OCTOBER 2000 Sunday October 1st, 2000 Latitude 22 degrees 16 minutes 06 seconds South Longitude: 166 degrees 26 minutes 03 seconds East Port Moselle Marina, New Caledonia Sunday morning we begrudgingly awoke out of a coma at 7:00 am to head up to the port captain office. The captain had told David to come up at 8:00 am to see if we could stay another day. But we forgot to change our clocks and got up an hour too early. Too bad, we were so so so tired! Well we had an hour to kill so we went to the near by public market to see what was going on there. There are 3 large buildings near the marina that house a fresh fish market, vegetable market and fresh French pastries. Mixed in with all of this is an arts and crafts market. Lots to see, but as of yet we don’t have any French Franks to purchase anything.  So back to the boat we went to wait for customs and immigration. You are not suppose to leave your boat until you have been cleared, so we thought we better get back.  We started doing the laundry and a little more cleaning while we were waiting. By 10 am we still hadn’t been visited by anyone so David sent me over to the market to get a few pastries with some franks we managed to scrounge up out of the chart table from Bora Bora. I found a few delectable delights and then hurried back, although I really wanted to stay and look at all the wonderful art that was on display. Finally by noon the customs guy had come and cleared us, now all we had to do is wait for the cat guy and we would be free to leave. Being that we couldn’t leave the dock today, the port captain asked that we move our boat to another slip, for the one we were in had a reservation. So we got moved to the slip next door and went about relaxing while we waited. Early afternoon I saw Shiriri rounding the corner of the harbor, I guess they are finally going to check in as well. The port captain put them in the slip right next to us. Wow this will be fun, we have a lot of friends tied up here on the dock, its like one big party because we don’t have to dinghy over to see anyone.  When immigration came down to clear in Shiriri we told him we were still waiting for the cat guy (Anne did, because we can’t speak French and he couldn’t speak English) he said he should still be coming. By late afternoon still no one and it looks like we will get to stay another night at the dock. We finally left the dock and left all the cat papers with Anne incase this guy ever showed up. We first found a bank that would take our card and let us get some franks so we could go buy something. But being that it was Sunday, nothing was open. We walked through a beautiful park in the center of town; it was three blocks long and two blocks wide, with many beautiful towering palms and some new trees I had never seen before. There were several large statues and some beautiful water fountains as well.  We walked around town trying to get a feel for where things were and found a street café that was actually open called the Café Paris. We stopped and had a light lunch and watched the finals of the Olympic basket ball game. It just happened to be American playing the French. So it was little hard to cheer for our team being surrounded by French! Well that was fun and we soon headed back to the boat. Still no cat guy and Shiriri were waiting for customs. By 7:00 PM we all had decided enough waiting around, lets go out. So 5 boatloads of people headed back to the Café Paris for dinner and the final of the Olympics. Unfortunately they had loud music playing so we couldn’t hear a thing that was going on with the Olympics; just the picture is all we got. We all hung out till around 10:00 when we could barely keep our eyes open any more. We were all tired form our hard passage from Fiji. The strange thing is that we all left Fiji at different times, but all had pretty much experienced the same kind of trip…. BRUTILE!  Monday October 2nd, 2000 Latitude 22 degrees 16 minutes 06 seconds South Longitude: 166 degrees 26 minutes 03 seconds East Port Moselle Marina, New Caledonia This morning we got up, showered and dressed in anticipation of the cat guy arriving early Monday morning, no such luck, so David said there was no use in both us hanging around doing nothing so I should go run a few errands. First I was off to the email place to check our hotmail account. We are expecting a bundle of forms from Australia to get Dewey into the country. Then it was off to the post and communications office to purchase a phone card so we could call Australia to make arrangements for our arrival. I was to go grocery shopping as well, but the phone card used up all my remaining money. A 30-minute over seas phone card was 5700 franks, which is about 45 American dollars! When I arrived back at the boat, I was informed that the cat guy had been there and that if we wanted to stay on the dock another day we would have to move the boat again. Shiriri had finally been cleared and were leaving for the anchorage just outside the harbor. David said as long as we have to move the boat we might as well go anchor too. So we prepared for departure and headed to the anchorage. We found a spot and dropped the anchor. After we sat there awhile we soon discovered that two of the boats near us were on mooring buoys and would not swing enough in the wind for us to miss them if the wind decided to blow from a certain direction. Rather then worry about it all the time, we decided to move. This is not easy for our windless, which brings up the anchor, is not working right now and I have to pull it up by my own brut strength while David steers the way.  We finally found a place that looks good and got settled in.  Later that afternoon we dinghed back into town to run a few more errands and look for a grocery store. After a few hours of walking around we only returned with a couple of baguettes. On the way back to our boat Shiriri motioned us to come over for some tea, fresh baguettes and Brie. There are some good things about being in a French country, pastries and baguettes being two of them. Tuesday October 3rd, 2000 Latitude 22 degrees 16 minutes 06 seconds South Longitude: 166 degrees 26 minutes 03 seconds East Port Moselle Anchorage, New Caledonia This morning we relaxed and enjoyed a sunny morning in the cockpit. We called Shiriri to see if they wanted to go to the museum with us, we decided to meet them there at 2:00 this afternoon, so David and I headed in to run the errands we didn’t get done yesterday. Well, right inline with the other French countries we have visited most stores and shops close for lunch, which can be from 11:00 to 2:00. What a lunch hour?  So we mostly did window shopping for the next few hours and did enjoy a street café for a little bit while we waited. We finally met up with Shiriri at the museum only to discover that it was closed only on Tuesday! Just our luck, oh well, lets go to plan B and look for a grocery store. Off we went following some directions we received from some other cruisers. At last we find the store. It was one of the most wonderful grocery stores we have seen since we left the United States. We were able to buy many fine fresh cheeses, French red wine, fresh fruit, fresh chicken breast, and pastas. What a treat we will have to night.  We made our way back to the boat with our purchases. We had fresh Brie and baguettes with red wine as a snack while David made us a wonderful pasta dinner with fresh Parmesan cheese. What a treat! Anne later came over for a visit and brought us some fresh oatmeal raisin cookies she had just made. What a wonderful treat day we had. Wednesday October 4th, 2000 Latitude 22 degrees 16 minutes 06 seconds South Longitude: 166 degrees 26 minutes 03 seconds East Port Moselle Anchorage, New Caledonia This morning we were going to try the museum of New Caledonia again. David and I went in early so we could have Fresh French pastries and coffee at the market. At last we made our way to the museum, only 200 frank admittance fee. This was a wonderful museum of traditional New Caledonia. The indigenous people of New Caledonia are called kanaks and this museum is devoted to their ancient culture. There were several rooms with sculptured wooden totem poles, they are very similar to those found in the Pacific Northwest, but they have no wings or arms extending from them. They are 6 to 12 feet tall. They would position these in circles to gather old spirits. Some totems had elaborately carved headpieces on them. They had a traditional hut reconstructed inside the museum as well as one outside that you could go into. These were made of long poles that were the building blocks for a 6- foot wall that formed a circle. The poles were then woven together with other thinner poles and various grasses and leaves. The roof pointed high into the sky about 30 feet and formed a teepee like structure over the base of the house. On the top point of the house was one of those carved totems. The doorway was also flanked by a spirit carving on each side and above. There were display cases of fine examples of bamboo carving and war clubs along with ceremonial mask, headwear and jewelry. Then towards the end was a display for me… ancient pottery. It certainly was primitive, just big round pots with no decoration. I guess they were used for cooking and storing and had a purely functional value, but they did have beautiful earth tone colors. A large room contained a reconstruction of an ancient sailing canoe, had to believe that these people would set out into the ocean in these small vessels. The second floor of the museum was devoted to the Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea.  