We could not believe another cruise ship came in during the early hours of the morning. We woke up yesterday with the news that one of the boats that is on the Pacific Rally we are part of, got into trouble in a storm between New Caledonia and Australia. Thanks to Starlink they were quickly in contact with all the coast guards. It was two couples on a catamaran with 3 dogs on board. Their mast broke in two, the sea was too rough to angle grind the loose bit of the mast off, so it was banging into the boat with every wave. Luckily this cruise ship was nearby and was asked to rescue all on board. It all went well, the crew and dogs were taken on board and by all accounts treated like celebs, including the dogs! So strange we have followed the whole drama and now the liner with the crew and dogs are in our anchorage. Their boat was abandoned and we heard late this afternoon, that it had been found, a tug is taking it back to New Caledonia. Viki is the NZ lady who runs the Pacific Rally, she is looking after over 200 boats sailing between NZ, Australia and the Islands. She is divorced and runs it all on her own, she was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier in the year, poor thing was having her last session of chemo, when this all happened, and she was still answering endless messages. We have used her services on all our crossings between the islands and NZ (4 times now!), it’s so reassuring having her as she has an answer and contact for any question, and responds within seconds. An amazing lady.
We spent the morning doing more chores and getting things sorted and tidied up. We went to Mystery island for a walk in the afternoon. It was heaving with crowds from the cruise ship, what a boon for the locals, who were taking tourists out snorkelling, or back to the village. They had endless stalls set up offering massages and selling loads of stuff, sadly mainly cheap Chinese tat. We had a lovely walk around the island, it has been very well landscaped and a lovely path all the way around, mainly under dense vegetation. It didn’t take too long before we had left the liner tourists behind and enjoyed a lovely shady walk.
During the day two more yachts arrived, so four of us now. We have met Nancy, an American solo sailor in Fiji. We invited everyone for drinks on board PolePole at 5:30pm just as it goes dark. The boat Rhapsody has an American couple on board from Oregon. The other boat Rala, has a British couple on board. We all had a very good session swapping sailing stories. Nancy invited us to join them on an 8 hour walk to a waterfall. The forecast is for rain and Rowan has read it is a muddy, slippery gruelling walk. We will make up our minds tomorrow!
We feel slightly warmer to this cruise liner as they rescued crew from a yachtthat had to be abandoned
All the local boats out to entertain the guests
Clear blue waters
Huge waves dumping on the reef
Our path around the village
The island is beautifully maintained
Loads of loo shacks along the way
A fascinating plant lining the paths
The runway, we did hear one little plane land
The locals going back and forth to the island
Discover more from sailingpolepole.com
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
