JUNE 25 , 2006

Journal Page 4 Archive Journals

May 29 - June 2, 2006

On Monday, May 29, we returned to Noumea from Baie Maa, in order to visit the Bureau d’Etranger one more time for the final word on our visa extensions.  The next day when we visited the office, we were able to get so far as to be asked for our passports and told to return on Friday.  This was only after handing over another copy of our letter (thank goodness we made another copy before we left the boat) and luckily, speaking to a different and friendlier person at the front desk.

So, we returned to Bella Via at anchor just outside Port Moselle and spent the next three days continuing to see the sites of Noumea and talking to other yachties.  We learned at the visitors’ dock that other Canadian boats, which had arrived during the past week, were not having as hard a time receiving the visa extensions as we were.  Most of the boats were only having to make two visits to the office – all agreed that we had arrived early enough and been persistent enough to start the process moving along easier.

On Friday, June 2, Paul again made the 30-minute trek to the Bureau d’Etranger, only to be told that the passports hadn’t been stamped yet and to please come back in one hour.  So, that meant five visits in total before we received a two-month extension to our visas for New Caledonia.

We breathed a sigh of relief once we had the visa extensions because that meant that we did not have to leave New Caledonia on June 14.  We could now spend the next two months exploring the country and getting to know the people.  We decided not to keep with our original plan of circumnavigating New Caledonia as the trip would be rushed in the remaining time.  Instead, we decided to leisurely explore what is called the Southern Lagoon, including the Isle of Pines (a large island southeast of Noumea, and part of New Caledonia).

June 3, 2006

We left Noumea and set off for Baie de Prony, but first with a two-day stop in Baie Ngo.  We were surprised at the lack of boats in the anchorages.  It is the beginning of winter and the rainy season, and we have since learned that it is the off-season as far as the tourist season goes. 

Baie de Prony

This bay is enormous and there are an impressive number of anchorages, safe in all kinds of weather.  The land is very rich in minerals (iron and chrome) and the earth is very red in colour.  We learned very quickly that it is not a good idea to walk barefoot on the land or beaches and then return to the boat without scrubbing our feet.  Even so,
our walking shoes are permanently stained now from the red soil and have now been stored in plastic bags.

We stayed for one week in Baie de Prony, in two different anchorages.  The fishing turned out to be better than expected.  Paul caught 9 fish in three days, including a couple of coral trout, a stripey and quite a few cod.  The freezer is filling with fish, which is a good thing as we can’t carry two months of meat and the contents are slowly dwindling. 

Monday, June 12, 2006

On this day, the weather fax and computer weather forecast were calling for northerly winds, which is what we were waiting for to travel southeast to Isle of Pines.  We set off at about 0900h and had a great 6-hour sail there, but unfortunately no hits on the fishing lines.

We had a choice of two anchorages within a few minutes of one another, on opposite sides of a peninsula.  Baie de Kuto, exposed to the north was a little bit choppy due to the light northerlies that had been blowing all day.  The more picturesque Baie de Kanumera, with it's southerly exposure, was dead calm.

A front was expected to pass through the area in the next 24 hours, which would cause the wind to reverse directions.  Mary didn't want to move the next day so she was willing to live with the less than ideal conditions in Baie de Kuto.  Paul, on the other hand, willing to move at any time, wanted the more picturesque and "currently" calmer conditions in Baie de Kanumera.  In this case, Paul’s preference prevailed and we settled nicely in the calm, picturesque waters of tiny Baie de Kanumera.

