September 9, 2009

First Day in Noumea
Yesterday we left Port Boise at around 8:00 AM, with a breeze building from the ENE. That was quite a nice direction for the sail around the southern end of New Caledonia, and into Noumea. We kept about half the jib out, and that was enough to give us a boat speed near 6 knots, except in the confines of the Canal Wooden. It's almost 40 miles around the end of the island, so at around 2:00 PM we were approaching Port Moselle. The wind had continued to increase, and by the time we made the turn to enter the harbor, it was blowing 30 knots. Fortunately we were close enough to shore that no big waves could develop, but we needed to go nearly directly upwind for about a mile to reach the anchorage. The 9.9 horsepower Suzuki outboard was just a bit beyond it's limit with that task, so we had to set the staysail, and tack up the harbor motorsailing, with the engine running full bore. Fortunately, having studied the charts for depth, and seeing where the hills afforded some wind shelter, we found good anchor holding on the first attempt, and before 3:00 PM we were well set, and soon had the dinghy in the water. We set a second anchor, to be sure, and had a visit from our friend Graham, who had followed us into the harbor with his yacht, Nutcase. Graham pointed out that it was too late to get to Customs and Immigration before they closed, so we cleaned things up, had dinner, and made it to bed early. This morning Graham guided us to the offices where we all cleared into the country. The process was all very smooth, the officials friendly, and tolerant of our inability to speak French. Much nicer than we experienced when we arrived in French Polynesia in 2001.
The process took all morning, so we were ready to sample the local cuisine (very nice, crisp pizza), and went in search of internet access. There is free wi-fi at the McDonalds, but the place was filled to overflowing, and even when we did get a table and order a snack, we couldn't figure out how to get the password entered. Nobody could give us a clue, as nobody there spoke English. So, it was Plan B; the market. We'd been warned that things were expensive here, and they are compared to some places. But relative to where we've been lately it's not that bad, and they have some products not found in less wealthy countries. We didn't need a lot, but did, of course, buy a couple of baguettes. One MUST, in a French country. They should be eaten either outside, or with a towel on the floor, because each bite produces a shower of crusty flakes. Wow, are they GOOD.
I mention that this is not one of the poor Pacific Island groups. They mine nickel and a few other heavy metals here, as a unique geological event has left the sands near the surface of the hills rich in these valuable commodities. Some hills are pocked with deep, erosion washed gouges, the dark orange/red color of Georgia clay, where the mining companies have extracted ore sand. A local man tells us that it's difficult to regrow vegetation where they have mined, because the metals dissolved in the moisture from the soil poison almost all plants. However, there are exceptions, plants that have evolved tolerance to the metals. The king of these varieties he says is an indigenous pine which simply deposits the nickel within the wood. The nickel can be as much as 20% of the dry weight of the tree. That seems pretty much astonishing to the biologist in me. Once again, a life form sidesteps the rules! There seems to be an active effort to retain the many species of plants and animals indigenous to these islands, so we're looking forward to having a look at the forests and reefs while we're here.
We got a tip on where to find a laundry, and an internet cafe, so we have a couple of items on the "to do" list for tomorrow. But we'll also start walking around the city, having a closer look at the art, the Melanesian carvings, and the monuments we noticed as we passed well kept, shady parks around town. Some of the affluence here is clearly being used to project some class. Ted