20 04.52S 163 57.43E

Dear friends,

When we wrote the last "Harmonica Letter" we had just been met in Ouvea by fifty boats arriving in rallies to a beach where French customs and immigration were being flown in to receive them. After 2 days of re-acquaintances there, we never talked to another boat crew and barely saw one for 2 weeks. First, we moved a couple of miles away and found a part of the beach where a local family were running a beach restaurant. We ate lunch with them and when we asked if we could leave our folding bicycles behind the beach, these were moved into the kitchen! They presented us with a big bag of sardines which they use for bait....we had two fine suppers of fried sardines.

One reason for moving was to get a little closer to the market town. Next morning, we cycled 40km round the rim of the atoll to find that the market was canceled that week for the celebration of five marriages simultaneously. It is the end of the "yam season" which symbolizes fertility here.

Next were two small rocky islands attached to reefs way out in the sea. In the second we were greeted by mating turtles which were idling round the bay, flipper over carapace, mostly oblivious of our presence for the entire afternoon. We read that turtles can take fifty years to reach maturity and the female can lay for several years after a single mating so we may have been treated to a rare spectacle.

Back on Grande Terre, we landed at Tuoho and restocked with provisions. The "marina" did not answer on the radio. It had a magnificent break-water, but the docks looked somewhat dilapidated, sparse, and filled with various other local boats so we anchored out in the bay. We were met onshore by a tall gentleman in a T shirt as old & worn as our own cloths, who introduced himself as Reginald - a Belgian citizen who has lived in many countries and is now a fisherman in New Caledonia. We enjoyed his company and his overwhelming hospitality for 3 or 4 days: He let us use the Wi-Fi internet connection sitting on his patio; he drove us to the next town where we stopped at the bank machine & supermarket; and when we tried to thank him by buying lunch we found the local restaurant deserted & he cooked roast beef veg. and fried potatoes for us served with wine. What a welcome. One evening, sitting outside his hillside house the telephone rang and he was called to action to use his fishing boat to pull off a wrecked sailing boat which had gone onto the reef 2 weeks earlier. Various dinghies had already gathered at the place including one with the boat's owner (the school's headmaster). They took a line from us to the wreck and we pulled until we watched a 40 ft Waulkier break into two halves, bounce off the coral, and disappear into 20 metres of water

Next was Heingene (pronounced "Yang-Gain") where some conspicuous rock outcrops jut into the sea. We could only enter the river by the town at high tide, but we spent a comfortable night anchored under the rock called "The Brooding Hen" because of its shape, and then motored in the next morning. There were some lovely roads for walking, jogging, and cycling along the coast or up the valleys to the tribus (tribal villages).

Then Pouebo, then Pam Bay, and now we have rounded the north end of Grande Terre, and anchored off the beach of an uninhabited island about 10 km long with hills maybe up to 200 metres. It was a good sail here averaging nearly 7 knots in flat water mostly behind inner reefs, so we had covered the thirty five miles by lunch time. Yesterday afternoon we went for a walk one way. We had a good peaceful sleep. Then this morning we walked the other way and went up to the highest point. There are signs of feral deer &/or goats. Many miles of view and several islands & reefs and we had probably seen most of the few houses & boats in the area.

Just now we had one of the memorable experiences that makes our life what it is: The aluminium dinghy that we had seen head north this morning came up to us with three young Melanesian men. They came alongside and we invited them on board. We liked them and felt at ease. They had been fishing to prepare a feast to welcome back a "grand frere" (we cannot remember what relation that is) back from Marseilles in France. They gave us a fish from the big box of fish which they had speared this morning, and offered more, but one smaller fish is all that we can use. They said they had never been on a sailing boat before and we gave them orange squash & biscuits & showed them round. Now they have set off back to their Tribu and it is time for our lunch. It left a comfortable, pleasant feeling.

Once we leave the busy well-traveled areas, people are welcoming as well as generous. Two days ago, when we were walking along the dirt road that leads past Baie de Pam, a local woman in a small van stopped to say hello to us and offered us some pineapples from the back but would take no money for them.

We shall leave for Australia in 10 days or so, (our computer certainly has an end-of-season feeling and has decided to stop responding to some of its keys) and our French flag has had lots of use in the sun between French Guiana, French Polynesia & now New Caledonia, so Janet is once again sewing up some frayed edges on it.

Best wishes to you all from Jan, Dave, & Harmonica