Just as we sat down to a steak dinner and a movie (note that it is now well after dark), the forecasted front came through.  The wind shifted 180 degrees and blew 15 to 20 knots straight out of the south.  Now that's not a lot of wind, but when it's blowing across 1000 miles of open sea, the swell that it can create leaves for a very uncomfortable night at anchor on, what we sailors call, a "lee shore".  Mary doesn't like moving the boat after dark especially in the rain, and for good reason, so she resisted Paul’s first suggestion at moving to the other side of the peninsula.  However, just as we were finishing our meal and halfway into the movie, our attention was drawn to another boat's lights going by us.  It was one of the three other boats anchored nearby who had decided they were getting out of Dodge while the gettin' was still good”.  That was all the encouragement we needed.  We paused the movie, donned our “foulies”, powered up our electronics, planned our escape and approach routes, started the engines, weighed anchor and cautiously moved around the end of the peninsula into Baie de Kuto.  It's always a little unnerving coming into an anchorage after dark, especially if it's new and even more so if there are several boats anchored, many without an anchor light.  Being cautious, we dropped the hook on the edge of the anchorage, well away from any of the other boats.  By the time we finished our usual routine of setting the anchor, all four boats had left the exposed bay and were now maneuvering for positions of shelter in Baie de Kuto.  Once we were confident that everyone was settled in nicely for the night, we shed our soggy rain jackets, returned to the cabin where we did the dishes and finally watched the rest of our movie.  As Mary will occasionally say at the end of these little adventures, "Paul, you sure know how to show a girl a good time."

We stayed in Baie de Kuto for one week, while the strong southeast winds (tradewinds) blew – we were quite protected, if somewhat rolly because of the swell. 

“Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”

While in Bay de Koto, we had our first experience with a super yacht and that experience will be described next.  If being on a super yacht is not a new experience for you, then you may want to skip the next part, but for us, this was like entering another world.

We were guests on board the 100+ foot sailing yacht "Eclipse" one evening and we reciprocated the next night.  We first met the owner Greg and his friend Jeff when we were walking on shore the other day to go to the store.  We stopped and chatted for a bit and we learned that they were from Eclipse, which we had been admiring on the water.  A beautiful, sleek, large super yacht.  We had a great 10 minute conversation and learned that they were from Australia and that Greg has been married to an American from upstate NY for 18 years.  Greg and Kay are the owners and have a crew of 5-7 people at all times.  At present, with Jeff the friend, that means that Kay is the only woman with 10 men.  We knew by the end of the conversation that we would receive an invitation to visit the boat, especially so that Kay could meet Mary and chat with another woman.

Sure enough, the next day we had just returned to the boat from shore when a large inflatable came roaring up - Kay, Greg, and Jeff were aboard, being piloted by one of the crew.  We were asked to come to Eclipse for drinks at 1630h.  We quickly got cleaned up and we arrived at the boat and had an unbelievable time for a few hours.  We stepped into the cockpit, which is so big that there are two beautiful teak tables (on each side) with a comfortable settee.  Seating space for about 10 people and lots of room to stand around.  Next, you go through one of two automatic sliding doors into a pilot house (quite large) - divided by an island bar area with two bar fridges and granite counter tops.  The entire interior is painted a very warm beige/taupe and is truly beautiful.  In the pilot house there are two seating areas.  The navigation area is also in the saloon.

Next, we went down about five carpeted stairs to the formal saloon with seating for 8-10 people at a beautiful rectangular dining table.  The carpets were so plush I couldn't stop curling my toes.  There are beautiful paintings on the walls and great decorative art pieces on the tables.  Again, plenty of sitting space in the saloon.

We next followed Kay down a few more stairs to the galley.  Oh my!  Imagine two ovens, four fridges (large), three freezers, and on, and on, and on!  Jason, the chef, was busy at that moment preparing dinner so we didn't stay long.  Mary would have liked to have opened up all of the cupboards.

The crews quarters were just forward of the galley and we did not look at those rooms.  The crew were relaxing in a "breakfast nook" kind of a room off of the galley.

We next visited the staterooms.  There is a guestroom with twin beds and a bathroom that we did not see.  The double bed guest stateroom was beautifully appointed and had an en suite with a bathtub.  The master stateroom was huge and also had a bathtub in the bathroom.  There was also a sitting area with a big screen TV and a desk and chair.  Lots of storage under the bed and big closets.

