Seven months, six things lost overboard, five countries, four fish, three crew heading home, two bars of chocolate and one big adventure nearly over.
We head for home tomorrow. First stop, Norfolk Island.
Mum used to be worried that we’d get lost on the way home and end up in the Pitcairn islands. One of her hospice nurses was from there. I think our three GPS systems will work okay.
It’s a mix of emotions coming home. There’s some sadness at leaving the people we’ve got to know; some regret (did we make the most of it?); some fear about the passage home (for me); some anxiety about returning to our old lives (shouldn’t they be different after all this?) but really, really wanting to see family and friends again; and amazement that we’ve actually done it.
I asked Dean how he was feeling about coming home: “I don’t want to go but I want to get out of this crap weather we’re having”.
He’s cleaning out the diesel leak in one of the cabins; Colin, our crew, is doing the dishes; I’m writing this last blog and trying not to ball my eyes out.
It’s been so exciting. But adventure is exhausting. I think we’ll come home for a holiday.
We’ll be back in Mana anywhere from 2nd or 3rd of November, to the 10th. It depends on where we clear into. Ideally we’ll go to Wellington then skip up to Mana, but we may need to go to Opua, wait for a weather window, then head down to Wellington. Clearing into Nelson is also a possibility.
We’ll be doing three hours on, six hours off. We’re cross three weather systems so anything could happen, but it’s looking pretty good. There are lows about Fiji and other stuff too. Everyone is saying tomorrow is the best day to go – the experts, the grib files and the obsessive weather talk from other yachties.
Thank you to everyone for your lovely posts and emails. We’ll let you know where/when we sail in so you can have hot chips, champagne, chocolate and fresh lettuce waiting for us. And Zena!
Our lovely new friends, Hamish and Steve who live in Noumea. Thanks to Rose for putting us in touch with each other. They stayed on Pebbles for the weekend and we loved them. Especially their black lab/collie Jack! We wuv you Jack, big snuggles, smooches and ear rubs to you. Your black hair will forever be on Pebbles!
Car park sign in one of the supermarkets in Noumea. We wanted to color the boy in pink and the girl in black.
Bay Maa just north of Noumea. It’s a strange gated community – some German jumped ship a hundred years ago, swam to shore and started a new life. His descendants have their holiday homes here. The bachs’ are quite cute, kind of like pretty French ghetto shacks, not that we were meant to be wondering around. The wind here was violent and gusty.
We found a huge shipwreck. I then touched a cute bunch of catus’ and got many little prickles in my fingers. Dean had to operate.
I can’t find the photo of Dean standing here with his finger up the pirate’s nose.
Every rock, plant, shell, view, swim and day has been so different.
Two of the gorgeous adventure family girls. We’ve seen them grow up over the past six months We’ll miss them.
Watching the All Blacks quarter-final against France, in a French pub. The French people there went from raucous to very, very quiet.
Bacon and eggs, French style…haricot beans with loads of garlic, cream in the scrambled eggs, and sausages with thyme onions. We have no idea how much this cost – we can’t read the menu or understand the answer when we ask anyway. It is so interesting that most of the French people don’t speak English. We met one woman who basically screamed at us to learn French. Charming.
The trick now will be to keep a sense of adventure and exploration when we get home. A new walk with doggie, learn a new language, say hello to more people, be nicer. Surely you can’t go through something like this and go back to the same thing?
Sailing is Not Scary 