. As usual we were eager to see it all and do some diving. We ended up hiring a guy with his Toyota truck to show us the sights by land.

As you can see the people in the countryside have very primitive homes and some of the kids have only loin cloths. The ruins of the airbase are now mostly absorbed by the jungle and the cattle industry. The main export of Vanuatu is kava, growing in the picture on the left. They've just started a beef industry the quality of which is quite high.

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Our guide asked me how old I was. I told him 61. He laughed and said that if I lived in Vanuatu I'd be dead by now. We all had a good chuckle but knew he wasn't joking as life was no easy thing on the island.

When the war ended the United States offered to sell its equipment to the local government but then reconsidered and decided to dump it into the sea. Million Dollar Point is where hundreds of tons of US military equipment was dumped. Everything from bulldozers, airplanes engines and jeeps to crates of Coco-Cola went into the sea, You can still see the coral-encrusted machinery and tons of broken Coke bottle glass on the shore.

We also visited a crash site where one of the returning aircraft of the war didn't make it. You could almost feel the ghosts. They said there were hundreds of sites like this on the island.

Next on the agenda was to dive the The USS President Coolidge, a luxury liner turned troop carrier, which hit a friendly mine very close to Million Dollar Point. By so doing it became the world's largest accessible and dive able shipwreck having settled at the bottom just off the shore. We were really psyched! Unfortunately because of weather the water clarity was only about 8 feet but oh what a site. It was gigantic! On the deck there were still rifles and helmets laying about. Inside dozens of jeeps. It would take multiple dives to explore the whole thing but the weather kept getting worse along with the visibility so the best site of the trip went unexplored after one dive.

We'd only been in Vanuatu a few days when one morning while charging the batteries the genset started to accelerate. I tried to shut it down from the control panel but no luck. Soon the panel lit up like a Christmas tree and black smoke started pouring out of the exhaust. The motor just kept running at higher and higher rpm. Finally after the smoke turned white, the motor stopped running. Other boats around us thought we were on fire and came to assist. When I told them that I had a run away generator one of the helpful yachties said "Its a Panda right?" He then explained he had the same problem with his Panda but replaced it before going cruising.

When I got back into the engine compartment to have a look, I discovered the seawater exhaust hose had broken flooding the sound proof case and shorting out the control electronics. The generator only had 300 hours on it, virtually new! So much for compact fully automatic gensets. There was no chance of getting it fixed in Vanuatu assuming it was still salvageable. The closest dealer was in New Caledonea four hundred miles away. Now the only way we could keep the batteries charged was by running the engine and running the engine while at anchor just to charge the batteries was not a good thing. The accumulation of these equipment problems was starting to wear me thin. If the alternator gave out we'd have no way to keep the batteries charged. After consulting with my shipmates, we decided to head for New Caledonia without lingering any further.

On September 24th we left Aore Island heading south to the Maskelyne Islands and finally Noumea in New Caledonia. Due to timing and distance we did not have a very good chance of making the Maskelyn Islands before dark so we anchored at Southwest Bay on Malekula for the night. There are too many ship wrecks out here and it is much better to be safe. From a distance this place looked desolate but soon after dropping the hook the locals showed up. It has been our experience that not very many locals come out to greet us in outriggers. The people are always friendly and usually have something to offer in the way of fruit or vegetables. Getting an up close look at the construction of the boat and paddles gives a good idea of the abilities and ambition of these islanders. All that we have seen have been wearing westernized clothing and spoke passable English. There are many cultures fading away and we have witnessed up close the blending of the old with the new. Of note, we passed an empty outrigger many miles offshore between here and Luganville. Not knowing what to do with it we left it to drift. There was one other yachtie there who asked us for the weather as they were almost out of power and had only solar charging capabilities.

On the 25th we made our way to Sakau Island in the Maskelynes. The Meskelynes are just gorgeous. The coral reefs make for excellent snorkeling. Our first sight coming into Sakau Island was a sailboat on the reef! It had run aground the night before but luckily there was another yachtie there rendering assistance. We asked if they needed any help. They said no explaining there was fishing vessel was on its way to pull the sailboat off the reef. The grounded vessel was being singlehanded and the story was the skipper fell asleep. They soon got him off the reef with almost no damage to the boat. Talk about luck.

This is where we ended up anchoring. The guy in the dugout came to tell us the best spot. He and his family lived in the hut on shore. From time to time his neighbors passed by on their way to other destinations. We gave our host some trade goods for him and his family and they in turn gave us some of the best papaya we'd tasted. They were dirt poor living a substance existence but were some of the most gracious and friendly people we came across.

We only stayed a day but could have stayed a week in this pristine setting. The generator needed fixing and I could rest until I knew it was fixed so we up anchored on September 26th to make the 411 mile passage to Noumea.