Paul then visited the large engine room (under the saloon) with the Chief Engineer while Kay and Mary returned to the cockpit to relax.   In the engine room was a primary 700Hp Mercedes engine, flanked by two 70 Hp diesel generators - one of which is constantly running.  Their water maker was capable of 1500 litres per day.  The size of the standing rod rigging was beyond Paul’s simple comprehension, supporting a 120 feet carbon fibre mast and boom.  Line sizes were relatively small due to the extensive use of spectra.  All winches are hydraulic.  In fact just about everything seemed to be driven by hydraulics.

At the end of the evening the Captain showed us the lazarette - called the "garage" - at the stern of the boat.  The entire stern deck opens up hydraulically and we were looking into a large cavern where just about everything can be stowed until needed.  This space is large enough to contain a North American car.  They actually have two laser sailing dinghies back home in Australia that are usually stowed in this lazarette.

The above describes our foray into the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.  Now back to reality...

June 15, 2006

We decided to rent a car for a day and tour the island first by land and then later we would circumnavigate the island by boat.  We walked to the closest resort and rented a car for a half day, at the cost of 4,460 francs (about $44.00 US) – tax and petrol included.  We obtained a map and set off.  The first thing that we did is drive 7 kilometres to the capital village of Vao in order to obtain groceries.   There are two small “magasins”, pointed to by signs stating “Alimentation” – and we do mean small.  There are lots of canned and packaged goods available, but the fresh fruits and vegetables are scarce.  We bought what we could and continued on our way.

We met a wonderful Melanesian woman, Marie Jeanne, who works at the tourist information centre and was very helpful to us.  She suggested places for us to visit on our car tour and during the next week, we returned again and again to ask her questions about local customs.  Marie Jeanne learned to speak English when she studied in New York for five years.
       
Click on Pics to enlarge

We traveled down every road available in our three-hour tour of the island.  Marie Jeanne had advised us to stop for lunch at a Snack place further up the road and this we did – we had grilled fish and rice and vegetables and all the bread we wanted for a price of about $20 US.  A great conversation with the English speaking Melanesian cook accompanied this tasty meal, whereby we learned that the island has eight tribes, each with a chief, but there is one Grand Chief for the island who lives in Vao.  We also learned that the environment is very spiritual to the Melanesians, especially the trees.

Following the road led us to several bays where the island resorts are located, and to which we will return with Bella Via as we continue our way around the island by boat.

One of the highlights of the day was a visit to Reine Hortense’s cave, or “La grotte de la Reine Hortense”.  Legend goes that Queen Hortense took refuge in these caves, a very beautiful and impressive vault, in April 1856 during a tribal war.
 

Talk about an honour system.  A donation of 200 francs per person to the Tuete tribe is suggested when you visit the caves.  The booth is unmanned and the lid on the plastic container easily removed.

We stayed at anchor in Baie de Kuto for one week and then set off to circumnavigate the island on June 19.

June 19 – 25, 2006

We left Baie de Kuto in the morning after breakfast and slowly made our way southeast to Baie St. Maurice, a large bay just off of the town of Vao.  We traveled slowly because the entire area is coral reef strewn and must be navigated very carefully.  Paul climbed the mast to locate and avoid coral bommies and Mary was at the helm, communicating to each other with our walky-talkies.

We anchored successfully in Baie St. Maurice and, for the next week, enjoyed the people and sites of the village of Vao.

Here is an excerpt of Paul’s personal account of “Life in Isle of Pines”:

While anchored in Baie St. Maurice, across from Vao, the capital "village" here on the Isle of Pines, I realized that I was down to a single, 20-litre, jerry can of "essence". That's 'petrol' in Australia or gasoline at home.  I go through 10 litres a week if I'm doing a lot of fishing.  Fortunately there is a gasoline station on the Isle of Pines. Unfortunately it's 7 km from Vao.  We had been told that hitch hiking is still common here on the Isle of Pines, therefore my plan was to hitch a ride with my two, 20 litre jugs.  Now that would be quite a load if I had to walk any distance with them once full, even if only the 100 metres from the end of the road down to the beach where I would be leaving the dinghy.  I decided to gamble that somehow a ride would be available.

