Busy time in Noumea

I knew that more would happen here and I wanted to stay longer in Noumea
than in Tahiti. But the weather being what it is with 4 to 6 weeks
cycle, I must leave on Friday after hardly a week here.
First we had this fantastic evening the day we arrived then an evening
with my niece.
After that, I wanted to take the excursion to the Amedee lighthouse, but
my adviser for the weather, Bob McDavitt told me that November 6th was a
good day to leave, and I dont want to stay beyond November 15th which is
the official opening of the cyclone season.
On Sunday, a man of great reputation who was a brother of the coast and
used to be a member of the Cousteau team passed away and everybody here
was very much saddened and shocked. In fact, the church where a service
was given without much advertising, was completely packed.
After that, everything went very fast. Do all the provisionning,
departure of Jean-Francois on Sunday and Claude on Thursday, welcoming
my new crew, Marie Laurence and Nigel, chase the sailmaker to get the
main sail before Thursday night (I got it at 5:00 P.M.), and we were on
the last evening.
There was a very nice evening at Louis Seguin (Vent en Panne for the
Brothers of the Coast) with the local crab on the menu, very much on a
par with our Chesapeake Bay blue crab.
Friday morning, we had to finish setting the main sail, do the last bit
of provisionning, especially veggies, do the immigration, customs and
harbour master clearance, pay the marina, top up the fuel tank and we
were out by 12:20.
But as soon as we were in what they call here the lagoon, but is a body
of water wide open to the seas, it became obvious that I was not going
to be able to implement my plan to go to the anchorage that I had used
coming in to gain some east. Instead, since we were doing hardly more
than 2 knots again the wind, I decided to go out and exit through the
Amedee light house. And at 15:00, we were out in the open seas, with 6
foot seas, 25 knots of wind on close haul, so again not very comfortable
but we are able to be on a direct course to Norfolk Island, which is not
too bad,
I believe my crew tonight will be on a liquid diet, so I will enjoy my
cocktails and dinner by myself, Maybe tomorrow will be more festive.