This was a fine display of the mask and clothing that was worn by the indigenous ancient people of these neighboring islands. There was a remarkable difference in the art and decoration between these three islands. Its making me very excited for the upcoming cultural festival. In the outdoor courtyard there was a display of rocks that had petroglyphs carved in them. The final display in the museum was a traveling show that just happened to be here while were in New Caledonia. It was a beautiful display of Tapa from all the Polynesian islands in the south pacific.  Tapa is a cloth that is made from tree bark and then has been decorated with natural dyes. There was a wonderful display of the trees that were used for tapa making with some samples that were out for use to touch. Most tapa was made from the paper mulberry tree although breadfruit, fichus and Banyan were used as well. The remaining displays were examples of tapa cloth that varied in size from 6 feet by 6 feet and smaller. Each island had its own unique style for decoration and they also had some mannequins wearing some of the traditional wedding clothing made from tapa. The islands that were participating in this display were Hawaii, western French Polynesia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, West Irin Jaya and Samoa. After the museum closed for lunch we decided to go to lunch and found the first Thai restaurant since we left the United States. It was called The Bancock and we had a delightful lunch there in the balcony overlooking the down town area.  After lunch, we were going to go exploring more when we noticed that wind had really kicked up, so thought we better get back out to the boat to see how things were going out in the anchorage. It grew terribly windy, 25 – 30 knots so we decided to get the second anchor ready to deploy if it looked like it was getting too rough. We spent the rest of the day on anchor watch and catching up some reading. Around 5:00 in the afternoon we were entertained by a sailboat race taking place in the harbor, it was really interesting with the gusty winds we were having. David made us another wonderful dinner while we watched a movie and listened to it rain outside. It continued to rain and blow all through the night, making for an unrestful night! Thursday October 5th, 2000 Latitude 22 degrees 16 minutes 06 seconds South Longitude: 166 degrees 26 minutes 03 seconds East Port Moselle Anchorage, New Caledonia We awoke today to strong winds and rain, so most of today was spent on anchor watch. The wind gusted up to 30 knots and howled through the rigging most of the morning. We tried watching the local TV, but of course everything was in French. We did watch a few minutes of an ancient episode of L.A.  Law that had been dubbed in French. That was pretty funny. It was hard to do get ashore in a dinghy for there were whitecaps in the anchorage.  David did go over to Shiriri for a visit while I stayed behind and caught up on a few chores. By 1:30 there was a break in the weather so we made a break for it and went into town to get some lunch.  We found a nice little café and thought we would try our luck at ordering something. David ordered something called the Sandwich American and I ordered the vegetarian. Well, we were surprised when we received our food. David got a baguette about 1 foot long that had a hamburger in it about 1 foot long, with an array of sauces and stuffed full of french fries. The fries come right in the sandwich. Now I wonder why they think this is an American sandwich? Mine was also a foot long baguette that was filled with lettuce, tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs, cucumber and lots and lots of cold sweet corn! It wasn’t horrible, just real different.  It started to rain again so we made a quick stop at the grocery store and made our way back to the boat.  We called Shiriri on the radio to see what they were doing on this rainy day and they were as bored as were of this rain so we had them come over for some popcorn and a movie. The wind howled and rained the rest of the night. Friday, October 6th, 2000 Latitude 22 degrees 16 minutes 06 seconds South Longitude: 166 degrees 26 minutes 03 seconds East Port Moselle Anchorage, New Caledonia The weather was a little better today so David and I went to shore to find the veterinarian for Dewey. We asked some directions and then started on the search. We soon found the vet and to our delight he speaks pretty good English! We purchased a cat traveler for Dewey so we can take him ashore to the vet. We have an appointment to take him in on Monday for his microchip insertion. Then we can apply for a permit to take him to Australia. This chip is a way for the quantine authorities to identify him when he arrives. The scary thing is, what if one day they start doing that to us humans as well? After the vet we met up with some other folks at the market for a latte and to purchase our fresh veggies and bread for the day. We found Anne and then we took a big hike to the other bay and checked out that yacht club and the sites around that marina.  That bay is also crowded with boats at anchor. There is a giant cultural and arts festival coming up at the end of the month with over 27 countries participating and over 2000 dancers and artist. So every boat in the south pacific is heading here. Its going to get pretty interesting when the 200 plus boats they are predicting showing up get here and expect to anchor. On the flip side we will have a lot of boats traveling to Australia with us, which will be nice. We wandered around town most of the day checking out the different shops and sites. On the way back to our boat we stopped to say good by to Austraus and its crew. They are leaving for Australia tomorrow and so it will be along time before we meet up with them again. Its hard to believe that after all this time we are only 5 sailing days away form Australia and people we know are already there or on their way. Saturday, October 7th, 2000 Latitude 22 degrees 16 minutes 06 seconds South Longitude: 166 degrees 26 minutes 03 seconds East Port Moselle Anchorage, New Caledonia David was up early and dinghied into shore for an early morning run. When he left the sky was beautiful blue with white puffy clouds, but before he could return the skies and let loose and the rain and wind had come back, so I guess he had a pretty wet run! The weather really didn’t get any better all day so we spent the day on the boat reading. There was a navy celebration going on today in the bay next to us, so all day we heard helicopters and airplanes zooming overhead along with a parade of different navy boats. You could see that they were demonstrating their maneuvers to the spectators on shore. But the weather just didn’t warrant the long hike in the rain to get there. Later that night we could here the navy band playing and then a huge fire works display was shot off to top off the evening. We tired to sit out in the cockpit to watch the fireworks and nearly froze to death. I don’t know how cold it was but I sat there with my wool tights and wool sweater on and was still cold. I think the temperature is much cooler here than the places we’ve been used to and we are going to have to acclimatize again. Anyway it was a nice to end the day with a giant fire works display. Sunday, October 8th, 2000 Latitude 22 degrees 16 minutes 06 seconds South Longitude: 166 degrees 26 minutes 03 seconds East Port Moselle Anchorage, New Caledonia Today we awoke to a beautiful blue sky, white puffy clouds and just a little wind. I dingied into the market with Anne to pick up some fresh pastries, checkout the local arts and crafts market and then have a nice French latte. What a great way to start a Sunday. We had made arrangements to meet Lou and Pat from Aragon and Heather and Bill from Shiriri at 11:00 to go for a hike in a park and then a visit to the aquarium. I went back to get David and we met at the bus stop for the number 6 bus. This bus dropped us off at road to the park. We still had a pretty good hike to get to the park. Once to the park we found a great trail for hiking to the top of the hill. We found a lovely grassy knoll that overlooked the town of Noumea as well as several bays, beaches and several lovely islands. We could see many different reefs and there was even a sailboat race-taking place for us to watch as we sat and ate our lunches. What a beautiful view on a beautiful day.  