The gas station is only open from 7:00 till 11:00 in the morning, so right after breakfast I took my two empty, 20-litre, jerry cans, my back pack and a good pair of walking shoes into shore.

It's always a decision and sometimes a challenge what to do with the dinghy once ashore.  In this case the shore has such a long gentle slope that a falling tide would leave the dinghy high and dry, many metres away from the water, if I were to bring the dinghy up on the beach.  The alternative, in this case, was to anchor the boat in two feet of water and wade into shore hoping that the tide wouldn't drop more than two feet by the time I got back to the dinghy, which it didn't.

100 metres up from this particular beach there is a memorial with a large life size statue of "The Sacred Heart of Jesus", - everyone here is Catholic - surrounded by a traditionally carved fence.  The carvings in the fence are quite noteworthy in themselves.

Paul and the interesting wooden fence around the statue of “The Sacred Heart of Jesus”, on Baie St. Maurice.

  A single lane, tar and chip road begins at this memorial leading up to the main road of the island approximately 1 km away.  Along this single lane road are several traditional homes set back from the road.  Some of them with thatched roofs.  As I was walking by one such home, I noticed a lemon tree full of ripe lemons in the front yard and made a mental note to stop on my way back and see if I could purchase a half dozen lemons which we have not been able to get at the "alimentation" (country store) since we arrived here on the "Isle of Pines."  This lane branched a few times before coming to the main road, but there were locals around to point me in the right direction. Although it was pretty obvious where I was going considering that I was carrying two big, red, plastic gas jugs, I still used what French I could to ask for and understand the directions that were being given.

This laneway joined the main road at a busy spot in the village, the post office.  There were at least a dozen people in various clusters, all staring at this dumb white guy carrying the red jugs, "walking" to the "station essence", 7 km away.  It only took a moment before some old guys chatting on the side of the road, opposite the post office, stopped me to say that the station was 7 km and too far to walk, which of course I already knew.  After a few minutes of hand gestures and my broken French I was able to understand that I should just wait right where I was and some form of public transit would come along which would take me to the station for approximately 500 francs - which I thought was quite reasonable considering that 500 francs is equivalent to about $5 US.  Sure enough, in less than 5 minutes a small minivan pulled up, and my new-found friends on the side of the road explained to him what I needed.  The van did a U-turn, I jumped in and asked how much to the gas station and back - all in very broken French of course.  His answer was 600 francs.  Hmmm!  Sounded liked I was being ripped off until he followed with, 300 francs there and 300 francs back.  Je dit, excellente!  And I hopped in.  The drivers Christian name was Jean-Baptiste.  Apparently, all of the native people have both a Christian name and a traditional Melanesian name.  My attempts to carry on a conversation with Jean-Baptiste were pretty limited.  For example, when I tried to ask him, "Where's a good spot for fishing?", he just said with a big grin, "le poisson est dans la mer".  Although Jean-Baptiste was of little help finding a good fishing spot he was a helpful and patient taxi driver.  After getting the fuel I needed he stopped at the "alimentation" which is a very small country store where all of the limited supplies are kept behind the counter, which rings three sides of the room.  Once on the road again it became immediately apparent that he knew exactly where I needed to go to get to my dinghy which was a km away from where he had originally picked me up.  I didn't have to ask him for this.  He just did it on his own.  Needless to say, I offered and he graciously accepted 800 francs for the round trip journey.  A deal from my point of view especially considering that he drove the van off the lane way, right down to the edge of the beach where the dinghy lay at anchor, still afloat.

After loading up the dinghy I walked back up to that house with the lemons.  I timidly walked into the yard and up to the front of the house saying bonjour as I did so.  All of the windows and large doors were open and a Melanesian woman saw me from where she was at the back of the house.  As she came out to the front, I was introducing myself and she welcomed me.  In my broken French I asked if I could purchase some lemons.  I also complimented the beautiful interior of her home, which was decorated in many, many simple and elaborate traditional Melanesian pieces of art and collectables. The woman, approximately my age and wearing the traditional long colourful dress that all of the Melanesian woman wear, introduced herself as "Nini", the wife of "le Grand Chief" of Isle of Pines.

