So, for anyone wondering — we arrived safely in Nouméa, tying up in Port Moselle at around lunchtime. Clearing in was surprisingly straightforward… and so was going out for dinner. Having been up since 2:00am, though, and after a rather busy shift (remember the navigation lights?), I completely passed out at the ridiculously late hour of 8:30pm.

But let’s rewind.

At around 4:30am, we went through the pass in the reef surrounding the south of New Caledonia. We had slowed down and were running on one engine to make sure we arrived at daylight… but somehow the sun was a bit late waking up. However the pass is wide, well charted and, frankly, looked like one of those things where you either go for it or spend the next few hours wondering why you didn’t.

So I went for it.

And then the tide decided to help.

The inflowing current — which I had somehow failed to anticipate — blasted us through at 8.5 knots, giving us about 4.5 knots of free propulsion. And that wasn’t even peak tide.

I would very much like to thank the ocean for this generous contribution and would also like to formally decline the alternative scenario in which the same current was coming the other way. It would have perhaps taken us another 6h to arrive in Nouméa. 

As dawn broke, New Caledonia slowly appeared out of the darkness, and it was spectacular. Mountains, greenery, reefs… the whole package.

Once again: definitely a place that deserves to be explored properly.

Unfortunately, like anywhere else you are not allowed to stop before clearing into Nouméa – and we simply don’t have enough time to head back. So we started to explore the town instead.

And, well…

Nouméa is not quite as pretty as the surrounding landscape would have you believe.

Port Moselle is a little rough around the edges, although it has definitely improved since we were here 13 years ago. After a morning jog and a full day with a rental car, I can confirm there are nicer areas.

Charming, though?

Let’s not get carried away.

We did, however, visit the Parc Zoologique which offers some beautiful views and a great collection of endemic birds, had lunch at Anse de Citron and — most importantly — discovered a gigantic supermarket.

This was a significant cultural experience.

After weeks of remote islands, suddenly being confronted with approximately 47 varieties of yoghurt, fresh fruit, croissants, aisles upon aisles of food and enough choice to bring on a minor existential crisis completely overloaded my system.

A couple of croissants, some fresh fruit salad and a decent coffee later, I realised that perhaps I’m not entirely ready to give up civilisation forever.

The boys had their own cultural highlights: riding their stunt scooters on an actual paved road and eating macarons.

Apparently, you can take the kid out of the cushy life.

You just can’t take the cushy life out of the kid – permanently. 

So, back to city life it is — which might actually be useful preparation, because BIG city life could be arriving rather sooner than anticipated.

The weather from tomorrow onwards looks reasonable. Not beautiful. Not particularly inviting. But not dangerous either.

Manageable.

And at this point, manageable is good enough.

We don’t have another four weeks to wait around for perfect conditions. As I keep telling myself, this cat we can see now might be scruffy, grumpy and slightly ill-tempered — but at least we know this cat.

The one in the bag next week?

Could be a complete psychopath.

So I spent €400 on groceries — with absolutely no expectation that Australia will somehow be cheaper — meanwhile Mark completed the official clearance process and we are now preparing to set sail for our final five-night passage to Australia.

Our final sail.

Which feels rather big to write.

And because the whole thing is becoming a little emotional, I’m going to leave it there for now.

Tomorrow, we shall see.