Ok its decided, May 15 we are leaving Noumea. Ornella turns up to say she will come..great !
Do the round of clearing out ...immigration, easy, customs...not so simple, we still have this problem over the registration ...not deleted from the French registry...but eventually we get the stamp and we're off to the Port Captain..turns out he's a lonely ex-sailor and he muses at length about his sailing days, his brother, spear fishing on the reef....eventually we get away, back to Elyse, pay the marina, fill up with diesel and we're off...but the timing is all wrong for the Canal de la Havannah so we anchor at Ile Ouen in Bay Ire for the night and set off the next morning.
And there was almost no wind, no sea...we motored 54 hours to arrive in Vila at 1230 on Saturday May 18...too late to clear in...have to wait for Monday.
Do the round of clearing out ...immigration, easy, customs...not so simple, we still have this problem over the registration ...not deleted from the French registry...but eventually we get the stamp and we're off to the Port Captain..turns out he's a lonely ex-sailor and he muses at length about his sailing days, his brother, spear fishing on the reef....eventually we get away, back to Elyse, pay the marina, fill up with diesel and we're off...but the timing is all wrong for the Canal de la Havannah so we anchor at Ile Ouen in Bay Ire for the night and set off the next morning.
And there was almost no wind, no sea...we motored 54 hours to arrive in Vila at 1230 on Saturday May 18...too late to clear in...have to wait for Monday.