It is at this point that I should explain what little I know about the political make-up of Isle of Pines.  There are only 2,300 permanent residents here on an island that is about three times the size of Pelee Island.  The residents are spread throughout the island in 8 tribes, each with a unique name, and each tribe has a chief.  Among these chiefs, the chief of the Vao Tribe, is considered "le Grand Chef" of the Island.  Vao is considered the capital city of Isle of Pines, more like the capital village form our point of view.

Just today we discovered that this chief traditionally received his position due to heredity, up until just recently when there was a free election in which the traditional chief was elected for life to continue a position he already had. I suspect I am over simplifying this, because I also sensed that there is some discord in the community between this chief and the man who lost the election.
I tried not to gush too much when I realized that I had stopped at the house of "le Grand Chef" to beg for lemons.  Nini, was very generous and filled my back pack with not only lemons but grapefruit and even some fresh squash that she had been just preparing in the kitchen.  She wouldn't think of taking any money from me.  She kept saying, "un cadeaux, un cadeaux" which I graciously accepted.  During my half hour of conversation with Nini, if you can call it that, she tried to explain to me that there was market held every Wednesday, and I "thought" she said I should return at 7:00 am tomorrow with my wife and we would walk 'together" to this market.  Well!  Can you imagine my excitement when I got home and told Mary that we had a personal invitation to join the wife of "le grand chef" to market the next morning.  In fact we both slept poorly that night, rose in the dark at 6:00 and took the dinghy ride to shore in twilight to arrive at the home of "le Grand Chef" a few minutes before 7:00.

Being a little unsure about all this, Mary and I just quietly walked into the yard and waited in front of the house for someone to come out.  We could hear a lot of conversation in the house but could see no one because all of the big doors at the front were closed.  After about ten minutes, Nini finally came out, dressed in her long night gown, looking a little sleepy eyed.  Mary thinks the conversation inside went something like this, in French of course.

Le Grand Chef: "Who are those strange people standing in our front yard?'

Nini: "It looks like that tourist to whom I gave the lemons yesterday. I wonder what they could ever want at this time of the morning!

Le Grand Chef: "Maybe if we ignore them they will go away."

Nini (after a few minutes): "They're still there."

Le Grand Chef: "Nini, you are just going to have to go outside and get rid of them."

Out she came, and after I introduced Nini and Mary, Nini politely pointed us in the right direction and said she would be along later.

I must say, that although disappointed, I wasn't embarrassed about my apparent misunderstanding because I am quite sure Nini had expressed an intention to walk with us to the market.

In any event, we went off on our own finding the market under a picnic shelter in the central park of the village.  When we first arrived, there were only three people present and only a few hands-full of vegetables on the tables.  One of the three women present was Marie-Jeanne, the young lady that works at the tourist centre.  Marie-Jeanne's English is quite good and for the next 45 minutes we socialized with her as we learned more about the island and it's people.  During our conversation with Marie-Jeanne, a few more vendors set up a few more fruits and vegetables.  In the end, we were able to purchase fresh haricots (beans), bananas, passion fruit, tomatoes and limes.  We understand that the Saturday morning market will be better attended by both the public and the vendors.  It is our intention to return for this social event.  One of the cultural things we learned from Marie-Jeanne is that most of the Islanders, if not all, have two homes - one in their remote village where they stay during the week and a second in the vicinity of Vao where they stay the weekend.  This facilitates going to market on Saturday and attending Mass on Sunday, as well as socializing with the members of the other tribes.”

End of Paul’s personal account.

Sunday, June 25, 2006

The one thing you can count on being the same, no matter where you are in the world, is a Catholic mass, except for the language. So we thought!!!