We hiked around the park for a bit longer and then headed back down towards the beach where there were many resorts and hotels. I found a great public 50-meter pool to swim in, so I’m looking forward to that the next free sunny day I have. We had a nice stroll along the public beach and the guys got an eye full with the traditional topless beaches of the French! There were many wind surfers and parachute surfers out on this blustery day zipping across the bay at great speeds. This beautiful tree lined walk way with the beach on one side and little cafes on the other made us feel like we were strolling along the French Rivera. What a place this is. We finally arrived at the aquarium. This is suppose to be the best aquarium in all of the south pacific, which is understandable considering this is the most modern city we have seen. The Aquarium was a delight. They try to make it as natural as possible and so fresh ocean water is pumped into the tanks from the bay and then all natural lighting is used in the lighting plan of the tanks, so the corals and the fish can have a close to natural experience as well as us. They had such a wild collection of fish and corals that I have never seen before. The most spectacular was the lion fish. It is brown, black and white stripped with huge feather like fins. It moves through the water with the grace of a ballerina. There was also a great shell exhibit and a coral exhibit that was housed in a separate building with fluorescent lights. This really showed off the corals rather nicely. The most amazing thing in this building was the live nautilus. I had never seen one before and this is a great mollusk that has remained unchanged from prehistoric times (over 100 million years) and is native to New Caledonia.  It is considered to be a living fossil. I never knew that this shell like creatures could actually swim! But they have a large tube (sphinon) with many tentacles around it. The large tube appears to pump water out propelling it in what appears to be a backward motion to us. The nautilus can grow to be 30 centimeter in width, the shell is ivory colored with reddish brown stripes and is lined with mother of pearl on the inside, making it a big prize for shell collectors and street vendors. Each nautilus shell is divided into 36 chambers; formed one by one as it grows and moves forward. The old segments are filled with gas while the new one is filled with air and water. The nautilus can change his buoyancy in the water by changing the level of the gas in the chambers. These nautiluses like to live at 500 meters below the surface on the outside of the reef so I doubt I’m going to see any while snorkeling around!  What a riot to watch these creatures move about.  There was a wonderful display of sea turtles with at least two different species one being the hawksbill and the other the green turtle. We had a wonderful experience at the aquarium. David and I decided that we would walk back rather than take the bus so we could do a bit more exploring and then ended the trip with a stop at Mac Donald’s. Yes, they have one here too. I think it is the international food of the south pacific. It is very fun to try to order something in French. We mostly just point at the pictures. What a great day we had and it ended with a beautiful sunset. Monday, October 9th, 2000 Latitude 22 degrees 16 minutes 06 seconds South Longitude: 166 degrees 26 minutes 03 seconds East Port Moselle Anchorage, New Caledonia Monday morning and we are up early because Dewey has not eaten in 24 hours and he has been pawing at my head all night long. The vet asked that we not feed him for the 24 hours before we brought him in for his chip insertion. I’m sure he’s wondering what is going on! We put on his collar and leash and got him in the little carrying cage we had purchased at the vet on Friday. I lowered him into the dinghy only to hear a big meow! We have about a 10-minute dinghy ride into the dock and the 3 of us managed to make it with out getting too wet.  From the dock it was only about a 6-block walk to the veterinarian. By 7:30 am we had dropped off Dewey. The vet told us he would be ready by 11:30 am so we had some time to kill. We went back to the boat and got our shower stuff and then headed back into town around 10:00 to visit the Internet café and then pick up Dewey. Dewey wasn’t quite ready when we arrived so we had to wait in the waiting room with several other dogs and their owners. It was so funny to watch these dogs misbehave and then get reprimanded by their owners in French. Amazingly enough these dogs understand French. David said if a stinking dog can learn French, then we sure should be able to. I would call the dog to come to me in English and just like a French person it would stick its nose up in the air and walk the other way! Finally the vet came to get us and said we could come see Dewey. There he was, all laid out on the metal table still asleep from the drugs.  He could barely open his eyes to look at us. The vet showed us where he put the microchip in his shoulder. He said it’s only about the size of a grain of rice. Then he took the scanner that reads the chip and passed it over Dewey’s shoulders and sure enough it picked it up and read to us the number that was printed out on the sheet he gave us. So now Dewey can be identified where ever he goes and if anyone tries to steel him we can prove he’s ours! Well at least now we can send this paper work off to Australia and they have the number, so when Dewey arrives they can pass their scanner over him and know who he is. Hopefully this will keep him from getting mixed up with any other cats. Well, we got him back in cage and carried back to the dinghy. He was pretty out of it and the vet said he probably would be out the rest of the afternoon. Although he did come to life a bit in the dinghy ride when his paw came out of the cage and grabbed my finger. He was very happy to be back at the boat. We got him out of the cage and back in his bed. He tried to get up and walk but his legs just wobbled and he lay down.  While we were gone we noticed that all the boats around as moved. Apparently the patrol boat had come up and said we were all too close to the channel and that we must move.  Ugh! This is all we need today. Raising our anchor is not an easy task anymore. The windless isn’t working and the bow roller is broken. Well we worked at bringing the anchor up for a good half-hour. Both David and I hurt our hands bringing it up, so we decided enough of this we are not going to anchor again until we have these things fixed. We called the marina to see if they had any room and sure enough they did, so back into the marina we head. All tied up once again.  This has really turned into quite the international scene, with boats arriving from Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, Australia, New Zealand and America. It’s fun to walk up and down the dock and listen to all the different languages and accents. I set to work filling out the application for Dewey. Then David and I went to make some phone calls, we called the Australian cat guy and have that all straightened out now, and we faxed him Deweys application. Then it was off to the marine store to get the things we need to fix the boat. It was a long day of running around so we decided to treat ourselves tonight to a Chinese restaurant in town. We had a wonderful meal and then made a semi early night of it. It appears that Dewey is on the mend for he ate a whole can of cat food while we were gone. Tuesday, October 10th, 2000 Latitude 22 degrees 16 minutes 06 seconds South Longitude: 166 degrees 26 minutes 03 seconds East Port Moselle Marina, New Caledonia Wow, it is so nice being in the marina again. I just walked over to the market and got fresh pastries and fresh squeezed orange juice for breakfast.  A person could easily gain 30 pounds if they stayed here too long!  