Friday, October 21 – we were all set to sail to a beautiful anchorage early in the morning. I got up at 7am and opened some birthday cards and presents. We decided that an early morning coffee and croissant with Arthur would be a great way to start the day. It had blown a gale all night and we thought that by the time we had breakfast the weather conditions would have improved. We were so wrong as they actually got worse. It was gusting 20 to 25 knots in the marina! There was no way I wanted to go out to sea and battle with the strong winds and swells. We decided to spend the day in the marina and make the most of life on land. After some debate we came up with a plan to go to the aquarium. Well it was a strange decision as New Caledonia has some of the best coral reefs in the world and I had a plan to dive on the best of them. Off to the aquarium we went armed with a backpack full of chicken baguettes that I had made for lunch. The aquarium was quite impressive and you can see from the photo that Arthur and I actually went diving! After the aquarium we headed to the beach to watch the windsurfers zipping along in the gale forces winds. See the photo of Ian and Arthur bracing against the wind. It then started to rain so we retreated to a beachfront restaurant for a round of beers. It was a bit early for sundowners but we were at a loss at this stage as to how to spend the rest of the day. All of a sudden we heard a commotion on the road with lots of car horns tooting and cameramen flashing. It looked like somebody famous had decided to get married on the road (or on the road next to the beach). Arthur and I jumped out to take photos while Ian hood behind the beer garden table. The girl was beautifully dressed for a wedding and her husband was in some kind of military uniform. I’m sure they were famous for something either in France or New Caledonia. After the drinks we walked the 4km or so back to our marina. During the walk we came across a movie set and watched a ‘pregnant lady’ getting in and out of a car several times with shopping bags while a cameraman filmed her. There were 2 bouncers that managed to keep us and everyone else out of the movie set. We kept wandering along the path and came across a huge propeller which made a good background for a photo. We arrived back at the marina and climbed on board Faraway at around 4pm and started our sundowners. It was a very busy day of basically doing nothing. Arthur cooked my birthday dinner and Ian assisted him when required. The good news was that in spite of the slow day we had come up with a plan to leave Noumea and head to Prony bay the next day. Hopefully the morning would bring lighter winds and we could sail the 20 miles to the anchorage and start doing some real diving and enjoy ourselves.
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