One has to be really dedicated if you want to go to church on Sunday when living aboard.  It starts with plans and preparations aboard the mothership.  These always begin with a check of the tide clock to see what we can expect ashore and to help us plan where and how we will leave the dinghy.  Then there's what to wear.  The Melanesian women in New Caledonia always, ALWAYS where a dress so Mary thought that she should wear one to church.  Paul suspected that the men would be in long pants but beaching the dinghy in long pants is not possible without getting them quite wet and he doesn’t yet have a pair of those pants that zip off below the knee.  So he wore his best shorts.  In our backpack were rain jackets.

The ride in the dinghy was about 1 km from the mothership to the beach.  It was a quick ride with the wind at our back, but would be a brute getting home against the chop that comes with a 15 knot wind, even in these sheltered waters.  This particular beach was fronted by a small coral reef, which made the landing very easy, with no surf or waves to deal with on the beach.  Therefore Paul was able to plant Mary directly on the beach, without even getting her feet wet.  Because the tide was falling, Paul took the dinghy out about 20 metres from shore into 2 feet of water and set the anchor.  Once on shore, he dried his feet, donned socks and walking shoes and we walked up the road.

This particular Sunday morning was just perfect weather. The sky was blue and it was delightful walking along the laneway with tropical plants all around and the sounds of birds and families doing what families do on Sunday mornings.

After this brief walk of about one kilometer, we arrived at the church 15 minutes prior to the start of Mass.  As we approached the doors of the church we could hear music that we first think is coming from a CD through a sound system.  At the steps of the church, little girls dressed in their Sunday best gave us each a copy of the church bulletin, which includes the words to all of the songs that will be sung at Mass.  Much to our delight, when we get inside the church, that it is a live choir of about 20 singers that are creating this beautifully rich sound.  Just like our choir at home, they too practice just before Mass, so we did our best to learn the songs and speak the phrases.  We are grateful for the words clearly printed on the bulletin, albeit in French.

Mass began somewhat on time and as said earlier, except for the language, a Catholic Mass is usually the same all over the world.  In this case, however, we found two exceptions: the first is that although this was Sunday, they did not have a consecration. Communion was served but the host, which was taken from the tabernacle, must have been previously consecrated.  Unfortunately our French is nowhere good enough to get an explanation from anyone after mass.  The other difference was a big joke on us that we realized midway through Mass.

Paul first noticed that almost all of the children sat together along the side pews, starting at the front and filling toward the back.  Very few children sat with their parents, though some did.  Despite sitting with their peers and well away from their parents, their behaviour was impeccable.  We don't know if it's due to respect or fear of reprisal.

The next thing that he noticed was that all of these children were segregated.  The girls were on the far left of the church and the boys were on the far right on the church.

At that instant Paul had a sudden sense of panic.  Was it possible, in fact that all of the women were on the left side and all of the men on the right except for him?  Yes, indeed, it was!  Mary hadn't noticed it either until Paul whispered it to her and she just laughed at the situation.  In any event, there was nothing that we could do about, so we just grinned and went back to trying to understand the few words that we could in the homily.

Paul asked our friends on the HAM radio net the next morning about this seating arrangement in the church and, apparently, segregated seating is quite common among all of the Christian churches in the native populations of the south pacific islands. Apparently they are not offended when we white folks follow our own custom but do appreciate it when we follow theirs. 

After Mass, we had a delightful walk up the hill behind the church to the cemetery, where we had our first real look at a traditional Melanesian cemetery.  The graves are literally covered in artificial flowers and other personal memorabilia. 

We returned to the boat for a lazy remainder of the Sunday.  Tomorrow, Monday, June 26, we will leave Baie St. Maurice and continue our circumnavigation of Isle of Pines.

We thoroughly enjoyed our week in Vao, as can be seen in the following pictures:

“Notre Dame de l’Assomption Church” has a traditional native altar setting.  Most interesting was the cross set as a mast
into a wooden pirogue.

Paul would like you to think that he was actually sailing this pirogue but the truth is, it’s a decoration at one of the posh tourist hotels.