David started right in on boat projects so I gathered up all the paperwork the Australian govt. wants for importing Dewey. I went to the copy shop to make copies of all our ships logs, passport pages and clearance and quarantine papers. They want all this information to prove where we have been and for how long so they know where Dewey has been in the last 6 months. Its all pretty crazy. We have been in rabies free countries for 7 months now, so even if Dewey got off the boat how would he get rabies? But they want to know exactly where we have been and for how long. This is really turning into a paper chase. Next I had to get a folder to put it all in and mailing package.  I went back to the boat to assemble all the paper work and write up the letter they wanted. This took care of all my morning. While I was working on this, David got the bow rollers and the windless fixed! Yea…. Now we can go anchor somewhere without hurting ourselves.  He also worked on a few engine room projects and the broken leaking hose on the toilet. Always an endless list of things to do. Many people have told us the definition of cruising is working on boat projects in exotic places and it certainly seems to be true, although we consider ourselves lucky when we hear the endless list of expensive things that other people have had break. All this bashing around in saltwater is just plane hard on everything, including the people!  David managed to get together a book exchange this afternoon in the marina and invited the Shiriri’s to come in as well.  We have searched high and low in Noumea for an English bookstore and have found none and not even one English book in any store. It sounds like there are lots of people who have read through all their books and desperate to exchange. We gathered on the Shearwater's boat and bags and bags of books came out to be looked at and talked about. David took 6 books and came back with 4 plus one loaner. He’s so excited. That might last him a week or two. He is starting off the night with Harry Potter. We spent the rest of the day running around town with the Shiriri running errands. Of course I had to take them to the great art store I had just found. It’s the best art supply store we have seen since we left the states. In fact I think it’s the only art supply store we have seen. I just love looking at new art supplies. I had a hard time prying myself away. We walked by endless little bakeries with all the wonderful smells drifting out into the street. We finally ended up our adventure at the bar by the marina to part take of the free drink certificate they gave us upon our arrival.  Another busy day in the city of Noumea. David fixed us a lovely dinner of French dip sandwiches on fresh French baguettes with a glass of French wine to top it all off. Wednesday, October 11th, 2000 Latitude 22 degrees 16 minutes 06 seconds South Longitude: 166 degrees 26 minutes 03 seconds East Port Moselle Marina, New Caledonia Today was a big day of boat chores and running errands again. We went to the marine store and ordered the chart for the Coffs harbor area of Australia. Now that we know where we are going I guess we better have the chart. We looked all over Noumea for a battery charger that would work off the different voltage system they have here.  After walking through every street we finally gave up got some lunch and took it the park and sat in the shade and rested our weary feet. I did some grocery shopping while David worked on trying to solve a problem we are having with the toilet. That was about it for the excitement of today. See not everyday is fun, sometimes we have a lot of work to do as well. Thursday, October 12th, 2000 Latitude 22 degrees 16 minutes 06 seconds South Longitude: 166 degrees 26 minutes 03 seconds East Port Moselle Marina, New Caledonia This morning David finally thinks he has the toilet problem licked, so that grueling task is finished up.  Then we were off to the veterinarian again to make an appointment for Dewey tomorrow. He is going to be getting some shots he needs to enter Australia.  Now we can do something fun. We found bus number 5 and we were on our way to the Tjibaou Arts and Cultural Center. This was a good 30-minute bus ride from the marina but gave us a good chance to see more of the Noumea area.  We were the only white people riding the bus. It appears that the indigenous Kanak people mostly use the busses. I noticed that like in Fiji there are two very distinct cultures happening on this island as well. The indigenous Kanak people and the mostly wealthy white European French community. The Kanak women are usually dressed in long dresses (mid calf) made of traditional Polynesian prints.  While the European French dress pretty much like you would expect to see in France. The men all seem to dress the same. I haven’t seen a man in a skirt yet, so we must be out of that zone. Once we arrived at the cultural center I was stunned when I saw what was ahead of me. It was some of the most amazing architecture I’ve seen and to find it here in the middle of the south pacific was definitely a big surprise. Its funny how when we first landed in the French Polynesia in the Marquises, it seemed so primitive and remote, like we were really were out in the middle of now where and food and other things that we were used to, were very hard to find. Then as we moved west it seemed to get more and more modern. We left French Polynesia and went through the Cooks, the Samoa’s, Fiji and now here we are at the end our journey across the south pacific back in another French county, but it so modern, there is no comparison between this place and the Marquises. I guess New Caledonia is putting their French subsidies to good use.  Anyway the cultural center was fantastic to see and walk through, but the day we were there only 2 of 10 exhibits were open. It appears they are also preparing for the cultural festival coming up in 10 days, so they were between exhibits. So we took in what we could and had a pleasant walk around the grounds. Rene Piano of Italy designed the buildings that make up the cultural center and he actually won a Pulitzer Prize for his work. The buildings are designed to be reminiscent of the old Kanak houses and villages. They are very outstanding. I hear that you can find this on the Internet if you want to take a look yourself. There was also a traditional Kanak village on the grounds hosting 3 different styles of architecture. The first house was made of logs, tree bark and grass for the roof. The second house was made of stones and logs with a grass and log roof while the third house was made entirely of logs and grass. All 3 houses were round with tall pointed cone shaped roofs. All 3 had small doorways with carved spirit logs guarding the entrance on each side. From this traditional village you could look up at the new architecture of Piano and see where he got his inspiration. Well it was another busy day and so we head back to the boat for some R&R. Friday, October 13th - Wednesday October 18th, 2000 Latitude 22 degrees 16 minutes 06 seconds South Longitude: 166 degrees 26 minutes 03 seconds East Port Moselle Marina, New Caledonia We took Dewey in for his shots this morning. This time he knew where he was going so he wasn’t so eager to get out of his cage. But the shot was over soon and he was soon back in his little bed sleeping away the day. The vet said the shot would make him sleepy. I asked David how would we ever know, he sleeps 20 hours a day as it is! The rest of the day was spent on boat repairs and errands. Saturday and Sunday we worked on a few boat projects, but took time to do a little exploring as well. Sunday we went for a four and half-hour walk around town and along the beautiful beaches. Again many topless women were observed along this walk. We only stopped once for an ice cream and then kept going. Finally we had enough and decided to take the bus back. Then I set to work washing the outside of the boat and cockpit. Now that all the dirty repairs are mostly over and I can wash off the dirt. Another exciting day in Noumea. Monday morning we were going to leave and go to one of the islands around here but the weather turned bad, high winds, lots of rain, and very cloudy sky, so we decided to wait out the weather. In the mean time we wandered around town some, hung out with our friends on Shearwater and actually went to an art opening. There is a guy who has been anchored here a long time and turns out that he is a semi famous watercolor and lithograph artist. He lives in New Zealand part of the year and here the other part. Of course all his work was of big sailing ships, but still very nice.  