August 12
Hi All,
Wow…..what an experience the last 36 hours. First, all is well and we are in the Port Moselle marina in Noumea New Caledonia, safe and sound!!!!
And I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you to all the friends who sent us emails, offering support and condolences, and relating stories of when they were far away and had to figure out what to do. We were certainly in a dilemma….to go or not to go and and if so, when!!!!
When Kathy got up from her sleep at 6:00am, I gave her the bad news. We both took a moment and then both said, good, it is for the best and she is now with Dad and the rest of her family. So now what to do? Each time we were in KC we said goodbye to her thinking it very well could be the last time. As the Alzheimer’s disease progressed I’m not sure anything was really registering. When we both saw her last December at the nursing facility we both walked away feeling this was the last time. Just as when my Dad passed away, I know it is for the best, it’s just the finality that bears down on me.
So, we cranked up the SAT phone and started writing emails to the family. My brother and his wife were the coordinators for everyone. We explored many options and decided what would make Mom the happiest is a traditional Baptist funeral with all her family present. Yes, she may not ever know but it just seemed the right way to celebrate her life. So, the funeral is next Monday and we are flying out on Friday.
Dave and Josh did all the travel arrangements and had most of it sorted by the time we got to the marina. Wow….that is just fantastic support and has really made it somewhat doable to make it by Friday. So we leave Friday from Mystic @ 5:30am and finally arrive in SFO by 1pm the same day…..TG we gain a day. We do a short layover at our house with Kathy’s parents…..mainly to pack our clothes and get some documents…..I do have a suit, hope it fits, but Kathy is not sure….she may be at Nordstrom’s Friday night in search of a dress…..I know it is not funny but she does have experience on getting a dress in a hurry so we did have a good laugh!!!
So while we were doing all this emailing, we were still on passage….the winds and seas had calmed so it was a very smooth ride by now….but we were approaching Havannah Pass….a narrows through the SE lagoon that funnels a whole lot of water and can be dangerous, so you need to time it at slack tide. We did a lot of research and thought we had it right….wrong….as we got about 1 mile out the current became 1 kt against us….oh no, the tide is still coming out…gulp…we kept going and the current built to 2, then 2.5 then 3 then 3.5 and topped at 4 kts. We had 1-2′ breaking waves…..we called down to Scottie for more power and Mystic just pushed herself right on through…whoa….reminiscent of the Tuamotus except there we had 3-6′ breaking waves.
Our plans were to go about 20nm and then anchor for the night and go into the marina the next morning….another 20nm or so. But given the circumstances and really needing the internet, we called down again to Scottie and asked for more power. Mystic responded like she “was born to do this”….that is quoting our dear friend Bad Bob….and we made it to the marina at 3:45….we were thinking the marina closes at 4….and we were right…..they directed us to a slip that was way too small…..yes, we had given our dimensions well ahead of time….so we had to yell across the fairway to the marina guy and try to converse in broken French…..we had passed a bigger slip and wanted to go in that one…..finally several other cruisers came out to see what the fuss was about and between all of us trying to get the marina guy to understand out comes a marina woman with a clipboard and we go through it again…..of course, Mystic is in a fairway with some wind and current so I’m really trying not to hit other boats….finally, finally they understood we would not fit so they showed us to another slip….yeah and hallelujah!!!!
It’s now 4:30 and we have blown our chance to get the password from the marina wifi….but, about 3 cruisers and another Frenchman yacht agent all descend on us offering advice on what to do….we don’t even have the boat tied up and people are jabbering….it is such a sensory overload to not hear very little noise on passage and then get overwhelmed by people wanting to help and all you want to do is secure the boat. Finally we hear the magic word….do you need internet….yes, does our desperation show….the yacht agent’s eyes light up….oh joy, we know what he is thinking…got a live one here, $$$$….but we need the internet so for a price he can get us a dongle with unlimited data….how much, we will talk later…no, really, how much…for you it will be USD60 for a month…..really, and you can hook us up tonight….yes, ok, sold….I’m sure that is not the price but what the heck….Kathy and I then proceed to tie up the boat…it is now 5pm…and sure enough Herve comes back with a dongle…it looks used but so what….I put it in and nothing…..no settings have been put in…that’s weird, it was being used by another cruiser yesterday…..no worries, I’ll go get the setting info and come back…he does, we input and nothing….acts like it does not recognize the Sim card….great….he then plays with the SIM card 4-5 times and voila it finally works…..we input the settings and voila we have internet….it’s now 5:30pm…..so I go to connect water and power…only to to discover none of our fittings will work…..arghhhhhh!!!! OK…enough…..passage beer time:))))
We will work on all that tomorrow so time to get to the emails and get our travel arrangements complete. And much to our delight, Dave and Josh have got most of it sorted and all we need to do is a final ok and they get it all done…..whoa, brought tears to my eyes….that’s my boys!!!!
