Thursday 31st July
We get up at our leisure with the knowledge we have just had the last long sleep we are likely to have until we reach land again. Kevin goes to the travel agent to change his return ticket, Alex goes to the bakery and Annie stays aboard for a final tidy up. Mid-morning, Ian and Annie go ashore to settle the bills, collect laundry and pick up a few last minute items at the market. We go on to the fuel berth to refill the canisters then we’re off motoring out the bay by 11.30am. We’re not long out when Ian turns on the auto-helm and discovers it’s still not working – the boat is just turning in one big circle. We can’t believe it – back we go again. Annie radios the marina to check we can return to our berth – we can - and telephones yacht services to tell them what’s happened. Nadia tells us she will phone Raul immediately. By the time we’ve tied up again and are sitting having a consolatory beer, Raul buzzes up in his dinghy. He gets to work and soon diagnoses the problem – a broken wire connection. It is beyond all of us how this has happened but it is soon fixed, Raul puts a protective casing round the rest of the wires and comes out with us to check it’s working - it is! We’re off again, motoring out the bay at 1pm – we hope this is a third time lucky scenario! On the bright side, it’s a beautiful day, the sun is shining, there’s a pleasant breeze and we enjoy – again – the views of new Caledonia as she fades into the distance as we motor towards the pass. The pass is 15 miles away and it takes us 2 hours to reach the entrance. Just as we’re going through watching surfers on the reef, Annie sees water spouts to starboard – we think may be actual waterspouts until we see 2 large humpback whales making their way in perfect unison along the outside of the reef. Given our last close encounter, and that they appear to be heading in our direction, we keep a close eye on them and enjoy watching them for the next half hour before leaving them behind. We’ve decided to head for a waypoint (24.30S, 157.30E) as advised by one of the weathermen, unfortunately the wind is right on the nose so it’s engine on again. We hoist the mainsail but have to zig zag for a while until the wind swings more to the SSW enabling us to head for the waypoint. We’re operating a 2 hour single watch system, apart from Phil and Kevin who are on watch together. It’s a peaceful, mostly clear, night with no moon so a spectacular display of stars and some spectacular shooters. A gentle first night out.