Wednesday Anne and I took a long walk along the beach, it was an ordinary walk until I spotted a peculiar site. There was a very large overweight Japanese man standing on the beach with nothing on but a very tiny Speedo, that in itself was funny, but he was also performing air guitar to an audience of two on the beach. We stopped and watch for a few minutes and were totally amused. That was about it for the excitement this week. Thursday October 19th, 2000 Latitude 22 degrees 19 minutes South Longitude: 166 degrees 28 minutes East Ile Uere, New Caledonia We were given our notice to leave the marina today. The cultural festival is nearing and the boats with reservations are arriving. We would have made one if we had known, but we were told that these boats made their reservations over a year ago and they have a waiting list of 140 some boats. So its back out to an anchorage for us. The anchorage near the marina is so full, and we have had enough of being in town that we have decided to find a little island to hang out at until the festival starts. So off we head south of Noumea. We found the perfect little u-shaped island to anchor in. its not to far from Noumea for we can see the lights of the big city in the open part of the bay but it is far enough away to put all that city life behind us. I bet this place fills up on a weekend. Anyway when we arrived there were only 2 boats anchored here, not quite like the mob scene by town. So we came in and anchored near shore between the two boats that were already here.  By now its around 1:30 and I made my self a lunch of brie and baguettes and I sat outside in the sun with my glass of wine looking back at the grassy knoll hill top we had climbed the week before. There was traditional French music playing on the radio and as I ate my lunch, drank my wine and watched hang gliders take off from the grassy knoll. Wow I thought where are we that people live like this. What a beautiful little place we have found. This is suppose to be a well protected anchorage from any direction unless the wind blows north, then they suggest get out. Well as David says the wind never blows from the north so we should be able to relax hear.  Later we heard our friends Shearwater calling us on the radio and it sounded like they had some engine problems leaving the harbor but they were on their way to the same little anchorage.  David put the dinghy in the water and we were soon exploring on land. We walked halfway around the island. As usually I collected shells until my pockets were full and was trying to carry the spillover in my hands. This time though, I also collected some interesting rocks. These islands were once part of Gondwanaland and there is some beautiful sandstone, limestone’s, and conglomerates to be found.  We explored until sunset and then headed back to the boat. All was very peaceful in this little anchorage tonight. We drifted off to sleep with the sounds of guitar and singing coming from the boat next to us. Friday October 20th, 2000 Latitude 22 degrees 19 minutes South Longitude: 166 degrees 28 minutes East Ile Uere, New Caledonia Sometime in the middle of the night David got up to check the anchorage, when he came down I asked him how things were. Unfortunately during the night sometime the wind had switched and was blowing from the north. Not very strong, but from the dreaded north. He thought we would be ok though. Around 5:30 am I awoke from a nightmare about our boat being left high and dry at low tide. So I went above just to make sure my dream wasn’t reality. But it wasn’t too far from the truth. With the wind blowing from the north we had swung 180 degrees from where we had anchored, putting us a little too close to shore. Now to make matters worse it was low tide so the water was pretty shallow; I could plainly see the bottom, which under normal circumstance would have been cool, because the bottom was covered with starfish. I went down and turned on the depth meter and it read 5.6! Yikes I thought, our draft is 6 feet we must surely be touching bottom. So I ran below and woke up David. He came out and took a look.  He said we were still swinging and that our depth meter was actually 2 feet down from the waterline so we still had a foot. That still didn’t make me very comfortable so I sat up and watch things. The depth meter went down to 4.1 feet!  So we pulled in a bit of the chain to pull us away from shore more. I guess the tide was still going out. What a difference, when we anchored we were in 15 feet water, now this. Finally the tide came back in and we were 8 feet of water. Whew!  Later on this morning the other two boats left so we moved to deeper water.   After we got moved and settled in David decided to go for a swim around the boat, while he was out, he decided to scrub the boat bottom. Weird things were growing on the propeller, depth meter and water line, so he spent the next hour scrubbing away. I was watching the water while he was doing this a spotted some kind of ray (probably a bat ray or spotted ray) that jumped out of the water and slapped down on the surface a few times. That was pretty exciting that was the first ray I’ve seen here. When David came back in he decided to warm up by making french fries from fresh potatoes! Yummy! Around 5:00 in the afternoon our friends from Shearwater came over toting a bottle of wine they purchased in Raratonga. We sat in the cockpit and watched the sunset as we enjoyed the good company and the wine. It was delicious, for there wasn’t a drop left when they left. Saturday October 21st , 2000 Latitude 22 degrees 19 minutes South Longitude: 166 degrees 28 minutes East Ile Uere, New Caledonia Last night the wind picked up to 20 – 25 knots in this little anchorage, but it wasn’t from the north so we were ok, it just made for a uncomfortable night of sleeping. The boat was bouncing up and down from the waves and all the hatches and doors were banging all night. By morning it hadn’t let up any, so David and I stayed on the boat and worked on a few projects. Gary from Shearwater swam over in his snorkeling gear and had a hard time making it back against the wind and the waves. By the afternoon it had let up about 5 knots and we were able to dinghy ashore to go exploring. Shearwater met us over there and we had a nice afternoon exploring the island and picking up shells and rocks. After our afternoon of exploring Shearwater had us over to their boat for some wine and treats. By the time we left their boat the wind had almost died down completely. We had a much more peaceful nights sleep in these calmer conditions. Sunday October 22nd, 2000 Latitude 22 degrees 16 minutes 06 seconds South Longitude: 166 degrees 26 minutes 03 seconds East Port Moselle Anchorage, New Caledonia Last night the winds calmed down and let us have a peaceful nights sleep.  We had a nice peaceful morning in this little anchorage, but it was time to head back into Noumea, for the arts and cultural festival starts on Monday and we have tickets for the opening ceremonies.  We had a nice sail in and it only took us 45 minutes to sail back to the anchorage. It was a little tough to find a spot to anchor since there are about 150 boats in this small anchorage and the wind is very strong. So we found our spot and put in two anchors, so we hope that will be good.  It wasn’t long when a dinghy came over asking if we were David Peck and Lisa. It turns out that Gae Pilon (the gal who did our spinnaker inlay) was visiting a yacht that was anchored close to us. She has flown here all the way from Port Townsend for this arts festival. She recognized the designs on the haul of our boat and sent over the messenger dinghy.  So we went over to see how she was doing. Wow, it was really weird to see her in this place. It’s such a small world.  Well, we spent the day on the boat just to make sure we are anchored in good. Later in the evening we went over to the Shiriri boat to catch up on all the news and happenings while we were gone. Then it was back for hopefully a peaceful nights sleep in this howling wind. Monday October 23rd, 2000 Latitude 22 degrees 16 minutes 06 seconds South Longitude: 166 degrees 26 minutes 03 seconds East Port Moselle Anchorage, New Caledonia We were up early and at the marina office when they opened at 8:00 am to see if the faxes of Dewey’ paperwork for import to Australia had arrived. Indeed they were there and then we were off to the veterinarian to have him fill out the paperwork. He sent us off to the quarantine for the official country stamp, but we couldn’t find it and it was raining so we got a few groceries and headed back to the boat. When we got to the dinghy dock the gal we hired to help us with Dewey was standing there waiting for us. She said the airline wouldn’t sell her a ticket for Dewey because the permit was dated for November 1, 200o and we wanted to send him this Thursday. So I ran off to call Australia and see if we could get the permit amended. Sounds like it can be done and he will fax a new one in the morning. We had arranged to meet the Shiriri folks at 3:30 to head over to the festivities of the open ceremonies. Although it didn’t start