Kathy had planned a celebratory steak dinner….she was quite concerned about the “officials” taking away our New Zealand meats, dairy and other goods so might as well have one last good meal….so steak instead of our traditional cheeseburger….yummers…..but, we had both not eaten much, were running on adrenaline so after the meal and some excellent wine, we both fell asleep watching Game of Thrones…we are into season 3….woke up and said enough….we fell blissfully asleep in our bed only to be woken by my 1:45am get up it’s your watch alarm…..crapola, forgot to turn it off…..and I have a 3-advil headache….yep, stress…..can’t sleep thinking of all things to get done…..get up, have some tea, read and fall asleep again until dawn breaks…then we are up and going!!!
More emails…..and Kathy fills out all the paperwork the marina guy gave us last night. Only I’m allowed off the boat so I’m at the office at 8….and, they actually open…..I hand over the paperwork and the lady says…..Kathy must stay on the boat and wait for quarantine and customs and you must go to Immigration now…it’s a 20 min walk…..ok, I go back to Mystic to tell Kathy and then take the hike…..Immigration is quite easy….they speak a little English….it’s stamp, stamp and au revoir…. and on my way I find an ATM…get some Pacific Francs….CFP….like 1 cent to the USD!!! So back to the boat and Quarantine is there…..just wanted the old veges and nothing else….Kathy is doing the Happy Dance…..Customs never shows…..so we go to fly the French flag only to have it shred in pieces….ugh!!!
Now Herve said he had a SIM card for our iphone…so we stop by his office and discover his does not fit…but he directs us to the OPT office 2 blocks away….we go, get a #…we are like 20 people down…but it takes 15 min and we stand before a guy with broken English….great….we communicate we need a SIM card….well, 15 minutes later and a lot of paperwork and computer key strokes he gives us a SIM card for USD60…..but it does have USD30 credit….ok!!!! We call Herve…he has been trying to locate a boat washer and he informs us he has a lady who will be by later….and she indeed shows up and indeed does a great job of washing all the salt off of Mystic….took her 4 hours!!!!
Here is Kathy’s funny write up of us getting the Sim card:
Apparently, all the telecoms are controlled by the government here, so in
order to get a phone sim you have to go the Post Office. (Herve didn’t
have one that would fit our iphone). So off we walk to the post office. 1st
step is to take a number. They have a ticket machine at the door, all the
instructions are in French, of course. So quickly scanning the words with
my limited French, we start pushing the icons on the screen….nothing.
Can’t get the stupid machine to print out a number. So John walks around
looking for someone he can ask a question to. In the meantime, I bend over
the machine to take a closer, longer look at the instructions. Accidently,
my boob touches the screen and VOILA!! The magic ticket is printed with our
number!! Mais oui, Madam! It only takes a boob to print a tick-ette!!
:)))) Anyway, totally cracked me up and trying to get John’s attention
while totally losing it at the entrance to the PO. Well, guess you had to be
there, but sometimes I just crack myself up! The 25 other people waiting
at the PO probably thought I was just another nutty American, I guess. Mon
Dieu!
Ahem….so, we wait about 10 minutes until our number comes up (not
bad….they move along fairly rapidly, and I’m still giggling and snorting, of
course, woman on the edge) and buy a sim for the phone, no problem. Have not
tried to put data on it or anything as we don’t need it yet, but we did
need a phone to get in touch with our shuttle people for the airport.
Anyway, that’s how it worked for us!
Oh….in the meantime….the office sells me an electrical plug adapter for USD15…..really, this same type connector costs USD70 in NZ…..I really can’t understand how NZ, Fiji, and New Cal and probably Australia can all have different electrical connectors….we have a box full now….arghhhhhh!! The electrician shows up and I tell him I have the connector….he says he will be back in 10 min to turn it on….well, I wire the new connector…plug it all in and flip the circuit breaker on the shorepower pedestal…and voila we have power….the guy comes back 30 min later…you have power…yes….how can that be….I flipped on the circuit breaker….you know how to do that he says in that smug French attitude…yep, I say in my best USA drawl…..in the meantime our batteries are soooooo happy…it has been over 3 months since they have had a total charge (takes 6 hours on these Northstars) so they are living the good life now!!!!
Now it is water time…..a cruiser has given us a part to fit the French connection but we now need a male to male connector for our hose…we finally find one and voila we have water…..we were just about out so this was a good thing!!!
Well…..that was our day…..tomorrow it is shut the boat down, pack, go back to Immigration to get a form to let us back into New Cal when we arrive on 8/24 and then to Customs to get a form that allows us to bring in boat parts duty free….yep living the dream!!!
Final Stats:
Position: 22 20S 166 35E
Traveled: 336 total
Speed: avg is 6.8 kts for passage; sped up from 1500 to 1800 RPM
Boat sightings: 2 but once inside the lagoon maybe 20-30 crisers
Fishing: Nope
Sail: down
Fuel burn: about 1.2nmpg….maybe a little worse than expected but we have headseas so slows us down some and then we sped up for the last 110 nm or so
Hope all is well!
John
Mystic Moon
GO MYSTIC GO!!!
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