yeah

 

Shades of Blue

 

Meticulous record keeping helps cuttig through the red tape, again, and 15 years later

Having been in places, on this boat, some 15 years ago, is biting us in the arse again.

Back in French Polynesia we had to prove we had exited that country more than a decade before.

This time, we encounterd issues during our applications for a visa for Australia. After entering several pages of data, an error message stated  "Based on the details provided for Dirk Lison we are unable to confirm their location. .... Same for Silvia btw...

Weird, we think! Do they want a hostage style picture with today's local newpaper in front of a prominent building in Noumea?

We submitted a support request via an online system that tries very hard to answer all kind of questions but not related to the error message above. 

A week later, we get an answer: "The error message is occurring because our records show that you are in Australia. If you have departed, please provide evidence of the departure, i.e."...

With that answer we had a hunch what this may be about. We have been to Cocos Keeling (an Australian atoll in the Indian Ocean) in  May/June 2011. So we responded to above by mentioning that we have been to that atoll, properly cleared in and out, with further ports visited like Rodriguez, Mauritius, Reunion.

We are getting further with that answer, our past travel (15 years ago!) seems to be of issue. The next respsonse asks for a "statutory declaration outlining the circumstances of your travel and relevant travel history during this period. 

A second 'official' signature to our statutory declaration is not easy to come by in New Caledonia. That might be easy with an Australian point of view (a pharmacist in Australia can co-sign). Try that in France with something written in English. The Australian embassy in Noumea is not helpful to non-Australians, including visa applicants.

Silvie's meticulous record keeping saved the day again: We have scans of our old passparts (2 passports ago!!)  and send them the Australian entry and exit stanps to Cocos Keeling as well as onward stamps from Mauritius etc...

That helped, the issue was cleared, we got our visa: It is valid 12 months, but only for 3 months for each visit, then we have to leave and come back.

 

Back in Port Moselle Marina, Noumea

 Sitting out the week long enhanced tradewinds, called Bogi Walu (8 nights) in Fiji, or Maramu in French Polynesia is getting a bit old at times. Every phase gives us a break of only a couple days, then it starts blowing again from the South East, for a week.

The next Bogi Walu was forecast to be of higher intensity, blowing 25-30kn continously. So we tried to book a slot in the marina. Since the cruising boats have started migrating, from Fiji or Vanuatu, to New Caledonia, to later continue to Australia or NZ, the marinas are quite booked. Good times not to have a catamaran. We did get a slip, although reasonably narrow, on a short finger pier. Friends who were here already sent us a pic.

"Not as narrow as it looks" Rachel said when she sent the pic. 

 Mornings are often calm, the marina opens at 08:00. With help of our friends we were settled in this slip before the marina awakened.

 

 

 

Whale Fail

 The fail is on us, we are not spending enough time behind tiny islands and look for whales. We do at times explore and anchor when wind and waves aren't too bad. Drone pics from a friend:

 

Amédée Lighthouse, this time we get to see the inside

 After five months of construction / repairs, the lighthouse can be visited again. But only when the "Mary D Seven" is bringing tourists from Noumea. There doesn't seem to be a fixed schedule, but we figured out, that the Mary D Seven typically visits Ilot Amédée about every Saturday, and additionally when there is a big cruisehip in town.

So one Friday with not too much wind, we took a mooring by Ilot Amédée. The night was still a bit rolly, since the lighthouse is close to a pass thru the reef, thru which the lighthouse guides the ships from open ocean to inside the reef system.

Mary D Seven

We watched them disembark the passengers, who quickly reserved their sunchairs with towels. The sun wasn't strong yet, so we waited towards lunch to make a move to shore. 

 That was a mistake, since the light house closes for 'lunch', or better for some 'traditional' dance and vocals performance followed by show and tells, including how to open a coconut. We couldn't be bothered and went back to our boat. 

Doors closed

for lunch

The engineerng of the lighthouse is interesting: Made from puddled iron, preassembled 1862 in France, it was then taken apart and almost 400 tons of parts were shipped to New Caledonia. It was to be assembled without major scaffolding, lots of bolts though...

 

 Above ground floor, the staircase is not mounted along the outer wall, but freestanding with supports to the outer wall, supposedly to avoid trapping condensation / water / corrosion. Well, it is still standing :-)

Looking up

 

Dirk thinks of it as a big erector set ("Metallbaukasten"), and was fascinated by the plethora of different style parts that had to be pre-made. 

The view from above was so-so, clouds with showers were passing, we didn't get wet.

  

Today's light looks pretty boring. It flashes white twice every 15 seconds with a range of 20nm

The lighthouse was originally lit by a rapeseed oil lamp. It was later replaced by kerosene lighting, then electrified. 

Looking down

Later, back on the boat we watched the passengers boarding the Mary D Seven, which then left us alone for the night. 

 A worker re-arranged the sun-lounges, instead of storing them away. Sure enough, a cruise ship was scheduled next day and the Mary D Seven would come again, next morning.

 

 

Feet in Sand, Bay of Prony again

It is winter here. That means no cyclone threat, due to cooler water temperatures. While boats from NZ and OZ (Australia) flock here and feel 'warm', we think this is a cold and windy season. We do it more like the locals and do not swim in barely 20C water.

That does limit activities, and we favour beach and land excursions.

 Destination with walks or hikes are favoured over anchoring behind a sandbar that would be great for snorkeling.

We could anchor here ...

but rather do this

Île des Pins next bay over = Kanumera Beach

 Kanumera Beach isn't as long as Kuto Beach, but has this pictoresque rock island joining the middle of the beach:

Taboo Rock

 

We aren't supposed to climb that rock, so we won't. It is sacred to the locals, and couples who haven't been able to 'produce' a child are given time on the rock...

Adjoining the beach are a couple Gites / hotels. 

 

This could be anywhere, the beach is the attraction.

 

Pic N'Ga

 We have been up there before in February, that doesn't stop us from getting a little workout and doing that again.

 The "sailing season" = winter is certainly cooler then back in February. Some extra clouds helped against too much sweat too. Instead of an early morning hike, this was around lunch and still rather cool.

	A few sprinkles we also got
Every season has some	other flowers blooming

 

 

We always seem to end up here, with or without company

 

Île des Pins Nightlife

Having a few extra boats may make us feel a bit crowded, but this is the season when plenty boats sail from Australia to here, as well as some from New Zealand. Most of the ones from NZ didn't want to come here, but rather reach for Tonga or Fiji and possibly do New Caledonia later. This year's weather windows to sail from NZ to the tropics were pretty rough and many boats postponed, to the point that they are now being forced out of NZ due to cold winter temps. The sail to Noumea was typically less upwind than trying to reach Tonga or Fiji. 

Most if not all of these crews on visiting boats speak english and that helps the social life. Here is one restaurant/bar that overlooks the beach to the boats, and evenings have been fun.