until 7:00pm. They sold all 13000 tickets for this event and it was basically general admission seating so we wanted to get in line early. We found the right bus to get on and off we went foul weather gear and pack lunches packed away in our packs. We found the stadium and thought we would find a café to have a cup a tea in while we waited, but it began to pour rain so we found shelter under a store eave and dug out our foul weather gear. There we stood in the rain, none of us looking too happy about sitting in the rain all night watching the ceremony. The rain finally let up enough for us to go stand in line. We waited inline by the entrance gate for about one half hour when some official looking guy came up said something in French. Then lots of people started walking away again, while those of us that didn’t speak French stood there wondering what was going on. Finally someone translated for us that the whole thing had been cancelled due to the poor weather. Wow, what a disappointment. All 27 countries had already arrived in full costume with fresh flowers and the works! Well that’s ok, we didn’t want to sit in the rain either. Now the next challenge was going to be getting a bus back to the marina for there were all ready hundreds of people here. We went to the bus and only had to wait two buses before we could push our way on to one.  Back at the anchorage it was windy and rainy so we decided it was best to go check on our boats. Then we met up at the Shiriri's with our pack lunches for a potluck of sorts, so the evening wasn’t a total loss. Tuesday October 24th, 2000 Latitude 22 degrees 16 minutes 06 seconds South Longitude: 166 degrees 26 minutes 03 seconds East Port Moselle Anchorage, New Caledonia Today was the first day of the arts and cultural festival and it was to start with the sailing in of 3 traditional sailing canoes from Tonga, Wallace and New Zealand. Then there was lots of festivities and dancing on the beach and in the village.  We walked over to the bus station to catch the bus to where all this was happening. Lucky for us we were able to get on the first one that came through, but it filled up and took off. Of course along the way there were several more stops to be made where even more people wanted to get on. The bus driver kept letting them pile on and on until we were all so packed in if he had crashed I don’t think anyone would have moved. Then of course people wanted to start getting off and the ones that wanted off were of course at the back! So the people in the front had to get off to let the people in the back get out. This was so funny. The local Kanak gals in the back were having a pretty good laugh! We finally arrived at the beach just when the sailing canoes were landing, it was a pretty interesting site, and these were supposedly canoes like the Melanesians used to sail across the pacific. I find it hard to believe myself after seeing these canoes, but one never knows. Then all the dancing and singing began on the beach as the different delegations paraded into the village. It was very difficult to see anything through the thousands of people so David and I walked around the beach to get a closer look at those canoes. We ran into our friends on Shearwater and went to get some breakfast. We met an interesting lady from the north part of New Caledonia, she asked us where we were from, and when we said the Untied States, her eyes got so big and she was so excited. She said she had never met anyone from the United States before, she was so glad that we came to her country so she could meet us. We talked to her for awhile and exchanged addresses. She wants us to come visit her in her village next year. That would be pretty neat.  We asked her more about where she was from and she explained to us that she was mixed race, her mother was Kanak and her father was from Bora Bora. We thought that was pretty funny that she considered herself mixed raced. Interesting. We headed back to the village hoping that the crowd had dissipated a little bit and it had, so we took a quick look around. It was pretty neat to see the different hutsand displays from the islands we had already been too. I thought it was interesting that I could tell which island it was by their art work and tapa cloth. Now that’s something I thought I would never be able to do. It was also fun to see the things from islands we haven’t been to yet, so we can see what’s in store for next year. There was lots of singing, dancing and artwork on display, but by noon we were catching a bus back to meet Lucie, the gal we hired. Today she is going to take Dewey’s cage to the airport for approval. How ridiculous is this all getting. We met up with Lucie, gave her Dewey’s cage and then wandered around town waiting for her return. Dewey’s cage was approved…. How silly! Now we can take him to the vet tomorrow. Wednesday October 25th, 2000 Latitude 22 degrees 16 minutes 06 seconds South Longitude: 166 degrees 26 minutes 03 seconds East Port Moselle Anchorage, New Caledonia This morning Dewey got another dingy ride into town, but he’s wised up now, he knows this means another trip to the veterinarian, so he was grumbling a little on the way there. Today we had to get his final preparation for Australia finished so he can arrive without any extra trauma. Today he got a final check over, some tick and flea spray and some worm medication. Nothing too serious, but he was not too happy.  The vet signed off all the certificates he could, but we still needed the final approval and government seals from the chief veterinarian.  We quickly took Dewey back to the boat and then ran over to the quarantine place only to find out the guy was out of the office until 2:00 this afternoon. We decided to grab a quick lunch and then head to the library lawn in town to see some of the performances of the festival while we waited until 2:00. When we arrived the Maori’s from New Zealand had just finished, it sounded like we missed quite a show. Hopefully we can catch it again. Next on the list were the people from Rapa Nui also known as Easter Island. They were absolutely fantastic! They were painted with red, brown and black mud and wore headpieces made from beautiful feathers, and I’m guessing rooster feathers like a pheasant. The women had little bikini tops woven out of palm leaves and little tiny skirts also woven out of palm leaves and then painted with designs. Their performance was like nothing we had seen up to this point. It was truly outstanding. I feel very lucky to have seen these people who are so far away from anyone. Easter Island is one of the most remote places on the planet.  After the performance the dancers hung around in their costumes for pictures and one came up and shook my hand and said hello. They were very friendly and warm people. Now I’m really excited to see the rest of the festival if this is what we can expect. By now its time to walk back over to the chief veterinary office and get this paperwork done. Yea he was there, he looked over our certificates, signed off where he needed to and then left us in the hands of his incompetent secretary. We finally managed to get out of there and made our way back to town where we made copies of all this paper work and laminated the ones to send on Deweys cage. We met up with Lucie to meet the driver she arranged to take us to the airport tomorrow morning at 4:00 am! We also had to get Deweys airplane ticket from her as well. I hope Dewey knows how much work this all is. Well it looks like we are good to go, we faxed the Sydney quarantine to give them Deweys flight number and time of arrival so they can meet him there. We have had an exhausting day of running around so we went back to the boat to get all of Dewey’s things ready to go. And then called it an early night since we have to get up so early!  Thursday October 26th, 2000 Latitude 22 degrees 16 minutes 06 seconds South Longitude: 166 degrees 26 minutes 03 seconds East Port Moselle Anchorage, New Caledonia Up at 3:30 am, what is this? Even Dewey is still sound asleep. We gave him one last meal before we go and then pushed him into his cage. Back into the dinghy to make our way though all the boats in the dark of night. When we arrived at the dock our driver was waiting for us. We arrived at the airport too early and nothing was open yet. At 5:00 am a guy showed up, put the official seal on Dewey’s cage and carried him away. It was a long quite ride back to the marina. We tried to catch a few more hours of sleep before the days activities started, but it was huge relief to know that all this running around and paperwork is over!  We went back to town around 11:00 to see the dancers that were performing at the library today. The first group up was from the island of Wallace. The men came out in the lava lava skirts with white shirts and then had grass skirts of pink and green over the lava lava and large grass neckpieces as well. They preformed with little paddles and swords. The women were dressed in a very similar fashion and sang and danced as well. Next on the list was a group from the island of Futuna. This group came out dressed in some of the most Beautiful Tapa cloth costumes I’ve ever seen. They also carried long bamboo sticks with bits of tapa tied on the top. The men preformed many dances in these costumes. These dances seemed more primitive in origin and as well as the grunting noise of the songs. The women from this country were dressed in long cream colored grass skirts, with white cloth shirts and large grass neck pieces with a grass head piece as well. When the men finished dancing the women came out to perform a few dances and songs and were then joined by the men who had been off making a custom change. They are now dressed in customs that match those of the women. They preformed a few dances together before they were done.  After this was over we hurried off to a phone to call Sydney quarantine to see if Dewey had arrived safely. We were told he was there, everything went fine and that he is very grumpy! What a relief!  Back to the boat for we had promised a showing of Stuart Little on our t.v. to some of the boat kids. They all arrived around 2:30 for the movie. We had a lot of fun having the little girls over to watch this entertaining film.  Then it was back in the dinghy for a bus ride back to the stadium for another shot at the opening ceremonies.  We waited in line for a few minutes before they let the gates open and off we were to find some good seats. We actually lucked out and found some excellent seats. Now we just had to wait for two hours before the event started. The Opening Ceremonies of The Pacific Festival of the Arts Thursday October 26th, 2000 New Caledonia How many of us have heard of places like Nauru, Niue, Tokelau or Vanuatu?  I know I certainly didn’t know they existed before this festival, yet these were the people I would get the opportunity to see and meet and learn more about here at this festival. This Pacific Festival of the Arts is like the Olympics of the cultural arts of the South Pacific. The event is held every 4 years and the participants come from all over the South Pacific and have preformed and competed in their home countries for the opportunity to come to this festival. This year the islands that are participating made up a list of 27 different island nations. When they all arrived it was announced that the groups from Pitcarin, the Marshall Islands and Solomon Islands would not be here due to financial and political struggles.  The islands that did arrive made up a list that only National Geographic would know. I had to get my atlas out to see where most of them were, of course we had actually visited some of them, which makes this all the more interesting. The following is a list of the island countries that came to this years festival; Australia, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Hawaii, Cook Islands, Fiji, the North Mariannes Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Nuie, Norfolk, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Palau-Belau, Papa New Guinea, French Polynesia, Rapa Nui, Tonga, Samoa, American Samoa, Tokelau, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Wallis and Futuna. What a list! The stadium was filled with 13000 spectators from all over the world waiting for the grand event. First out was the unelected president of New Caledonia. He rambled on in French for what seemed like hours, but really was only about a half-hour. We didn’t know exactly what was being said, we only know that the indigenous peoples found it very disturbing and were booing him off the grounds. Then another political leader got up and must have said some similar things for the he also was booed off the grounds. There is not a lot of love for the French govt. among these island people. They appear to be struggling for a lot of rights and freedoms, much like our own Native American Indians. Once the political brewha was over the show began. Each island paraded out in their traditional costume and preformed some dancing and singing and then continued to parade around the stadium.  It was like watching the pages of the National Geographic unfold and come to life before my eyes and then go on parade right in front of me. I had no idea how different each island would be. The most outstanding in my eyes were the islands of Papa New Guinea, Rapa Nui, New Zealand and New Caledonia. It was over whelming to watch it all go by. The show finally ended around 11:00 PM with a spectacular eruption of a volcano. They had built something to look like a volcano and then shot fireworks out of it. I thought it was appropriate since most of these islands are volcanic in origin. Well it was a half -hour walk back to the dinghy from the stadium, David and I were exhausted. We had a very busy but thrilling day! Friday October 27th, 2000 Latitude 22 degrees 16 minutes 06 seconds South Longitude: 166 degrees 26 minutes 03 seconds East Port Moselle Anchorage, New Caledonia We caught a bus down to the festival village around 9:00 am. We walked around and enjoyed all the sights of the village until the dancing began. We visited the hut from Tonga and met a very nice young man who was painting some of the most amazing tapa we have seen up to this point. He has devised a technique to make it 3-d so it springs to life with visions of sea life. We were so impressed by his work and it was selling so fast that we decided to buy one that had two turtles on it. He also painted abstract Polynesian style tapas. He was a very talented young man. I had a nice chat with him about his work and discovered that he is an architect and does this as a hobby. He has made large murals of sea life using this technique, which display sailfish, turtles and other marine life. A gallery has already approached him from California for his work to be represent in the United States. So I’m not the only one who thinks its outstanding. His work would be great in hotel lobbies or other public spaces that need public art. After our purchase we decided to go claim a spot for watching the dancing. We sat on the ground next to some fellow yachties to wait for the show to begin. The show began with the dancers from Rapa Nui, and even though we had seen them perform before it was just as enjoyable the 2nd time around. They did do a few things differently this time around so it was far from boring. They explained what all their body paintings meant before they began the dancing.  Next on the list was Vanuatu. The women came out first and preformed what is know as the pig dance, which is preformed when they dig up a pigs grave? I know it sounds strange but I think that’s what the guy said. Anyway the women came out wearing only a little skirt that appeared to be made of woven bark and was dyed pink, they had no tops on. They danced their dance to the beat of sticks being beaten on each other. It was very different from anything we had seen before. Next the men were to come out. It was explained to us that no one usually sees this dance for it is done in a secret men’s society, preformed by and for men only. They brought out some big logs that had been hollowed out and carved to be used as drums. Next came out some young boys who would be the drummers. They began to beat a very tribal sounding beat as the men came out to show us this secret dance. The men were wearing the traditional penis sheath, which is basically nothing more then a big leaf wrapped around the penis, with the end tied up with a string that went around the waist.  They wore some of the most amazing hats that were about two feet tall and were painted brown with white designs on them. They also wore anklets made of seedpods that rattled when they danced. Needless to say this was by far the most primitive group we have seen up to this point.  After Vanuatu cleared the stage a group from New Caledonia came out. The men had faces that were painted half-black and half-white. They wore very grassey looking costumes and preformed dances using spears. The women and a few men made up the band that sang and beat out the rhythms they were to perform to.  I finished up the day by watching the group from American Samoa; needless to say they were very different from the groups we had just seen. You could really tell the difference that western society had made in the dress and in the dance. The women were fully clothed from head to toe while the men wore the traditional lava lava skirts and a T-shirt. They preformed a few dances. It was a long hot day and I had to catch the last bus home, so I had to leave behind seeing the group from Hawaii, which disappointed me greatly. Saturday October 28th, 2000 Latitude 22 degrees 16 minutes 06 seconds South Longitude: 166 degrees 26 minutes 03 seconds East Port Moselle Anchorage, New Caledonia David and I both woke up today not feeling to well, sore throat and achy, but we decided that it was too nice to hang out on the boat and headed into the village to take in some more dancing. We had the opportunity to see the group from Wallace again, while interesting not as entertaining as the next groups from Papa New Guinea. The first group came out wearing a skirts made out of some kind of dried leaf. The leaves were so big and stiff that the skirts stuck straight out, like a ballerina tutu. They had incredible carved and painted wooden mask on that covered their entire face. They preformed a few traditional tribal dances before the next group from New Guinea came out on the sand stage before us. The second group painted their bodies with red clay and wore grass skirts made of thin grass, which hung straight down but was trimmed short on the sides. They had harnesses of shells made that they wore on their chest. They also had huge headdresses made of grass and feathers. These guys were very entertaining dancers and knew how to please an audience. David and I decided to take a break from the dancing for a while and walked out to the beach to sit in some shade. While we were sitting there a group from New Caledonia came along and began performing their traditional dances and songs on the beach. This was a much more relaxing atmosphere and cooler. Of course the local gendarmes were near by to make sure these kanaks didn’t get out of hand. David had enough for the day and went back to the boat while I persevered on in the heat. I went to a different venue to watch the New Zealand Maori give a demonstration on weapons and fighting techniques. They look very scary with their face and body all tattooed. Even the women have tattoos that start at the lower lip and go down the chin, giving them a frightful appearance when they bulge their eyes out as well. I went back to the village to talk to a gal from American Samoa about the art of tapa making. I learned a lot from her. She was actually the art dept head at the university there in American Samoa and said they are trying to introduce the traditional arts in the program there and that if I ever make it back to American Samoa I should stop by for a tour. (Not likely to happen!) Anyway I learned a lot about the art of tapa making from her and carefully observed her demonstration. Now I can really appreciate those tapa I purchased.  One more group to take in today before the last bus. The New Zealand Maori are to perform. They were quite exciting to watch. The women were wearing dresses totally adorned with feathers. All had the tattooed chins and feather head dresses. The men were wearing loin clothes to show off their tattooed legs and buttocks. Each man had a big spiral on each cheek, which was quite a site when they were all running away from you.  Well it was big day of culture for me and last bus was coming soon, so I made a quick exit and had to run fast to catch the lst bus to the marina where David was already waiting for me. Sunday October 29th, 2000 Latitude 22 degrees 16 minutes 06 seconds South Longitude: 166 degrees 26 minutes 03 seconds East Port Moselle Anchorage, New Caledonia Sunday morning arrived with a little bit of strong wind.  David and I cleaned up the boat and prepared for my friend John’s arrival.  John Etulian has decided to brave the big seas with us to Australia for a little adventure in his life. John and I used to work together at Sverdrup in Bellevue. I just hope its not too much adventure for him. Around noon we went in to see if he had arrived. We stopped by Shiriri on the way in. They said they had looked at the weather fax and with the wind picking up it looked like a good day for them to leave. So we said our good byes and wished them a safe journey to Oz.  When we got to shore John was there waiting for us. David took his belongings back to the boat while John and I went to the village to take in the sites. We walked around the village a bit and then found our seats among the crowd to watch the dancing. First on was Papa New Guinea, who I had seen before, but loved it just as much the second time around when I had a better seat. Next up was a group from the Federated States of Micronesia. The women of this group wore yellow clay paint on the palms of their hands and chest. They had beautiful skirts that looked like they were woven out of yellow wool with purple and red horizontal stripes. They also wore beautiful beaded tops. They preformed several traditional dances before the men came out and preformed their war dances. The men had on red lava lava skirts and wore crowns made of palm leaves.  Next up was a reggae band from Wallace that entertained the crowd for a while before they closed the venue to set up worship services. John and I caught the last bus back and met David for a nice dinner at the Café Paris. It was a pretty exciting first day for John after just arriving from Seattle. Monday October 30th, 2000 Latitude 22 degrees 16 minutes 06 seconds South Longitude: 166 degrees 26 minutes 03 seconds East Port Moselle Anchorage, New Caledonia We were thinking things looked pretty good to leave today, so since our visa was expiring today we figured we better get checked out the country. John, David and I made the long trek to the customs office to begin the long process. There were several other people waiting in line to check out as well so we waited our turn and soon had that clearance. Next it was a trek up a long hill to the immigration office to get our passports stamped and get our final clearance papers. We decided to stop at the grocery store on the way back to the boat and pick up a few things for the trip. We got all the groceries in the dinghy and headed back out to the boat. We stopped by Subliminal on the way to pick up something he had borrowed and found out that there was some terrible weather on its way. We had missed the weather report this morning due to checking out. So we decided to investigate before we made the big jump. John and I went back into town to head to the Tjubou cultural center and see the new displays they had up for the festival. It was very interesting. We caught a bus back into town and found something to eat at David’s favorite little café. I introduced John to the Sandwich American. That is the hamburger on baguette with french fires.  He really liked this new deliquesce.  After lunch we found the next bus down to the village to take in some more dancing.  This afternoon Fiji preformed and really celebrated their diversity by first having the indigenous dancers, then the Chinese dancers and then the Indian dancers. Each group preformed traditional dances of their ancestors, which proved to be very interesting when the Chinese girls did the fan dance.  The Indian girls were dressed in the traditional clothing of India and preformed traditional dancing from India as well.  I thought this was very interesting that given the hard times Fiji has had that they came together for this cultural festival. For the last dance they all came out and danced together to a song of united Fiji. The Indian girls had traditional style Indian dresses on, but they were made out of printed Fijian tapa cloth. Which showed a great sign of unity! After Fiji finally finished Vanuatu arrived again. It was the same performers I had seen before, but again I enjoyed every minute of it. John and I ran to catch the last bus of the day and met David for dinner at the marina dock.  Tuesday October 31st, 2000 Latitude 22 degrees 16 minutes 06 seconds South Longitude: 166 degrees 26 minutes 03 seconds East Port Moselle Anchorage, New Caledonia Happy Halloween from New Caledonia! Awoke to pouring rain and wind. It certainly didn’t look like we would be going anywhere today. It rained and rained and rained. Not only could we not go sailing, but we couldn’t get off the boat either. The wind was coming form all kinds of directions, making it a dangerous anchorage. Boats that were never close before are now bumping into each other. What a messy day. We decided to hang out and watch movies. We spent the whole day inside, which was fine by me, for I am getting terribly sick and could use a good day of rest. Tonight we talked to Shiriri on the radio, they are not having a good time. They are caught up in the middle of all this bad weather and are actually hove to. Which means they aren’t moving, and if they are its backwards. Makes me really glad we didn’t leave. What a bad Halloween trick!